Re-imagining supply chain 

data at the Census Bureau

Carla Medalia and Christian Moscardi

U.S. Census Bureau

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology

Annual Research and Policy Conference

10/26/2023

Hyattsville MD

Note: Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the views of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Recent supply chain crises

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Stakeholders demand insight...

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Supply 

chain

Manufactu

ring

Imports

Exports

Movement

Sales

Labor

supply

... and the Census Bureau has a lot of supply 

chain data...

Economic Census

Annual Survey of Manufacturers (ASM)

Annual Wholesale Trade Survey (AWTS)

Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS)

Services Annual Survey (SAS)

Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity 

Utilization (QPC)

Commodity Flow Survey (CFS)

County Business Patterns+ ZIP Business 

Patterns (CBP/ZBP)

Foreign trade import/export data

Profile of importing/exporting firms

Manufacturing and International Trade 

Report (MITR)

Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS)

Business Trends and Outlook Survey 

(BTOS)

LEHD / LODES

Economic Indicators

Community Resilience Estimates (CRE)

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... but there are still a lot of data gaps

Granularity 

and timeliness

Industry

Geography

Product detail

Product-level 

information

Product-level 

inputs and outputs

End-use of 

products

Movement of 

goods

Product 

distribution 

networks

Dependency on 

foreign products in 

supply chain

Measurement 

issues

Product code 

harmonization

Reference periods

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Vision: develop a comprehensive 

supply chain data infrastructure

Reactive  Proactive

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Indirect  Direct
Roadmap

Short 

term

Harness existing 

data

Data viz 

Supply Chain 

Insights Platform 

(SCIP)

Medium 

term

Interagency 

collaboration

Medical products 

supply chain

Commerce Data 

Working Group

Long 

term

Public, private, 

academic 

collaboration

StatVentures

Supply Chain 

Challenge

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Supply chain stakeholders

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Supply Chain Insights Platform (SCIP)

Question: "What does the Census Bureau know about baby 

formula?" 

Question: "What happens to the national supply chain if the 

Port of Miami goes down?"

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What does the Census Bureau know about baby formula?

10 * All data are publicly available, from published Census Bureau data products
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What happens if the Port of Miami goes down?

* All data are publicly available, from published Census Bureau data products
Supply Chain Insights Platform (SCIP) recap

Motivation: 

• Real demands from data users

Solution:

• Bring together existing published/publicly available data on supply 

chain and surface in easy-to-use, interactive manner

• Surface data across silos from Census and other gov agencies

• Present holistic views of supply chain that answer real-world 

questions

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Supply Chain Insights Platform (SCIP)

Next steps:

• Publish interactive data viz; leverage Census Business Builder

• Bring in more data (Census Bureau + other gov data)

• More interactivity

• Answer more questions

• Identify data gaps

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Interagency collaboration

Department of Commerce Commercial Data Working Group

• Challenge: Agencies need similar commercial data but data access is siloed

• Opportunity: Share data across DOC; focus on supply chain

Medical product supply chain resilience

• Challenge: Are key imported medical products vulnerable to potential 

supply chain disruptions?

• Opportunity: Harness data assets across government to answer this 

question

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StatVentures Supply Chain Challenge

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Submit by

11/09/23

https://www.challenge.gov/?challenge=statventures-supply-chain-p2

https://coil.census.gov/statventures/
Conclusion and next steps

The Census Bureau is...

• Collaborating across public sector, private sector, and academia

• Leveraging data science methodologies

• Combining new and existing data assets

• Transforming the way the U.S. uses data to ensure its supply chain is resilient

... and we want to collaborate!

• Feedback on data needs and gaps

• Data sources to support integrated views

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Thank you

• Carla Medalia carla.medalia@census.gov

• Christian Moscardi christian.moscardi@census.gov

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