Spending Your Analytics Time Where It Counts

by Sara Hoormann

Whether you are developing more complex optimization models or beginning to formulate solutions including technologies such as LogicNet Plus or R, one thing will remain the same. The focal point of any supply chain analytics project starts with the data.

As a consultant, I spend a lot of my time cleaning, rationalizing, and formatting data. I find myself moving between systems or creating advanced ways to populate and clean the data.

As our analytics solutions become more complex, I now try to save time during this front-end of analysis in any way I can. A tool called Radical Logistics for instance, has the ability to validate and create full geographic location information, calculate distances, transit times and freight costs all from within a single Excel spreadsheet.

Standardizing my approach to data cleaning and using tools like Radical have helped me to free up more time for the more vital parts of supply chain analytics projects. Do you have your own tips, tricks, or must-have tools for this?

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