Supply Chain Intelligence Part II: Introduction

by Curt Hall

In the March issue of BIA, I examined the concept of supply chain intelligence (SCI) and the requirements for applying business intelligence (BI) across an organization's supply chain operations. As I mentioned last month, applying BI successfully to supply chain operations -- from the provider's provider to the customer's customer -- requires an enterprise-class application combining data warehousing, analytics, and key performance indicators. These factors should be tailored to support the building blocks of supply chain operations: logistics, procurement, manufacturing, production, customer/partner relationship management, field performance, and product lifecycle.