Understanding supply chain efficiency and measuring end-to-end performance are critical capabilities for leading a supply chain operation. The idea of supply chain predictive analytics can seem overwhelming. Inexperienced supply chain leaders may envision massive investment costs and the lack of IT resources to take advantage of advanced analytics. However, the innovations that power the Turvo platform, including new architecture and software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model, are making analytics more easily and widely available to supply chain and transportation professionals. Freight management parties need to understand how predictive analytics can maximize profitability.
The Challenges of Limited Insight in the Supply Chain
Take a moment to think about all the things that may go wrong within the supply chain network. Deliveries may be delayed. Drivers may spend hours waiting at the dock during high-volume periods. Carriers may fall behind in performance. All these things eat away at supply chain productivity and profitability. Unfortunately, the inability to look at the sum and effects of such negative activities will lead to operating blind. In other words, a lack of insight into supply-chain processes will increase costs and limit the ability to deliver on customer expectations.
Supply Chain Predictive Analytics Reveal What Might Happen
Applied supply chain predictive analytics referred to a diverse set of rule sets and algorithms that collect and analyze information to derive meaningful, actionable insights. What is the difference? To answer that question, it is essential to realize that analytics are only as good as the information powering them. Therefore, all data powering analytics must be timely and relevant. Only then can supply chain predictive analytics take a comprehensive view of what is happening, what may occur, and what needs to happen. It is monotonous, but supply chain predictive analytics are too important to ignore. As reported by Supply & Demand Chain Executive, “Predictive data leverages science and analytical trends to create algorithms and formulas that combine economic insights along with data mining trends to arrive at a forecasted output that is scrutinized for more accurate logistics planning. When making critical business decisions, predictive modeling can be extremely beneficial in helping fleet executives leverage past and present data.”
For example, using analytics can help eliminate the week’s long processes associated with the following: preparing customer QBR scorecards, improving customer experiences by choosing customers with proven higher service levels, holding carriers, and brokers with low-performance ratings accountable, and using data better plan stops to lower dwell time. And that barely scratches the surface of possible insights through analytics.
What to Look for in a High-Quality Supply Chain Predictive Analytics Solution
Once a supply chain leader makes the decision to invest in analytics, the real work begins. In the age of cloud-based platforms, countless analytics platforms and software vendors have risen to prominence. These solutions are not created equally. They are often the result of limited API connectivity and an assumption that companies will do anything to keep costs in check.
Reality tells a different story. Companies that find and deploy the right analytics capabilities, even when they appear to incur slightly higher investments, can achieve a more substantial, long-term ROI. Therefore, supply chain leaders must look for these critical characteristics and choosing a supply chain predictive analytics solution:
- Real-time data capture and analyses.
- Custom dashboard creation to reflect user roles and hierarchies within the supply chain.
- Configurable reports that help to streamline analytics-driven actions.
- Embedded functionality that aggregates data from across internal and external resources to generate more profound insights.
- Turnkey functionality in deploying analytics that reduces barriers to implementation and hastens time to ROI.
Deploy the Right Analytics Solution With the Right Partner
Digital supply chains are data intrusive. That means the modern supply-chain continues to generate mountains of data that often go overlooked. However, the contemporary supply-chain manager can unlock the doors to bring new efficiency and productivity by deploying a scalable, winning, and actionable analytics solution. Turvo has the supply chain predictive analytics needed to reach that level. Contact Turvo online to learn more about how Turvo Analytics can be the beacon of efficiency in your unified supply chain.
