Geospatial Information Systems for Supply Chain

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Bringing the Power of GIS to

Supply Chain Management

Table of Contents
p.1

Forward

p.2

Supply Chain Management’s Quandary

p.5

Driving Decisions with GIS Data

p.8

Data Sources and Analysis

p.11 Implementing GIS
p.14 Preparing for GIS-Enabled SCM

Forward
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.

p.1

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.

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Supply Chain Management’s Quandary
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.

Danger from the unseen and complex
A 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

p.2
Schmidt, 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.pdf

1

2
Deloitte; “2009 Supply Chain Book of Metrics”; http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/
us_consulting_scbenchmark2009supplychainbook_061410.pdf

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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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

p.3
Munich 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.aspx

3

Cushman, 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

4

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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.

Why GIS?
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.

p.4

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 tradeoffs 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.

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

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Driving Decisions with GIS Data
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-driven strategy
Companies 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.

p.5

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

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

Primacy of location
Location 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.

p.6

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

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

• distance from potential crew housing

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.

• land rights clearing

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

Data-driven: harder than it sounds

• weather and climate
• soil characteristics
• native flora and fauna reports
• 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.

GIS 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

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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 :

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.

• “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.”
p.7
1

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

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Data Sources and Analysis
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.

Getting a bead on location
Location 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.

Choosing data
Beyond 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

p.8

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• manufacturing lead time
• variability of supply or demand and the necessary
inventory buffer
• marketing and sales promotions

Data quality

• product lifecycles

Having 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?

• 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.

p.9

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Where to find the data
After 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.

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.

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 locationbased 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
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Implementing GIS
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.

Integration with other systems
A 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
p.11

• 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,

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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

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

Integration with the business
As 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

p.12

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

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.

Contingency planning

Risk management

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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Preparing for GIS-Enabled SCM
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.

GIS graduate studies
For 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.

p.14

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 crossdisciplinary 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.

Gaining the benefits that GIS tools
and analysis can offer supply chain
management requires the proper
knowledge and experience.
MBA with GIS concentration
Another 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 datadriven management techniques and strategies and
gain a more competitive foothold in their industries
and careers.

AmericanSentinel.edu

Author Bios

p.15

Dr. Stephen McElroy

Steven Owlett, CPSM, C.P.M., CISCM

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.

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.

AmericanSentinel.edu

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