Over the years, supply chain planning at e-commerce firms has operated as a collection of isolated projects. Each planning task, from static network planning to dynamic warehouse assortment planning, requires analysts weeks to build models from scratch and persuade executives to act on unverifiable outputs. Three barriers drive this:
- Operational Fragmentation: Bespoke models proliferate due to the difficulty of standardization;
- Computational Intractability: Once unified, the combinatorial scale of millions of SKUs, thousands of nodes, and intricate routing logic exceeds what solvers can handle within tight windows;
- Implementation Hurdle: A mathematically optimal solution fails to be implemented if executives do not trust it.
To bridge this gap, we propose and implement the Simulation-Propose-then-OR-Dispose (SPORD) method, deployed as JD.com's NetSim platform. The central insight is decoupling: simulation proposes by generating and evaluating the full set of operationally valid candidate paths, absorbing all idiosyncratic business logic, while an integer program disposes by selecting the globally optimal subset.
Computationally, matrix-vectorized CPU/GPU accelerated simulation achieves a 10-100 times speedup over serial methods, and a list scheduling algorithm reduces coupled-order processing from hours to minutes. Operationally, we establish a closed loop via an intelligent diagnosis engine. Since 2025, NetSim has optimized end-to-end services for over 20,000 suppliers, with the cross-regional fulfillment rate dropping from 6.1% to 4.9%, and the average monthly carbon reduction is approximately 5,745 tCO2e. SPORD moves simulation from monitoring to active planning. The transparent outputs turn skeptical executives into engaged collaborators, and the modular architecture ensures that the next planning requires just configuration, not reconstruction.
Blogger's Review: The SPORD method effectively addresses multiple barriers in traditional supply chain planning, enhancing efficiency through decoupling and intelligent approaches. This innovative concept is worth emulating in other industries.