Culture, Talent and Technology

Talk about digital transformation in supply chain abounds, and almost every chief supply chain officer (CSCO) today is keen on leveraging analytics to garner business benefits. Yet, most companies are “not very far” when it comes to implementing analytics and getting benefits from data, as a recent survey from CSCMP suggests. In many cases, organizations haven’t succeeded in making the cultural changes required to become data-driven. Not enough managers are fluent in the language of analytics. Leveraging data at scale is hard, as siloes still hinder collaboration. There is a shortage of talent and frustration with traditional technologies.

How can supply chain teams make progress? Start working on three pillars: culture, talent and technology. 

Culture

To master analytics, you’ll need not only a sponsor in your organization, but also the conviction of your team. This often requires a culture change. An understanding of how analytics will impact each segment of your business is important, so you can take the necessary measures to ease the transition.

A postal company we spoke with was struggling with this issue. “Cross-functional silos need to be removed,” said the company’s planning application development manager. “It doesn’t make sense to separate an organization in ‘letters and parcels’ and ‘transportation’ when in reality these sectors are cross-functional. Within analytics teams, there’s also a need to sell our capabilities better. Convincing people is difficult, so you need to build confidence in an internal analytics team.” This confidence should radiate from within, and it’s equally important to understand if your customers are ready for the change.

“There’s a strong case for realistically representing your business in a mathematical way, but you also need to account for emotional or social aspects,” the manager adds. “Emotional logic has a business sense as well. For example, you need to look at your different customer demographics and what their preferences are. Identifying these pockets and the right way of servicing them is crucial. The better you understand your customers, the better and faster you can evolve.”

Don’t underestimate change management in your path toward transformation. Do your research, manage your team’s expectations, set the right expectations for your customers and develop a communication plan early on. Companies like HEINEKEN have found it useful to organize internal webinars and set up a help desk to further their analytics initiatives. This helps to create a “sense of ownership and prioritization to make sure change management is successful,” says Wilko Sierksma, HEINEKEN’s manager for Network Design and Global S&OP. 

Talent

As you develop your change management strategy, you’ll have to evaluate if you need to recruit new talent or up-skill existing people on your team. DHL research shows that for every graduate with supply chain skills, there are six positions to be filled. The gap could be as high as one to nine in the future. According to Gartner, nearly one in five executives thinks that developing, retaining and managing supply chain talent are pressing obstacles to achieving their organization’s goals and objectives.

Many companies are focusing their recruitment efforts on attracting millennials to address the skills shortage. This tech savvy group can be a great source of new ideas and innovative solutions for managing the supply chain of the future. But they are also more likely to job hop and they have different expectations, such as a preference for flexibility. Besides having a solid strategy in place to attract and retain new talent, you should identify existing team members that want to gain analytics capabilities.

Invest in training for team members that demonstrate an affinity for the field. Ensure that you have ongoing skills transfer opportunities. Work with software vendors that have intuitive software and a robust training program for users in place.

Technology

Besides facilitating knowledge building, you need to empower your team with lean and easy to use software to quickly master analytics. It’s the perfect time to leverage cloud-based tools that enable you to avoid costly hardware and generally require minimal setup time and maintenance. It’s also high time to reconsider the use of spreadsheets.

Spreadsheets still dominate supply chain planning, but they are error-prone and not easy to use for collaboration. To truly get ahead on your analytics initiatives you’ll need to look for a more scalable and centralized solution. “Using a collection of spreadsheets (each owned by different people or teams) tends to be rather manual and disconnected,” recounts Norm Jerome, BP’s former advisor for Economic Modeling and Supply Chain Optimization. “So typically, it’s quite difficult to figure out the true state of business on any given day because you have to look in so many different places.” Replacing those spreadsheets with a central tool will make insights readily available for your entire team. 

Wrapping up

Culture, talent and technology are key to self-enable your team with analytics and succeed at digital transformation. Don’t risk falling behind your competitors in the race for analytics prowess. Start with a prototype you can prove, promote and later expand. Put a change management plan in place as early as possible to engage the right people from the get-go. Set up a recruitment program and initiatives for technology training and knowledge transfer. Evaluate your technology choices via peers, analyst recommendations and review sites, and prioritize tech partners that will be on board with your project plan and facilitate your journey.