I can’t tell you how many times I have heard companies complain about the integrity of their supply chain data. They wonder “how can I ever benefit from a software solution when I can’t believe my data?”  My first response is “You are right. Garbage in…Garbage out.” What companies don’t seem to realize is that they are working with that bad supply chain data today!

Who remembers Oliver Wight and his book “Manufacturing Resource Planning: MRPII (1995)?” Yes, I am dating myself but it was our bible when we implemented MRPII principles at my company.  He recommended that companies should not even install MRP until they have met certain standards in data integrity. It seems that adherence to these principles has fallen by the way side.  Let’s face it – the world has changed since the inception of MRP. Demand and supply are more volatile, supply chains are more distributed, customers more demanding and there is fierce global competition. Those in supply chain management appear to be spending a significant portion of their day gathering the information they need to make decisions. The ability to deal with data integrity issues has unfortunately gone on the back burner.

It is therefore important that you have a supply chain management software solution that can help you manage both the challenge of consolidating disparate supply chain data for decision making as well as data integrity. If those responsible could be instantly alerted to a few data issues every day this is easily manageable and data corrections become an integral part of their job. I am sure that too many companies today are treating their data integrity issue as a monster in the closet that they need to deal with some day. Keep it simple – make it a part of a process and empower people with the right tools to manage it. As one of our clients said the other day “Consider data as an asset…not a liability.”

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Tags: Supply chain
Posted in Best practices
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