Knowing what to measure and how to measure it makes a complicated world much less so. If you learn to look at data in the right way, you can explain riddles that otherwise might have seemed impossible. Because there is nothing like the sheer power of numbers to scrub away layers of confusion and contradiction.
This quote is taken from Freakonomics, an award-winning book series which focuses on data-driven analysis of cause and effect relationships. Economist Steven D. Levitt and writer Stephen J. Dubner examine the mathematics behind a range of different events, such as corrupt sumo wrestling competitions, and deduce a new level of understanding behind the facts and figures.
We’re advocates of data-driven analysis in complex supply chains, which can be incredibly complex and full of risks. Strategic supply chain management can help companies to collect intelligent data and understand the interactions between suppliers, processes and output.
For instance, a manufacturer’s annual transport costs may be directly linked to the speed at which a certain supplier delivers particular goods. Once the manufacturer makes sense of all the available data, they can deduce the cause of supply chain delays and improve future performance.
Which data is most important?
Paul Goepfert, Marketing Manager for ERP vendor Pronto Software, argues that many people uncover “freak findings” of supply chain data by accident. Only consistent supply chain management and data analysis can reveal intelligence on an ongoing basis. However, even this intelligence can be open to interpretation, says Goepfert.
“While enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) tools give more and more people access to powerful information about a business, it’s still almost always open to the interpretation of the decision maker to make use of it and constantly assess which elements should require attention.”
ERP systems track business resources and logistics, and Segura has integrated our own supply chain management solutions with several major ERP solutions.We create a complete audit trail for every supply chain process. This promotes brand protection, enforces compliance and most importantly makes it possible to gather supply chain data ready for analysis.
Three simple steps to data analysis
- Collect it – In order to develop a more efficient, ethical and economical supply chain, you need to collect relevant data for analysis. Segura is easy to install into an existing supply chain, providing an automated feed which can work alongside ERP systems. Suppliers are able to remotely register themselves and any secondary suppliers on the platform with minimal support, slotting into Segura's framework effortlessly.
- See it - In order to actually benefit from all this available data, it needs to be made accessible for the end user. Segura makes supply chain management easy with a handy cloud-hosted dashboard, which can be accessed from anywhere in the world and on any device.
- Understand it - Once you collect all of your supply chain data, how will you make sense of it? Manual data manipulation can be a labour-intensive and complicated process. Segura’s solution can be quickly and painlessly installed as an out-of-the-box solution for immediate use, but we are also able to tailor the software to fit any client’s specific needs, making the system more responsive to particular requirements.
