Leveraging Data Analytics to Develop Robust Supply Chains

A do-it-yourself tool and equipment retailer was no exception to this challenge. With over 100 stores nationwide, they knew it was time to invest in their institutional data infrastructure and stand up their own business intelligence practice.

The client wanted to increase efficiency, and customer satisfaction, and lower vendor costs.

Their objectives included:

• Standing up their data analytics capabilities and tools to provide near real-time and actionable insights
• Consolidate and automate data from in-house and third-party data sources
• Transition and train employees in new roles to support the new data analytics capabilities

Eager to begin their data transformation, they engaged with us to build a supply chain hub, an analytics portfolio of visualization and analytics, that encompassed data from their transportation, operations and manufacturing data suites.

We begin every engagement by collaborating with key stakeholders, to align our methodologies with the client’s core strategies. From there, we moved into the solution:

• Consolidate and automate data
• Stand up the data analytics capability and tools
• Train and transition employees
• Support documentation

To consolidate and automate data, we engineered and automated manual data pull processes for all three supply chain functions. The data was cleansed and validated for data accuracy and consolidated into the master supply chain data source.

Through the consolidation of the data, we were able to stand up the data analytics capability and tools, delivering manufacturing, transportation, and operating reporting hubs and dashboards. The individual hubs rolled into one supply chain hub, making insights and actionable recommendations available at a granular and aggregated level.

With the new capability and toolset, it was time to train and transition employees. Training and support included:

• A data dictionary for easy reference for day-to-day learning
• Best practices documentation to support the stand-up of the analytics team
• PowerBI training for all data analytics employees and leaders

From onboarding, kickoff, execution, to project closeout, processes and deliverables were aligned with the key company initiatives to ensure the solution was impactful, relevant, and adopted by all users.

In just three months, our team engineered and automated manual data processes from over ten in-house and third-party vendor data sources to just one reporting source of truth.

We delivered customized and near real-time reporting hubs for three different departments, bringing never-seen datasets to the forefront. This empowered them to scale their data platform to serve other branches of the company.

The accurate, timely, and interpretable data has empowered the client to lead and operate with confidence.

Organizations who are leveraging data and technology to optimize their supply chain are seeing long-term benefits that will impact their organizations for years to come.

• Engage and align leaders and decision-makers early in the process.
• Create pathways to connect workstream and function leads on key activities, decisions, and milestones.
• Focus on the most important work through managing the prioritized portfolio, enforcing intake and decision-making processes, and aligning resources accordingly.

Key Deliverables:

• 10+ data sources consolidated with near-real time refresh schedules with 100% data accuracy
• Transportation, Operations, and Manufacturing PowerBI Hubs, rolling up to one Supply Chain Hub
• Employee training and data documentation

Key Results:

• Full visibility to supply chain data
• 95% Customer Satisfaction Score from IT employees
• 100% Customer Satisfaction Score from report users