It’s the second day of IntraLogisteX USA 2024 today [23 October] at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida, which means the second half of the conference agenda has begun.
This morning the conference kicked off in style, with Mike Kelley, lead product manager for global supply chain analytics at Nike. In this role, Kelley drives global supply chain analytics initiatives.
With six years at Nike and six at Deloitte, Kelley has consistently delivered innovative technologies and solutions, helping multinational enterprises enhance profitability and operational excellence.
In his presentation, entitled ‘End-to-end (E2E) supply chain analytics’, he covered comprehensive data modelling and analysis, data integration and visualisation, and buy-in and investment.
He drew parallels between the popularisation of running and the rise of data analytics in business. “People thought runners were weird and the truth is… we are,” Kelley remarked. Running and analytics are “both weird”, he continued, noting: “Running and analytics for some reason can elicit the same reactions and interactions as runners received out there on the road.”
“Maybe it’s because both runners and analytics enthusiasts love to challenge the norm and shift the paradigm,” he suggested.
Kelley said: “Analytics have become to powerful to ignore. They are pervasive but in a way they are misunderstood.”
He addressed the crowd, saying: “Maybe you’re like me and were around when analytics fit perfectly into the box of business intelligence. Now because of how much data needs to be ingested into analytical models, and the extensive list of requirements that come along with most use cases, analytics are as much a tech-led effort as a business-led effort.
“They provide valuable insights into our operations, customer behaviour and marketplace trends. They are essential for making informed decisions and driving growth.
He posited the question: “Why are [analytics] so weird?”, sharing his view that this is because they can cross several data domains and key supply chain functions and noting: “Maybe it’s because both runners and analytics enthusiasts love to challenge the norm and shift the paradigm.”
He continued: “Those functions include procurement, production, inventory management, distribution, logistics and last-mile delivery. With each of these functions, there are executives, senior leaders, managers business process and product owners that march to different drums. […]
“Not all of these directives fit into a box, which in my experience has led to some tense moments, tough conversations and frankly some weird interactions with some pretty high-level people. That’s why it’s of utmost importance to be super clear on the ‘what’ and ‘why’ your team is pursuing.”
Kelley shared an anecdote from a previous role to highlight how an attitude of stubbornness and an inability to embrace data analytics can be costly for management-level staff. When data analytics revealed that an organisation was focusing too much on the wrong part of its business, this directly challenged the beliefs of this firm’s higher-ups, and the Kelley’s team were “dismissed, kicked out and [their] project did not go on to the next phase”.
“The truth is that data analytics is meant to highlight differences like these, even if it’s weird. However, it’s the attitude of leadership and those that are accountable to determine how to respond to these incongruences that will ultimately be discovered along the way.”
