Supply Chain Analytics

Analyze, visualize, and explore relationships between complex data sources, driving better business results and a competitive edge.

The supply chain is a great place to use analytic tools to look for a competitive advantage, because of its complexity and the prominent role supply chain plays in a company’s cost structure and profitability.

Relying on traditional supply chain execution systems is becoming increasingly more difficult, with a mix of global operating systems, pricing pressures and ever increasing customer expectations. There are also recent economic impacts such as rising fuel costs, the global recession, supplier bases that have shrunk or moved off-shore, as well as increased competition from low-cost outsourcers. All of these challenges potentially create waste in your supply chain. That’s where data analytics comes in.

Data analytics is the science of examining raw data to help draw conclusions about information. It is used in many industries to allow companies and organization to make better business decisions and in the sciences to verify (or disprove) existing models or theories.

In the past few years, we’re hearing more and more about the use of data analytics in the supply chain & logistics function.

All businesses with a supply chain devote a fair amount of time to making sure it adds value, but these new advanced analytic tools and disciplines make it possible to dig deeper into supply chain data in search of savings and efficiencies.

The supply chain is a great place to use analytic tools to look for a competitive advantage, because of its complexity and also because of the prominent role supply chain plays in a company’s cost structure and profitability. Supply chains can appear simple compared to other parts of a business, even though they are not. If we keep an open mind, we can always do better by digging deeper into data as well as by thinking about a predictive instead of reactive view of the data.

So while advanced supply chain analytics is promising in terms of making our supply chain leaner, it may not be “ready for prime time,” at least not for the masses for awhile.