10 Resources to Learn Supply Chain Analytics from Scratch

Supply chain management is a complex process, and supply chain analytics helps you improve the logistics and supply chain management environment.

With the use of analytics, you can analyze the data collected from different tools and get real-time insights from it that can be utilized to make the process more efficient. 

To excel in this field, you can take help from various learning resources. But first, have a look at the features and benefits of supply chain analytics.

Supply Chain Analytics Features

• Generate and process real-time data from different tools
• Collect and organize unstructured data from multiple sources
• Improve inventory planning and scheduling with customer responses analysis
• Reduce the amount of siloed data in an organization
• Immediately identify issues and fix them

Benefits and Use Cases of Supply Chain Analytics

The benefits of incorporating supply chain analytics are listed below:

• Helps you efficiently plan and schedule events with real-time insights
• Get a forecast on consumer demand that assists with resource management
• Offers updated info on the latest market trends
• Reduce purchase cost
• Optimize the SCM process by tracking production and operation
• Logistical improvement with real-time data
• Increase customer satisfaction

The use cases of supply chain analytics will vary depending on the industry. However, the scopes include planning, procurement, logistics, production and operations, risk management, demand planning, forecasting, cost, overhead tracking, etc.

Let’s explore some learning resources for supply chain analytics.

Introduction to Supply Chain Analytics

This Udemy course offers you the fundamentals of descriptive and prescriptive analytics to tackle supply chain challenges. It also familiarizes you with analytical tools that you can use to forecast demand, assess production outputs, and create product mix strategies.

This course consists of 5 hours of on-demand video and 9 downloadable resources. Also, you get lifetime access to the complete course resources. For this course, interested people should have basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel, business acumen, and manufacturing or logistics.

RA: Data Science and Supply Chain Analytics with Python

This Udemy course is ideal for learning supply chain data science, Python, inventory management, linear programming, forecasting, and pricing. It teaches you never heard before techniques of the supply chain that will help you become a successful supply chain manager or supply chain data scientist.

You will also learn revenue management and the segmentation of customers, products, and suppliers. The course consists of 37 hours of on-demand video and 128 downloadable resources. It also requires you to know Excel, Anaconda, and spyder.

RA: Data Science and Supply chain analytics with R

From this Udemy course, you can learn R, Inventory optimization, supply-chain data science, machine learning, big data forecasting, and revenue management. Other topics covered in this course include stock policies, product recommendations, forecast and analysis, pricing optimization, and customer segmentation.

For this course, you should know Microsoft Excel and be motivated to learn R. It has 38 hours of on-demand courses and 157 downloadable resources.

Supply Chain Analytics Specialization

People interested in launching their careers in supply chain analytics should join the Coursera course. With it, you can master data-driven tools for enhanced supply chain performance. As it helps you understand the pain points of a supply chain environment, you can smoothly prioritize problems. 

Also, it teaches you to develop effective logistics strategies and design demand and supply for enterprise distribution systems. This 100% online course has a flexible schedule and can be finished in 5 months with an approximate pace of 2 hours per week. 

IIM Calcutta Supply Chain Analytics

This Coursera course teaches you to utilize supply chain analytics for business efficiency and insightful change in the business. It helps you resolve decision-making problems on production, location, warehouse selection, stocking, inventory planning, and pricing, even with limited resources and in dynamic scenarios.

The length of this online and self-paced course is around 6 months if you can invest 6-8 hours every week.

Supply Chain Analytics

This edX course will assist you in mastering the core methodologies of supply chain analysis, such as statistics, probability, regression, and optimization. This hands-on course will need to use spreadsheets to apply these approaches found in real-life case studies. 

Here, you can learn basic analytical methods, supply chain statistics, formulation and resolution of optimization models, and methods to apply basic probability models. This instructor-led course is a self-paced one and takes 15 weeks to complete if you can spend 8-12 hours/week. 

The course language is English, while subtitles are available in English, Spanish, and Japanese. Besides the basics of statistics and probability, participants should also be familiar with secondary school algebra and basic mathematics concepts.

Supply Chain Analytics Foundations

This LinkedIn Learning course covers the basics of supply chains and analytics. From it, you can learn how businesses develop a supply chain analytics program. Moreover, you will understand the use of important analytics tools and approaches used for the betterment of the supply chains.

Other topics necessary to become a highly-coveted professional, such as forecasting, mapping, disruptions, and risk management, are also covered here. The course material can be accessed from your smartphone or tablet. It also comes with 4 chapter quizzes and offers you a course of completion after you successfully finish the course. 

Supply Chain Analytics

This book provides you with a business-focused overview of supply chain management and teaches you how to apply technologies like data analytics and machine learning in this field. It will also introduce you to the relevant concepts and techniques of data analysis and programming software. 

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Supply Chain Analytics: Concepts, Techniques and Applications		$72.40	Buy on Amazon

Also, you will learn to develop the power of decision-making in modern supply chains. This resource covers supply and demand management, transportation optimization, warehousing and inventory control, and other major supply chain processes. 

Supply Chain Analytics & Modelling

This book helps you deal with the challenges of supply chain management, such as business models and mathematical modeling.

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Supply Chain Analytics and Modelling: Quantitative Tools and Applications		$51.95	Buy on Amazon

A number of business analytics models of the supply chain are included in this book so that you can develop knowledge of these. It also contains case studies and online resources like lecture slides.

This resource also covers supply chain planning, demand forecasting, product allocations, single and multi-objective optimization, routing and transportation scheduling models, and end-to-end supply chain simulation. 

Supply Chain Analytics

Reading this book, you will learn about data analytics and its effective use in supply chain management. It describes the key supply chain processes with examples, including big data, data mining, optimization, and cloud computing. 

Preview	Product	Rating	Price
	Supply Chain Analytics (Mastering Business Analytics)		$48.10	Buy on Amazon

The resource also focuses on the core supply chain processes where you can apply analytic techniques for continuous improvement. For both the students and leaders of supply chain management, it offers management expertise and technical skills for better decision-making.

Wrapping Up

Supply chain analytics is an evolving discipline where new data models and applications and getting implemented over time. To ensure best practices and better decision-making in this field, you must be familiar with the latest concepts and techniques.

You can take help from any of the above-mentioned resources to learn supply chain analytics. Also, read about Blockchain in supply chain and how to get APICS certified CSCP certification.