Supply Chain Analytics: Overcoming Obstacles to Stay Ahead of Your Competitors
Leveraging data analysis and technology integration can generate powerful insights to transform today’s supply chains. Companies continue to struggle, however, with the best techniques to get the right information in the hands of their decision-makers.
Many manufacturers and shippers report their organization is not aligned around key performance metrics. Simply including analytics in your strategy does not guarantee that the right factors will ultimately be measured.
Here are a few obstacles that keep companies from benefitting from supply chain analytics:
- Effectively sharing data across the organization. Recent investments to capture and store data have left many companies swimming in information. Most businesses do not operate a centralized analytics group to help drive strategy and execution, and are not leveraging analytics to guide functional processes throughout the enterprise. The first step is designing the right organization that can handle such transformation.
- Investing wisely in technology. Many analytics efforts are geared toward real-time information, because most leading companies have already established a centralized data repository, capable of housing huge volumes of data inputs. Companies should be careful to balance IT-only investments with well-supported strategy, process, and organizational alignment efforts.
- Building the right team to support analytics. Tenured employees with decades of experience and extensive knowledge of a company’s business may lack the analytical mindset required to use advanced tools and muscle through extensive data. On the other hand, new hires bring the right analytical knowledge, but might lack the business and industry acumen to rapidly use their abilities. Evaluate opportunities to hire strategically, and leverage external partnerships to fill existing talent gaps.