Proactive Supply Chain Performance Management with Predictive Analytics
Read this article. A predictive performance management model is introduced to manage complex business network collaborations and minimize uncertainty. Pay attention to the innovative performance management systems characteristics. What other attributes would you add to the list?
Supply Chain Intelligence Web Portal for Predictive Analytics
A
predictive analysis solution is most effective when it is pervasive
throughout the organization and helps to drive day-to-day decisions
across the business with its scale and enterprise-level performance.
Furthermore, providing a way to implement comprehensive predictive
analysis intuitively enables self-service data mining for users, which
in turn enables the business to promptly gain actionable insights.
In
order to overcome the shortcomings of the existing BI and PM client
tools, the specialized web portal that enables supply chain users to
monitor business processes, collaborate, and take actions is designed. It has been successfully implemented as a pilot project in an
automotive company. Automotive supply chain is typically very complex,
with many organizations, intertwined processes, and multitude of users
with different requirements.
The portal represents a single point
of access to all relevant information in a personalized and secured
manner. Its composite and service-oriented architecture enables
inclusion of different PM components and tools (KPIs, dashboards,
scorecards, strategy maps, reports, etc.). PM elements can be
personalized and adjusted, and information can be filtered just by using
a web browser. PM elements can be defined within the portal and also
embedded from the external source (OLAP, another application, or
spreadsheets) via web services. This information is presented through
special analytical web parts. The portal itself can be a provider (via
web services or RSS-really simple syndication) to other applications.
All
these capabilities make the proposed PM model and the software system
extremely flexible and applicable in various supply chain scenarios and
different industries. Because they are based on the SCM metamodel and
use a standardized metrics they can be used in various business domains.
On the other hand, software system architecture enables relatively easy
and fast customization and extensibility. For example, existing KPI
components can be easily reused many times, and only needed items can be
added to web sites and pages. Also, new (custom) lower-level metrics
can be defined in the SCM metamodel and realized in the data warehouse,
thus allowing company-specific and industry-specific performance
measurement.
With PM portal capabilities, supply chain partners
and teams can do the following:
(i) use a predefined PM portal template with out-of-the-box modules optimized for access and management of reports, data connections, spreadsheets, and dashboards. Dashboard pages can contain several web parts, each of them showing information from different data sources.
(ii) communicate strategy and monitor its execution at different levels of the supply chain. KPIs status and trend can be tracked using the special KPI and scorecard web parts. KPIs can display information from different data sources (e.g., OLAP cubes or spreadsheets). The portal also supports the concept of strategy maps by providing a specialized module providing a hierarchical view of the KPI measures across levels of the organization by presenting relationships, priorities, and perspectives. Strategy map can be generated automatically, based on a particular scorecard. Each element on the map is highlighted with appropriate color. This enables visual performance tracking in relation to predefined strategy.
(iii) customize and
personalize sites, pages, or modules by adding or removing certain web
parts and by applying filter web parts. Filters allow dashboards to be
personalized by communicating shared parameters amongst web parts on a
dashboard. For example, the current user filter web part automatically
filters information based on who is logged on to the computer. This is
useful for display of personal information such as customer accounts or
tasks that is currently assigned to that user.
Figure 7 shows a specialized SCM scorecard for global supply chain performance management.
Figure 7 Supply chain scorecard with predictive KPI.
![](https://learn.saylor.org/pluginfile.php/5619163/mod_book/chapter/50117/528917.fig.007.png)
It
is constructed based on top of the OLAP KPIs, which are again based on
the SCM process model and metrics. KPI are created by SCM segments
(plan, source, make, deliver, and return) as hierarchies, so it is
possible to perform drill-down analysis, track performance against
defined goals, and get future performance values and trends.
The
presented solution is very flexible in terms of presenting the KPIs.
Owing to several specific BI web parts, the portal can display KPIs from
the OLAP server, spreadsheets, and other sources (portals, report
servers, etc.).
The dashboard page can display numerous metrics
and views business on a single screen. The portal supports quick
deployment of dashboards assembled from web parts. Each web part can
contain a particular view or metric, and users can customize their
individual dashboards to display the views that are most meaningful to
them, such as those with the metrics they need to monitor on a daily
basis.
Additionally, portal supports events and automatic
alerting. Users can subscribe to specific documents or keywords and
categories, to be notified (via email, SMS, or web feed) when metrics
are updated or new intelligence becomes available. They can also use
other features, such as planning, enterprise search, subscription, and
routing functions, to work with team members on a single item (i.e.,
scorecard, KPI, etc.) and to automate collaborative performance
management processes. The portal also provides fine-grained
authentication and authorization which enable secure access and content
personalization.
PM web portal enables business users to define
and use scorecards and key performance indicators to drive
accountability and alignment across the supply chain. Scorecards and
KPIs reflect planning, budgeting, and forecasting changes in real time
to help users understand the business drivers, challenges, and
opportunities they face. Monitoring becomes a part of the regular,
day-to-day management process.