Is it actionable?
Saw a post at The Performance Guys that caught my eye because it talked about “actionable” information and BI tools. What exactly is actionable vs. un-actionable (is that a word?) information? To a degree, all information is actionable, its just to what purpose. Most BI information is historical and best suited as actionable in a planning context. This is one of the reasons why BI has struggled in operations where operations performance is a function of real time action based on operational, not historical, data.
Actionable information in the context of supply chain management means current and detailed operational data (not a model of operations). But, more importantly, for supply chain professionals to truly put this information to work, they need not only supply chain visibility, but tools to take action. Action is required because supply chain professionals are inundanted with exceptions to the plan. In supply chain management, there is no such thing as a perfect demand plan or a perfect supply plan. There are plans and there are realities. Increasingly, the two are not the same.
Action in response to constant volatility requires collective tradeoff and response, where people collaborate and leverage real time analytics and simulation capabilities to analyze the impact of a proposed change and to assess action alternatives. And, the volume of change and response requires these actions be aligned with corporate objectives, so supply chain professionals need to be able to continuously see how their proposed actions would impact corporate objectives-before they commit to the action.
There’s a lot of talk in the market about actionable information and operational BI. Before plowing ahead, I would encourage everyone to ask “why” they need access to information, what type of actions do they need to take and what tools do they need to enable these decisions.
