Keep Digging, There's A Pony In Here Somewhere

The hot button du jour seems to be so-called Big Data.  I am ambivalent - and you are not surprised.

On one hand, it is beyond exciting to think that we have (relatively) easy access to data that we either could not get, could not extract timely, or could not manhandle and manipulate with any ease to make the decsions that needed making about distribution networks, slotting, inventory deployment, manufacturing integration, demand analysis and response, and so on, in the not-so-long-ago.

On another, we are now challenged on a couple of fronts.  One is the reality that the profession cannot find nearly enough bright analysts to ferret through the morass of numbers to isolate the significant from the trivial.  Another is the continuing frustration of not having analysts who can put trends and anomalies in meaningful context, with very brief experience bases.

A third might be the number of more senior practitioners who are not yet comfortable with data-driven decisions, especially when esoteric fragments are involved, preferring to repeat their intuitive plans and actions.  Of course,  it does not take much of that to drive away what analytic capability resides within the supply chain organization - and warn off any aspirants.

So, we face yet another need to persuade well-meaning industry veterans that the 21st century is not only here, it is not going away.  Even more frightening is the reality that  the not-quite-retired remnants of the Baby Boomer generation are going to be working with more Millennials, not fewer.  And, the attitudinal disconnects involved have got to be resolved so that we can get the best out of both worlds.

The answer cannot be that we must wait for each generation do metaphorically die off in order to do, and do better, what must be done in the supply chain world.  So, keep digging and keep educating.  The future might be a little bleak but it is not necessarily the black hole that some fear.