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Sage Clarity: Seamless Information Flow for Enhanced Supply Chain Management

John Oskin, CEO

Supply chain management affects manufacturers in multifarious ways, from the availability of inputs required for production, cost reduction, increased profitability of manufactured items to the ways the IT infrastructure is built to facilitate manufacturer, distributor, and customer interactions. However, the multiple logistics processes—planning, procuring, manufacturing, and distributing—often create silos of information that slowdown supply chain operations. Addressing the challenge is Chicago-based Sage Clarity that leverages the “tech-savvy workforce” to break information silos. “Employees today have smartphones, use social media and multitask. We are developing solutions in the manufacturing supply chain arena that facilitate seamless information flow with real-time information,” says John Oskin, CEO, Sage Clarity.

One of Sage Clarity’s strongest mobile initiatives dedicated to enhance supply chain operations comes in the form of One View. As its name suggests, One View brings together data from disparate data sources to give manufacturers immediate visibility into operational metrics with defined time periods such as week-to-date, month-to-date and year-to-date into “One View”. A key feature is the inclusion of in-context social collaboration where employees engage with each other through messaging associated with data views. “This is like a messaging app with analytics,” says Oskin, and adds, “If a supply chain executive is using One View, looking at a “week to date” view of Schedule Adherence, he or she can send a text and everyone on the network, and can not only see the comment posted, but also the data view associated with the comment.”

In addition to its dashboard and scorecard data views, One View also includes a goal-setting module with what-if analysis specifically designed for senior management. Executives can make predictions on weekly, monthly and quarterly targets and quickly assess the ability to meet those targets.

Besides its One View mobile supply chain solution, the company also sports its expertise in the manufacturing IoT arena with a rich set applications focusing on supply chain analytics, leveraging the ocean of big data generated by connected devices. “By providing real-time capabilities, we focus on shallow-dives—quick reviews of information relevant and pertinent to the objectives of the business,” says Oskin.

In one instance, a large food & beverage manufacturer wanted to improve manufacturing and supply chain operations. Sage Clarity provided a collaborative framework for real-time analytics that used data from plant-floor, supply chain and product quality systems. Using this framework, personnel from shop floor operators to senior management were able to have necessary information at their fingertips to view data and make course corrections in the supply chain. “Rather than reviewing a piles of reports at the end of the month, data is viewed in real-time, on everyone’s own time, so the management can focus on action rather than data presentations,” remarks Oskin.

Sage Clarity is involved in developing and testing innovative supply chain management solutions in partnership with Fortune 50 companies and premier universities. Through this initiative, Sage Clarity is developing methodologies and the related technologies to fully enable supply chain visibility and collaboration—providing real-time dynamic information facilitating responses to rapidly changing conditions across a supply chain. “The work within our innovation lab can provide a glimpse into a part of our roadmap: enabling real-time visibility and collaboration across the extended supply chain,” says Oskin. “We are developing a library of metric apps that any organization can leverage to serve each member of their supply chain community, enabling collaboration up, down, or across the supply chain,” he concludes.