SUPPLY CHAIN

“I was in Bangalore, India, the Silicon Valley of India, when I realized that the world was flat.” -Thomas Friedman The Roman military had an extensive logistical supply chain. There was no specialized branch of the military devoted to logistics and transportation, although this was to a great extent carried out by the Roman Navy due to the ease and low costs of transporting goods via sea and river compared to over land. There is archaeological evidence that Roman armies campaigning in Germania were supplied by a logistical supply chain beginning in Italy and Gaul, then transported by sea to the northern coast of Germania, and finally penetrating into Germania via barges on inland waterways. Forces were routinely supplied via fixed supply chains, and although Roman armies in enemy territory would often supplement or replace this with foraging for food or purchasing food locally, this was often insufficient for their needs: Heather states that a single legion would have required 13.5 tonnes of food per month, and that it would have proved impossible to source this locally.

Supply chain analytics is not a new concept and certainly not a unique one. Just that the need and importance of analytics in supply chain has never been felt more. In the pursuit of continuous alignment between corporate strategy and supply chain execution, information is power and visibility into the supply chain is at the core.

Supply chains that at one time consisted of a factory and its direct suppliers now span the globe and can consist of multiple levels of supplier/customer relationships. So, for supply chain visibility to be truly insightful, it must be inclusive. Organizational Advantage: Want to hear what could be one of the best supply-chain success stories ever? Take the $4 billion commercial and consumer equipment division of a $20 billion company, reduce inventory by $500 million, and as sales grow, keep inventory constant -- thus avoiding an additional $500 million in inventory. This is what John Deere did starting in 2002, with the help of supply-chain analytics.

According to SmartOps CEO Sridhar Tayur, the key concept behind Deere’s success is the use of analytics while building forecasts. According to Tayur, the theory dictates that what you know today is quite likely to change tomorrow. How likely it is to be different is what you capture in the model.

Supply Chain Analytics provides competitive advantage to organizations by enabling them to optimize their processes through cross-functional analysis. Industries like automobiles, integrated communications, consumer goods, and heavy engineering, spend more than 50% of their total cost in strategic sourcing, This makes advanced analytics of BI in Sourcing a key focus for organizations. Companies today, irrespective of size and scale are relying on advanced analytics of Business Intelligence (BI) to facilitate strategic decisions related to Low Cost Country Sourcing (LCCS), Product re-engineering, Re-sourcing and New product development. Supply chain analytics can be made use of in the following manner:

• Helps to consistently assess operational effectiveness and how each functional area is contributing towards corporate goals
• Is quick to deploy and implement, with comprehensive data extraction and measurements out-of-the-box and verified
• Provides consistent measurements based on the right data
• Is easy to learn and users quickly becomes self-sufficient