Loaves in the bin
Greenfield Bakery is a made-up shop. Every day it bakes 100 loaves. At closing time the owner throws the unsold loaves away.
The till writes down every sale. Nobody has ever looked at the sheet. Today we do. What is that sheet worth?
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Data analytics | Looking at data to find patterns that help people decide. | Which days sell the fewest loaves? |
| Business intelligence | Facts about the market and the business that help leaders choose well. | What do rival shops sell? |
| Insight | A useful new thing you learn from data. | Sunday is always slow |
| Competitive advantage | Something that makes a business better than its rivals. | A cheaper price or a better product |
| Unique selling point | The one thing only you offer. Customers pick you for it. | Bread baked fresh at 6 am |
| Actionable | Clear enough that somebody can act on it. | Bake 70 on Sundays |
| Success criteria | The measures that show an improvement worked. | Loaves thrown away per week |
| Downtime | Time when a machine or system is not working. | An oven broken for two days |
| Carbon footprint | The greenhouse gas that an activity gives off. | Baking bread nobody eats |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can name four ways data helps a business, say what analytics does for each, and pick a measure that shows it worked.
Starter: what you already know
Have a go
Starter: what you already know
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Four ways data adds value
A business uses data in four main ways.
- Insight. Learn what the market and your customers want, then make something new.
- Advantage. Sell and market better than your rivals.
- Process improvement. Find why something goes wrong and fix the cause.
- Maintenance planning. Forecast when a machine will fail, so you mend it first.
Worked example: the four values in a table
| Value of data | What analytics does | How we measure success |
|---|---|---|
| Business intelligence and insight | Studies market leaders and likely customers | New products with a unique selling point |
| Competitive advantage in sales and marketing | Customer insight, market analysis, targeted sales | More income, wider reach, happier customers |
| Process improvement | Shows cause and effect so people can act | Less waste, lower cost, better quality, smaller carbon footprint |
| Maintenance planning | Forecasts how a tool will perform and when it will fail | Less downtime, lower cost, stops that are planned |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Each value in the bakery
Insight. A survey of 200 shoppers shows many want gluten free bread. That idea could become a new loaf with a unique selling point.
Advantage. The till shows who buys cakes on Friday. A text offer goes to those people only. That is targeted sales.
Process. Sales fall on Sunday. The cause is clear, so the fix is clear: bake less.
Maintenance. The oven log shows a fault every 60 days. Plan the repair for a quiet day.
Try it: find the waste
select day, baked, sold, baked - sold as wasted
from bakery
order by wasted desc;
-- Try it: add a where line so only days with 10 or more wasted loaves show.