Systems and Data

You learn the systems a merchandiser actually works in, the numbers they own, and when a spreadsheet stops being the right answer.

After this track you can

You can name the numbers you are accountable for and where each one comes from, run a critical path in a system rather than a file, and make the case for or against moving a process off a spreadsheet.

6 courses · 10 h 50 min

10.1The Data a Merchandiser OwnsFoundation5 lessons · 1 h 30 minYou take one chino order and the sixty-two fields that carry it. You learn what a field really is, and when a blank is honest and when it lies. You see what one correct number typed into the wrong field costs, once six decisions have used it. And why the field nobody owns is the field that fails and stays failed.
10.2ERP and PLM in Apparel: the Seam Between a Specification and an OrderPractitioner5 lessons · 2 hYou take one factory, one order, and two systems. A system of commitments and a system of definitions split the same order between them. Every expensive week in this course happens at the seam. A decision was made correctly in one system while the fact that would have changed it sat in the other.
10.3Running a Digital Critical PathPractitioner5 lessons · 2 hYou take forty live orders and one shared calendar. You see why a critical path whose dates never move is unread rather than stable. You decide who is allowed to move a date, and what a moved date costs the steps after it. And you do the arithmetic of an order made late by seven decisions that were each correct.
10.4Reporting and KPIs: the Number Somebody Is Judged OnPractitioner5 lessons · 1 h 40 minYou take one quarter of one factory's deliveries, reported seven honest ways that disagree by thirty points. You see what a denominator chooses, and what happens to a target when the world it was written for moves. You see how a reporting boundary moves a result without moving any work. And you meet a board page where every input was right and the conclusion was wrong.
10.5Spreadsheets, and When to Leave ThemPractitioner5 lessons · 1 h 40 minYou sort sixty-one spreadsheets in one merchandising department rather than condemning them. You see the jobs a sheet really is better at, and the four failures it cannot warn you about. You see what the sheets that survive an audit are asking the system to build. And you do the arithmetic of when to leave.
10.6Data Governance and CollaborationPractitioner8 lessons · 2 hYou take one factory and one quarter of records, and six questions those records could not answer: what is this called, who owns it, who may change it, what did it say the day we decided, who else is in it now, and is the rule really being followed. You price every answer, including what it costs you to keep answering them.

Track exam

12 questions drawn from a larger bank, across the courses in this track, passed at 70%. 3 attempts, then it locks for 7 days. It is worth finishing the courses first.

Sit the track exam