End to End Supply Chain Management Analytics – Integration of People, Process, Technology and Location

Introduction

Supply chain analytics is the streamlining of the entire supply chain of the organization or business to create value to the customers and to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Supply chain management refers to the management of the entire chain of supplies hence making them efficient and economical.

Why supply chain analytics is required?

In a highly competitive environment, organizations are striving to optimize the operational expenses to achieve high efficiency and manageability throughout the chain. Efficient supply chain analytics and tools help companies to achieve accurate and efficient forecasting, improved supplier network and improved warehouse management, increased visibility throughout the entire supply chain which can cater the dynamic end user demands.

The Challenges

The various challenges faced by supply chain executives are as follows:

• Supply Chain Visibility: Supply chain visibility is inhibited by a lack of capabilities and an unwillingness to collaborate.
• Cost Containment: Fighting integral costs as such might be futile, but being flexible can identify cost savings elsewhere.
• Risk Management: Process, data, & technology are identified as the roadblocks to good risk management, yet they are the key enablers.
• Increasing Customer Demand: Customers are getting increasingly demanding and have stringent quality and delivery requirements. This calls for more precise synchronization of supply and demand.
• Globalization: Lead times, delivery, and quality are top challenges, but overall globalization has been a positive boon for all.
• High inventory holding costs: There is high inventory at the destinations leading to high inventory holding costs and overhead costs.

End to End Supply Chain Management Analytics

End-to-End Supply Chain management is defined as a managed flow of products, cash, and information from the customer’s customer to the supplier’s supplier as defined by the business strategy. It requires the definition of an operating strategy to enable the business strategy.

Today, when companies talk end-to-end, they are usually advocating the automation of flows within their four walls. It has little to do with the customer and the market which I think is a missed opportunity. It is usually cross-functional enablement for the organization, but not an end-to-end journey.

Companies are not happy with what they have today. In surveys, we get three responses to every one response that describes their supply chains as traditional, and reactive. There is room for improvement. Supply chains respond. They do not sense. The flows are inside-out. The current processes do not allow them to be outside-in. As a result, the supply chain is slow and out of step with the market.

The path to building an end-to-end value network usually goes through five distinct phases: improving transactional efficiency, data sharing, formulation of policy, building relationships, and engaging in joint value creation.

Goals of End to End Supply Chain Management Analytics

End to end supply chain analytics acts as a single point of contact with all the functions of the supply chain (starting from supplier to the end customer) including customer supply chain management which manages orders, demand plans, demand forecasts and status. Starting from suppliers to the end customers, the goals of it are as follows:

Supplier management:

• Supplier performance reporting and dashboard
• Visibility through the control tower.

Transportation management:

• Location Planning &Origin Consolidation
• Load Consolidation
• Network Optimization
• Equipment Optimization
• Visibility through Control Tower
• Freight Bill and Audit
•  Spend Analytics

Port of arrival & customers:

• Visibility of the shipments through the control tower
• Freight Bill & Audit
• Spend Analytics

Warehousing Management:

• Implementation of Warehouse Management System
• Implementation of KPI dashboards to ensure the increase in productivity
• Inventory Optimization
• Performance Measurement: KPI Dashboard

Transportation Management:

• Network Optimization
• Location Planning for Consolidation
• Load and Equipment Optimization
• Visibility through Control Tower
• Performance Measurement: KPI Dashboards
• Freight Bill and Audit
• Spend Analytics

End Customers:

• Vehicle Route Optimization
• Visibility though Control Tower
• Demand Forecasting

Benefits of End to End Supply Chain Management Analytics

With clear end-to-end supply chain visibility, businesses can respond more quickly to demand changes, absorb disruption, and ultimately become better positioned to beat the competition. Performing end-to-end supply chain optimization enables the following:

• Truly breaking down silos in the supply by analyzing total costs.
• Better understanding of why optimizing on local activities such as production plants or transportation lanes may not benefit the entire supply chain.
• Tradeoff service and cost in a data driven way
• Determine the time to recovery and cost of risks
• Optimize decisions across the supply chain on an ongoing basis to improve performance and reduce costs.

According to Gartner Research, calculating the ROI of the implementation of end-to-end supply chain visibility takes just one year and the quantitative benefits are phenomenal:

• Inventory savings of 20% of value
• Increased forecast accuracy in the region of 25%
• Improved service level agreements to consistent levels of 98%
• Freight charges reduced from 5% to 3.5% of volume
• Decreased inventory on stock from just over 10 days to fewer than 7 days
• Reduction in workforce by 10%

Enabling End to End Supply Chain Management Visibility

Automation, the Internet of Things and cloud computing are breaking down silos and empowering greater internal and external collaboration. However, investing in such technologies alone, will not result in end-to-end supply chain visibility – only solid execution can. By linking multiple business units and organizations to drive improvement, organizations can achieve higher customer satisfaction, streamline processes and maximize ROI.

Conclusion

End to end Supply chain management has a lot of connotations to it, and a lot of people don’t truly understand what it means. However, smart businesses keep their minds open to the best ways to streamline their operations for maximum efficiency which includes both time and energy savings for themselves and their employees. With end-to-end supply chain visibility, businesses will be able to respond more quickly to demand changes, absorb disruption, and ultimately better positioned to beat the competition.