Tesco Optimizes its Supply Chain with Big Data

Adam Yeoman, Senior Analyst at Tesco, gave a talk about Supply Chain Analytics at Tesco. The team there is heavy on maths and analytics, and they use that muscle to improve profits and reduce waste at the supermarket giant.
Ellie Fields
Adam Yeoman, Senior Analyst at Tesco, gave a talk about Supply Chain Analytics at Tesco. The team there is heavy on maths and analytics, and they use that muscle to improve profits and reduce waste at the supermarket giant. Tesco uses Teradata to warehouse their supply and inventory data. They've got 5 years of data and 100 Terabytes on 100 cores in Teradata. On using Teradata with Tableau: “We connect live and it just works.”

The Tesco Dream Team uses all this data to:
  • Improve promotions
  • Predict weather effects on sales
  • Optimise store operations
  • Collaborate with suppliers
As an example of predicting weather effects, Adam explained that there is always one weekend where the weather is nice and everyone decides to have a bbq. They only get a few days' warning ont he weather and they need to make sure they have stock in for the weekend.

In the future, they want to take their analysis to the stores on tablets. “Being able to talk about our projects in the store is very powerful,” says Adam.