How a Family-Owned Manufacturer Enhanced Data Visibility and Operational Efficacy with BrainSell

A dynamic manufacturer, a notable market leader specializing in infrared pyrometers, recognized the need to enhance their operational and sales performance to remain competitive.

To achieve this, they sought the expertise of BrainSell, a growth enablement company specializing in data-driven strategies and technology solutions.

Check out this case study to learn about the collaborative efforts between the company and BrainSell. It highlights the key challenges, strategic interventions, and impactful outcomes of their partnership.

The Challenge

The company was facing a few key challenges that led them to work with BrainSell:

1. Lack of real-time visibility into key business metrics: Initially, the company’s important metrics and goals were only accessible to power users with access to their Microsoft Access database. There was no centralized, real-time view of their sales, operations, and overall business performance.
2. Difficulty tracking product progress and delivery timelines: The company struggled to effectively track the status of orders, when products were being shipped, and the delta between promised and actual delivery dates, making it challenging to manage its operations.
3. Impact of COVID-19 on their sales cycle and supply chain: The company’s business model has changed significantly due to supply chain issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They were now facing much longer projected delivery times for their products.
4. Need to centralize and organize their data: Before working with BrainSell, the company worked with another consultant to consolidate their data into a centralized Microsoft Access database. This laid the groundwork for BrainSell to build the comprehensive Power BI dashboard solution.

The company ultimately sought BrainSell to help it gain better real-time visibility, tracking, and forecasting capabilities across its sales and operations, especially considering the challenges posed by the changing business environment due to COVID-19.

The Solution

The solution that the company and BrainSell reached to address the challenges involved the following key elements:

Centralized Power BI Dashboard

BrainSell worked with the company to create a comprehensive, centralized Power BI dashboard that integrated sales and manufacturing/operations data.

This allowed the company to have a single, real-time view of its key business metrics and performance.

Tracking and Visibility Enhancements

The dashboard included robust tracking capabilities, such as monitoring the delta between promised and actual delivery dates for orders.

This gave the company better visibility into its operational performance and ability to meet customer commitments.

Snapshotting and Historical Tracking

BrainSell implemented “snapshot” functionality in the dashboard, allowing the company to track how its data and metrics evolved over time.

This historical context was necessary for the company to understand trends and make more informed decisions.

Increased Accessibility and Usability

Before the BrainSell solution, the company’s data and metrics were only accessible to power users with database access.

The new Power BI dashboard made this information available in a user-friendly format to a broader audience within the organization, refreshing multiple times per day.

Collaborative Approach

BrainSell worked closely with the company, particularly its President, to understand their existing data, metrics, and business needs.

This collaborative effort helped ensure the solution was tailored to the company’s requirements and challenges.

Working with BrainSell enabled the company to gain centralized, real-time visibility into its sales, operations, and overall business performance, helping it better manage its evolving business challenges.

The Results

The company saw several key results from the work they did with BrainSell:

1. Improved Real-Time Visibility and Decision-Making: The centralized Power BI dashboard gave the company a comprehensive, real-time view of its business metrics and performance. This enhanced visibility allowed them to make more informed, data-driven decisions across their sales and operations.
2. Enhanced Operational Tracking and Performance: The dashboard included robust tracking capabilities for order progress, delivery timelines, and on-time delivery metrics. This enabled the company’s operations team to monitor performance better and identify areas for improvement.
3. Forecasting and Predictive Capabilities: The dashboard allowed the company to forecast and project its sales and operations, even in the face of changing business conditions like the impact of COVID-19. This helped the company better plan and manage its supply chain and delivery timelines.
4. Increased Accessibility and Collaboration: By moving the data and metrics from the previous Microsoft Access database to the Power BI dashboard, the company made this information more accessible to a wider audience within the organization, improving collaboration and alignment across the company.
5. Automation and Efficiency: The dashboard automated the process of tracking and reporting on the company’s key business metrics, reducing manual effort and increasing the frequency of data updates (3 times per day).

BrainSell ultimately helped the company gain better visibility, forecasting capabilities, operational efficiency, and cross-functional alignment – all of which contributed to improved business performance and decision-making.

Conclusion

The company’s transition to the Power BI dashboard has significantly enhanced its forecasting capabilities, accessibility, collaboration, and overall efficiency. The automation of key metrics tracking and improved data visibility have empowered the company to make more informed decisions, optimize its supply chain, and stay resilient amidst changing business conditions.

If you are part of a manufacturing company looking to experience similar transformative benefits and elevate your data initiatives, we encourage you to contact BrainSell. Our expertise can help you unlock the full potential of your data, drive better business performance, and achieve your strategic goals. Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist you.