BY LISA HARRINGTON AND TOBY GOOLEY
BIG DATA
Technology
IT’S A RARE SUPPLY CHAIN PROFESSIONAL WHO HASN’T AT
least thought about big data and how it could benefit his or her organization. That should come as no surprise. As word spreads of successful
applications of big data analytics in other industries, it’s natural they
would start wondering whether they could leverage their own big data
to equally beneficial effect—namely, solving problems and identifying
opportunities for improvement.
But the journey is not an easy one. New research co-sponsored by
DC VELOCITY’s sister publication, CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly;
Arizona State University; Colorado State University; Competitive
Insights LLC; and the consulting firm lharrington group LLC shows
that most companies have yet to truly harness the power of big data.
Instead, they’re struggling with how to ensure the quality and integrity of their data, how to analyze it, and how to make practical use of
what they learn. As one indication of how far they have yet to go, the
study, which was conducted in June 2017 among 126 supply chain professionals, found that over half of the respondents were still in either
the “early” or “developing” stages with respect to their big data
analytics initiatives. Only 2 percent said they had reached the “transfor-
BIG DATA ANALYTICS
IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN:
Challenges and
opportunities
Despite some significant hurdles, companies are pushing ahead with their
big data analytics initiatives. New research looks at what’s keeping them
on track and the benefits they expect to see.
Editor’s note: This is the
second installment of a special two-part
report on how companies are using big
data in the supply chain. Last month,
we looked at how satisfied companies
are with their data, the technologies
they’re using for data analysis, and
how far along they are in their efforts to
leverage the data they collect (see “Big
data analytics in supply chain: Tackling
the tidal wave,” DC VELOCITY,
January 2018). In this article, we’ll
examine some of the roadblocks compa-
nies encounter when implementing big
data analytics in their supply chains,
the benefits they’ve realized to date and
expect down the road, and plans for
future investment in the technology.
