The document discusses challenges faced by clients in managing their supply chain operations, including a lack of visibility and integration issues. It highlights the impact of cloud technology and big data on supply chains and explains why neo4j was chosen for modeling due to its graph focus. Key lessons learned emphasize the importance of iterative modeling, business rule validations, and being aware of versioning issues in tools.

1. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
GRAPHING THE
SUPPLY CHAIN
Shashank Tiwari
Stephen Henderson
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Pamela Luis
Ravi Kolli

2. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
OUR CLIENT
CHALLENGES
“No idea what’s happening with our operations”
“Unclear which suppliers put us at risk and when”
“Don’t know which shipments are late
until they don’t arrive”
“We spend too much time integrating different
systems—it takes us longer to move information
than products”
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3. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
A SUPPLY CHAIN
T1 CM DC RETAIL
(per CIO.com, avg. SAP/Oracle implementation costs $12-$16M, takes 18-20 months)
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3PL
T2
3PL 3PL 3PL
SUPPLY CHAIN

4. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
THE WORLDWIDE SUPPLY
CHAIN
Magnitudes
100’s CMs
1,000+ Carriers
100,000+ OEMs
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1,000,000+ DCs
1,000,000+ Suppliers
1,000,000+ Retailers

5. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
THE CLOUD IS CHANGING
THE GAME
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• Economies of scale
• Real-time monitoring
• Big data insights
• Supply Chain Graph

6. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
WHY DID WE PICK
NEO4J?
Supply chain is
Fundamentally a Graph
Focus on our domain
business questions
and needs
Neo4j is proven,
mature and reliable
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7. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
WHAT LESSONS HAVE WE
LEARNED?
Modeling took
many iterations
Business Rule
validations can be tricky
Leverage the
Traversal API early
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8. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
WHAT LESSONS HAVE WE
LEARNED? Bulk Loading large
data sets isn’t universal
Beware of
Version Mismatch
between tools
Tuning Really Matters
Know What’s Coming
Next from Neo4j
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9. SAN FRANCISCO | 10.22.2014
THANK YOU
We are looking for
Graph Developers at
www.elementum.com
Visit the Job Board!
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