As supply chains have struggled the past two years, it has become more critical than ever for companies to have visibility and flexibility across their supply chains.
Organizations grapple with data accuracy within their own enterprise as much as they do across their supply chain. As organizations acquire, divest, or merge with others, they are often left with disjointed systems to manage similar product lines. Visibility platforms exist; however, bringing data together is not enough. One must also initiate ongoing data management processes to ensure the same thing is identified in the same way across platforms or have a translation layer which allows the disparate products or terms to be viewed in a common manner.
Once the organization has control of the data within their enterprise, they must extend their reach in a similar manner across their supply chain. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to make this happen. Organizations need to first identify the platform that will enable them to gain this visibility. Secondly, and more importantly, they must commit to an ongoing data management process which ensures constant data management both within the enterprise and across the supply chain.
For as long as there has been software, we have heard the term “garbage in, garbage out.” However, we somehow forget about this and expect platforms to provide necessary visibility without constant data management effort. With companies stretched on resources, managed services firms have begun to offer data management services. This helps supply chain executives ensure that initiatives such as these don’t fall to the wayside.
Whether managed in-house or outsourced, one must maintain an ongoing, constant effort to ensure data integrity if they expect to extract full benefit from their supply chain visibility platform.