About Analytics
Data is one of a company’s most valuable assets and yet is often under exploited. Most systems can churn out a report; some will go further and summarise information in the form of Business Intelligence. Analytics will help you unlock the true potential of your data – interpreting it and intuitively directing attention to where it is most needed. It has three concepts at its core – Alert to short-term risks/issues, Report to look at issues in more detail and Explore for in depth analysis to drive longer term strategic improvements.
As a Director of Supply Chain, I was concerned over 20% of my shipment costs were spent on transporting empty space. Analytics highlighted CFS load as a key problem area, with staggered handover dates causing issues with stock availability at CFS for consolidation. We improved planning across the business to co-ordinate handover, resulting in a 10-12% improvement in container fill.
I work as a Merchandiser and late shipments were causing me issues with stock availability. Using Analytics, I could see immediately who the persistently late suppliers were and together we identified that delays in production approval were preventing on time handover. We have improved communication from both sides and now 92% of orders are on-time.
I’m a Logistics Planner and day-to-day I resolve issues affecting orders in transit. Analytics flagged to me that all orders shipping from Shanghai to Bangkok were suddenly running late. There had been a change to import documentation requirements that origin hadn’t understood. I managed to resolve it before arrival so there was no delay.