In their own words

“The data became much more meaningful when leadership explained the story behind the numbers.”

“We somehow assume the person who reads it understands what those numbers mean.”

“I realized that data doesn't always tell the entire story by itself.”

“You have the starting point, you have what changed, you have the impact, and then you have the response.”

“If I simply put a spreadsheet on the screen, people may look at it, but they may not understand what they're supposed to take away from it.”

“If I just report, 'Part missing,' that's not very useful. But if the system shows that it's needed for a specific operation or that the shortage is preventing us from moving forward, people understand the urgency better.”

“If you show us that a certain supplier delay is going to stop a production activity tomorrow, people pay attention because now the data has meaning.”

“It turns data from something people simply review into something they can actually use to improve their work.”

“The data gets overwhelmingly boring at times because you're just doing the same thing over and over and over again.”

“People start to go, oh, wow, I didn't realize this… And then the debate sparks, right? Then you start and they go, why did that happen?”

“Some systems are easier to understand after somebody actually walks you through them.”

“The ERP system provides the data, but the decision still requires human interpretation.”

“When they see that the warehouse responds and the material arrives, they understand that reporting the information actually helps the operation.”

“If employees report shortages and nothing happens, eventually they may stop using the process.”

“Even when they're there, they're not a proper training that's involved and then everybody has their own way of looking at those data.”

“Some executives, they don't have the full stories. They just see someone prepared that number and they started announcing it.”

“Visuals reduce connective load because they allow you to recognize the patterns much faster than reading tables full of numbers.”

“If I see a dashboard showing overdue deliveries, for example, I can understand the situation much faster than if somebody gives me a spreadsheet with hundreds of rows.”

“I think a good dashboard should answer three questions: What happened? Why does it matter? And what do I need to do?”

“The same information, the same metric, the same dashboard, the same report is and will always be interpreted in different ways by different level of people.”

“When you start putting stuff on a map, right? It sounds so simple, but… you show them something they did not know.”

“A number by itself doesn't always catch my attention. But if something is highlighted or there is an indicator showing that action is needed, I notice it much faster.”

“The dashboard tells us what is happening, but the people on the floor provide the context.”

“It confuses you. A lot of people don't know how to read bars or graphs.”

“Employees trust the information more when there is a connection between what the system says and what we actually experience.”

“I'm always very skeptical, right, when I see people presenting data, because I know what it takes to get a data set in good shape.”

“The story doesn't change if you take out 2% of the data, right? The story stays the same.”

“Employees engage more often when data is directly connected to their work and when leaders explain why the information matters.”

“Transparency, context… context and consistency are what build trust for me.”

“If there's a conflicting information going around, that just defeats the purpose of the data coming out of the system.”

“Trust is earned. It's not given.”

“They'll tell you, oh, the deadline is two months from now, but the deadline is really six months from now… they spin you.”

“I want something that makes an impact on me or to me, to my group, to my team. Tell me something that will help me, obviously.”

“If I'm working in the warehouse and someone shows me a dashboard with 20 different metrics that don't relate to my work, I'm probably not going to remember much of it.”

“If I show somebody 15 different KPIs and don't explain which ones matter, I've probably created more confusion than understanding.”

“That's top level management controlling the information that's filtered down.”

“It varies greatly depending on the level of the management, right?... the only data they see is really tactical information.”

“Once I submit the missing-part information, it becomes visible to the people who are responsible for material support… the information is coming directly from the person who is experiencing the problem.”

“If that information is incorrect, then the demand signals or the information you're getting out of the ERP is also incorrect.”

“We don't get data. We don't get data like no computer. So when I get my information, I get my information from my boss.”

“Once you use it a few times, it becomes part of your normal work process.”

“Sometimes I can look directly in the system, but sometimes I depend on someone explaining what the numbers actually mean.”

“If you do the prompts right and give them the instruction to AI, hey, give me detailed storytelling. It tells you exactly like, hey, your sales are high in this region, you can… expand more on this on this channel.”

“The interesting thing is what the context you need to give it, right? And the domain knowledge that you need to give it… it tells you a lot of the obvious.”

“I wouldn't automatically trust an AI-generated explanation without checking the original data.”

“I think AI can be useful for finding patterns or helping communicate information, but I would still want the original data validated before making an operational decision.”

“I could see AI being useful in the future for identifying patterns — for example, if the same part keeps being reported as missing or if certain shortages happen repeatedly.”

“SAP and Oracle are this gold standard. They're just the gold standard within the industry.”

“ERP works only when the information entered in the system is accurate.”