Tariff Network Redesign
Prove the New Footprint Before You Move a Plant

Tariff changes are forcing sourcing and footprint decisions that have to be made now and still make sense if the policy reverses in 18 months. The approach here is to re-optimize the network under the new duty rates, then simulate the redesign on the same model to see whether it holds up.

A tariff is one more cost in the network model

A tariff is a cost coefficient on a sourcing or lane arc, and a network optimizer already weighs duties as one input among many. The hard part is showing that the redesign holds up once demand, lead times and suppliers vary.

ERP, TMS and S&OP can tell you what the current network does under the new costs. None of them redesign it. ReliaSim® redesigns the network and then tests the redesign by simulation on the same model, before any capital moves.

Three steps on one model

1. Re-optimize the footprint under the new duty rates

Sourcing optimization minimizes total landed cost, and tariffs and duties are a direct part of that cost rather than a separate module. Cross-border flows, duty-relief schemes and indirect-tax effects are in scope, using established enterprise sourcing-optimization methods.

2. Simulate the redesign on the same model

The optimized footprint runs as a discrete-event simulation on one shared database, with stochastic lead times, variability and supplier reliability. The model the optimizer designed is the model the simulator tests, so there’s no export step and no second copy to drift.

3. Defend it with numbers

When the executive committee asks whether the new footprint will work, the answer is quantitative. It comes from the same model, in the same tool, that produced the recommendation.

Why this approach suits a tariff decision

Sourcing data stays on your machine

Contract terms, unit costs and supplier strategy are some of the most sensitive data a company owns. The desktop product keeps them where they already live, and the Sandbox demo uses sample data only. Security and deployment has the details.

Built for small teams

Cuts to operations research and data science groups leave fewer people to drive a developer platform. The method is built into the tool, so a single modeler works with the discipline of a senior consultant.

Built to outlast a policy cycle

Tariff regimes change. A validated network model, and the habit of testing a redesign before acting on it, stay useful long after this regime settles.

Set up a tariff scenario

A tariff scenario is only as good as the rates and the lanes it uses. A few choices make most of the difference.

Use the rates that apply to your goods

Duty depends on the product’s classification and its country of origin, not on the supplier’s address. Pull the rate for each item and origin from the tariff schedule, and note any exclusion or trade-agreement treatment that applies. One blended rate for everything hides the items that decide the answer.

Put the duty on the lane it applies to

Model duty as a cost per unit on the sourcing lane that crosses the border. That way the optimizer sees it exactly where it’s paid, and a second source for the same item carries its own rate.

Run the whole range, not one rate

Policy changes. Run each rate you might face, from today’s rate through the proposals on the table and back to zero. The useful output isn’t the best network at one rate. It’s the rate at which the best network changes, and how much it costs to be on the wrong side of that line.

Count the time as well as the cost

Moving a source changes more than landed cost. A longer ocean lane means more stock in transit and slower recovery when demand jumps. A closer source can shorten both. The optimizer weighs costs, and the simulation shows what the lead-time change does to stock at each site.

What the tariff demo shows

The tariff demo puts that range on a small network. A supplier in China ships through the Port of Los Angeles to a central DC. A supplier in Mexico costs more per unit but pays no duty under current trade rules. The China tariff control offers the rates in US policy as of May 2026: 0%, 7.5%, 25%, 50% and 100%. Each is a saved run of the AMOS optimizer.

At 0% and 7.5%, the optimizer buys everything from China. From 25% up, it moves all of the sourcing to Mexico. On this network the answer flips somewhere between 7.5% and 25%, and a sourcing team would want to know where. Adding rates in between, or a second product with its own duty, narrows it down.

Run a tariff scenario in the Sandbox

The Tariff: offshore or reshore demo compares sourcing offshore through the Port of LA with a Mexico reshore, which is the redesign question many teams face. Toggle the tariff and watch sourcing flip. The Coffee co-pack demo asks a related question: whether to sign a US co-pack contract, and at what fixed cost, across the range of diesel prices.

For the wider case for pairing optimization with simulation, see supply chain simulation vs optimization.

Frequently asked questions