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Today’s supply chain planning requires the mettle to handle external disruptions while also solving for internal challenges, such as disorganized data, legacy systems, and outdated processes.
Without visibility inside and outside the company, supply chain and operations managers will struggle to make data-backed decisions and forecasts. They need to have all the data — and the correct data — so they can make supply chains more efficient, intelligent, and responsive. To solve this problem, many companies are turning to unified extended planning and analysis (xP&A) solutions to consolidate data into a single, centralized platform.
Learn more about the problems of disconnected supply chain data and how your business can overcome them. Plus, learn how a unified XP&A solution can solve your data woes while integrating with other tools you already use.
How Poorly Managed Data Reduces Supply Chain Visibility
When data about raw materials, production, and shipping is scattered across systems, companies struggle to get a real-time, comprehensive view of their supply chain, much less make quick decisions. This fragmentation is often exacerbated by a technology stack where systems don’t talk to each other.
A survey of consumer brands reveals the top three data-related supply chain problems are poor data quality (35%), data accuracy challenges (34%), and delays in processing and analyzing data (30%).
We can quickly see how this plays out in supply chain management. A company might overproduce an unpopular product because of outdated forecasting data. Or a store will tell online shoppers that a product is in stock when it’s not, as its e-commerce system can’t connect to real-time inventory numbers. Bad data causes companies to spend poorly, lose out on sales, and disappoint customers.
These issues not only impact supply chain visibility but also create ripple effects that touch every corner of the organization. Poor data quality can compromise demand forecasting, inventory planning, and the ability to dynamically respond to market changes. With consumers expecting ever-higher levels of speed and reliability, these data discrepancies can erode competitive advantage and impact the bottom line.
3 Ways to Address Data Challenges in Supply Chain Management
Supply chain teams that are struggling to do more with their data need to assess their current state. What data do they have? Do they know where that data is, and can they access it? From there, they can work to consolidate data, improve analysis, and use it to drive decision-making. Here are three steps to consider.
1. Create a Data Consolidation Road Map
Companies with data silos or a lack of connectivity can develop a data consolidation road map, which outlines how to bring disparate data sources into a unified, coherent system.
This process starts with a critical assessment of key systems with supply chain data, including ERP, CRM, and inventory management systems. Another crucial step is data cleansing, which involves fixing or removing incorrect, incomplete, or duplicate data. By locating critical data and cleaning it, the consolidation process focuses on making the most relevant, accurate, and meaningful data available for your workforce.
An effective data consolidation road map also considers areas such as data overlap, missing data, and what technology can securely handle the data in play.
2. Overcome Integration Hurdles
Integrating data into a single platform comes with many potential obstacles, including compatibility issues and maintaining data integrity during transfer. Look for solutions that are designed to work with a broad range of data sources and offer features like one-click integration to ERP, CRM, and accounting systems. The ideal solution should offer a constant flow of information across systems, providing decision-makers with real-time data.
Additionally, as your business expands and your data needs change, these tools should scale to accommodate growing volumes of data. Look for solutions with flexible, cloud-based scalability that support infrastructure growth without compromising performance.
3. Leverage Advanced Analytics for Deeper Insights
After data is consolidated and integrated, the focus shifts to extracting actionable insights. An effective supply chain analytics platform should drill down into the specifics of supply chain management, presenting findings through detailed visualizations, dynamic dashboards, and other forms of reporting.
Supply chain analytics platforms should go beyond basic analysis and presentation features, however. They offer the most value when they can be customized for your supply chain’s most pressing needs: emerging trends, demand forecasting, process inefficiencies, and more. A customized approach transforms data analysis from an exercise into a strategic approach.
3 Ways to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency With Unified xP&A
Optimizing supply chain and operations management requires a comprehensive approach to planning and analysis. For many organizations, an extended planning and analysis (xP&A) platform can be a single source of truth that consolidates and integrates data from virtually any source. Businesses use xP&A tools like Acterys because they can write-back data while managing complex tasks including budgeting, procurement management, and supply chain demand planning.
By integrating data from across the business — from finance and HR to sales and supply chain — an xP&A platform creates a holistic view of organizational performance. It bridges the gap between financial and operational planning for better decision-making. The results? Streamlined planning processes, more accurate forecasts, increased agility, and better strategic execution.
Let’s explore some of the ways xP&A tools can improve supply chain efficiency.
1. Pinpoint Efficiency Gaps
Supply chain planning should ideally help companies identify bottlenecks before they occur. A unified xP&A platform, such as Acterys, helps businesses monitor supply and demand, and determine where delays and inefficiencies are likely to happen.
Acterys offers advanced data integration capabilities that pull information from your entire supply chain. It helps users analyze this data to identify patterns, trends, and anomalies. For instance, using Acterys can reveal whether raw-material shortages are consistently causing production hold-ups or when certain suppliers regularly miss deadlines and cause bottlenecks downstream.
Equipped with actionable insights into these roadblocks, companies can more effectively address and overcome them. They might adjust inventory levels, renegotiate supplier contracts, or reconfigure production schedules based on predictive analytics that highlight potential delays. Acterys isn’t just offering a snapshot of your supply chain; it provides a dynamic view with actionable insights for anticipating problems and mitigating their impact.
2. Create Dynamic What-If Scenarios
With Acterys, businesses can simulate what-if scenarios, such as potential changes in customer demand, global supply chain disruptions, or new product introductions. Unlike conventional methods of scenario planning, which require extensive manual data manipulation and analysis, Acterys simplifies the creation of complex scenarios with AI. Businesses can more quickly explore the effects of demand changes, supply chain disruptions, or other incidents — all with unparalleled depth and accuracy.
With Acterys, companies can effortlessly model the financial implications of a supply chain disruption, including its effects on cash flow, revenue projections, and operational costs. That type of analysis is cumbersome and time-consuming, at best, if done through traditional approaches.
Scenario planning with Acterys also allows users to adjust variables in real time, generating new projected outcomes. Teams across departments are enabled to contribute insights and assumptions, fostering a more informed and cohesive planning process.
This immediacy allows for wider scenario exploration, better predictions, and faster decision-making. Your supply chain strategy is more intelligent, more resilient, and based on the most current and complete information available.
3. Transform Data Into Strategic Action
A unified xP&A solution provides real-time analytics that track progress and efficiency gains based on the assumptions made during simulation. This analysis helps businesses validate their supply chain strategies and identify areas for improvement.
A unified approach also enables businesses to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and monitor overall supply chain effectiveness. Businesses can identify trends and patterns to make data-backed decisions, optimize their supply chain operations, and drive continuous improvement.
Beyond providing powerful analytics and simulation capabilities, Acterys distinguishes itself by seamlessly integrating with widely used tools, such as Microsoft Excel and Power BI. As a result, organizations can bypass the steep learning curve often associated with new software while deriving more value from their investment in the existing tech stack. Employees quickly get up to speed, relying on the familiarity of tools they already use while implementing the power of Acterys. Adoption rates are high, leading to increased collaboration across departments.
These integrations also make it easier for users to take advantage of the AI tools and features baked into each platform. For example, Acterys leverages advanced machine-learning algorithms to detect anomalies, check for vulnerabilities, and assess risk factors across vast data sets, streamlining the decision-making process. On the other hand, Power BI’s Natural Language Query (NLQ) feature empowers users to ask questions about their data using conversational language, receiving insights through visualizations and tables.
Financial analysts, supply chain managers, and other stakeholders each benefit from this depth and breadth of insights. With Acterys’ seamless integration, users can pull complex data models into Excel or Power BI for further analysis, visualization, and reporting.
Take Control of Your Supply Chain
The right xP&A solution can make supply chain planning easier by consolidating data sources, adding data analysis capabilities, improving forecasting and planning processes, and allowing your team to integrate the solution into their existing workflows. Most of all, it equips businesses not only for today’s challenges, but also for tomorrow’s.
With the power to visualize the entire supply chain process, predict potential bottlenecks, and simulate the impact of changes in real-time, businesses can move from being reactive to being proactive.
Ready to see how Acterys can help you simplify supply chain management? Get started with a free trial today.
