More and more companies are becoming aware of the need for detailed metrics to track supply chain performance, according to a recent study done by the Georgia Southern University and the University of Tennessee on issues in transportation and logistics.
“What we’re starting to see,” says [Karl Manrodt, Associate Professor at Georgia Southern], “is senior management … trying to understand what those metrics are and should be.” The desire to monitor one’s own performance, so prevalent in school, never really goes away. At the same time, “it’s important for us to communicate what’s critical … to customers and suppliers. Let’s manage to that.”
Unfortunately many supply chain teams struggle to access data in multiple sources and formats and do not have access to the latest business intelligence tools. Implementing a Performance Management solution that integrates with your supply chain visibility and trade compliance processes can give companies the insight to make better-informed strategic decisions and improve supply chain performance.
Look for a Performance Management solution that offers several important capabilities:
- A portal to schedule reports, alert users when new reports are available and to distribute polished deliverable documents.
- A dashboard to provide a consolidated view of key performance indicators and reports along with extensive personalization options.
- A complete set of standard reports to manage key metrics such as cycle time, trading partner performance, landed cost, and data quality.
- An ability for users also have the ability to create their own customized reports.
- A web-based reporting tool to perform ad-hoc queries and multi-dimensional analyses with the ability to drill to operational details.
- Easily customize reports by dragging and dropping data, inserting calculations, and adding graphs.
For more details on the study, please read this article on SupplyChainBrain (includes a link to a video interview).
