Managing the entire supply chain is a complex task. The
supply chain typically includes supply, operations, logistics and integration.
Purchasing the materials, logistics of moving materials, competition, global
economy are few of the things supply chain analysts worry about every day.
There is massive amount of data available on each transaction
in the supply chain such as:
- Purchase orders
- Scheduling requests
- Regulatory forms
- Customer requests
The problem is not only with the amount of data but also
integrating data from various sources to get meaningful insights and reports:
The data source for analysis for supply chain can be any of
the following:
- Spreadsheets and Databases
- ERP Systems
- CAD Applications
- Financial spreadsheets
Below are few of
the graphs that show revenue aggregated at various levels for each product line in a supply chain:
Data Visualization for Manufacturers
Benefits of
what BI Solution can do for supply chain:
Plan what supply
chain can do for you:
- Predictive business intelligence analytic applications offer statistical forecasting down to the product SKU level.
- use BI to determine safety stock levels and the best re-order points for each product, which in turn optimizes customer service levels because the most popular products are always in stock
- With better forecasting, manufacturers can also measure supplier variability to identify which vendors you can count on to fit into your supply chain at the right price and on-time
Evaluate performance
of supply chain
Supply chain performance can be evaluated in a number of
areas such as Inventory, Purchasing and Manufacturing
- BI software can be used to track equipment maintenance history to better plan and manage your future maintenance requirements
- Helps in identifying how your supply chain performs (or doesn't perform) in different areas you can pinpoint weak spots, as well as opportunities for growth, in your supply chain that might otherwise have been missed
- To track equipment maintenance history to better plan and manage your future maintenance requirements
- To drive cost reductions, reduce cycle time and decrease assets on the balance sheet by helping them better manage spending and their supplier networks
- BI software lets manufacturers monitor vendor lead times, schedules and eliminate excess orders.
Monitor supply chain
variances
·
Monitor the performance of vendors,
distributors, logistics service providers, and other partners
- Manufacturers can keep better track of orders, order status and work in process.
- Companies can also monitor the status of work orders so they can quickly pinpoint potential delays that may impact the supply chain.
- Identify where are the lags, the bottle necks, and the pain points in the supply chain
- Recognize what areas underperform while others function as expected and what causes those discrepancies
Facts and
Dimensions of supply chain:
After understanding the BI importance in Supply Chain let’s
get a Data warehousing perspective to it. The below process and shows how to
design and implement the process of supply chain. In build-to-order manufacturing
business, order management is best designed as a pipeline. Accumulated pipeline
will help us better understand the perspective of the business as the status is
constantly updated and also captures details till the final disposition of the
order. Current status of the orders is better understood as well as product
movement velocities to identify product movement velocities and to identify
pipeline bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
We capture a large number
of dates and facts as order progresses through a pipeline. We revisit and update
the fact table as more information becomes available. The grain of an accumulating snapshot fact table is one row per
order line item. Accumulating snapshot helps us understand throughput and yield
which is very important for supply chain analysis.
Order fulfillment pipeline diagram
Order fulfillment accumulating snapshot fact table
References:
The Data Warehouse Toolkit - Third Edition, Ralph Kimball and Margy Ross
