Introduction
In the contemporary business world, supply chain management is an important part of business establishments since it helps to minimize cases of fraud and bribery. Integration of IT into supply chain management provides new techniques that are critical in limiting the rates of exposures to various risks.
A considerable number of firms around the world is using huge information to enable management teams to make strategic decisions that would remarkably improve outcomes. It is important for my organization to adopt a platform that has an excellent flow of data, which are managed well to to achieve the set objectives. Huge information in organizations is associated with some merits and demerits.
Supply Chain Management
One merit of big data is the ability to provide fact-based operational intelligence, which “helps management teams to react to events in real time” (Shankar par. 1). For example, with respect to marketing, when a customer enters a store, a marketing executive could access the client’s information from a database of huge information that can be applied in offering the best services. This form of intelligence can also be implemented in predictive maintenance.
For instance, “consumers’ vehicles can have software applications embedded in them” so that they are alerted when they can take them for servicing (Shankar par. 6). The aviation industry has also benefited from the real-time operational intelligence due to the fact that data are collected about when aircrafts have minor faults that can be repaired when need be, reducing the costs that are associated with major repairs.
Another merit that is associated with big data in firms is the fact that they help to attain 360-degree analytics of consumers (Shankar par. 10). The benefits of a better understanding of customers go beyond increasing their levels of loyalty and retention. In fact, if my organization would utilize big data about its clients, then it would significantly improve its sales due to the development and application of a 360-degree view of consumers.
For example, the use of excellent software in the management of big data about clients would yield a better predictive analysis that would be essential in predicting their behaviors in a more accurate manner (Kenny par. 5). Big data in supply chain management are associated with significant reductions in asset losses, which imply that the management team can detect a product in advance and act before it can negatively impact the outcomes of the entire firm.
Better management of big data can prevent out-of-stock situations because inventories are monitored by the use of digital systems that rely on information that is fed to them. Other merits of big data include creation of fleet efficiencies, gain of user insights, and reductions in fuel costs.
On the other hand, big data can also impact organizations negatively. For efficient use of huge information, it is crucial to use special computer power, implying that new computing machines would be bought, which would be an expensive undertaking. Another demerit is that the organizational culture would be changed (Kenny par. 9).
For example, if a firm obtains insights on a monthly basis, then the use of real-time analytics would mean that information would be obtained every second. This would make workers change their ways of working and producing results. Finally, big data in organizations are also associated with many security risks. Unauthorized users, such as hackers, can access information and change it for criminal and/or personal goals, rendering it useless to a company (Kenny par. 10).
Conclusion
In my opinion, I would recommend my company to use big data in the supply chain management to realize both short-term and long-term objectives in the future. As highlighted in this proposal, the number of merits outweighs the number of demerits with respect to adopting real time analytics. In fact, my firm can concentrate on adopting some approaches to addressing the challenges that would arise with the use of real-time analytics.
Works Cited
Kenny, J., Big data can have big impact on supply chain management. 2014. Web.
Shankar, U., IoT & the Age of SCM 2.0 Enhances supply chain. 2014. Web.