Supply chain analytics directly influence customer experience. It is a crucial part of any profit plan. The supply chain consists of the supplier/s, the business providing the service, and the end user. Analyzing problem areas and strong points in this chain help improve customer support and increase profits.
This field of work involves data mining, dashboard assimilation, progress, trend reports, and visualization.
Role of a Supply Chain Analyst
The job of a supply chain analyst is to detect and report weak points in a supply chain, spot the cause of the problem, and provide a solution. The supply chain analyst performs several small tasks to get the big picture right.
- The analyst is tasked with finding out where progress slows down or the quality of the product or service begins to decline. They also need to help each team work with each other. They need to point out the exact problem areas so that the different teams cannot keep passing the blame.
- They also need to predict lead times for suppliers and provide a realistic ETA for the end user. Too short a time to keep the end user hooked, and the business can’t deliver on the promise. The end-user withdraws the order when the supplier was ready to ship earlier. There is a very small window of error here.
- The most difficult task of the analyst is to predict what could possibly go wrong before it happens. That’s not all. They also need to convince the different teams at work that their method needs redoing. Most teams don’t want to start from scratch or even make little changes until the end-user complains.
Supply chain analysis is heavily dependent on Enterprise Resource Planning. The ERP system brings together relevant data from previous performances to help the analyst back up their claims. The employees can then work with the logistics right in front of them.
Benefits of Supply Chain Analytics
The role of a supply chain analyst is important because this analysis helps the business do the following:
- Access crucial data from all their supply chains.
- Use this data to make amendments to their future supply chains.
- It also helps reform existing supply chains at the point of error without disrupting the rest of the chain.
- It gathers data for long-term strategies for the future of the business.
- It gathers data from competitors to compare and learn from their successes and failures.
- Helps predict future purchases and restock the inventory accordingly.
- Helps avoid spending on products or wasting resources on services that are not going to be necessary in the near future.
This kind of data-driven management helps prevent overspending and lowers turn-around time for large businesses. Business managers need to pay close attention to this data.
Conclusion
People aspiring to become supply chain analysts know that it pays well but might be worried that the work is too difficult. In reality, supply chain analysis is not difficult to grasp. Advanced data mining technology provides all the information one needs. An analyst only needs to have an eye for it.