Many have touted the inclusion of data from outside the firm as a way to improve forecast accuracy. The idea is that, with the incorporation of more information to explain the demand signal, forecasts are bound to be better. In…
After many months of angst about rapidly rising commodity prices, indications are that they are coming back down. This presents an opportunity for a data-driven business that uses advanced analytics. Though there is pain in operating a supply chain under…
Tom Davenport, our chairman, along with co-author DJ Patil recently wrote, "Is Data Scientist Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century?" This is an update to the original article from ten years ago. It got us thinking about the…
Tension between railroad management and workers is high. Attendance policies associated with grueling work schedules and safety concerns related to Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) are at the top of the list of complaints voiced by labor unions. Government regulators have…
We will be presenting at the 2022 Community of Human and Organizational Learning 28th Annual Conference. Our session is entitled, “Predictive Analytics for Safety.” The conference will be held June 14-16, 2022 at Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, CO…
After three decades of steady decreases, the rate of highway/rail accidents bottomed out in 2012. But it has been trending upward ever since. The graph shows that in 2012 the incident rate reached its all-time low of 2.72 incidents per…
Following up with our infocomic on our work in the rail industry, here is another fun little illustration depicting some of the work we at First Analytics have done. This one focuses on consumer products (including CPG) and retail. These…
This is a re-post of an article originally by First Analytics Chairman Tom Davenport. More of Tom's articles can be found here. One of the key attributes of the lean startup approach popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries is…
Here is a fun little illustration depicting some of the work we at First Analytics have done in the rail industry. It's patterned after Richard Scarry's classic children's illustrated book, "What do People Do All Day?" Several of these stories…
Join us for a webinar sponsored by the Community of Human and Organizational Learning. The topic is Add Predictive Analytics to Your Safety Management System. It will occur on Thursday, February 24, 2022, from 10:30 ET to 12:00ET. Here is…