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Better visibility equates to better
decision-making
With decision-making so pivotal to driving
business growth, information overload
represents a worrying development. Making
the wrong decision can have serious
negative implications for the bottom line,
especially when it comes to adapting an
export strategy or initiating a new business
plan without appropriately reviewing if there
is any potential impact on profit margins.
Achieving full visibility of operations across
the business is key for maximising the
enterprise’s decision-making capabilities.
This includes having on-demand access
to the right information, at the right time.
However, according to KPMG’s 2016 Global
Manufacturing Outlook report, 43% of senior
executives admit they had either limited or
no visibility at all into their supply chain – a
concerning figure. While no one person can
have direct visibility of everything that is
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INTELLIGENTCIO
going on in a company, business intelligence
technologies and analytic software –
including enterprise resource planning (ERP)
systems and manufacturing execution
software (MES) – should be used to provide
these insights. These technologies work by
collecting, distilling, interpreting, editing,
and presenting meaningful data in a timely
manner, and highlighting issues and areas of
concern in a way that is clear and actionable.
Making informed business decisions
Cutting through the everyday influx of data
is an ongoing business need – and systems
that can help make decision-makers choose
quickly, and wisely, are more crucial than
ever before. To eliminate analysis paralysis,
businesses need to access contextualised
data and present this in a format – in a
dashboard, or as graphics or alerts – that
users find easy to work with. To simplify this
process, all data needs to be stored in a
centralised system that can be integrated
with other devices – so that information can
be accessed across the entire business, by
multiple parties.
Solutions like ERP and MES make it possible
to enable the integration of data across the
entire product lifecycle – from design, through
to engineering, manufacturing, delivery, and
customer service. This gives all stakeholders
– from C-level executives to those working on
the manufacturing floor – access to real-time
and actionable information and insights.
Having a filtered view of all this detail will
enable decisions to be based on relevant,
accurate and reliable data.
There is no room for uncertainty in business
when paving the way for future growth. By
applying analytics to data, decision-makers
can swiftly access insights that will enable
them to make the right choices to improve
operations across an entire business –
including customer service and demand
planning – and, ultimately, profits. n
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