SUPPLY CHAIN OPTMIZATION ANALYTICS - MANAGING YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN DATA:

Data is fuel. Fuel for the high performance supply chain analytics system. Just like your car will sputter and stall if it gets low quality or contaminated fuel, the same can happen to your supply chain when it uses bad data.

Let's discuss some of the primary issues to consider in gathering high quality data for your supply chain analytics program. There's an immense value in supply chain mapping. Supply chain maps help you understand data availability, supply chain partners, and other stakeholders.

So supply chain mapping is a vital step in understanding the data landscape within your supply chain. Yes, the supply chain map is a guide to the data, but often, while it helps us realize that data exists, you may discover the data belongs to your supplier or perhaps downstream partners like distributors, transportation companies, or retailers.

Remember, data is fuel for analytics. So we need to access the best supply chain data and not just historical data from past years, we want real time data. So you'll need to develop strong supply chain relationships to those that have access to the data.

We need business partners that we can trust with our data, and that trust us with their data. Getting access to partner data can be difficult, but sometimes even getting your own data can be difficult.

Especially when your company has grown through mergers and acquisitions. Your organization might have multiple ERP systems and varied technologies that were accumulated over several decades.

Don't underestimate the challenges any one company may have with their own data. Data is being collected across the supply chain by different companies, and sometimes directly from consumers.

Each stakeholder is using different devices and software. And while each is a portal to valuable data, each is also a potential point of entry for a cyber-attack.

Even if you trust your supply chain partners, be mindful that attacks on your systems could pose a threat to your IT and supply chain infrastructure. Supply chain professionals, digital devices, software, data storage, cyber security, none of them are cheap.

Remember, the goal of your analytics program is to provide a good return on your investment. Be mindful of the total cost of the data that fuels your analytics program.

As we've seen supply chain data is vast and no matter what, companies want more, including social media data, data collected by digital sensors, even theoretical data from simulations. But as with books, just because you have access to every