Chaining the Supply of Business Analytics

Today we come to the end of the Business Analytics course. We learned various data analysis approaches over the period of this course. Many topics were discussed and their applications were blogged about in a serious as well as in a humorous way. But now we come to an end. So, today, in this blog, instead of picking up an approach or a topic, I am going to discuss about the importance of business analytics in general, however specific towards the supply chain management. So here goes.

BA is being increasingly used in SCM. Improving SC performance has become a continuous process that requires an analytical performance measurement system. Moreover, the use of BA aids a knowledge enterprise by promoting efficiency within an organization, particularly by using analytical methods to provide valuable decision-making knowledge to minimize operating costs and accurately forecast market trends. Companies with more mature SC practices, i.e. improved BA capabilities, are thus reducing their costs faster and achieving higher profit margins than their less mature peers. Moreover, higher levels of SCM practice such as a higher level and quality of information sharing can lead to an enhanced competitive advantage and improved performance.

Examples of the potential use of analytics in various areas include:

• in Plan: analyzing data to predict market trends of products and services; until recently, these have often been done in the form of monthly and yearly reports by marketing and finance departments.

• in Source: the use of an agent-based procurement system with a procurement model, search, negotiation and evaluation agents to improve supplier selection, price negotiation and supplier evaluation and the approach for supplier selection/evaluation.

• in Make: the correct production of each inventory item not only in terms of time, but also about each production belt and batch.

• in Deliver: various applications of BA in logistics management have been made in order to bring products to market more efficiently. Nevertheless, since decisions about delivery are usually at the end of the decision cycle and several companies have outsourced their delivery processes the impact of BA in delivery may be limited.

Thus we can see how much BA is important in the field of Supply Chain Management.

With Regards,

Mittul Desai,

13146.

Ops Grp 1