Data Decisions

Recently, DND and the CAF have placed a lot of emphasis on DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS (DDD). For me, I see data as more of a service to informed decision-taking, and towards justifying/substantiating decisions. The DDD thrust reminded me of one of my own uses of data to support TWO decisions – mine and my bosses, as suggested in the picture.

In the late 1990s, I was a Lieutenant-Colonel running one of the smaller Directorates within the new Land Equipment Programme Management Division in ADM(Mat). We were in the annual National Procurement (NP) budget planning cycle, trying to fairly allocate funds to restock the supply chain and maintain our equipment fleets. Two of my systems – Army portable field electrical power systems and Army tentage – had both come to me asking for about the same amount, which together exceeded my planning allocation by a few $M. I decided it might be good to use inventory data to help decide what was fair (as opposed to usual “Same as Last Year + 3%”).

I had my staff research 3 primary data points for the 10,000+ parts supporting these two fleets:

•  The total Inventory Value held, for all the items in stock supporting each fleet

•  The Annual Consumption Value of all the items issued/consumed supporting each fleet

•  The Stock-Out Rates for each fleet. At that time the DND supply system tracked a metric called KA-referrals, which was an indication that there was no free stock available, and the demands were referred to my central supply managers to procure.

While only indicative values, I used these 3 values to:

•  Estimate Inventory Depth in years by dividing Inventory Value by Annual Consumption Value. Army Power – a fairly new system – showed a depth of ~12 years. Army Tents were more like ~6 months!

•  See the quality of Inventory Service by comparing the Stock-Out Rates. Army Power was below the average across the Division, while Army Tents were over 3 times the average rate.

The data served to confirm my suspicions and decision of where to best invest my NP…. BUT… it also provided me with data to plead my case at the Divisions BoD NP reviews, resulting in an increase in our allocation. Remarkably, my peers we not so well armed!

What are your thoughts on the use of such indicative data to improve decisions?