Anyone in supply chain careers use Alteryx?

[kevinmoc08]

Hello. I am a student at Cal State Fullerton about to graduate with my Bachelors in Accounting and Business Management. I have taken an interest in a career in supply chain management, so I took a class that my university offers called emerging technologies in accounting, which introduces students briefly to stuff like Alteryx, UIPath, Power BI, Python, and Tableau. I know that Tableau, Power BI, and Python can all be used in careers in supply chain, but has anyone used Alteryx in supply chain? If so, how has it benefited you and what do you use it for?

[MeganBowers]

Hi @kevinmoc08,

Before Alteryx, I worked as a data analyst at Stanley Black & Decker and worked with their supply chain team to tackle their data needs. Some things I did in Alteryx:

• use multiple database connections and Alteryx tools to automate vendor mapping (master data management can be tricky in supply chain--vendors show different versions of names in different systems)
• set up logic in Alteryx to output data for a dashboard about demand we generated for our suppliers (the ERP system would change requirements, and the supply chain team needed to get ahead of this and track demand against their capacity)
• automate common data requests that would normally take more time in Excel or MS Access (often the information they needed came from a combination of many tables) 

[kevinmoc08]

Thanks Megan for sharing your experiences. I'm going into audit first, but would like to switch to supply chain afterwards. Sadly, I did not study it in college, but I studied accounting instead. I plan to watch videos on YouTube and LinkedIn about intro to SCM, logistics, planning, and procurement at least to expose myself to the basic gist of SCM, because I know very little.

What else do you think other than Alteryx I should learn on my own to prepare me for a career change? I know SAP is something.

[MeganBowers]

Yeah, if you have experience with SAP from the accounting side, that will likely be helpful! I got to be familiar with the data needs of the supply chain team, but I don't have a lot to share outside of that. You might want to look into supply chain credentialing/certifications :) Best of luck!

[leofrancia]

Hi, @kevinmoc08. It is great that you are evaluating tools that relate to the domain that interests you. You can have a look at Alteryx Supply Chain Automation analyst and company stories here: https://www.alteryx.com/customer-center?page=1&filters=department_tag%3Dsupply_chain.

TL;DR: my suggestion is to focus on learning the business processes on the job if you can and make the platform to learn secondary. A longer response can be found below. :)

SAP is a powerful platform that touches not just Supply Chain but also Human Capital Management, Finance, among others. I learned mid-career that it is not the tool or platform that builds business process knowledge, it is exposure to the processes which does that. 

You will encounter two main types of systems in the Supply Chain world (or any business domain really): transaction systems (OLTP) and analytical systems (OLAP). OLTP systems like SAP ERP help in automating operations. Analytical platforms like Alteryx (note that SAP and other vendors also have similar offerings) primarily help in automating processes related to decision-making (not the decision-making itself, as it is recommended to have a human in the loop). Which of these topics interests you more? That can be your area of focus. From there you can use your business process knowledge in using your preferred tools or whichever is available in your organization's landscape.

I was previously an SAP technical consultant (in industries such as Retail, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, etc.) who wanted to have exposure to analytics for business processes. While my experience with Alteryx is not strictly in the supply chain world, what I loved about Alteryx is that it is so easy to use that I can focus on learning about business processes while working with subject mater experts, instead of spending time learning coding or frameworks.

[cjaneczko]

Like Megan I also worked at Stanley Black and Decker using Alteryx to process data flows. I was a Supply Planner for the Lenox business. I had migrated alot of my daily routines into Alteryx Workflows. Most of my workflows consisted of Master Production Schedules, Capacity Planning, Inventory tracking, Attainment to plan as well as production line rates. These flows relied on outputs from SAP as well as some ad hoc external reference files. It was a pretty strong tool that shaved hours off of routine data pulls. I have since moved on out of Supply planning and into Demand planning at Raytheon. They are also using Alteryx. I see a lot of potential to leverage the workflows in Demand as well.

[kevinmoc08]

I am going to be introduced to SAP in my summer procurement internship. I'm excited.

[kevinmoc08]

Thanks for your detailed response. I'm going to be introduced to SAP ERP in my summer procurement internship. And yes I hear the platform is very powerful and important.

[kevinmoc08]

Congrats at your role at Raytheon. I have a friend interning there right now and I'd like to be able to work there in an entry-level role. Sadly, nothing is open at the moment. We'll keep trying.