Janey Marshall raises some very good points in her whitepaper “Structuring the Outsourced Supply Chain Data Model” that really resonated with me.  Most brand owners saw the need for data immediately upon moving production out of their factories and into the factories of their contract manufacturers.  And contract manufacturers obliged by providing the requested data, usually in the form of reports.  The bigger issue however, is that a collection of reports is simply not enough.  That’s why the concept of a data model is so important.  A data model provides for a “big picture” view of supply chain visibility that really isn’t possible with a collection of reports.

As Janey points out, the data model provides for supply chain visibility around multiple perspectives and can help the supply chain manager deal with the dynamics of constant change of many critical variables.  This gives power to the brand owner and the contract manufacturer to utilize a more systematic and strategic approach to solving problems than endless daily re-runs of brute force fire fighting.

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Tags: Supply chain visibility
Posted in Supply chain management
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