28th SCRC Meeting to Focus on "Mapping Your Supply Chain Analytics Strategy"

Our upcoming 28th Semi-Annual Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) Meeting will convene at noon on Monday, December 2nd and conclude Tuesday, December 3rd at 4:00 pm.  The Board of Advisors will meet prior to the meeting, to review our current initiatives and provide feedback on our supply chain curriculum and research priorities.

The theme of the SCRC meeting will focus on a topic of great interest to supply chain professionals at every level of the organization: “Mapping Your Supply Chain Analytics Strategy.”  One of the most important themes in our recent study on global supply chain trends and issues was the emerging importance of analytics in end-to-end integration of enterprise networks.  As noted by one of our invited lecturers, “data is an asset, and needs to be managed achieve competitive advantage.”  And yet, many organizations struggle with their data, and lack a cohesive approach for collecting and cleansing customer and supplier data from multiple systems, organizing and analyzing the data, and visually representing and applying it to supply chain decisions that drive business value.  The theme of this meeting will explore Supply chain analytics strategy, which we define as a structured approach to invest in enabling technology, engineering and management of the asset (data), utilization of the data to enable a strategic advantage (information strategy), that drives alignment of business units strategies and objectives.  Mature organizations are capturing demand and supply spend information, and linking it to tacit data (research and development, product forecasts, etc.) that drives a more holistic understanding of supplier and customer markets.  As enterprises move towards the long-term goal of end-to-end supply chain integration, developing the infrastructure and foundation to drive shared information across multiple tiers of customers and suppliers represents the “analytics holy grail”.  Some of the areas that could be impacted include supplier project workflow tracking, incident and risk mitigation, health and safety, material visibility,  transportation planning and tracking, smart grid analytics, and predictive analytics.  Future analytics will also span “omni-channel” data requirements, embedded product analytics, machine learning, and other future capabilities.

In exploring these issues, I will be sharing with you insights I’ve derived through interviews with several analytics subject matter experts and SCRC student projects.  Additionally, we will be joined by a number of supply chain executives from other industries who will also share their insights into these questions.  The meeting is a private forum for open discussion of problems faced by executives with a common interest in driving intelligent solutions to a largely undefined and challenging public directive.

The meeting agenda will include:

• An update on SCRC programs and services since the last meeting by Director Clyde Crider
• I’ll share my thoughts on the “Future Trends in the Supply Chain Analytics Landscape” , based on my recent work as the Manufacturing Analytics Faculty Lead for the International Institute of Analytics.
• Mr. Jason Schenker, Economist and President of Prestige Economics.  A regular presenter at the SCRC meeting, Mr. Schenker will share his thoughts and views on the current health of the economy and the impact of current geopolitical events on global business conditions.  Mr. Schenker has been recognized by Bloomberg News as one of the top economic forecasters in the world for eight consecutive quarters across multiple categories.
• Jeff Stonebraker will share details on his supply chain decision analysis class, and comment on how risk can be modeled using parameters derived from executive input.
• Mr. Doug Hague, Vice President, Analytics, Bank of America will talk about how the analytics function is structured at BAC, and the challenges that are inherent in managing this large and shifting body of data.
• Paul Mugge, Mike Kowalenko, Big Data Analytics Program, NC State University will discuss some of the student projects underway in the Center for Innovation Management Studies.
• Dr. Rob Johnston will share insights on analytics, technology and tradecraft from the intelligence community.
• A student ‘gallery walk’ showcasing graduate and undergraduate supply chain practicum projects completed with industry partners this semester
• Formal student / company presentations, including: Caterpillar, Foodbuy, GlaxoSmithKline, John Deere, Lenovo and others
• Supply chain professionals networking opportunities

I am excited about this program, and look forward to this opportunity to share thoughts and ideas among executives, faculty and students.  I will be posting some of the insights derived from the conference in a set of blogs that will follow this one.