10 Ways to Use Supply Chain Analytics to Your Advantage

Processes that organizations use to gain insight and extract value from the large amounts of data associated with the procurement, processing, and distribution of goods, supply chain analytics has become a critical element of supply chain management (SCM).

“Supply chain analytics brings together data from across different applications, infrastructure, third-party sources, and emerging technologies,” TechTarget states, “such as IoT to improve decision-making across the strategic, tactical, and operational processes that make up supply chain management.”

A growing number of organizations are using supply chain analytics software to obtain accurate insights, improve decision-making, reduce risk, and manage global supply chain disruptions. According to Grand View Research, the global supply chain analytics market size is expected to reach $9.9 billion by 2025, up from just $3.5 billion in 2018.

The research firm says that growing awareness of forecasting accuracy, the meaningful synthesis of business data, and other benefits that supply chain analytics solutions provide are all working together to drive market growth in this sector right now.   

10 Ways to Maximize Your SC Analytics

The science of examining raw data to draw conclusions about information, data analytics helps industrial companies make better business decisions about their current and future operations. Here are 10 ways that you can start making better use of your own supply chain analytics:

1. Use predictive analytics embedded in a planning system to generate more accurate, reliable demand forecasts. As we saw during the early stages of COVID, having accurate, predictable forecasts can sometimes mean the difference between being able to fulfill orders, or not.
2. Extract reporting analytics from your transportation management system (TMS) and use them to create key performance indicators (KPIs) for your supply chain and logistics teams. Those teams can use the insights to make better transportation decisions for your bulk and break bulk freight.
3. Use analytics to improve forecasting, efficiency, and responsiveness to customers’ needs. When you know what they want ahead of time, you can better prepare to meet that demand in a timely, profitable manner.
4. Extract predictive analytics from point-of-sale (POS) terminal data to anticipate consumer demand (this, in turn, can lead to cost-saving adjustments to inventory and faster delivery).
5. Use real-time visibility into your processes to synchronize supply chain planning and execution, and to measure the impact of those moves on your customers and on your bottom line.
6. With this increased visibility, you can help decision-makers better evaluate tradeoffs between cost and customer service. If the price isn’t right, or if the mode doesn’t fit the load, then you can make quick decisions that will help your bottom line while also keeping your customer happy.
7. Infuse your operations with more data-driven intelligence, and then use it to reduce the overall cost to serve while also improving service levels.
8. Use advanced analytics to identify the most efficient shipping carriers for a specific bulk or break bulk route. This not only helps you save money and time, but it also helps create a better customer experience.
9. Tap into historical data to develop insights around seasonal fluctuations, consumer trends, and weather-date purchase correlations. “It is a proven method of predicting and managing supply chain logistics,” Great Learning points out.
10. Finally, you can use supply chain analytics to reduce your company’s carbon footprint and operate more sustainably. Through improved fuel efficiency, better operational efficiencies, and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify patterns, you can effectively decrease the environmental impact of your freight as it moves from origin to destination.