Dimensions of Data Analytics in Supply Chain Management: Objectives, Indicators and Data Questions

In recent time, the application of data analytics (DA) has grown significantly in virtually every field, Supply Chain Management (SCM) being one of them. DA processes like CRISP-DM serve as an orientation framework for managing DA projects in general but fail to deliver domain-specific details at the operative project level especially in SCM. Setting DA objectives, deriving associated SCM activities, identifying applicable measurement indicators for analyzing these activities, as well as defining DA questions for the specific DA objectives are challenging and under-researched tasks. This paper presents a literature review- and expert questionnaire-based approach for conducting the business understanding stage of CRISP-DM in SCM DA projects. The developed approach provides a procedure for selecting and defining the right DA questions based on specific DA objectives and SCM activities. To demonstrate applicability of the research, the DA approach is applied to an ongoing DA project in retail SCM. The result show that the time required for completing the business understanding stage of the DA project could significantly be reduced. Furthermore, the DA questions developed in this study provided a clear guideline for the project and facilitated cooperation between data analysts, research and SCM domain experts.