In this Guest Commentary, Bobby Miller notes that according to the supply chain analyst community, supply chain visibility is a top priority for supply chain managers today. How do you overcome the barriers to increase visibility? Bobby shares six steps to help you gain supply chain visibility.

1. LOGISTICS VIEWPOINTS READ-THINK-SHARE
GUEST COMMENTARY
MARCH 17, 2015
Consumer Good Companies Direct to Customer
By Bobby Miller
Global parcel logistics firms have launched groundbreaking new
distribution channels to offer Consumer Goods (CG) companies
access to the traditional markets in places such as Latin America.
The new distribution model enables them to sell specific products
from the CG companies directly to the store owners and deliver
products within 48 hours. The value it delivers to the CG clients are
significant. Upon route delivery, the logistics company collects
cash and deposits it directly into their accounts for a major reduc-
tion in Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). CG companies also receive greater
visibility into purchase patterns increasing their ability to predict demand
and plan accordingly. This supply chain practice increases overall supply
chain visibility.
Supply Chain Visibility Top Priority
According to the supply chain analyst community, supply chain visibility is
one of today’s top priorities for supply chain managers. Visibility has be-
come the buzzword that continues to define supply chain management.
Everybody wants it, but few understand how to reach the supply chain ho-
ly grail. What does supply chain visibility mean? Basically, it means
knowing where your inventory is at any and every moment. It is that and
much more. It is the true synchronization between order management,
transportation, inventory management and logistics end-to-end. Many
businesses simply do not have the internal IT infrastructure to support
complex supply chains initiatives. Additionally, many CG companies
struggle to collect and identify the data that is really important to their
business, and more importantly, their customers’ business. How do you
overcome the barriers to increase visibility?

2. Guest Commentary, Page 2
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The Steps to Supply Chain Insights
Step One – Be intentional about supply chain excellence: The journey
starts with the shelf. The journey to improve visibility must be about a
means to an end. There will need to be intentional focus on the journey.
Business results have to be the overarching reason to improve supply chain
visibility. For example, “do I expect that the business model will increase
earnings per share as a result”. Better visibility allows you to make the right
decisions for operational and near real-time horizons.
Step Two – Invest in the right technology: Analytics and optimization so-
lutions will help you get to potential insights and statistical novelties in
ways that were not possible a couple of years ago. There are 2 technologies
necessary to make cross-functional data valuable and the outcomes execut-
able. Data analytics drives the insights into your customers. Optimization
is then applied to supply chain planning and execution business processes
to make the predictions generated by analytics executional and bring to
light supply chain visibility.
Step Three – Remove the silo’s to create end-to-end visibility: To achieve
supply chain visibility and improve results, logistics companies and the
consumer good companies will require data sharing. That means internal
and external collaboration and sharing of pertinent data is a must. Ad-
vancements in data analytics capabilities will provide the ability to improve
predictions of customer purchasing patterns. Know what you want to
achieve from the data analytics and make sure to share outcomes with all of
the business functions.
Step Four – Invest in the right persons: Successful big data and analytics
requires a team that can blend together technology, analytics, optimization
and business savvy. Big data and analytics success requires a team with
different but overlapping skills that knows how to effectively and efficient-
ly communicate and collaborate. Decision making solutions using
optimization require analysts that understand the value of that optimiza-
tion.
Step Five – Know Your KPIs: Ensure everyone agrees on the KPI’s. If there
are multiple business units collaborating on supply chain initiatives, not all
business units calculate common KPI’s the same. Example: On Time Deliv-
eries may use different calculations depending on the type of business.

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2015 ARC • 3 Allied Drive • Dedham, MA 02026 USA • 781-471-1000 • ARCweb.com
Ensure accountability and transparency are part of the team’s core values
and that stakeholders are actively engaged.
Bobby Miller is currently responsible for global consumer good product innovation
and direction at ORTEC. Bobby pioneered the ORTEC solution ‘Perfect Shipment’
which utilizes demand forecasting to generate optimal shipments, enabling organi-
zations to plan and reduce freight cost in advance of execution. He has over 25
years of expertise working in the Consumer Goods Industry and developing supply
chain software solutions that help companies globally such as P&G, General Mills,
Coca-Cola and Clorox. Prior to ORTEC, Bobby was Sr. Manager of Supply Chain
Excellence for Georgia-Pacific, where he pioneered the concept of sales order load
optimization. He has also held various positions with Kraft, Coopers Lighting, In-
formation Resources, IRI Logistics and Manugistics. Bobby received a B.S. degree
in Information Systems from Chicago State University. He is past chairman of the
Technology Association of Georgia Supply Chain Society.