Leveraging supply chain data remains a headache

LAS VEGAS — While data in supply chains is plentiful, synthesizing information from separate sources for better decision making remains a hurdle, executives said at Manifest 2025 this month.

“The root of most supply chain challenges is a four letter word — it’s data,” said Jodi Larson, Microsoft’s VP of cloud supply chain strategy and transformation, during a panel on supply chain connectivity and transparency.

Larson’s team builds engineering and IT systems, relying on roughly 200 direct suppliers including Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Micron and Samsung. While Microsoft may want order information in a particular format with specific data capture methods, other customers might request something different. That presents added complexity for a supplier like Samsung, which has to field customer requests from a variety of industries, Larson said.

Supply chain stakeholders and governments working together to develop standards could help companies get on the same page, Larson said. Standards should address how to identify suppliers and record their information, which data formatting methods are approved and how long data should be stored for, she added.

“There’s a lot of these standards, and today we don’t have alignment between the governments, and some of the legislation is actually in confli…