Auto Industry Logistics Provider

StatSlice Builds a Data Warehouse for a Leading Auto Industry Logistics Provider for Internal and External Reports

The Background – Improved Customer Service Needed

This Michigan-based company provides supply chain management and logistical services for the automotive industry.  Its activities include order fulfillment, inventory handling, processing, and enhancement.  These services are supported by online data and product management systems that provide real-time inventory management to their clients. With annual revenues over $100 million, and over 200 employees, the company has achieved hard earned success over its 40 year history.

The company’s customer base has grown over the past few years, creating the need for a more robust data analytics system. Executives and managers could not retrieve financial information fast enough to make informed decisions about the direction of the company.

Customers would call managers to ask about the status and details of their orders and gathering that information was tedious.   On a daily basis, account managers were using desktop spreadsheets to retrieve data from a transactional system. The constant refreshing of data and the demand for new information was too much for the existing systems to support.

The high demand on these disparate systems caused a bottleneck for critical analytics processing, making it nearly impossible for the employees to retrieve the necessary information in a timely and meaningful manner.

The company’s management recognized these pain points and decided to commission a project to achieve several objectives.

• Build a centralized state-of-the-art data warehouse to store all the data from the various source systems
• Create a web interface to access the information both internally for employees and externally for customers
• Create a system that would update analytic data in near-real-time
• Include expanded analytics subject areas including financial systems, order management, program management and production

The StatSlice Approach and Solution – Build a State-of-the-Art Data Warehouse

The StatSlice team began by interviewing employees in every department in the organization to understand the depth and breadth of the overall reporting issues and then prioritized them accordingly. Based on the StatSlice team’s efforts and assessment, a design for the data warehouse was developed and a project plan was put together according to the StatSlice methodology. The data warehouse linked each of the data source systems together so that order details can be tied to inventory and financials in near real-time.

The StatSlice team relied on its experience and a proven methodology to implement these projects, worked through the scope and complexity, and determined the best possible design for the desired results. The data warehouse was first deployed internally to the account managers and proven so successful that soon it was expanded to other departments and then to external customers.

The high demand on these disparate systems caused a bottleneck for critical analytics processing, making it nearly impossible for the employees to retrieve the necessary information in a timely and meaningful manner. 

The Results – A Solid Reporting Foundation

StatSlice built and delivered the data warehouse and the client was extremely pleased with the results of the project. Customers can now search their up-to-the-minute order status and details rather than contact account managers for the same information. The company’s employees can view orders, tracking, warehouse inventory, and financial information across customer or business line. The data warehouse links three different systems together which allows for seamless integration of orders and corporate financials. Company personnel from C-level executives to account managers can now quickly and easily view data analytics any time of day without waiting for system resources to become available.

The project was developed using the Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform and included a full star schema data warehouse, OLAP, reports and a SharePoint portal installation.  This solution produced many improvements.  The company’s managers and executives can now:

• Work on other tasks deemed higher priority rather than searching the source systems for customers order information
• Eliminate time-wasting desktop spreadsheets
• Achieve staff time savings of 30% or more of their prior weekly work efforts
• View order information, manage inventory, and order fulfillment
• Retrieve financial metrics in minutes rather than hours or days
• View important financial statements and reports any time of day with the most recent data across customer or      business lines
• Achieve a better understanding of the overall company health and can make adjustments where necessary

These improvements solidified their standing as a leading logistics services provider serving the automotive industry.

Summary

The Challenge

Growth over the past few years was creating the need for more and better information, to help both its own employees and more importantly, its growing customer base.  Important time was being wasted by Account Managers trying to provide hard to collect, yet vitally information to their customers.

The Solution

Build a centralized, state-of-the-art data warehouse to bring together key information in a central location.  Have near real-time analytics information in key subject areas.  Create a highly efficient system for access by both internal and external customer users.

The Result

A robust data warehouse was delivered.  Customers and employees can now access up-to-the-minute order information.  Managers and executives can now view data analytics any time they want to help drive company actions and plans.

Industry

Supply Chain and Logistics for the Automotive Industry

© 2013 StatSlice Systems. All rights reserved.  This case study is for informational purposes only.  StatSlice makes no warranties, express or implied, in this document.

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Case Study: Auto Industry Logistics Provider