Supply Chain Intelligence: Technology, Applications, and Products

by Curt Hall

Companies are now applying data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) to their supply chain operations. This analytic field, called supply chain intelligence (SCI), holds great promise for optimizing supply chain operations. However, SCI involves considerably more than just performing analysis on an ad hoc basis. It requires applying BI and analytics to develop a "big picture" view of how processes and systems are operating clear across the entire supply chain -- from supplier, manufacturing, and production to delivery and customer satisfaction. Results of these analyses are then fed back into the organization's supply chain environment to optimize the processes and systems that drive the business model.