Managing Seismic Shift in Global Supply Chains, and the Agile Data Solution

The global and interconnected supply chains we’ve relied on the past few years are experiencing dramatic shifts in design, driven in large part by post-pandemic domestic re-shoring of manufacturing. Recent U.S. Census Bureau reports shows construction spending by U.S. manufacturers more than doubled over the past year. The annual spending rate in ‘23 is trending to $190 billion versus $90 billion in ‘22, with manufacturing accounting for around 13% of construction.

Re-shoring of manufacturing of critical infrastructure and goods is driving construction of factories, warehouses, and logistics hubs everywhere in the U.S.. And this isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon - manufacturers around the world are accelerating their moves back to their domestic countries. According to Kearney's 2022 Reshoring Index, 96% of companies have shifted more towards domestic production or are evaluating re-shoring — this is a 78% jump from the 2021 index. Further driving these shifts are legislation and government incentives such as the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act in July 2022, which is boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing.

The recent manufacturing trends and geographically dispersed supply chains has a wide range of implications – from making intermodal logistics, product quality, and ethical analysis more complex, to exposing the wider supply chain to disruptions from weather, labor shortages, political volatility, production breakdowns and more. In this landscape, supply chains need to become even more adaptable to changes to avoid volatility risk and increased costs due to supply chain breakdowns. The upside is that both manufacturing and supply chains are producing more diagnostic data than ever before. The convergence of IT and OT data types such as SAP sources, when combined with production equipment and IoT transportation telemetry, is enabling new levels of efficiencies in equipment production, and inventory and intermodal supply chain management.

Partnering together, Qlik, Microsoft, and Databricks have developed innovative solutions for data integration and analysis that are impacting global supply chains for industry giants like Mercedes-Benz, Coca-Cola, Vale, Greene Tweed, Volvo and more. These leaders are using data to mitigate supply chain and production risk, gain valuable insights, and predict the impact of various scenarios on their supply chains with stress testing to make more informed decisions.

The combined solution from Qlik, Microsoft, and Databricks delivers data visualization and real-time data pipeline ingestions into the Databricks Lakehouse, which are combined with Microsoft's data Fabric to unify supply chain hybrid and multi-cloud data estates. The result is companies that can leverage the full scope of their data to gain real-time insights into their supply chain operations, make changes to operations, and build scenario predictions. This empowers companies to promptly identify potential bottlenecks and proactively implement corrective measures before they impact production and costs.

Let’s explore how Qlik partners with Microsoft and Databricks to make this real:

1. Qlik Replicate drives log-based Change-Data-Capture from source systems

2. Qlik provides direct integration into Databricks for real-time data processing and automated data management including change data handling towards ODS/HDS

3. Qlik delivers direct integration into Azure Synapse for real-time data processing and automated data management

4. Qlik enables direct integration into Delta Lake for real-time data processing and automated data management including change data handling and data lifecycle

Vale SA is a prime example of how Qlik and Microsoft's solutions can optimize supply chain management. Brazil’s primary economic sector comprises critical industries such as agriculture, forestry, and mining, all of which act as key sources of food, fuel and raw materials globally. At the apex of Brazil’s industry sits Vale S.A. The company has an estimated market value of $111 billion and a presence in 30 countries with operations encompassing logistics with an extensive network of railroads, ports, terminals, and shipping which distributes the company’s products around the world.

Vale’s complex global supply chain leverages Qlik Cloud Data Integration and Visualization tools along with Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to gain real-time insights into their supply chain operations. By harnessing their data at scale, Vale successfully identifies potential bottlenecks in their supply chain and promptly addresses them before they escalated into major issues. Additionally, the collaborative features of these solutions enhances communication among various departments and stakeholders, leading to increased efficiency and reduced costs for Vale.

Another example is Greene Tweed, a U.S.-based manufacturing company specializing in high-performance sealing solutions for commercial aircraft, which uses Qlik Replicate to deliver data from their SAP system into Azure Synapse for analytics service. With Qlik Replicate, Greene Tweed was able to reduce their time for reporting from SAP sources by 70%. They eliminated the need to write extracts and created a logical layer that significantly reduced the impact on the companies IT team. Qlik Replicate also enables Greene Tweed to efficiently analyze SAP's source systems, promptly identifying any new changes in the data in real-time.

Across industries data is making a real contribution to helping make supply chains more agile.

Qlik's data integration and visualization tools, in partnership with Microsoft’s Data Mesh, and Databricks Lakehouse, are helping many organizations to gain real-time insights into supply chain operations and bolster operational efficiency. By embracing these comprehensive solutions, companies are enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and leveraging their supply chains to gain a competitive edge while enhancing their ability to plan and react to global supply chain changes.

The integration of Qlik, Databricks, Microsoft's solutions empowers organizations to streamline supply chain management, gain real-time insights, and make data-driven decisions. These solutions foster collaboration between departments and stakeholders and expedite the development of analytics, driving overall operational excellence and business growth.

To learn more about the power of combining Qlik, Microsoft and Databricks, **in the resources linked below:**

Improving Supply Chain Intelligence with Qlik and Microsoft

The Essential Guide to Modern Supply Chain Analytics

Supply Chain Leader's Guide: Managing Disruption

How Data Mesh Empowers Delivers Supply Chain Efficiency, and Sustainability

​Qlik's data integration and visualization tools, in partnership with Microsoft’s Data Mesh, and Databricks Lakehouse, are helping many organizations to gain real-time insights into supply chain operations and bolster operational efficiency.