The emphasis of this article is how Predictive Analytics/Big Data can be used most productively in managing supply chain. They can be used to determine what happened, why it happened, and to develop a plan for change. Based on pre-defined business rules, they can identify where action is needed, they can help to prepare more accurate forecasts, and, above all, they can help to determine the best course of action with what-if analysis. The article also describes the process to transform successfully the mass of information into analytics to make better decisions in a timely manner. alan l. millikEn, cPF | Mr. Milliken is a Senior Manager of the Supply Chain Capability Development Team at BASF, the world’s leading chemical company. He has extensive experience in manufacturing operations including supply chain management, and as a supply chain consultant and a supply chain educator. He serves on the Board of Advisors at the Institute of Business Forecasting (IBF) where as a Subject Matter Expert he has helped to create the Certified Professional Forecaster (CPF) program. He is a frequent speaker at supply chain events and has published widely. He holds an engineering degree from ...

From Issue: Revolutionary and Evolutionary Approaches to Leveraging Predictive Business Analytics
(Winter 2014-2015)

image
Transforming Big Data into Supply Chain Analytics