The supply chain is a critical piece of the puzzle for business success. Supply chain analytics however lies at the root of supply chain management. By enhancing manufacturing operational efficiency and the overall operational effectiveness of the supply chain, analytics play a key role in enabling management teams to make informed data-driven decisions across their operations. 

Using real-time data for enhanced supply chain visibility

Discussions around the technological tools to manage supply chain operations almost always include Excel. Modern supply chain management is very demanding and many are beginning to view spreadsheet programs as a bottleneck to their processes. It may be time to reconsider the software you use to track analytics and receive real-time accurate data to make tactical, operational, and strategic decisions. 

"Data is a valuable resource."

Managing and analyzing data is a powerful tool that helps businesses gain insight into their analytics. Now, before than ever, there is increased pressure on the industry to increase visibility into their supply chain processes. The rise of customer expectations is continuing to reshape how supply chain activities are managed and how communications between all parties are shifting. 

One valuable tool that brands can take advantage of to meet growing demand for supply chain visibility and access a global overview of their supply chain operations is via a dashboard. 

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Advantages of a real-time dashboard

Dashboards are an integral part of supply chain visibility and provide a vehicle for ongoing improvement throughout your brand. Dashboards offer the perfect playground for data exploration and data visualization to suit your needs, issues, and control points. There are several benefits of digital dashboards, as part of your supply chain management strategy. Some major ones include:

• ‍Gaining real-time visibility: Dashboards provide data visualization for both the brand’s management team and suppliers to view in real-time, even when the data is coming in from multiple systems. As the dashboard automatically updates as new orders, RFQs, and quotes are processed through the system, all parties with access will be kept up-to-date with instant information that is easily shareable to their manufacturers.

• Birds-eye-view of key metrics: The dashboard is normally the first touchpoint on a platform – the first page that users see when logging in. By giving greater visibility of your supply chain’s key information, such as purchase orders, RFQs, production value, quotations, etc., management teams will be able to track their production precisely and measure their progress against goals. When you can digest information at a glance, it’s easier to track information and respond quickly to changes in the market.

• Gain deeper insight into product timelines: Dashboards are the ultimate central source of truth for order information. They help track exactly which stage of development your products are in, and whether there appears to be delays in the timeline or not. Knowing this information is helpful to understand the estimated time your products are ready to be released into market and/or when production needs to be altered.‍

• Help drive informed decisions: By generating an overall view of your entire supply chain, inclusive of product performances and specific metrics, dashboards give you the ability to identify and predict key risks. Pointing out possible supply chain risk across current and future production scale allows you to make educated determinations on how to reduce future disruptions. 

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Enter Calico...

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Here at Calico, we understand the value of keeping track of metrics, measuring your achievements, and closely monitoring all business operations. We have designed a dynamic supply chain dashboard that provides brands a top-level overview of all real-time product updates and information on a single, easy read display. The most recent actions of the merchant can also be viewed directly on the overview menu item, creating an organized space for all key relevant data. 

This dashboard allows users to easily access and view:

• Value of active production orders – The USD cost of all active production orders combined, including samples and production.
• Completed orders – The total number of completed orders on the platform, including samples and production.
• Active RFQs – The total number of all active RFQs being processed in the software.‍
• Units in production – The total number of products created in all orders, including samples and production.

We want to make sure that our customers are always looking at their latest brand analytics that they can share with their suppliers to proactively identify areas of improvement and help drive their supply chain decisions.

Work smarter, not harder. Choose Calico.

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