Network Planning interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your background + your path into supply chain network work.
2. Tell me about a network design or optimization project you've owned end-to-end.
3. Why 3PL vs shipper-side supply chain or consulting?
4. Why network planning specifically vs operations, procurement, or commercial roles?
5. Why the firm?
6. What's your read on our network and customer footprint?
7. Tell me what you understand about our network design + tooling capabilities.
8. Walk me through how you'd design or redesign a customer's distribution network.

Technical concepts to master

• Network design fundamentals

  Greenfield vs brownfield · MILP + heuristic solvers · Tool stack · Baseline + scenario discipline · Service-cost trade-off curve

• S&OP + capacity planning

  S&OP cycle · Peak planning · Capacity buckets · Demand signal quality

• RFP + commercial models

  Commercial models · Cost-plus vs gainshare · RFP response architecture · Pricing sensitivity + risk loading

• Sustainability + scope-3 carbon

  Scope-3 logistics emissions · Mode shift levers · Network + load optimization levers · Alt-fuel + electrification

Practical drills

• A customer ships 200 loads / month on a 1,000-mile lane via TL at $2,500 per load. Intermodal on the same corridor would cost $1,900 per load including drayage but add 2 days of transit. Customer service spec is 5 days. Walk through whether to shift, by how much, and the carbon + risk view. Show your numbers.
• A customer runs 7 regional DCs across North America serving 8,000 retail-store ship-tos. They're asking whether to consolidate to 3-4 mega-DCs to save fixed cost. They have a 2-day standard service spec. How would you approach the study and what's your initial hypothesis?
• A mid-sized industrial manufacturer ($800M revenue) issues an RFP for end-to-end North America logistics - inbound from 60 suppliers, 3 DCs, outbound to 2,500 customer ship-tos. They want a 3-year contract. Walk me through how you'd scope the response and what commercial structure you'd propose.

Smart-question anchors

• Network design team org - centralized strategic vs embedded with customer teams
• Tool stack maturity - in-house solver vs commercial, data infrastructure, AI / ML investments
• Customer + vertical mix - where the design team's focus areas are likely to grow
• Commercial model preferences - gainshare vs cost-plus, open-book transparency, contract terms
• Sustainability + scope-3 - public commitments, customer scope-3 offerings, mode-shift programs

Sourced from

Coupa Supply Chain Guru (formerly Llamasoft) + OptiLogic Cosmic Frog documentation + community · CSCMP - Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals + State of Logistics Report (Kearney + CSCMP) · Gartner Supply Chain research + Magic Quadrant for 3PL + Network Design tools · Smart Freight Centre + GLEC framework + ISO 14083 · FreightWaves + Journal of Commerce + Supply Chain Dive trade press