Bringing the Power of GIS to

Supply Chain ManageMent

p.1 Forward

p.2 SupplyChainManagement’sQuandary

p.5 DrivingDecisionswithGISData

p.8 DataSourcesandAnalysis

p.11 ImplementingGIS

p.14 PreparingforGIS-EnabledSCM

TableofContents

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.1

Supply chain management (SCM) is an old and established aspect of managing the operations of a company and serving its market strategy. From early Phoenician and Greek traders through the exploration of the Silk Road and royally-chartered trading monopolies in Britain, commerce up and down the Mississippi, to the modern global process of design, manufacture, and distribution of goods, people have been concerned for millennia with solving the problems of how to get and gather supplies, make goods, and get them to people who would buy them.

However, the problems that SCM practitioners face today are as easily solved by traditional methods and tools as nuclear energy is controlled with the knowledge of how to make a wheel round. A single product may be the result of efforts on several continents, with components scheduled to arrive just in time for assembly, sometimes while other materials are still in transit. The finished product might have to move over rail, ship, airplane, truck, or any combination of these.

Gone are the days that most of the work happened within a single facility, or at worst a few factories close to each other. Supply chains can face disruption by strikes, political unrest, adverse weather events, accidents, or even the normal perturbations of human endeavor. Improving supply chains to gain efficiency becomes a complex series of trade-offs and a complicated set of considerations.

Professionals need new tools, knowledge, and techniques for managing the tangled web of connections, dependencies, interactions, movements, and processes that compose a company’s supply chain. Success entails combining diverse types of information tied to the geographic nature of a supply chain.

That is why SCM professionals need expertise in geospatial information systems (GIS). With GIS technology, they can collect and analyze hundreds of constraints for a geographically distributed supply chain; develop and compare contingency plans; better control inventory under just-in-time manufacturing strategies; forecast and balance supply and demand; and manage risk.

This e-book offers a condensed introduction to the concept of GIS for supply chain professionals. The chapters will touch on such subjects as the problems facing SCM managers and personnel; driving strategic decisions with data; some considerations in data sources and analytic approaches; issues of integrating GIS with the existing IT and strategic infrastructures; and some educational options for obtaining the necessary expertise in GIS.

Forward

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.2

To think that supply chain issues are simply tactical problems handled by some group in operations is to ignore how important and influential SCM has become to the value of a corporation. In 2005, Airbus indicated that its then-new A380 jet would see a six-month delivery delay. The stock fell by 2 percent, which was a normal fluctuation. However, a year later, the company announced an additional six-month delay that would reduce before tax earnings by approximately €2 billion ($3.8 billion at the time) over the following four years. The stock tumbled by more than 26 percent overnight, a drop in market valuation of $10.3 billion.1

In a nutshell, that story encapsulates the conundrum facing supply chain managers. Sometimes things that go wrong are a surmountable inconvenience. Other times, a supply chain issue can strike to the very heart of both perceived and literal corporate value. In the consumer product industry, median distribution and delivery transportation costs alone represent 3.8 percent of revenue. In the household and personal care industry, median indirect sourcing costs outside the direct materials costs (which extend beyond just supply chain-related costs) are about 25 percent of revenue.2

The destructive impact can take the form of something obvious, like punishment from investors or unnecessary overhead spending, or it can be practically invisible, such as ceding advantage to a competitor or losing a market opportunity. The invisible damage is the worst because managers may never realize that it happened and so fail to take measures that might make reoccurrence less likely.

DangerfromtheunseenandcomplexA supply chain can be difficult to manage and optimize because of its innate complexity, market pressures, and external realities. Supply chains have become complicated labyrinths that stretch around the globe. A product like the Apple iPad may require components from Japan and South Korea that are incorporated into subassemblies and then fit together to build finished products in China.

A company has to determine likely demand for a product so it can manufacture enough in advance to avoid unexpected sales interruptions, as obtaining

SupplyChainManagement’sQuandary

1Schmidt, William; Raman, Ananth; “When Supply-Chain Disruptions Matter”’; Harvard Business School; January 3, 2012; http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/13-006_cff75cd2-952d-493d-89e7-d7043385eb64.pdf2Deloitte; “2009 Supply Chain Book of Metrics”; http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_consulting_scbenchmark2009supplychainbook_061410.pdf

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.3

more stock may mean a multi-month trip on a container ship. Incorrect guesses can result in the loss of millions of dollars in orders on one hand or waste millions on inventory that will almost immediately be remaindered.

The chance of making poor decisions has only increased over the last few years. Adverse weather events have steadily increased since 1980, according to reinsurance company Munich:Re.3 Each event raises the possibility of disrupting transportation and logistics in a given part of the world. With global commerce, any disruption has a significant chance of affecting companies around the world. For example, the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan had a significant effect on electronics firms.

Changing conditions in labor markets, such as increased regulation and rising wages in China, can upset previously sound strategies. A growing number of companies in the U.S. and Europe have begun to find the manufacturing price differential low enough that the greater flexibility and responsiveness of assembly close to demand can outweigh the remaining per-unit financial savings. But making a switch is a complex process and controlling the supply chain during such an upheaval, a challenge. There are also the reputational implications of high-profile news stores when outsourcing factories are caught with poor working

conditions, questionable labor practices, or charges of pollution and then are linked to a client company. Public opinion of Nike plummeted in the 1990s when news reports uncovered use of child labor in Asia.4

Market demands just increase the pressure and dangers. Product lifecycles continue to shorten. Where once consumers might have been content with new consumer electronics items every year, now the need to stand out from competition has driven companies to cycle models through the market completely in a matter of months. Even old industries like book publishing and distribution have been affected. A major chain store might give a new title a few weeks to establish itself. If it can’t, copies head back to the publisher and another book is given a shot.

Fickle consumers also make SCM more difficult. Clothing stores have been on brutal quarterly schedules for years. But now the stakes are higher, competition is heavier. Even a shift in average preference from pink sweaters to green forces retailers to match the transient wishes of the crowd, and that’s without considering trends like automated customization of clothing, like ordering made-to-measure jeans or shirts from a website. When widgets suddenly go out of public favor, replaced by doohickeys, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and sellers must be nimble enough to change with the whim.

Many companies have learned that supply chain management is critical to their success, and so have strengthened those parts of their operations, putting greater pressure on competitors to improve their own operations and to gain additional advantages.

3Munich RE; “North America most affected by increase in weather-related natural catastrophes”; http://www.munichre.com/en/media_relations/press_releases/2012/2012_10_17_press_release.aspx4Cushman, John H.; “Nike Pledges to End Child Labor And Apply U.S. Rules Abroad”; May 13, 1998; The New York Times; http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/13/business/international-business-nike-pledges-to-end-child-labor-and-apply-us-rules-abroad.html

Not only is there a capacity to manage vast amounts of data, but GIS systems can present it in organic, holistic, graphical formats.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.4

As a result, the demands on supply chains have increased. They need greater geographic diversity to preserve options and gain additional time and cost savings when conditions allow. SCM professionals must be more cognizant of managing risk, both directly to the supply chain and indirectly to other aspects of the company. Greater control over increasing complexity must somehow balance availability with cost reduction.

Modern problems require modern tools, and part of the SCM toolset should be GIS.

WhyGIS?GIS is a critical tool for SCM professionals because it manages massive amounts of location-based data to produce information that helps executives to make better choices. Often used in such diverse areas as utilities planning, construction, government services, and retail location planning, GIS is a superb technology to apply to supply chain challenges.

What makes GIS so effective is that almost all types of data have a spatial component. By using locational data as a reference, SCM professionals with appropriate training can track and manage both resources and processes. The resources could include transportation distribution points for trucks or ships; finished goods, whether in a stationary location or vehicle; and raw materials or components inventory. Processes may include assembly, transportation routing, merge in transit, demand or supply forecasting, or manufacturing lines.

By managing both processes and resources, SCM professionals can integrate information and look at the potential impact of product location, transportation delays at distribution hubs, geopolitical turmoil on

transit routes, availability and arrival time of materials, and projected requirements of customers.

Not only is there a capacity to manage vast amounts of data, but GIS systems can present it in organic, holistic, graphical formats. Using GIS, executives can more easily spot trends and identify potential delays or other issues, drill down to the supporting data, and make adjustments as necessary to keep operations moving normally.

Because of the extensive nature of the data companies can incorporate, GIS systems allow SCM professionals to cross corporate silo boundaries, making implications of decisions clear. Doing so allows SCM departments and upper management to more easily evaluate trade-offs and avoid sub-optimization, in which part of the company’s supply chain improves its own activity and metrics, but at the cost of some other part of corporate operations, and of the supply chain as a whole.

However, making use of GIS in SCM is far more complicated than buying hardware and software, collecting data, and putting the two together. Managers will need extensive background in the subtleties of GIS analysis as well as the supply chain expertise to identify the most appropriate manner in which to apply the technology.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.5

As long as commerce has existed, people have used data to help make business decisions. Understanding costs are a precursor to setting prices. Sales histories can help guide future product mixes. Monitoring inventory levels and shipping times from suppliers can aid in optimizing on-hand supply levels.

But there is a difference when using spatial data as a tool and making GIS an intrinsic part of driving strategic decisions. The first step is to understand some basic issues related to the strategic use of spatial data.

Data-drivenstrategyCompanies often think that they effectively use data because managers and executives look at numbers in reports, charts, and graphs. They might adjust operations based on what they learned or use the derived information in formulating plans. Such uses of data are perfectly valid and can be helpful. But they do not represent data-driven strategy.

Data-driven decision making is not tacking data onto the back end of the decision process as a check—or a justification. Instead, managers take a step back and evaluate assumptions, expectations, conditions, challenges, and constraints, both internal and external.

Instead of assuming that outsourced manufacturing to Asia would save a company money, managers might consider such factors as cost of transporting goods, the effective increased inventory levels necessary to cover those two-month container ship trips, slower reactions to market conditions, faster scaling of production, speed to market, and associated global distribution of customers.

The results are not just thick reports full of numbers, but real analysis that considers the specific needs and goals of the company. Data appears in a context that provides meaning. A given cost, delay, or regulatory requirement is neither good nor bad on its own. It is in the context of the company’s strategy and operations—as well as external conditions at the moment—that executives can judge where and when to take action.

If it is impossible to arbitrarily add data review as a separate step in typical data-driven decision-making, it is even more impractical to toss GIS into an existing management system without reconsidering how the company arrives at conclusions.

Location-based data isn’t added onto whatever a company currently does. The effects that geospatial

DrivingDecisionswithGISData

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.6

considerations can have on decisions are widespread and profound. Companies should integrate location-based data into all strategic considerations. Ignoring the spatial component can result in many decisions turning out badly.

PrimacyoflocationLocation is vital to decision making because it is the great invisible common denominator. People buy products and make choices at locations, whether at home, work, or any other place. Companies buy and sell in locations. They manufacture in locations. Goods travel from one location to another; at any time in transit, they are at a given location. Government regulations vary by location, as do rents, taxes, and other costs of doing business.

If you analyze a business without considering location, you are making mistakes, possibly major ones. Take a simplified example of a company that sells hand-knit sweaters in three cities. The style is the same. The only difference is that the sweaters come in three colors: red, blue, and yellow. On the average, the company sells equal numbers of all three colors. Using older approaches to data analysis, the company might stock each location with equal portions of the three.

However, a GIS analysis may show that people in city A prefer red sweaters, in city B they prefer blue, and in city C they prefer yellow. If the company stocks its locations with equal mixes of all three colors, each store would primarily sell mostly the preferred

color, resulting in nearly two-thirds of the company’s inventory going to waste. Of course, no business situations will have such elementary conditions and consequences. But the basic principles still hold.

For a company constructing an oil pipeline that stretches a thousand miles, supply chain and logistics considerations could be a nightmare. Here are just some of the factors that will vary by location and which could affect how work is performed and resources are handled and applied:

• environmental impact requirements

• terrain restrictions on vehicles

• road access

• distance from materials distribution points

• distance from potential crew housing

• weather and climate

• soil characteristics

• native flora and fauna reports

• land rights clearing

• availability of water and food for crew

• regulatory or union restrictions on labor

• construction milestones

Without a full analysis based on location, it would be impossible to build a realistic schedule and set of estimated costs.

Data-driven:harderthanitsoundsGIS is useful, but it is also complex and demanding and not something to be undertaken lightly. Otherwise, the result can be like using statistical functions on a

Location is vital to decision making because it is the great invisible common denominator.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.7

spreadsheet: You may get a number, but if you don’t understand what you’re doing, the result might have little connection to your reality.

The software that correlates the data, enables analysis, and provides visualization and mapping capabilities is specialized. Using it at all, let alone effectively, requires training and experience in the specific applications.

Going beyond operating software and actually making effective use of GIS requires strengths in a number of areas, including the following, according to the California Employment Development Department1:

• map design

• data analysis

• computer programming

• database administration

• project management

• system administration

Even this falls short, because it touches largely on the mechanical facilities of working with computers and data. Not covered is the wider set of skills that go beyond the technical and into the analytical, including the following :

• “Meet with users to define data needs, project requirements, required outputs, or to develop applications.”

• “Conduct research to locate and obtain existing databases.”

• “Analyze spatial data for geographic statistics to incorporate into documents and reports.”

And then there are the managerial and strategic skills and knowledge necessary to integrate any data analysis, including GIS, with corporate strategy. Only by understanding the company’s requirements, challenges, and priorities in an area (in this case, supply chain) can personnel put analytic skills, technology, information, and industry expertise to effective and efficient use.

Because of the diverse nature of data that a GIS can employ and the correlations that are possible, the SCM expert using the technology will also have to consider legal and ethical questions. Analyzing consumer data, for example, could put a company under the auspices of data privacy laws of many countries.

The ethical considerations should weigh just as heavily. Location data correlated with other data could allow a company to discern information about personal habits, finances, and other private aspects of the lives of consumers. Even if such inferences are not be legally prohibited does not mean that companies should give themselves carte blanche.

1ESRI; “What do GIS Professional Do?”; http://www.esri.com/what-is-gis/careers-in-gis#prodo_panel2California Employment Development Department; “California Occupational Guide Number 554”; http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/occguide/geogspec.htm

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.8

To drive decisions with data, a company needs the right data. Since the data will likely come from a variety of sources, it must be in a compatible format and of suitable quality.

In short, there is a fair amount of background of data preparation necessary in order to make GIS technology work for supply chain management or any other aspect of a business. The first thing to realize is that just as there is no “magic bullet” computer system or software that can individually solve a company’s business challenges, there is also no single mystic set of data.

Reality is complex and understanding it takes work. Assembling and preparing the data is possibly the most underrated aspect of the process.

GettingabeadonlocationLocation may seem like an obvious concept, but when used in analysis, it is far more complicated, and a supply chain management professional using GIS must learn the technical aspects of location-based data.

The earth is an imperfect geometric solid. Due to the oblate ellipsoid shape of the earth, all maps will portray a distorted representation of it in terms of area, shape, distance, and/or direction.Issues such as choosing an appropriate coordinate system, map projection, and datum are important considerations. These mapping parameters influence the way in which locations are depicted in relationship to each other. Analysts must select the correct parameters for the geographic area of interest.

ChoosingdataBeyond choosing the mapping parameters, the SCM professional who uses GIS for data-driven decisions must carefully select all of the data that will be involved in the spatial analysis. The task of finding the right data is more difficult than it might seem.

The strength of GIS lies in its ability to show relationships and patterns in data and in revealing previously uncovered trends. For example, the number of factors that could influence component or materials inventory levels for a manufacturer can be enormous. Here are just a few influencing constraints:

• demand from customers

• supply from vendors

DataSourcesandAnalysis

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.9

• manufacturing lead time

• variability of supply or demand and the necessary inventory buffer

• marketing and sales promotions

• product lifecycles

• spot market availability

• spoilage

• weather

• transit routes

• types of transportation

• political unrest

• strikes

• factory maintenance schedules

• location of distribution centers

• activities of major competitors

Data-driven analysis is concerned not only with these individual factors, but in the ways they may interact and further affect inventory levels, or whatever else the SCM professional is investigating.

At the same time, too much data can paralyze analysis. Evaluating all of the potential data sets and then narrowing it down to the most useful data is key. Depending on time and resources, the analyst must effectively combine and analyze the data to produce meaningful and reliable conclusions.

One thing to avoid is considering data for its own sake. For example, trying to analyze a supply chain for a new line of business can be tricky. If the new line is sufficiently different from previous ones, historical data about sales, demand, transportation, and other

elements may be useless. Meaningless data and inaccurate assumptions about data sap resources that could better be spent elsewhere.

DataqualityHaving the right data is important. So is having accurate and clean data that the analyst can use. Quality starts with uniform definitions of what the data means. Often, different parts of a supply chain, or even departments within a single business, can use the same terms with different meanings. To one, inventory might mean components or materials, while another considers it to be finished goods. Is inventory measured using the first in, first out methodology? First in, last out? Average over a month? A week? At what point in transit do goods and materials legally change possession from the seller to the buyer?

Data should be accurate, of course. But which of the three versions of a customer’s address stored in the company’s accounting, customer relationship management, and customer service systems is correct? Small differences can make an entity look like two different ones to a computer. Duplicate records, a common problem in corporate data systems, can do the same. Someone must clean up the data.

Furthermore, the data should be in a format that allows for whatever type of analysis and display that the company will need. Will different types of source data be layered on a map? Perhaps someone will want to run a statistical analysis. For example, a variance

Having the right data is important. So is having accurate and clean data that the analyst can use.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.10

analysis to determine where operations have deviated from the norm needs baseline data to establish typical conditions.

WheretofindthedataAfter identifying the necessary data, the SCM professional will have to locate trusted data sources. Source, in this case, will mean two different things. One is the physical repository. Is all the information in a relational database (RDBMS), with its carefully defined tables and records? Is it more freeform in spreadsheets and word processor documents that will require a specialized type of database, possibly one of the so-called NoSQL versions that are significantly different from an RDBMS? The data could also be in an object-oriented database.

Whatever the format, someone has to make all the data available to be consumed by the GIS software. It might be a matter of importing data from a similar type of database structure, creating new databases, or linking information from multiple dissimilar databases. All the data must be tagged with locations from the chosen coordinate system to make a location-based analysis possible.

There will likely be a mix of external and internal sources of data. From outside the company, the SCM professional might obtain information from local, state, and national governments, from commercial entities that license their own proprietary data, and possibly from non-profit organizations. Not only are there all the previous questions about data quality and format, but a consideration of the way in which

the data will be obtained. It might be via physical media, download, or online query.

Internally, a particular supply chain analysis might use data from a combination of marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and other departments or functions. The data may be readily available in a database on a server or from cloud storage. Or the company may have stored historical data offline, which could mean locating a specific piece of physical media to load. Most often though, internal data will come directly from other software systems within the company or from an enterprise-wide data repository in which one version of the data is stored and leveraged throughout the organization.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.11

Even after a company acquires the proper data and SCM professionals obtain the necessary education, it is still necessary to implement the corporate GIS system. Notice the system is a corporate one and not a supply chain tool only. For GIS to be successful in SCM, it must extend beyond a single department. On the technical side, that means integration.

IntegrationwithothersystemsA GIS-based supply chain analysis will always have need for internal data, such as inventory levels, manufacturing capacity, customer demand forecasting, marketing campaign timing, or logistics execution. That data must come from somewhere. And it does: other enterprise software systems.

• Integrating GIS with other software speeds access to data and reduces the chances of introducing errors by manual intervention. Access to the original sources of data also makes it less likely that secondary storage of information might be out of date and inaccurate. Here are some of the important systems that a supply chain GIS might need access to:

• accounting

• warehousing and inventory

• purchasing and order management

• order fulfillment

• demand forecasting

• transportation and logistics

• manufacturing planning and scheduling

• marketing campaign management

• factory control

• customer relationship management

• enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Unfortunately, integrating software is often a difficult task, even when so-called standards-based interoperability guidelines are followed. Applications are complex and making them cooperate takes time as the process can potentially introduce errors or operational difficulties for the separate systems. At a minimum it will be a job for an IT department and could require specialized outside consulting. The business units that own the application and the data will also be involved, as they could have concerns about the smooth functioning of a major software system that affects their operations.

The IT department could arrange for a regular data delivery cycle, which may not be desirable but might be the only option for some companies. In such a case,

ImplementingGIS

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.12

different data formats might require custom programs and business procedures to transform the data every time it is extracted.

Data will also require tagging with the proper geographic coordinates. Such tagging would require either changes to the applications’ databases or the creation of parallel databases to track the relationships between internal data (or third-party external data brought in-house) and location coordinates.

If the data has never been geocoded before, someone will have to decide what coordinates are appropriate in each case. Also, as new internal data is generated in

the course of business, it too, will need to be geocoded and verified. This is a significant effort that will require the involvement of supply chain management, IT, and other departments.

IntegrationwiththebusinessAs complex as the technical issues can be, integrating GIS analysis with a company’s business functions is a significant challenge because it requires a change in habits, preferences, and attitudes among personnel at all levels of the company. There are five areas that a company should address.

OPERATIONAL CONTROL

Tactics and operational control come readily to a discussion of GIS. That is particularly true for supply chain management. A primary function of SCM is to adjust and direct supply chain functions to keep the flow of materials and goods moving as smoothly as possible. But given the range of factors that can affect a supply chain, changes in operational control will likely need to happen with the cooperation and assistance of other departments.

That should not be a surprise to SCM professionals. They already understand the complexity of interactions involved in a supply chain. Data integration only underscores the tangled nature of decision making. A GIS-driven supply chain action can actually become a simultaneous operational change for multiple parts of the business. This entails a level of cooperation that can be difficult to achieve.

STRATEGY

While GIS implemented in SCM should bring a higher level of cooperation in operations across the divisions of a company, it has the potential to make an even greater impact on broader strategic decisions. The underlying issue of sub-optimization, in which one part of a process or system gains efficiency at the expense of overall operations, is a serious concern that must be addressed.

Since SCM professionals use extensive sources of information to improve supply chain operations, they often encounter issues of how to balance different aspects of the company. Those types of

An organization needs the discipline and nimbleness to take advantage of opportunities or mitigate problems as they arise.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.13

strategic decisions must be made at a high level, because they affect the overall performance and goals of the company.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

Supply chain management also takes on a broader set of concerns with GIS data-driven decision making. The number of available factors for analysis gives a company a chance to actively consider real-time changes in conditions and to make contingency plans in response.

However, moving from planning to execution can be a significant leap. An organization needs the discipline and nimbleness to take advantage of opportunities or mitigate problems as they arise. Building the capabilities will take time, so for some period it may be that SCM professionals will identify opportunities or problems without the full ability to react promptly enough.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Business continuity—the robustness to continue operations even in the face of major disruptions— has become another important undertaking for companies in which the cost of down time can often be measured in thousands of dollars or more per hour.

Many companies focus on the physical locations of employees, facilities, and IT systems. But operations also depend on the geographically disparate elements of a supply chain. GIS can help SCM professionals adapt the supply chain as necessary, choosing alternate routes

for goods, shifting distribution points while materials are en route, or moving orders to suppliers that are not in an area affected by some disaster.

RISK MANAGEMENT

The most subtle implication for GIS-enabled supply chain management is integrating the practice into corporate risk management. Typically a high-level activity, executives use risk management to consider factors that could adversely affect the company and to balance them with potential mitigation efforts.

Supply chain weaknesses offer some of the biggest risks that companies face. A strategic failure can stop operations and prevent revenue-generating transactions. Real-time GIS analysis integrated with risk management can help identify acute at-risk scenarios and aid a company in minimizing risk.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.14

As the previous chapters have shown, the benefits that GIS tools and analysis can offer supply chain management are extensive. Gaining the advantages requires the proper knowledge and experience in computer technology and data analysis. The combination of necessary skills and background are not normally found in a traditional supply chain management career path.

Graduate-level instruction and experience, or the equivalent, are necessary to support the array of skills and activities needed to establish an SCM strategy that leverages GIS. Some SCM professionals might opt to return to a traditional college campus to gain what they need. But many people cannot easily walk away from their careers and lives to pursue their professional goals and ambitions.

GISgraduatestudiesFor such SCM professionals, online programs like those at American Sentinel University may be an answer. With an online Master of Geospatial Information Systems program and an online Geospatial Information Systems graduate certificate, people in the SCM field can obtain the intensive training they need to make GIS part of their professional practice.

The 36-credit-hour master’s degree program teaches professionals to apply geospatial technologies and visualization strategies to real-world systems for modern-day problem solving. The online GIS master’s degree offers students two program tracks to choose from: a course track and a project track. Both tracks include five core courses, several elective courses, and a GIS project, but the project track allows students

to complete a more comprehensive geospatial project designed to be applied to a tangible workplace issue.

The 15-credit-hour graduate certificate offers a cross-disciplinary curriculum that focuses on the real-world use of geospatial information to address organizational challenges. Students learn to use tools that enable the integration of visual, spatial, temporal, social and contextual information into the working environment to more effectively solve complex issues.

MBAwithGISconcentrationAnother American Sentinel option is the online Master of Business Administration degree program with the GIS concentration. The online MBA program helps professionals achieve an understanding of how to apply data interpretation, insight-driven decision-making and analytical principles to address a self-defined business challenge or opportunity. A feature of the MBA program is the use of data concepts, including extensive choices of courses in GIS and business intelligence, to make good business decisions.

Whatever approach professionals ultimately choose, a background in GIS allows them to use powerful data-driven management techniques and strategies and gain a more competitive foothold in their industries and careers.

PreparingforGIS-EnabledSCM

Gaining the benefits that GIS tools and analysis can offer supply chain management requires the proper knowledge and experience.

AmericanSentinel.edu

p.15

Dr.StephenMcElroy

Dr. McElroy has been working in the GIS field since 1999, as a GIS technician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southwest Watershed Research Center; a senior research specialist for the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Arizona; and the assistant director of geospatial technologies for a private-sector cultural resource management company. Dr. McElroy holds a Ph.D. in geography from the joint doctoral program at San Diego State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from the University of Cincinnati. He also holds a GIS professional certification from the GIS Certification Institute.

StevenOwlett,CPSM,C.P.M.,CISCM

Steven Owlet is a seasoned supply chain management executive with 20+ years’ experience driving global market expansion through supply chain setup and optimization. Mr. Owlett experiences encompass executive and senior-level positions in the energy, multi-retail, and services industry segments. In addition, Mr. Owlett has a comprehensive understanding of the supply chain process and is expert at applying advanced technologies to enterprise supply chains.

AuthorBios