Operational analytics can help businesses increase efficiency, protect their reputations, save money, and eliminate waste. This is a broad area, covering everything from supply chain management to detecting fraud, but it is not to be overlooked. Let’s explore the key operational analytics you should be using in your business.
Fraud costs businesses a great deal of money every year. A recent report from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimated that the typical organization loses 5 percent of its revenues in a given year to fraud. This is money that could be bolstering profits and helping the business grow. Fraud-detection analytics helps you predict and reduce fraud by  looking at vast amounts of data and identifying patterns or certain behaviors that flag fraudulent activity. Activity data, text data, and spoken data offer a rich vein of information from which to conduct fraud-detection analytics.
Tip: If you discover fraudulent activity, try running some data mining on those cases to see if you can identify patterns that you can then use to prevent future fraud.
Finding and securing a competitive advantage is tough. Core competency analytics is the process of identifying what your core competencies are so that you may exploit them to the fullest. Start by listing all the actions that are required to produce your products or services. Then, taking each step or element in turn, break it down to understand what enables competency in that task or process. You can then start identifying patterns (using, for example, factor analysis) to determine what are the core competencies in your business.
Tip: Identifying core competencies can help to pinpoint and eliminate waste or improve inefficiencies as a by-product of the identification process.
The more you understand your supply chain and the more flexible it is, the better able you will be to understand your market, predict potential road bumps, and adapt to changing customer needs. Supply chain analytics is the process of assessing each stage of your supply chain or the various processes that go into creating your product or service. The purpose of supply chain analytics is to determine opportunities for savings, improvements, or increased return while also ensuring that your customers get what they ordered as quickly as possible. These days, with sensors and data-collection points along most supply chains, it can be easy to track actual performance.
Tip: Making money in business is not just about making sales – it’s also about managing costs. Supply chain analytics offers powerful insight into where and how you can manage costs effectively.
Efficiency and quality matter in any business. Lean Six Sigma analytics is the process of analyzing efficiency and quality in your business. Traditionally used in manufacturing, Lean Six Sigma is now also being used in service industries. As a methodology, Lean Six Sigma represents a set of tools, implemented by certified employees, that enable continuous or, preferably, breakthrough performance.
Tip: The biggest benefits from Lean Six Sigma are secured when projects are related to the achievement of strategic goals.
Capacity utilization affects efficiency, productivity and, ultimately, profit. Capacity utilization analytics is similar to employee capacity analytics, but the focus is on equipment and plant rather than people.
Â
