Supply chain complexity is characterized by copiousness, interdependency, variability, variety and uncertainty.

Here at Cause and Effect Strategy, we help clients identify, quantify and strategize to reduce the effects of these interdependent characteristics leading to a reduction in supply chain complexities while driving efficiency and profitability.

In modern society, the demand is increasingly sophisticated and personalized. In the industry this means that in order to satisfy people and companies’ needs, it is essential to carry out a more efficient and intelligent way of production, maximizing the profitability of all the processes involved, radically reducing costs and marginal manufacturing times. In short, optimizing production. Currently, supply chains aren’t anymore just systems for keeping track of products along the chain, but they have become a way to gain a competitive advantage and even build an own brand. Data science can help organizations

  • Recover lost value

  • Identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies and sources of congestion

  • Optimize distribution model

  • Compare competitor data and trends in national and global trade

Supply Chain Objectives and Current Inefficiencies

From the point of view of a supply chain system based on products and customers, which requires collaboration between different agents such as buyers, suppliers, distributors, there are a number of objectives in which it is essential to emphasize:

The management of assets like inventory or transport of resources requires efficiency through collaborative efforts. Sharing information efficiently between these parties can make the difference between delivering the goods in the right place at the right time, minimizing the cost and meeting the customer’s demands, or just the opposite, chaos. It is therefore extremely important how information is shared and processed throughout operations. We guide organizations through data architecture and data modeling to ensure data is accessible and accurate to all decision making individuals. We then visualize the data for individuals across various work teams to access and utilize to choose actions moving forward. Data mapping and visualization is relevant for every industry that relies on the efficient movement of finished and unfinished goods across their service area and across the globe.

Each individual involved in transporting, ordering and shipping goods relies on the optimization of activities that avoid high costs and poor synchronization. Automatic transactions are very useful in this context, but especial care must be taken and a person has to periodically check the proper functioning of the system. By identifying process flow and dependencies, data can provide insights into inefficiencies, cycle lags and interdependent areas of improvement.

Knowing where problems or deficiencies of the system are located will allow individuals to focus on trustworthy information that points out vulnerabilities or mistakes made along the way. This is based on the principle of effective management “What cannot be measured cannot be improved”.  Accurate and timely data can illuminate trends in quality gaps and predict future quality concerns with predictive and prescriptive modeling.

Building a relationship of trust in the supply chain ecosystem, the data accuracy and availability can create stability in operations and strengthen collaborative plans, coordination and distribution of common business initiatives, resulting in the raising of the harmonize exchange of goods and with it, a better customer-manufacturer relationship.

We guide clients through a journey from disparate data through the development of business strategy and measurement.  We utilize our CORE4 methodology to build a strong foundational data model in which we can then challenge with many different difficult supply chain questions and predictions.