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What do companies do with the rich stream of data on customer orders?
Companies usually get extremely rich customer order data at sku-customer-day level of granularity. What do they do with it? A simple question like this can lead to insights on the agility of their supply chains.
Most companies use this data to track their salesmen performance vis-à-vis the monthly targets. A few of them use it to plan quick demand shaping activities for products lagging behind in sales. In addition, monthly summary of this data does get discussed at the S&OP or IBP meetings. These companies have a lot of distance to cover on agility.
Some companies use it to tweak their distribution plan on an ongoing basis. Definitely more agile than the first set.
A few companies use it to tweak their production schedule as well. And a rare set of companies use it to adjust their procurement plan and vendor delivery schedules as well. Much more agile than the earlier sets.
The most agile companies use the daily customer order data to refresh their distribution plan, production schedule and procurement plan on a daily basis. They also use it as early triggers to potential capacity tightness in future.
Where are you on your agility journey?