How can BI professionals work with operations teams to improve supply chain performance?

A business intelligence developer needed to have the basics of any business will be working on. Especially, if the business users don't have the culture of data analytics and data visualization. As a first step, you need to set your KPIs these KPIs could be found online or could be built customized on the business users. After that, we will move to the data integration from various sources. After that step we will be continuing our business intelligence life cycle of any different project.

Become part of the team. Sit with them while they do their work and even try to do some of their work. Let them teach you the job and then you can start to see where you can make improvements for them. The more you get to know them the more they'll teach you where their issues are. Meeting with them occasionally and having them tell you what the issues and concerns are is fine but becoming a trusted member of the team gives a much deeper insight and results products that truly support operations and supply chain.

Supply chain is a business domain with its own challenges and constraints, notably time and volume. A supply chain must keep moving, and any delay flows downstream. Learn the key metrics, and learn the alert conditions so you can inform users before the alarms turn red.

Supply Chain has its own unique challenges, as well as inside / outside forces working on it. To me, a big method I used in the past to help Supply Chain was to show where the lead times were stacking up as well ad where the inventory was stacking up. Often the visualization of the data allowed us to then model where we wanted it to be, so ee had a plan of attack.

Supply chain tracking involves multiple and varied data sources. ERP systems are maintained in house for business operations. Customer management via CRM is critical, and vendors exist on both sides of the contract process (customer and supplier). IoT tracking to monitor movement of goods and services creates a real-time stream of data that could literally be global in your organization. Other data sources, including finance, billing, contracting, logistics, and QC could also be necessary. Track them all. Document them. Assess them. Create the data model or models needed to generate analytics.

One of the biggest challenges I see people having with data analysis is finding the sources to begin with. So often, throughout my career, people have come to me, seeking analytics of one sort or another, but being told the data isn't available. I have tried to understand where data exists, how it can be merged with other data, and how I can mine / collate it in a meaningful way.

In addition to that we may consider to call all of our specialists and ask them for their expert knowledge when there are no data available and turn that knowledge into data. When we are working for a company, Is more than common to not find all the info we need to make a complex analysis such as competitors profit margins or market's acceptance because of a non-exist market's research, that's when we need to use expertise in order to get the most accurate data possible. So, BI analysts need to learn how to convert knowledge into data.

Different business groups in supply chain will have different needs. Some boards will track movements of vehicles and goods across the map. This can be accomplished via GIS data and tagging. Combining the GIS data with schedules and dependent routes will provide data to track delays, early arrivals, and outages. Standard dashboards and visualizations will also be required for trends and metrics, but GIS is a good example of specific supply chain requirements.

As a Business Analytics and Supply Chain student, I can understand the frustration to bridge the gaps in these areas. Beyond number crunching, effective communication is key. While tech and analytical skills are vital, the real impact comes from sharing insights with operations teams, driving data-driven decisions. It's about crafting a compelling story using empathy and feedback. Collaboration involves active listening and creative problem-solving. A blend of technical, analytical, communication, and collaboration skills, coupled with a deep understanding of supply chain goals, is essential. Leveraging these skills, BI professionals can optimize supply chain processes, enhance customer experience, and boost competitive advantage.

Havging & following a framework template that allows Power Bi designers to ask the right questions while collaboration with the Business. Like, what KPIs are important , understand the current processes & systems implemented and therefore understand & imagine a possible outcome. Identify who's the audience of the report(s)? Can other teams\audience benefit from the report? Identity SMEs to help you get familiar with the data, to help validate\reconciliation of data & to provide feedback to the design by asking if it brings the best value. Don't forget to create guides before presenting the final designs, proactively describing the goal of the report, data sources, data refresh times, calculations & definitions, etc. HAPPY ANALYSIS!

Too often, data is supplied but no further communication is given to tweak it so the results are meaning ful and useful. As an analyst, we need to listen, then deliver data, then listen again to tweak the data.

BI professionals can help operations teams improve supply chain performance by analyzing data, monitoring KPIs, using predictive analytics, visualizing data, and collaborating closely with operations teams.

An analytically under-served & high impact area for supply chain analytics is AI based supplier scorecarding. This can help you identify the best suppliers for next year's procurement plan, based on price, timeliness of delivery, regional coverage, flexibility, quality etc. The supplier scorecards delivered in your procurement systems are quite basic. Once you use data from multiple other data sources (AR, quality, logistics etc.), the scorecards become much more comprehensive & useful.

One of my favorite products when I was working with operations and supply chain was a daily email summary that explicitly stated the top five issues (including quantifiable results) of the previous day and explained why they happened. It only included a couple simple HTML visuals but the text was programmatically generated and simply explained what happened, where, and why (if available). This generated good conversation amongst leadership and helped them address the relevant problems at hand. I think people often get lost and numb to the visuals sometimes. However, sometimes things can end up in the TLDR camp.