Effective Dashboarding for Supply Chain performance

With each passing year, the concept of data as the new ‘oil’ has been receiving greater and greater acceptance, and understandably so, since data utilization is driving greater precision in decision making. Today, it has become possible to obtain the raw data generated across the supply chain as structured and unstructured information. However, mere access does not imply the effective realisation and utilisation of information, nor does information, by itself, lead to insights and actions. This is because, the interpretation and analysis of data are constrained by the limits of human data processing and reasoning, as well as subject to stereotyping and bias.

So how does the Dashboard support decisioning?

In a dashboard, complex sets of data are represented through visuals. Since human processing for visual data is advanced, displaying information in the form of charts, maps, or illustrations helps to create a narrative. It then becomes convenient to analyse the information to identify patterns and relationships for decision making.

However, it is also quite easy to be overwhelmed by a large number of visuals that create a complex tangle of information that serve little purpose and impede on the analytical process. This begs the need for the visualisation of the right information sets or metrics.

The Right Metrics

Due to a wide prevalence of dashboard tools, there is no universal consensus on the right metrics for a specific use case. The best fit for an organisation is the dashboard that serves to answer the questions posed and solve the problems facing the organisation.

A supply chain dashboard can provide value on multiple levels based on the adoption of metrics.

Therefore, the choice of a dashboard for intelligent decisioning should be based on the metrics adopted. For instance, in products such as Verdis, dashboards are industry-specific, that is, the choice of metrics would be such that they are relevant to a given industry, such as the automotive industry.

Once the need for the right information is met, it is possible to have a framework for monitoring and analysis.

Monitoring

In a dashboard, the real-time monitoring of the supply chain data can be done in the short-term or long-term. This means that dashboard metrics can be monitored hourly or daily to observe small fluctuations or periodically over a longer duration to observe trends. Besides time-based monitoring, products like the Verdis dashboard supports the comparison of strategic performance goals with the actual performance data to determine whether the adopted measures are leading to positive or negative growth. This allows strategic concerns to be handled promptly, besides conveying a clear idea of the supply chain health.

Dashboards can also be configured to show customised alerts to a user if a metric rises above or drops below a certain threshold. This creates a visibility framework that supports rapid responses to anomalous fluctuations.

However, regardless of the nature of information displayed, if the organisation of information is not given due emphasis, efficient performance monitoring is impossible to achieve. The right dashboard supports access to the most relevant information in the least time. This implies that

Analysis

Consider two examples.

Further, a dashboard can enable root-cause, pattern, and trend analyses. For instance, it is possible to evaluate sales trends to see how a new product has fared in the market, as well as monitor the product journey by analysing the production cost incurred at a plant or assembly line level, region-wide sales, or the inventory turnover for the product over a period.

Current Trends

Modern supply chain dashboards are integrated with data mining algorithms and advanced analytics that provide predictions by identifying complex relationships and hidden patterns as well as actionable insights to guide decisions. Certain dashboards also support the creation of “digital twins” to test future what-if scenarios to align decision making with positive growth.

Irrespective of the abundance of dashboard solutions, the right dashboard for a business requires a close inspection of the metrics and the depth to which it allows monitoring and analysis for intelligent decisioning.

That being said, monitoring and analysis are not the only bases for effective decision making in the supply chain. Decisions need to be agile and proactive for greater responsiveness. This implies greater collaboration and information sharing among decision-makers. A dashboard that supports and places due emphasis on these aspects besides ensuring data interaction is geared towards intelligent and agile decisioning. As the barriers to data and information are pulled down, decision making becomes a fluid process and a joint exercise.

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