The information requirements of structured decision making can be more precisely predicted and defined. The information itself is often quantitative and can be used within a strictly defined and rule-bound system. Decisions are likely to be relatively automatic, routine, frequent and short term.
In the supermarket, for example, there may be 30 checkout operators and 10 000 or more different lines stocked. At peak times, purchases may be leaving the supermarket at a rate of 40 000 items per hour.
Stocks of each line must be reordered to arrive at the rate of consumption or changing demand for particular lines caused by promotional; activities or food scarce could be easily lead to empty shelves to throw away ‘till roll’ data collected for the primary purpose of calculating how much to charge the customer.
Systems that covert data from internal or external sources into information to be used by mangers are called management information systems.
Information is expensive to collect, but once held in digital form it costs next to nothing to store and so can be freely used over and over again for a variety of secondary purpose. For instance, till roll data collected over a period of months or years can be analyzed for long term trends and presented graphically to aid in forecasting and strategic planning.
Indexing of information is always a reliable source for forecasting, as the management to interpolate the trends of the underlying behaviors of the figures.
Wal-Mart’s key strength in use of information to manage supplier relations, while Tesco and other UK supermarkets maintain full control over the stocking of shelves in their store based on their internal expertise in logistics information.
They use their data on stock levels to maintain and enhance what is on the shelves, but stocking decision remain in their control.
Managing Information: Accessible Filing
