Data management

Under contruction

IT solutions are part of Logistics infrastructure, this section is not a reflection of an IT professional (software, hardware, network, etc) but is a reflection of Supply Chain professional approach.

Under this vision, this section will have following subjects:

Data management (Data structure, Data analyse, good practices about data management - Supply chain approach),
How to Choose a IT system for Logistics/Supply chain
Structure of Supply Chain data management

good practice

Make a strong system of data recording (use templates)
Data storage – data availability and accessibility
Build Help files where indicate step by step how to do
Enforce a follow up system (find a way to penalize no compliance in data management – usual restriction in access)
Have a high consideration of data security
use the facility of recording the user that add records or modify them on all the tables
use user restrictions in data access
invest in training
invest in software that are able to solve your problems
invest in software that are flexible and can be adapted to your needs
time to time review and asses data quality
before any new implementation do TESTS – be sure that the changes are right
integrate the data management in business strategy

review and use the latest technology where appropriate

Data management is a system used to store, process and organize data.

Inside of data management are some functions that data must serve:

- logical - data logical to access

- available - data must be available for user that need

- clear results of processing - data must be processes for a clear purpose and result must be direct and simple

- accuracy - data must be accurate in order to avoid errors in processing (a false input will generate a random result)

- consistent structure - data must have a consistent structure in order to be useful

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Data structure

From supply chain point of view Data need to have a very organized structure.

An organized structure will provide:

- logical work

- searchability

- easy to analyse

Data must have following components (characteristics)

- Unique indicator for every line

- relation indicator (if relational database)

- record description

- quantitative fields (or indicators)

- date fields

etc

Example of simple inventory data, structure

Items Table

Article Numbers (SKU - Stock-Keeping Unit) as unique indicator

A stock-keeping unit (SKU) is a code, most often seen printed on product labels in a retail store or warehouse The label allows vendors to automatically track the movement of inventory. The SKU is composed of an alphanumeric combination of several characters. The characters are a code that track the price, product details, and the manufacturer. Usual the article number is automatically created, if not automate, then can be a set of rules to create the articles. In some specific situations can be created totally random identificator.

Article Description

Article description is very important in big data management. A good description will generate search-ability in data base.

Article Description must be created under control and some rules must be followed (procedure).

The best techniques to Create a description is to have/create a template (maybe a questionnaire system)

Example of system to create template for description

template general item:

Description must be in this order:

- general description

- technical characteristics (dimensions, surface, measure, voltage, power,etc)

- brand

- model

example of use:

A123 - Angle Grinder 115mm 110V Makita GA4530R

A124 - Angle Grinder 115mm 220V Makita GAXXXR

A125 - Angle Grinder 125mm 110V Makita GAYYYY

A126 - Angle Grinder 180mm 220V Makita GAZZZZZ

A127 - Angle Grinder 115mm 110V Bosh ZZZZZZ

A128 - Angle Grinder 115mm 220V Bosh ZZZZZY

A129 - Angle Grinder 125mm 110V Bosh ZZZYYY

Observation:

search-ability:

- general description is the same - generic description - give the possibility to filter by general description

- organized technical characteristic (and complete) offer possibility to group/ filter by these (for example 220V items)

- Brand present in the description offer possibility to search/group by brand - model

template standard item (fasteners):

Description must be in this order:

-generic dimension (following the technical requirements)

-general description

-technical characteristics (extra dimensions)

- standard

- coating

- material and material grade

example of use:

A1234 - M10x40 Bolt Hex head ENISO4017 EZP 8.8

A1245 - M10x60 Bolt Hex head ENISO4017 EZP 8.8

A1256 - M10x40 Bolt Hex head ENISO4014 EZP 10.9

A1267 - M10x140 Bolt Hex head ENISO4014 HDP 8.8

A1278 - M6x40 Cpuntersunk PZ ENISO4014 A2

A1279 - M6x40 Cpuntersunk socket ENISO4014 A2

Observation:

search-ability:

- general description is as per bolt type - generic description - give the possibility to filter by general description

- organized technical characteristic (and complete) offer possibility to group/ filter by these (for example M10x40 items)

- Standard present in the description offer possibility to search/group

- material/ grade/ coating give same

Unit of measure

A good ERP will have possibility to use/convert multiple unit of measure. The base unit of measure will be the one used most usual and the packing need to be the lowest unit size. (general practice)

Example:

- unit of measure for White Flower will be Kg when lowest trade unit is 1 Kg.

- unit of measure for Sand will be Ton when lowest trade unit is 1 Ton.

good practice - the stock must be in ONE unit of measure for same item.

if the stock is related to packing then every package will be considered as "different item"

example:

wrong:

- it is wrong to have Sunflower oil in 2L bottles and to have 100 bottles in stock, same time to have 100L of same item (this mean 50 more bottles)

- it is wrong to have 5 reels of cable and 500 m of same cable (5 more more reels of 100 m cable)

correct:

- it is correct to have 100 bottles of sunflower 2L bottles and 100 bottles sunflower 1L - packaging is creating item diversity, these two must be considered different items - total will be 300L in 200 packing units

- it is correct to have 5 reels of 100m cable and 10 reel of 10m same type of cable - total will be 600m cable in 15 packing units

Same time a good ERP system need to be able to have conversion system.

Conversion between units buy vs sell - buy one unit sell other unit

Example of conversion buy/sell:

- buy Ton of bulk material and sell out as Kg

- buy Ton of bulk material and sell out as 0.5 Kg Pack, 1 Kg Pack, 2 Kg Pack, 5 Kg Pack, etc

- buy barrel of bulk oil and sell out as 1L, 2L, 3L bottle

Conversion between units buy vs stock - buy one unit stock other unit

Data management

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