Supply chain planning is becoming a bigger technology priority for global manufacturers as they navigate volatile demand, complex production networks and the rapid expansion of AI-related digital infrastructure. STL, an India-based optical and digital solutions company, has selected Kinaxis Planning One to strengthen planning and decision-making across its global operations.
Kinaxis announced the agreement on August 13, saying STL will use Planning One to improve supply chain visibility, strengthen collaboration between business functions and respond more effectively to changes in supply and demand.
The deal is also notable for Kinaxis because STL is its first customer secured through the Google Marketplace mid-market initiative, according to the announcement. That gives the deployment significance beyond a single software implementation: it reflects Kinaxis’ effort to expand access to its supply chain technology through a broader partner ecosystem while increasing its presence in India. citeturn0news19
For STL, the timing is particularly relevant. The company operates a global optical infrastructure business serving telecommunications, broadband, enterprise and data center markets, with manufacturing operations across multiple regions. As demand for high-capacity connectivity rises alongside AI data center investment, managing materials, production capacity and customer requirements across that footprint becomes increasingly complicated. citeturn1search0turn1search4
Supply Chain Planning Becomes Strategic
Modern supply chain planning has evolved well beyond deciding how much inventory a company should keep.
Global manufacturers need to coordinate demand forecasts, materials, production schedules, suppliers, logistics and customer commitments across multiple regions. A change in one part of the system can quickly affect several others.
For an optical technology manufacturer such as STL, those dependencies can be especially significant.
The company produces optical fiber, fiber optic cables and connectivity products used in telecommunications networks, broadband infrastructure and data centers. STL says it has customers in more than 100 countries and manufacturing operations across Asia, Europe and North America. citeturn1search0turn1search1
That geographic scale creates opportunities, but it also increases planning complexity.
Manufacturing teams need visibility into available materials and production capacity. Sales organizations need reliable information about what can be delivered and when. Procurement teams need to understand future requirements, while management needs to evaluate how changing customer demand could affect the wider business.
Traditional planning processes can struggle when these functions operate through disconnected systems or update plans on different schedules.
The goal of modern planning software is to create a more connected view of these decisions.
STL CEO Rahul Puri said strengthening supply chain planning is essential to how the company operates and serves customers. According to the announcement, STL expects Planning One to improve visibility across operations, allow the company to respond faster to change and support more consistent execution as the business grows. citeturn0news19
What Kinaxis Planning One Does
Kinaxis positions Planning One as a supply chain planning solution intended to make advanced planning capabilities accessible to organizations without requiring the scale or complexity associated with some large enterprise deployments.
At a practical level, supply chain planning platforms attempt to connect information that would otherwise be distributed across multiple teams and systems.
A demand forecast, for example, is not useful in isolation.
If expected demand increases, a manufacturer needs to understand whether sufficient materials are available, whether factories have capacity, whether suppliers can meet additional requirements and whether logistics networks can deliver products according to customer expectations.
When those calculations happen separately, decisions can take longer and teams may work from different assumptions.
Connected planning aims to reduce that fragmentation.
Kinaxis says STL will use Planning One to increase end-to-end visibility and improve collaboration across business functions. The platform is also intended to help STL respond more quickly as demand and supply conditions change. citeturn0news19
The important measure will ultimately be how those capabilities affect STL’s real operations.
Kinaxis and STL did not disclose financial terms for the software deployment or provide specific quantitative targets for improvements such as inventory levels, forecast accuracy or planning speed.
As a result, the announcement establishes the strategic objective of the project rather than demonstrating measurable operational results.
STL Operates Across a Global Optical Network
Understanding STL’s business helps explain why supply chain planning matters to the company.
STL, formerly known as Sterlite Technologies, has spent decades building optical networking technology.
Its portfolio spans optical fiber, fiber optic cable and connectivity products used to build broadband, telecom and data center networks.
The company says it has more than 25 years of fiber innovation experience and serves customers in over 100 countries. It operates manufacturing sites across Asia, Europe, North America and South America. citeturn1search0
STL’s production model also extends relatively deep into the optical fiber value chain.
The company manufactures glass preforms, the glass cylinders from which optical fiber is drawn, as well as fiber and finished connectivity products. STL says this vertical integration gives it greater control over its supply chain and enables development of specialized optical technologies. citeturn1search6
That structure means planning decisions can involve several interconnected manufacturing stages.
A change in demand for a finished connectivity product can ultimately affect requirements for fiber, glass, manufacturing capacity and components further upstream.
Having greater visibility across those dependencies can help a manufacturer understand the consequences of demand changes before they create shortages or excess inventory.
AI Data Centers Are Changing Optical Demand
STL’s planning initiative also arrives during a major shift in the market for optical infrastructure.
Artificial intelligence is driving investment in data centers containing increasingly dense clusters of GPUs and other computing accelerators.
Those systems require enormous amounts of high-speed connectivity.
Within an AI data center, thousands of computing devices need to exchange data with extremely low latency. Connections are also required between racks, buildings and data center campuses.
Fiber therefore becomes part of the physical infrastructure supporting AI computing.
STL has been expanding its product portfolio to address this market.
The company’s Neuralis portfolio targets AI data center connectivity, while STL has also developed high-density fiber technologies intended for next-generation network environments. citeturn1search4turn1search6
STL says AI clusters can require tens of thousands of optical connections, substantially increasing the density of fiber infrastructure compared with many traditional network deployments. citeturn1search6
This growth creates a supply chain challenge.
Demand can increase rapidly as hyperscale operators build new facilities, but manufacturers still need to coordinate raw materials, factory capacity, product configurations and regional delivery requirements.
More sophisticated planning can become increasingly valuable when production needs to scale quickly without creating unnecessary inventory.
STL Is Expanding Manufacturing Capacity
The company is also investing in manufacturing expansion.
In 2026, STL outlined plans to invest up to $100 million in U.S. manufacturing capacity for optical fiber cables and connectivity solutions, according to reporting on the company’s expansion strategy.
The investment is expected to support demand from telecommunications customers and AI data center projects while increasing localized production capacity in the United States. citeturn1search2
STL already operates a manufacturing facility in Lugoff, South Carolina.
The company previously said its U.S.-manufactured fiber optic cable products comply with Build America, Buy America requirements, positioning the facility to serve federally supported broadband projects. citeturn1search3
Localization can improve supply resilience by placing manufacturing closer to customers, but it also makes planning more multidimensional.
Companies must decide which facilities should manufacture particular products, how inventory should be distributed and how demand should be balanced across regional production networks.
That is precisely the kind of environment in which integrated planning platforms are designed to operate.
Why Visibility Matters
Visibility is one of the central themes of the STL-Kinaxis agreement.
In supply chain terminology, visibility means more than tracking a shipment.
For planning teams, it can include understanding inventory positions, supplier constraints, production capacity, demand forecasts and the consequences of operational changes.
Consider a simplified example.
If demand for a particular optical connectivity product suddenly rises because a data center customer accelerates a project, STL needs to determine whether it can meet the new schedule.
That decision could require checking component availability, production capacity, existing customer commitments and logistics.
If those data points exist in separate systems, planners may need to manually collect information before evaluating alternatives.
A connected planning environment can potentially shorten that process by giving teams access to a shared view of relevant constraints.
The business value is not simply seeing more information. It is being able to make decisions more quickly using consistent information.
Faster Decisions Matter During Volatility
Kinaxis has emphasized decision speed as another objective of the deployment.
Manufacturers have faced repeated supply chain disruptions in recent years, ranging from transportation bottlenecks and component shortages to geopolitical uncertainty and abrupt changes in customer demand.
Those disruptions demonstrated that a supply chain plan can become outdated very quickly.
The challenge is therefore not only producing an accurate plan.
Companies also need to understand what happens when assumptions change.
If a supplier is delayed, planners may need to determine which customer orders are affected.
If demand rises unexpectedly, they need to understand whether production can increase.
If transportation becomes more expensive or unreliable in one region, alternative sourcing or distribution options may need to be considered.
The faster those consequences can be evaluated, the more options management may have available.
Kinaxis Senior Vice President of Global Partner Organization Ray Curbelo said manufacturers are facing increasing pressure to make faster and more structured decisions in response to volatility.
He also described the STL agreement as evidence of growing demand for modern supply chain planning in India. citeturn0news19
India Becomes More Important for Kinaxis
The announcement also reflects Kinaxis’ broader expansion in India.
India has become increasingly important to global manufacturing and technology supply chains as companies expand production, engineering and sourcing operations in the country.
For enterprise software providers, that creates demand for systems capable of supporting more complex manufacturing networks.
Kinaxis says the STL deployment reflects its continued investment in India and its growing value-added reseller, or VAR, partner network. citeturn0news19
Partner ecosystems can be particularly important in enterprise software because customers often require more than a software license.
Implementations may involve integration with existing enterprise resource planning systems, data preparation, process redesign, configuration, employee training and ongoing support.
Local and regional partners can help software vendors deliver those services while reaching a larger number of customers.
The STL deal therefore serves two purposes for Kinaxis: adding a recognizable industrial customer and demonstrating how its expanded distribution strategy can generate business.
Google Marketplace Adds Another Route to Market
One of the most notable details in the announcement is how STL became a customer.
Kinaxis says STL is the first customer secured through its Google Marketplace mid-market initiative. citeturn0news19
Cloud marketplaces have become an increasingly important enterprise-software distribution channel.
Instead of negotiating every software purchase through a completely separate procurement process, companies can discover and purchase eligible products through marketplaces associated with cloud platforms they already use.
For software vendors, this can create another route to customers.
For buyers, marketplaces can potentially simplify procurement and consolidate technology spending through existing cloud relationships.
Kinaxis’ use of this model suggests it wants Planning One to reach customers beyond the very largest multinational enterprises traditionally associated with sophisticated supply chain planning systems.
STL provides an early test of that strategy.
Planning One and Kinaxis Maestro
Kinaxis operates a broader supply chain technology portfolio centered on Maestro, its AI-powered supply chain orchestration platform.
The company describes Maestro as connecting planning and execution across time horizons ranging from long-term strategic planning to operational delivery.
Planning One sits within Kinaxis’ effort to make modern planning capabilities available to a broader range of companies.
The broader concept behind supply chain orchestration is that organizations should not treat demand planning, supply planning and execution as completely separate activities.
Instead, information should move across those functions so decision-makers can understand how changes in one area affect the rest of the network.
AI is increasingly being introduced into this process.
Machine learning can support demand forecasting, identify patterns in supply chain data and help planners evaluate large numbers of variables.
Generative and agentic AI are also beginning to influence how users interact with enterprise software.
However, AI does not eliminate the need for reliable operational data.
Planning systems depend on accurate information about inventory, demand, suppliers, manufacturing and other business conditions.
Poor-quality data can produce poor-quality recommendations regardless of how advanced the underlying AI models are.
AI Supply Chain Tools Face an Accountability Test
The STL announcement follows closely after another Kinaxis release focused on AI adoption in supply chains.
On August 12, Kinaxis published findings from an IDC InfoBrief sponsored by the company examining AI accountability among more than 2,000 supply chain leaders.
That study found a substantial gap between companies’ expectations for autonomous supply chains and their current governance capabilities.
Only 6% of respondents said they currently operate autonomous supply chains at scale, while 41% expected large-scale autonomy to become a core operating model within one to two years.
The research also found that trust, data quality and governance remain major concerns.
Those findings provide useful context for Planning One.
The industry is not simply moving toward more automated planning. Companies are also trying to determine how AI-driven recommendations should be governed and how humans should remain involved in important decisions.
For STL, the immediate objective described in the new agreement is improved visibility, collaboration and responsiveness rather than fully autonomous supply chain management. citeturn0news19
That distinction matters.
Advanced planning software can help teams make better decisions without necessarily removing humans from the process.
Supply Chain Technology Is Becoming Competitive Infrastructure
For manufacturers, planning technology is increasingly becoming part of competitive infrastructure.
Customers expect shorter delivery times and greater reliability.
At the same time, manufacturers face fluctuating materials costs, geopolitical risks, transportation disruptions and changing demand.
Companies that can recognize problems earlier may have more time to respond.
They can potentially move production, adjust purchasing, change inventory allocations or communicate with customers before a disruption becomes more severe.
That does not mean software can eliminate supply chain risk.
A planning platform cannot create materials that do not exist or instantly replace unavailable production capacity.
Its value lies in helping organizations understand constraints and evaluate alternatives.
This is why visibility and decision speed are repeatedly emphasized in modern supply chain technology.
Optical Infrastructure Has Little Room for Planning Errors
The optical networking market adds another layer of complexity.
Fiber infrastructure is used in long-lived telecommunications and data center projects where customers often plan deployments months or years in advance.
At the same time, technology requirements continue to change.
Higher bandwidth, greater fiber density and new data center architectures can alter which products customers require.
Manufacturers therefore need to balance long-term investment decisions with short-term changes in orders.
Building too little capacity can create delays and lost business.
Building too much can leave expensive assets underused.
Inventory presents a similar challenge.
Insufficient inventory can delay projects, while excessive inventory ties up capital and can become problematic if product specifications change.
Modern supply chain planning tools are designed to help companies model those trade-offs more systematically.
STL’s Vertical Integration Creates Opportunities
STL’s vertical integration could make connected planning particularly relevant.
The company controls multiple stages of the optical value chain, beginning with glass preforms and extending through fiber and finished connectivity products. citeturn1search6
Vertical integration can improve control over critical inputs.
It can also create more internal dependencies that need to be coordinated.
If one manufacturing stage experiences a constraint, downstream operations can be affected.
Conversely, changes in finished-product demand can influence production requirements several stages upstream.
A planning system that connects these layers can potentially help management evaluate the full impact of changes rather than optimizing each facility independently.
The effectiveness of that approach will depend heavily on implementation and data integration.
Kinaxis and STL have not disclosed the deployment timeline or which specific business units and facilities will be connected first.
The Partnership Is Still at an Early Stage
The announcement should not be interpreted as evidence that STL has already achieved measurable supply chain improvements from Planning One.
The company has selected the platform and outlined what it expects to accomplish.
Actual results will depend on deployment.
Enterprise planning projects can be complex because they involve technology, business processes and organizational behavior.
A platform may provide sophisticated capabilities, but teams still need to agree on planning processes, maintain accurate data and incorporate the system into everyday decision-making.
The most meaningful indicators will emerge later.
Those could include changes in forecast accuracy, inventory efficiency, planning cycle times, service levels or response times during disruptions.
Neither company has yet published those results.
That makes the current announcement primarily a technology-selection and market-expansion story.
Why the Deal Matters Beyond STL
Even without performance data, the agreement illustrates several trends occurring simultaneously.
Manufacturers are investing in more connected planning systems.
AI infrastructure is increasing demand for optical networking products.
Industrial companies are localizing parts of their manufacturing networks while continuing to operate globally.
Cloud marketplaces are becoming another enterprise-software sales channel.
And India is becoming an increasingly important market for both manufacturing and enterprise technology.
STL sits at the intersection of several of these developments.
Its products support the physical networks required by telecommunications and data centers, while its own operations depend on a global manufacturing and supply chain footprint.
Kinaxis, meanwhile, is attempting to expand its planning technology through new products, partners and distribution channels.
Supply Chain Planning Enters a New Phase
The next stage of supply chain planning is likely to be defined by the combination of connected data, faster scenario analysis and increasingly capable AI.
But technology alone will not determine the outcome.
Manufacturers still need accurate data, disciplined processes and people capable of interpreting the trade-offs behind complex decisions.
For STL, Planning One is intended to provide a more unified foundation for those decisions.
The company expects greater visibility across its supply chain, better collaboration between functions and faster responses to changing demand and supply conditions. citeturn0news19
For Kinaxis, the deployment provides another customer in India and the first customer generated through its Google Marketplace mid-market initiative.
The commercial significance will become clearer as the implementation progresses and measurable operational results emerge.
For now, the agreement is another indication that planning software is becoming increasingly strategic for manufacturers operating complex global networks.
As AI infrastructure, telecommunications investment and data center expansion reshape demand for optical connectivity, the ability to coordinate materials, factories and customer requirements could become just as important as the products themselves.
