Big Data in Supply Chain Management

In today’s globalised world recent advances in information technology have resulted in one of the century’s most important trends: big data. Big data, in a nutshell, is the phenomenon in which businesses collect massive amounts of data from a variety of sources, including enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, orders and shipment logistics, customer purchasing patterns, and product lifecycle operations.

The first stage in integrating Big Data Analytics (BDA) into an existing corporate supply chain, as shown in Image1, is to put together a team of capable big data experts. A member of this team must have a combination of exceptionally deep analytical abilities and the ability to work with unstructured data, as well as a thorough awareness of the company’s supply chain.

Image1

The second phase, as indicated in the image above, is to identify supply chain issues. The BDA team must first comprehend existing company goals and performance gaps in order to create viable solutions. Any delivery or demand forecasting problems, as well as out-of-stocks for a given vendor, would be some of the areas of interest. Product reviews may also be used to enhance future releases using BDA procedures.

The third stage is to map out the sources of information and determine the data type (structured or unstructured). It also entails looking for external use cases. Looking for current reusable solutions might be a good place to start when brainstorming alternative ideas. These concepts might come from your rivals, professional groups, or software vendors.

The fourth phase in the process is to establish business priorities. Once you’ve compiled a list of good ideas and relevant data sources, you’ll need to generate an estimate for each idea’s solution, which includes the cost, implementation feasibility, and potential gain from that solution.

The fifth phase in the process is beginning to construct solutions based on the priority list generated in the previous step. The end-user must be involved in the solution development process on a frequent basis and provide input to guarantee that the solution addresses the underlying issues that would otherwise be overlooked. A rapid technique to have basic prototypes ready in a matter of hours are “Hackathons”. As the solutions are fine-tuned in response to user feedback, they be come more trustworthy and can be reliably provided to end users once finished.

Once the solution is complete, the effect of the solution must be assessed in order to fully comprehend the product’s influence. The results may be compared to the goals that led to the creation of the solution.

Finally, an evaluation of the solution has to be performed, depending on the intricacy of an idea, evaluation may occur in iterations. Business impact and proven hypotheses are among the assessment criteria. Based on the evaluation results, the stakeholders decide on the next step. The following phases might include expanding the concept, fully implementing the concept, or releasing the completed product.

Given these points, it is evident that the benefits of employing big data analytics in SCM may be much enhanced since the company will be able to estimate their requests in advance and the amount of complaints about product quality, out-of-stock difficulties, and packaging concerns will be greatly decreased. The overall cost of product development would be reduced.

Finally, I would like to leave a video explaining some of the applications of big data in supply chain management.

References:

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-19-0240-6_3

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/VJIKMS-07-2021-0115/full/html?casa_token=s4xS6KvIZAUAAAAA:MBQBt2GUrCeqSuF3d8CgT_zPba1b4c4h0q6eoGOzhyqXS3oZtAZO1uKly2_0cs4SOoAcQIHqlHyr8qcNxVYHD1xtYH281xL7a6L_KwDQsL1qUNpq5IpY

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mcb/ijlm/2001/00000012/00000002/art00002

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09555340710760152/full/html?casa_token=ddSsGvqqZF4AAAAA:Vk3iKzVPw1HUPw0Il1dgaOUUtnVcASr0SUeToYCIBph0-MjXlBjBJpFn_0frLvOxWfUpLTgVyi0syhBCcIN1xCTsRTxWZMEf2opQVr1efSkElaONrQsL

Disruptions in China’s Terminals trigger Worldwide Supply Chain Delays

If anything this pandemic has taught us that we are all connected, and when I say all I refer to all countries and therefore human beings on the planet as one disruption to the old normal has proven to lead to a chain reaction affecting everyone. A great example that serves the purpose of the class is that according to shipping firm Ocean Network Express, congestion at ports in China and other parts of the world is clogging up around 10% of the worldwide container-ship fleet.

Jeremy Nixon, the chief executive officer of ONE, said at the Marine Money conference in Singapore that ships are “locked up waiting in crowded locations” and using a lot of fuel. “If we can clear that bottleneck, we’ll be able to get services back on track.” To put this into figures Bloomberg calculated that more than 500 ships are stuck in port lineups.

As the health crisis approaches its third year, labor shortages and logistical issues continue to disrupt global supply chains, with interruptions varying from destination to destination. Despite the fact that congestion on the US West Coast has alleviated slightly after months of severe delays, logjams have formed at ports all over the United States. 

Meanwhile, analysts say that lockdowns in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other Chinese cities have resulted in massive ship lines off the coast of China, predicting additional delays in exporting products and increased freight charges in the coming months. 

Source: Bloomberg

According to statistics from Sea-Intelligence, a near-record 12 percent of worldwide container vessel capacity was “lost” in February due to delays. The situation is unlikely to improve considerably in the near future, as enterprises in Shanghai prepare for the potential of protracted lockdowns as the number of viral cases rises.

For American and European firms that rely on Chinese suppliers, this will entail greater challenges. Government-ordered shutdowns and the difficulty to get supplies have hindered production, according to 60% of respondents questioned by AmCham China, while transportation and shipping network delays have impacted 86 percent of enterprises’ supply chains.

“It’s almost like being stuck in traffic,” Container xChange CEO Christian Roeloffs stated. “The transpacific congestion problem will not improve considerably since it is virtually like a start-stop situation.

References:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-04-06/supply-chain-latest-xxxxx?cmpid=BBD040622_TRADE&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=220406&utm_campaign=trade

AID OF ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING IN THE HEALTH CARE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

During the time I had the opportunity to take part in the workforce of supply chain in the health care industry, I was able to learn how enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and related technologies have acquired significant importance in the manufacturing strategy across a wide range of companies, but first of all, what is ERP? Well, according to ORACLE, Enterprise resource planning (ERP) refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management and compliance, and supply chain operations. A complete ERP suite also includes enterprise performance management, software that helps plan, budget, predict, and report on an organization’s financial results.

Going for a historical overview on the major development of resource planning, I believe the triggering point was convincing managers of the various benefits derived from the implementation of an ERP system, this promise ultimately began to fuel its growing attractiveness, especially when the results of focusing on the chain of value began to show in the form of: efficiency increases throughout company processes, improved communication between divisions, improved productivity, and various strategic benefits. It is now well-known how health care organizations around the world, have been looking for ways to successfully implement ERP in order to improve operational efficiencies, especially in terms of key performance indicators (KPIs), and reduce costs, particularly in their back-end operations.

Inventory management, supply chain management, patient relationship management, finance & billing, compliance management, medical equipment, and revenue cycle management are just a few of the areas where ERP can be used. Players in the health-care industry have been able to upgrade their IT systems by integrating ERP with their health-care IT infrastructure.

Therefore, when it comes to supporting owners and managers in developing a strategy plan, ERP has proven to be a suitable resource. It finds and prioritizes areas for development, consequently improving the organization’s overall efficiency, making it much easier for senior management to monitor and assess whether the processes in place are effective or not after the areas that need to be addressed have been identified.

image source: https://singalarity.com

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14637150010352390/full/html?casa_token=9AqFjd2mn-wAAAAA:AYwFxcfAhexreYa-pf9UA92romXX0Ibrchs6kVfbUKgVVYn1JZTGYknPxmeCfTen3czM1vjN9QA252dcC2F9zReb4GJkHmu2Ynog0J3eRtEzQZ_c_gow

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17517570903100511

https://meridian.allenpress.com/jeta/article-abstract/1/1/63/115626/Enterprise-Resource-Planning-ERP-Systems-An