In honor of Christmas, I would like to use the famous carol “Do You Hear What I Hear” to guide my discussion of supply chain management. I’ll use several lines from the song to show how important it is to see, hear, know and listen to what’s going on in your supply chains.
How well can you see what’s going on in your supply chains? Does it take a lot of time to compile all the data on your sales, orders and deliveries, and then transfer it to Excel spreadsheets? That’s not an efficient way to manage supply chains, nor does it give you a good picture of how your business is performing. Most companies are too complex to keep track of information so slowly.
In the article “Today’s Supply Chain Secret Sauce: More Visibility, Fewer Silos,” Michael Koploy, an ERP Analyst with Software Advice, says, “Very few supply chains can be considered ‘simple’ anymore. Even companies with streamlined product lines often source from all over the world. Therefore, access to accurate data in real time is vital to an organization’s ability to plan, analyze and react.”
Koploy rightly points out that using spreadsheets creates unnecessary risks. Data could be typed in incorrectly or become outdated before it’s put to use. It’s better to scan product information into a database with barcode scanners. This virtually eliminates the possibility of errors finding their way into data. The business world is fast-paced, and it can leave companies behind if they don’t seize opportunities and solve problems quickly.
Do You See What I See?
How well can you see what’s going on in your supply chains? Does it take a lot of time to compile all the data on your sales, orders and deliveries, and then transfer it to Excel spreadsheets? That’s not an efficient way to manage supply chains, nor does it give you a good picture of how your business is performing. Most companies are too complex to keep track of information so slowly.
In the article “Today’s Supply Chain Secret Sauce: More Visibility, Fewer Silos,” Michael Koploy, an ERP Analyst with Software Advice, says, “Very few supply chains can be considered ‘simple’ anymore. Even companies with streamlined product lines often source from all over the world. Therefore, access to accurate data in real time is vital to an organization’s ability to plan, analyze and react.”
Koploy rightly points out that using spreadsheets creates unnecessary risks. Data could be typed in incorrectly or become outdated before it’s put to use. It’s better to scan product information into a database with barcode scanners. This virtually eliminates the possibility of errors finding their way into data. The business world is fast-paced, and it can leave companies behind if they don’t seize opportunities and solve problems quickly.
Do You Hear What I Hear?
Once you can see the latest supply chain data, you need to be able to hear what it’s telling you. This means sorting and making sense of a whole bunch of numbers. “The problem is many companies either don’t have access to [data], or are spending too much time trying to make heads or tails of the data,” says Karin Bursa, Vice President of Logility. “The right visibility affords the supply chain team to proactively identify and resolve issues.” You don’t want to spend too much time just figuring out how to read the information you collect. If you use an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, you can get a comprehensive picture of what your data is trying to tell you – everything from your supply chains to your sales. Instead of trying to put all of these different parts of your business into different boxes (Excel spreadsheets), you can see how they work together in specially designed reports.
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