Managing costs and improving profit are the top priorities for supply chain executives today. However, achieving these goals is not an easy task, as supply chains must also balance availability, quality, and cost while being flexible, responsive, reliable, efficient, and resilient. With so many competing priorities, it becomes essential to quantify the effect of decisions made in the supply chain. This is where advanced analytics comes into play.

Data analytics, widely explained in three approaches - descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive - has helped thousands of companies in all industries gain visibility across the supply chain, collaborate with partners, and better understand risks and opportunities. By improving insight in 10 performance areas, supply chain leaders are able to make more holistic decisions while creating a resilient and flexible supply chain that drives growth.

• End-to-end visibility of supply chain performance across multiple functions and disciplines reveals previously unseen trends and drives better decisions. With Advanced Analytics dashboards and scorecards, supply chain priority is elevated to C-level decision-makers.
• Excellent sales, operational, and inventory planning involve collaboration within and outside an organization. Advanced Analytics enable businesses to share complex data and collaborate with critical stakeholders to improve forecast accuracy, better respond to consumer demand, reduce inventory, improve production, and grow profits.
• Visibility is fundamental to efficient procurement when supplier relationships span design, manufacturing, and distribution. Advanced Analytics allow you to monitor supplier performance on delivery, price, and service, strengthening negotiations and partnerships.
• A good plant must run at peak efficiency with limited downtime. Advanced Analytics provide a comprehensive view of shop floor and back-office data, enabling businesses to plan and schedule production, improve quality, control costs, reduce waste, manage assets, and increase overall efficiency.
• A low-cost distribution operation relies on efficient use of warehouse resources, high inventory turns, proximity of materials to demand, and rare out-of-stock situations. Advanced Analytics provide visibility across the entire supply and demand cycle, enabling businesses to optimize storage and movement.
• Transportation and storage costs can account for more than 30% of production costs, especially in global operations. Advanced Analytics help control costs by tracking efficiency and capacity use, selecting the best mode and carrier, monitoring customs, health, safety, and environmental requirements across multiple countries to ensure compliance and on-time delivery.
• Managing a fleet involves maximizing capital investment through increased efficiency and capacity utilization. Advanced Analytics enable businesses to keep track of maintenance schedules, fuel costs, lease expiration, vehicle downtime, operator safety, emissions, and regulatory compliance.
• Meeting customer demands with relevant offers and a high-quality shopping experience across channels is highly complex. Advanced Analytics provide visibility into sales, inventory, customer, and supply chain processes, allowing businesses to achieve a true omni-channel view of the business and an efficient supply chain.
• Complying with government regulations helps businesses avoid penalties while building customer trust. Advanced Analytics assist in tracking and accessing compliance information from production, processes, and procedures to training, service, hazards, and labeling – both within and beyond the organization.
• IT plays a crucial role in serving the supply chain by managing assets, monitoring SLAs, rationalizing licenses, and managing project portfolios, often on a global scale. Advanced Analytics allow businesses to analyze data across all supply chain systems to manage and improve service cost and performance.

Implementing advanced analytics for supply chain management provides businesses with the insights needed to drive growth, efficiency, and cost control. From executive decision-making to optimizing various aspects of the supply chain, advanced analytics allows businesses to make data-driven decisions that enhance performance and improve customer satisfaction. With data at their fingertips, supply chain leaders can navigate the complexities of modern supply chains and achieve success in their industry.