Braintrust Query: Are the goals of data synchronization realistic?

By Bill Bittner, President, BWH Consulting

At a session from this week's UConnect Conference in Orlando, FL, a few retail tech bigwigs shared war stories on data synchronization and their efforts in pushing their organizations to get to one version of the truth.

The panel featured J. Alexander (Sandy) Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America; Craig Herkert, president and CEO of Wal-Mart of the Americas; and Randy Mott, former CIO of Dell and now head of IT strategy for Hewlett-Packard.

Wal-Mart told how it took two years to reduce the apparel life cycle from design to store sales from 50 to six weeks. Coke emphasized the need for interoperability between corporate and all the bottlers who actually package the products. HP described their reduction of 750 internal data marts into one data warehouse.

Looking forward, Wal-Mart described how they are continually striving to improve operational efficiencies and their RFID initiative continues to expand, going from 1000 to 1400 stores this year. They are confident that RFID payback will be there as tag costs continue to decline (now at 8 cents) and the technology becomes better understood.

But officials also touched on how the internet and globalization can complicate progress. When asked to express their concerns for the future, Coke had an interesting perspective on the effect of internet anarchy. Big brands create big targets and it is getting harder for the brand owners to defend themselves against misinformation that can be broadcast instantly over the internet. Wal-Mart discussed how compressed timelines have become by describing the worldwide release of Pirates of the Caribbean on the same day, with all the promotional merchandise needing to be in place at once.

These are all great examples and they are fun to talk about at a meeting that is being held to emphasize data accuracy, but I think we may be expecting too much. Not every carton, jar or box will be exactly the same as the next. As you keep improving the measuring devices, it reaches a point where each unit is unique because of minor differences. Data synchronization is built on the assumption that there exists one version of the truth, but the fact is that the supply chain is never standing still. The parts are always moving and variations between units will always exist.

Discussion Questions: Are the goals of data synchronization realistic? Can there be a single version of the truth that applies universally? Is there a way to meet the spirit of data synchronization while accommodating the vagaries of the real world?

[Author's commentary] In supply chain automation, we use a digital tool to manage an analog world. The computer can carry details to a much greater level of precision than is humanly possible or even necessary. We need to recognize in our system designs and our data capture that there needs to be provision for some "fuzzy logic." We need to recognize that GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers) and 'Items' are not always the same thing. One "Item" can have many GTINs as various net contents are produced to meet a price point and various promotional labels are produced to spur demand. We need to handle the flow of product variations as they pass from manufacturer to distributor to retailer and to consumer. There is never simply one version of the truth in our constantly moving supply chain.

This means there must be "data alignment" that supports the flow of authorized item variations through the supply chain. This kind of flexibility must be built into everyone's applications so that the whole supply chain looks at items not as a single unit, but as a group of physical units addressing the same consumer needs. Assortment planning, replenishment, and pricing applications must recognize this relationship so they can affect changes across all the units of an item. This type of flexibility will make it possible for all members of the supply chain to better share item data.