While it’s vital to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with the supply chain today, there are competitive advantages to gain by keeping an eye on the future. We can clearly see the impact that new developments have by looking at supply chain analytics historically.
Prior to the cloud revolution, analytics primarily consisted of tracking KPIs and conducting statistical analysis in spreadsheets. This worked well when there wasn’t a lot of data available. But in today’s world, companies need to take advantage of all the data available to them, and the limitations of spreadsheets hold them back.
Increasingly, data is coming from more and more sources in primarily unstructured and semi-structured formats. If manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies want to use this data, they need not only the right tools but also a data-driven culture that encourages and empowers business teams to explore data on their own in a secure sandbox.
Eventually, we expect to see AI and machine learning evolve to the point where they can intelligently differentiate anomalies that have meaningful significance, making it more valuable for teams seeking true insights. While this development may still be several years away, setting up systems and processes that can handle extremely large data sets in an efficient manner will ensure you’re ready when the technology has these capabilities.