5 REASONS TO EMBRACE A DATA DRIVEN SUPPLY CHAIN

1. Enhanced Efficiency and Optimisation

Data-driven insights allow supply chain managers to optimise their processes, from inventory management to transportation and logistics. By analysing historical data and real-time information, organisations can identify patterns that uncover inefficiencies. Once addressed, operations can be streamlined and resources optimised, allowing a business to do more, with less. This delivers tangible cost savings and efficiency gains. I have seen many examples of this in aerospace OEM’s, especially where consignment stocking programmes are in play. Understanding the usage rates in real time as the build rate fluctuates, gives manufacturers to flex the number of weeks cover of inventory and over the course of the year, this delivers significant savings, sometimes running into millions of dollars.

2. Improved Forecasting and Planning

Employing strategies around data analytics enables more accurate demand forecasting and strategic planning. We have clients who, with our help, analyse historical sales data, stock position and market trends.  The goal for this kind of exercise is to enable them to anticipate fluctuations in demand, identify potential risks, and adjust inventory levels accordingly. This proactive approach minimises stockouts, reduces excess inventory, and invariably improves the bottom line, simultaneously enhancing customer satisfaction.  Another great example from aircraft manufacture – when it comes to C-Class parts, the BOM is invariably wrong so having a true picture of usage means that only components that are being consumed by the build line are re-ordered.

3. Better Decision Making:

As Michel Foucault said, knowledge is power, and the same can be said of mission critical information – it gives you the power to make better decisions. The insights we help our clients to glean from their data, definitively lead to better decision making and evidence-based changes.  With access to comprehensive data analytics tools, managers can assess various scenarios, evaluate potential outcomes, and choose the most effective course of action. This in turn leads to better results, mitigates risk, and drives innovation within the supply chain and wider business.  Just imagine the difference if you had to wait two weeks for the information needed to make a decision today!?  Retail moves so fast that in those two weeks, the world will have changed and the window to make a difference will have closed.

4. Enhanced Collaboration and Visibility:

Data-driven supply chain management fosters collaboration and transparency, particularly between merchants and their suppliers, if the right tools are in place to support this.  By sharing relevant data, organisations can improve coordination, reduce lead times, and enhance overall visibility across the supply chain network. This increased collaboration enables faster responses to changes in demand or disruptions, ultimately improving agility and resilience.  In practical terms, this improves revenues for everyone involved.  Wickes, one of our customers in the building sector saw a 137% week on week sales uplift from one of their major suppliers.  The increase came from benchmarking live sales and stock data across all retail branches and then taking the learning from the most successful in-store approaches and replicating them nationally.  Definitively, an actionable insight from high quality data leading to exceptional results.