solutions; and the consulting firm lharrington
group LLC investigated the current state of
supply chain data analytics and the strategies organizations are adopting to harness
the power of big data. Over time, this annual
survey will track, in the aggregate, companies’
progress in using big data analytics in supply
chain management.
In this article and a companion piece to be
published next month, we outline the study’s
principal findings. Among the topics we’ll
discuss are respondents’ satisfaction level with
their data; what technologies companies are
using for data analysis; the challenges and
benefits associated with managing growing volumes of supply chain data; and finally, where
respondents stand now as well as their priorities for near-term investment in data analytics.
SATISFACTION WITH DATA PROVING
ELUSIVE
The survey was conducted in June 2017 via an
e-mail invitation to readers of CSCMP’s Supply
Chain Quarterly and subscribers to a newsletter produced by Competitive Insights. A total
of 126 fully completed, usable responses were
compiled to obtain the survey results. (For
more information about the research, see the
sidebar.)
There’s no question that most companies
are seeing a significant increase in the amount
of data they are collecting. When asked to characterize
the increase over the past three years in the volume of
supply chain data available to them, 36 percent said it was
moderately high, while 38 percent said it was high or very
high. But, as is often the case, quantity does not necessarily
equate to quality.
How satisfied are supply chain managers with the data
they currently have to run their supply chains? A majority of
survey respondents report being at least moderately satisfied
with their supply chain data in terms of availability, usabil-
ity, integrity, and consistency. However, the combined
“favorable” numbers (moderately high, high, or very high
level of satisfaction) were not overwhelmingly higher than
those for the correlating unfavorable scores (Exhibit 1).
Interestingly, only a very few respondents report being
very satisfied in all four data attribute areas: availability of
T
ec
h
no
l
o
g
y
B
IG
DA
TA
0 10 20 30 40 50
Very Low
Low
Moderately Low
No Opinion
Moderately High
High
Very High
; Availability
; Usability
; Integrity/Accuracy
; Consistency
Percentage of Respondents
What is your level of satisfaction with your supply chain data in
terms of the following four qualities?
EXHIBIT 1
Satisfaction with data
About the survey
The research outlined in this article investigated the
current state of supply chain data analytics and the strategies organizations are adopting to harness the power
of big data. The research team included Dr. Dale Rogers
of Arizona State University, Dr. Zac Rogers of Colorado
State University, Richard Sharpe and Tami Kitajima of
Competitive Insights LLC, Lisa Harrington of lharrington
group LLC, and Toby Gooley of CSCMP’s Supply Chain
Quarterly, a sister publication to DC VELOCITY.
The survey was conducted in June 2017 via an e-mail
invitation to readers of CSCMP’s Supply Chain Quarterly
and subscribers to a newsletter produced by Competitive
Insights. A total of 126 usable responses were compiled
to obtain the survey results.
The great majority of respondents (84 percent) were
located in North America (U.S., Canada, or Mexico),
while the rest were split among Europe, Central/South
America, South Asia, and Asia-Pacific. They represented a wide range of industries, with the most common
including third-party logistics; retail; technology (
computers, software, electronics); machinery and industrial
equipment; food, beverage, and grocery; and life scienc-
