Malcolm Ryder discusses the importance of collaboration and analytics for decision making in the operations environment: Collaboration and Analytics: driving production with intelligence
Most organizational managers may not admit it, but the myriad complications of managing costs lower in order to increase net operational gains mean that this approach hits a point of diminishing returns much sooner than anyone prefers. Thus, in order to increase value, the approach of growth-oriented management becomes an immediately critical alternative to cost-orientation. Collaboration and analytics are two of the strongest tools for leveraging existing resources towards value-generating growth.
How? Collaboration and analytics are two modes of discovering and synthesizing intelligence for driving production.
I don't know that there is much more for me to add to this excellent essay. Malcolm has been saying lots of interesting things at Archestra, if you are interested in this line of reasoning. Be excited, he writes long and thoughtful pieces.