Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used.” — Clive Humby 

Getting Started 

Data is considered a revolutionary notion in improving company processes, and supply chain optimization is no exception. Data is critical to making breakthroughs in supply chain management.

Businesses are no longer drowning in masses of data that they don’t know how to handle, owing to business intelligence solutions. Instead, businesses are using business intelligence (BI) technologies to translate their flood of data into actionable steps that boost the effectiveness and efficiency of the supply chain.

The global BI market is estimated to grow from $3.1 billion in 2020 to $33.3 billion in three years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% over that period.

BI helps businesses streamline the tiresome, lengthy, and tedious task of data ingestion, analysis, organizing, and transformation quite easily for supply chain optimization. 

Let’s see how business intelligence supply chain optimization works. 

What is a Business Intelligence Supply Chain? 

Supply chain business intelligence (BI) is the application of data analysis tools and techniques to gain insight into the many processes and activities that occur within a supply chain.

This involves gathering, integrating, analyzing, and presenting data from various points throughout the supply chain to assist businesses in making informed choices.

Did you know, that 6 in 10 businesses intend to invest in sophisticated digital technology to improve their supply chain procedures, data synthesis, and analysis skills?

Businesses use business intelligence (BI) 

• to collect data from both internal and external sources, 
• process it for additional analysis, 
• use the data to fulfill requests, 
• and display the data on BI dashboards. 
• Reports are also utilized to illustrate data and provide a more thorough consequence for business users. 

These statistics help them make decisions and develop strategies more easily.

Businesses can find innovative ways to reduce costs, improve operational effectiveness, and achieve sustainable growth by utilizing data-driven insights.

Business Intelligence for Supply Chain Optimizations – 10 Ways How it Works?  

The importance of Business Intelligence (BI) in supply chain optimization can’t be overstated. It’s like having a clear roadmap for your operations. Instead of guessing or reacting to problems as they arise, BI gives you real-time insights and data-driven predictions to make smarter business decisions and keep everything running smoothly. 

1. Get Real-Time Insights on Emerging Risks

Every supply chain faces risks from a variety of sources, ranging from the loss of key suppliers and customers to logistical inefficiencies. Moreover, every business choice has some level of risk that could compromise an organization’s capacity to meet its supply chain goals. 

As a result, enterprises rely on business intelligence tools to monitor and manage these risks.

BI technologies collect enormous amounts of data from internal and external sources (for example, warehouses, 3PL fulfillment centers, and ERP software) and apply data analytics techniques to forecast trends and hazards in real-time. 

For example, it can reduce stockouts and inventory waste by tracking procurement, consumer orders, and inventory management information to determine healthy safety stock levels.

Also Read: Advantages Of Business Intelligence in Retail Industry 

How the Retail Giant Walmart Leverages BI for Supply Chain Optimization?

Walmart is continuously working to enhance its supply chain management system and maintains its top spot on Fortune’s Global 500 list, with revenue exceeding $570 billion.

Walmart’s approach is centered on using business analytics to improve productivity and teamwork across its network. Walmart provides suppliers with sales data and demand estimates, which allows suppliers to modify their production schedules. This is one way that business intelligence (BI) helps suppliers work together.

Furthermore, by examining past sales information, seasonal patterns, and promotional activity, BI helps Walmart optimize inventory management by ensuring optimum stock replenishment and reducing surplus stock.

2. It helps Businesses Monitor the Most Vital KPIs

Business intelligence software enables supply chain managers and other stakeholders to develop customized KPI reports, dashboards, and notifications to establish short- and long-term logistics goals.

Supply chain management dashboards allow you to monitor critical logistics KPIs (key performance indicators) from one central location, including transportation costs, inventory accuracy, and warehousing expenses. With BI, businesses can also get to know about accurate data on sales volume, top-selling items, business revenue, profitability, etc.

The BI solution then employs predictive analysis techniques and machine learning algorithms to estimate inventory requirements for the future utilizing current and past information.

This proactive approach ensures that supply chain operations are aligned with demand, leading to increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction.

Amazon relies on BI to streamline supply chain optimization! 

Amazon’s supply chain management relies significantly on business intelligence (BI) to improve operations and satisfy customer expectations efficiently. Amazon uses business intelligence to collect data from a variety of sources, including consumer orders, browser history, and social media interactions, in order to accurately estimate demand. 

By analyzing this data with sophisticated analytics and machine learning algorithms, Amazon is able to anticipate future trends and optimize the amount of inventory in its fulfillment facilities. Amazon minimizes holding costs by dynamically changing inventory, guaranteeing that products are available when buyers need them.

Additionally, Amazon makes use of business intelligence (BI) to enhance its logistics network. It does this by analyzing data on transportation costs, delivery times, and carrier performance to determine the most effective routes for product delivery.

3. Selecting Suppliers and Managing Relationships

Business Intelligence (BI) tools are a major factor in improving the processes of Supplier Selection and Relationship Management, which are crucial components of Supply Chain Optimization.

BI enables more effective supplier relationship management by offering insights into the performance of suppliers based on parameters like as delivery timeframes, quality standards, and price. This enables businesses to find top-performing suppliers, bargain for better terms in contracts, and reduce the risk of supplier disruptions.

The continuing monitoring of supplier relationships becomes more efficient as organizations can monitor performance, recognize red flags, and take prompt action to ensure a seamless supply chain.

Without reliable, processed information to support business choices, supply chain managers can only guess how to improve shipment times, order the proper supplies, and satisfy consumers.

4. Data-Driven Decision Making 

Business intelligence and big data solutions provide real-time insights and end-to-end transparency into supply chain processes, removing the guesswork from decision-making. They integrate into the supply chain management systems already in place at a company to provide data-driven insights in real time.

Businesses can get a better knowledge of their supply chain operations and pinpoint opportunities for improvement by using business intelligence dashboards, reports, and scorecards.

With data-driven insights, companies can make strategic decisions to manage supply chain operations, which may help improve customer experience, cut costs, and increase profitability.

For example, a sneaker store uses Business Intelligence (BI) and big data to optimize its supply chain. The BI system monitors sales and inventory and spots that a popular sneaker is selling out quickly. It alerts the supplier to reorder more sneakers before they run out. These data-driven decisions help the store maintain stock levels, avoid delays, and keep customers satisfied.

Also Read: Cost Effective AI Solutions For Restaurant

5. It Helps with Cost-Savings 

Business Intelligence(BI) helps businesses reduce the cost by optimizing the supply chain. It tracks and breaks down expenses across different areas, like transportation, warehousing, and procurement.  

By analyzing the different areas, BI can identify the costs and find ways to reduce the costs. BI tools allow you to compare your costs with industry benchmarks, spot trends, and forecast future expenses. 

Here’s how it works. 

• BI can show if you’re spending too much on shipping because of certain routes or carriers, and suggest ways to cut those costs. 
• It also helps you see if your warehousing costs are high due to overstocking or inefficient use of space. 

By analyzing procurement expenses, BI can identify if you’re paying more than necessary for supplies and help you find better deals or negotiate with suppliers.

This way, BI provides a clear view of where your money is going, making it easier to spot cost-saving opportunities, plan your budget more effectively, and make informed decisions about where to save money. 

6. BI for Sustainability 

In this modern society, for modern businesses – sustainability is increasingly important. BI technologies can help businesses build sustainable supply chain operations by providing detailed information and actionable insights.

They can track parameters such as carbon footprints, waste management, energy use, and ethical sourcing. These insights have the potential to save costs and assist businesses in meeting environmental goals.

By detecting inefficiencies and offering improvements, BI enables businesses to make data-driven decisions that are both environmentally and economically sound.

Also Read: AI For Retail Inventory Management

7. Effective Inventory Management 

For effective supply chain optimization, effective inventory management is at the core of all businesses. Well, Business Intelligence (BI) tools help businesses manage their inventory better to keep the right amount of stock on hand, reduce unnecessary costs, and avoid running out of or having too much inventory.

Let’s understand how it works. 

• Turnover Rate Analysis: BI tracks how fast products are sold and replaced. By looking at this data, businesses can keep popular items in stock and avoid overstocking items that don’t sell as well. 
• Shelf Life Management: For products that expire, BI helps track how long they’ve been in inventory. This way, businesses can sell items before they expire to reduce waste and optimize business profitability.
• Demand Forecasting: BI predicts future sales based on past data and trends. This helps businesses stock the right amount of products, so they don’t run out or have too much.  
• Automated Replenishment: BI can automatically reorder products when they reach a low level. This ensures that popular items are always available without manual ordering.
• Supply Chain Integration: BI connects with supply chain systems to give a complete view of inventory across different locations. This helps balance stock levels and improve efficiency.

8. It Helps in Understanding Customer Experience 

Business Intelligence (BI) plays a key role in understanding customer behavior by analyzing data on what customers buy and their preferences to manage the supplies of stock and other things around efficiently. 

BI tools can track which products are popular at different times of the year and identify trends in customer preferences. With this information, businesses can adjust their supply chain strategies to better align with what customers want. 

This ensures that they have enough inventory to meet demand, which helps improve customer satisfaction. By using BI to tailor their supply chain to these insights, businesses can offer better service, reduce stockouts, and make more informed decisions about what products to keep in stock.

For example, if a restaurant uses Business Intelligence (BI) to analyze customer data and finds that customers prefer dishes with locally sourced ingredients and show a strong preference for seasonal specials. By using this data, the restaurant adjusts its supply chain to focus more on local produce and seasonal ingredients. 

They also update their menu to feature more specials that align with current seasonal trends. This ensures that they consistently offer dishes that meet customer preferences, leading to a more satisfying dining experience and increased customer loyalty.

9. Supply Chain Coordination

In business, great results come when everything is coordinated, integrated, and works together. The same goes for supply chain optimization and BI can help businesses with the same.

Business Intelligence (BI) plays a crucial role in enhancing supply chain coordination by integrating different components of the supply chain, such as suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors.

BI also provides an end-to-end view of the supply chain, offering visibility from raw materials to finished products. It ensures that all teams have access to the same information and are aligned with common goals.

This comprehensive perspective helps businesses manage complex supply chains more effectively, ensuring timely deliveries and efficient operations. By understanding the entire supply chain, companies can better manage and optimize each stage of the process.

10. Dynamic Reporting

For businesses, simply having data is not enough for efficient supply chain optimization. They would like data in a visually appealing and understandable manner. Well, that’s where BI tools come into the picture. 

With the best BI tools, you can generate on-demand advanced dynamic reports quickly. This feature ensures that decision-makers have access to the most current data, which helps them make the out of data(and real-time data) to make informed decisions. Dynamic reporting is particularly useful for analyzing trends, tracking performance metrics, and evaluating operational efficiency.

On top of it, BI tools allow users to customize reports to target specific areas of interest, providing a tailored analysis that aligns with their unique business needs.

This level of detail and adaptability in reporting supports more strategic decision-making and helps businesses respond to challenges and opportunities with enhanced flexibility and agility.

Also Read: Choose The Right Ai Data Platform For Your Business

For an Optimized Supply Chain, Choose the Best BI Platform!

Choosing the right BI platform for supply chain optimization is a game-changer for any business. It’s not just about having access to data; it’s about having the right insights at the right time. A well-suited BI tool ensures you can make smart decisions that drive efficiency, cut costs, and improve overall performance.

It helps you stay ahead of potential issues, react quickly to changes, and align your entire supply chain strategy accordingly.

Although, there are so many BI platforms available – you need to understand your business needs and choose the right one. While we are at it, if you are looking for a BI platform that is highly customized to your business needs – you can try out Livelytics. It is a feature-rich BI platform for industries like restaurants, salons, retail, and hospitality.

It combines advanced AI and machine learning with a user-friendly design – providing real-time insights and actionable data that help you optimize your supply chain, forecast demand accurately, and streamline operations.

To Conclude 

In the constantly evolving and always-changing field of supply chain management, business intelligence integration has emerged as a critical strategy. Organizations can manage the complexity of modern supply chains, optimize operational efficiency, and remain ahead of the competition by harnessing the power of data-driven insights.

Keep in mind that, to ensure the optimized supply chain for your business, you need to choose the right BI platform that is compatible with your industry, is within your budget, and has all the features that you are looking for.

Well, to make your search a bit easier, you can book a free demo for Livelytics. It is a one-of-a-kind BI platform backed by sophisticated attributes of AI and Machine learning for restaurants, salons, retail, and hospitality industries for their supply chain optimization needs and beyond.

So, book your free demo and find out yourself.