Photo By JMC Public Affairs Office | The Joint Munitions Command uses Power BI to retrieve strategic enterprise-wide...... read more read more
Using data analytics and visualization is instrumental in aiding employees across the Joint Munitions Command’s enterprise to provide the right munitions, in the right quantity, and at the right place and time in support of the Joint Force.
Employees at JMC’s headquarters at the Rock Island Arsenal, and employees across the JMC enterprise, recently attended a Microsoft Power BI three-day course in-person and virtually. The sessions gave them a better understanding of data analytics and how data is used to visually tell JMC’s munitions story. This was the first of three courses in the September JMC training series titled “Data Analytics Booster Month.”
“Organizations that prioritize data analytics and data science across all operating units give themselves an incredible competitive advantage,” said Dr. John Bunch, PhD, who served as the teacher of the Power BI course. “It enables an advanced understanding of the environments in which they operate and their own strengths and weaknesses within it. This provides a significantly enhanced ability to be proactive, agile, efficient, and fully capable of meeting organizational goals.”
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. Data might be an Excel spreadsheet or a collection of cloud-based and on-premises hybrid data warehouses. Power BI lets one easily connect data sources, visualize, discover what's important, and share that with anyone or everyone.
“For us to improve our business accuracy, reduce our costs, and make good business decisions, we need to start seeing ourselves and measure ourselves against our historical performance,” said Brig. Gen. Ronnie Anderson Jr., JMC’s commander.
Anderson recently attended a Data Driven Leadership course and encouraged JMC’s workforce to seek out training that supports the Army and JMC’s intent to continually improve its information readiness and data agility to gain a decision advantage.
Data-driven decision-making uses facts, metrics, and data to guide the decisions to achieve end goals. At JMC, that means meeting ammunition requirements around the world, as the Department of Defense’s premier munitions provider.
“I ask that no matter your current proficiency that you continuously improve your abilities to understand data analytics so we can continuously improve our enterprise,” Anderson said. “I am on the journey with you.”
The Power BI course was designed for Army Civilians at JMC already involved with data analytics to upskill their data visualization methods. The participants learned how to import data from multiple sources into Power BI and how to leverage the application to build superior visuals to summarize and explain past data and forecast and optimize future data. The course helped employees identify data needed and discover why the data is important for decision making to meet ammunition requirements across JMC’s core competencies of production, storage, distribution, and demilitarization. The course also included presentations, demonstrations, and practical exercises using the virtual learning lab, all focused on helping employees understand data analytics and how to create visuals to tell the ammunition story to JMC senior leaders and decision makers.
“The Power BI course provided the average computer user with skills and capabilities to produce complex data visuals, while also learning how to automate data reports,” said Tanner Schuldt, a human resources program analyst at JMC’s headquarters.
Whether it comes to purchasing supply parts to produce ammunition, shipping ammunition to the point of need, conducting surveillance of stored ammunition, or demilitarizing excess or obsolete ammunition, understanding and presenting data analytics to JMC senior leaders is critical to decision-making in a resource-constrained environment.
Data analytics and the Power BI tools can also be used for support services such as current hiring status of new employees, reporting mandatory employee training status, or strategic command engagements.
“Power BI, amongst other new analytic tools available to the AMC enterprise, has provided game-changing capabilities for analysts, as well as the general workforce, that allows improved comprehensive data analysis, visualizations, and layers of automation. It creates an enhanced data-driven decision environment resulting in better support to the Joint Warfighter,” said Stephen Gainey, a JMC Power BI subject matter expert.
Army employees who want to learn more about Power BI can access the Army’s E-Learning platform Udemy for Business: https://armyciv.udemy.com/organization/home/ and search Power BI courses.
| Date Taken: | 10.15.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 10.15.2024 08:52 |
| Story ID: | 483093 |
| Location: | ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL , ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 31 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Discovering the story JMC’s data tells, by Lori McFate, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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