Business Intelligence for Supply Chain Managers Training Course

Course overview

Supply chain managers are expected to explain service failures, inventory exposure, supplier performance and capacity constraints with evidence rather than intuition. Yet operational data is often split across ERP exports, warehouse reports, transport systems and spreadsheets, producing inconsistent measures and slow escalation. This course equips managers to turn supply chain data into trusted decision support for S&OP, replenishment, supplier reviews, network planning and operational performance meetings.

Participants learn to define decision-focused KPIs, structure supply chain data, assess data quality and build analytical models in Microsoft Power BI. The course covers demand, inventory, procurement, warehouse and logistics measures including forecast accuracy, inventory turns, days of supply, fill rate, OTIF, lead-time variability, supplier reliability and cost-to-serve. Participants use Power Query, Excel and SQL concepts to prepare data, create relationships, apply DAX measures, build drill-through dashboards and interpret exceptions using the ASCM SCOR DS performance framework.

Instructor-led demonstrations are followed by hands-on work with a realistic multi-site supply chain dataset containing sales, inventory, purchase orders, supplier deliveries and shipments. Teams investigate a deteriorating service-level scenario, identify root causes and present evidence-based actions. Each participant leaves with a documented Supply Chain BI Dashboard Blueprint: a KPI dictionary, data-source map, dashboard wireframe, priority DAX measures and a 90-day implementation plan that can be adapted to their organisation.

The course is designed for experienced supply chain, planning, procurement, logistics and operations professionals who already work with operational reports and need stronger capability to specify, analyse and govern business intelligence solutions.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define a supply chain KPI dictionary with formulas, owners, refresh frequency and decision use cases
• Map ERP, warehouse, procurement and transport data into an analysis-ready supply chain data model
• Profile supply chain data for missing values, duplicate transactions, inconsistent master data and timing errors
• Build Power Query transformations for inventory, purchase order, shipment and demand data extracts
• Create DAX measures for OTIF, fill rate, inventory turns, days of supply, forecast bias and lead-time variability
• Design Power BI dashboards using drill-through, exception thresholds, segmentation and trend analysis
• Apply SCOR DS reliability, responsiveness, agility, cost and asset-management metrics to performance reviews
• Produce a phased Supply Chain BI Dashboard Blueprint and 90-day implementation plan

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Supply Chain Managers — who need defensible performance insight across planning, sourcing, inventory and fulfilment
• Supply Chain Planning Managers — who must connect demand, supply, inventory and service measures in S&OP decisions
• Procurement Managers — who need to analyse supplier delivery, lead-time and purchase-order performance
• Logistics and Distribution Managers — who investigate transport service, warehouse throughput and order-fulfilment exceptions
• Inventory Control Managers — who need to identify stock exposure, replenishment failures and slow-moving inventory
• Operations Excellence Managers — who sponsor data-led improvement initiatives across supply chain functions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least two years of experience in supply chain, planning, procurement, logistics or operations and be comfortable reading operational reports. Familiarity with common measures such as inventory, orders, lead time, forecast, service level and supplier delivery is assumed. Participants should be able to use Excel formulas, filters, PivotTables and charts; prior Power BI experience is helpful but not essential. No programming, data science, database-administration or advanced statistical background is required. SQL is introduced for data-query literacy rather than taught as a software-development course.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short, decision-led briefings to introduce each analytical method, followed by guided build sessions in Power BI, Excel and sample SQL queries. Participants work with a connected supply chain dataset covering demand, purchase orders, inventory positions, supplier deliveries and customer shipments. Case discussions focus on interpreting exceptions rather than merely producing charts. Small groups compare KPI definitions and dashboard designs for an executive review. The final day is a workshop in which each participant adapts the course artefacts into a prioritised BI implementation plan for their own supply chain environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Supply chain decisions, metrics and data foundations

• Decision-to-metric mapping for S&OP, replenishment, supplier review and service recovery
• ASCM SCOR DS performance attributes and metric hierarchy
• KPI definitions for OTIF, fill rate, perfect order, inventory turns and days of supply
• Leading versus lagging indicators in demand, supply and fulfilment management
• Supply chain data domains across ERP, WMS, TMS, procurement and planning systems
• Grain, transaction keys, master data and time dimensions in operational reporting
• Data quality profiling for missing records, duplicates, unit mismatches and late postings

Workshop: Participants create a KPI dictionary and data-source map for a multi-site distributor experiencing declining customer service.

Day 2: Preparing supply chain data for analysis

• Power BI import modes, refresh considerations and source connectivity choices
• Power Query steps for cleansing order, inventory, supplier and shipment extracts
• Appending monthly operational files and merging reference-data tables
• Date, fiscal-calendar and working-day transformations for supply chain reporting
• Standardising supplier, product, location and unit-of-measure master data
• Star-schema design with fact tables and conformed dimensions
• SQL SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY and WHERE clauses for supply chain data validation

Workshop: Participants transform and model raw purchase-order, inventory and shipment files into an analysis-ready star schema.

Day 3: Measures for inventory, demand and supplier performance

• DAX measure structure, filter context and CALCULATE for operational metrics
• Inventory turns, days of supply and excess-and-obsolete inventory calculations
• Demand variance, forecast accuracy, forecast bias and demand segmentation
• Purchase-order confirmation, supplier OTIF and lead-time variability measures
• Backorder, fill-rate and order-cycle-time calculations
• Time-intelligence comparisons for month, quarter, year-to-date and rolling periods
• Target, threshold and exception logic for management scorecards

Workshop: Participants build and validate a DAX measure library for inventory exposure, forecast performance and supplier reliability.

Day 4: Dashboard design and operational diagnosis

• Executive scorecard layout for service, cost, inventory and supplier performance
• Power BI slicers, drill-through pages, tooltips and decomposition trees
• Exception-based visual design using targets, variance flags and conditional formatting
• Product, customer, supplier, location and channel segmentation methods
• Root-cause analysis from late orders to inventory, supplier and warehouse constraints
• Cost-to-serve analysis using order, shipment, product and customer attributes
• Dashboard usability testing and narrative preparation for performance reviews

Workshop: Teams build a drill-through service-performance dashboard and diagnose the drivers of a regional OTIF decline.

Day 5: BI governance, adoption and implementation planning

• KPI governance roles for measure ownership, approval and change control
• Data refresh, validation checkpoints and reconciliation with source-system reports
• Row-level security concepts and controlled access to supplier and customer data
• Dashboard adoption routines for daily control, weekly operations and monthly S&OP
• Prioritising BI use cases by decision value, data readiness and implementation effort
• Requirements specification for BI developers, data engineers and business stakeholders
• Ninety-day roadmap design for a supply chain BI pilot

Workshop: Participants present a Supply Chain BI Dashboard Blueprint containing KPI priorities, wireframes, data requirements, governance controls and a 90-day rollout plan.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft SQL Server, ASCM SCOR DS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions