Global infra company reduces cost wastage through stock tracking

About client

Our client is a globally known infrastructure company with business services spanning across construction, technology, shipbuilding, finance, power, etc. 

They are an Indian conglomerate with global footprints in over 50 countries, being pillars behind many infrastructure marvels. 

Challenges

One of our client’s major operations includes their shipbuilding unit, which builds, rebuilds, and repairs commercial and defense ships. The following are the sets of challenges they faced while managing inventory data.

Inventory monitoring: Being in an agile industry that requires utmost precision and detailing, their inventory management is crucial for them. They had to constantly track their stock levels of a diverse range of products and re-stock on time to minimize major process delays. But it was a complex process to keep tabs on these numbers, even with warehousing management applications. They required a one-stop location where they could manage their entire inventory processes.

Aging stocks & waste management: With varying numbers of items and storage, chances of leaving stocks unused is quite usual. Our client observed a lot of stock and cost wastage, as this became a common occurrence. They conducted aging stock analysis to identify old stocks to be prioritized for usage. But that again became complex as they couldn’t do it near-real-time. It was crucial for them to get aging stock data on time so they could decide whether to use them or free up the inventory space. 

Reports generation: The client’s inventory team shares regular reports on inventory stocks with the management to analyze current stock usage and future requirements. These reports come with in-depth details for which they collect data from multiple sources. For this purpose, they relied on platforms like Jasper and the SQL server, which was both cumbersome and time-taking. On top of that, the lack of visualization made it difficult for them for quick absorption of information.

Our solution

Since the client already had Microsoft SQL enterprise license with software assurance, they wanted to set up and use Power BI for easy and seamless reporting. Here is how datakulture helped them throughout the process.

Preparing 10 years of data for visualization: Their inventory data dated years back, which had to be cleaned up, processed, and prepared for usage. Our team started with this process, understood their requirements, and identified data points they required to measure for an in-depth inventory analysis.

Visualization and training: We formatted required data and turned them into Power BI dashboards for them to measure stock levels, stock age by date procured, cost analysis, vendor payments, and more. With appropriate slicing and dicing, we visualized their common and advanced warehousing KPIs. This way, they don’t have to compare multiple reports or run across different systems for timely decision-making. Since they were already using Microsoft products, it became easier for us to integrate within respective applications. 

We also helped their team get started with the new interface through quick and intensive training.

Conclusion

With necessary and custom visualizations, we simplified their inventory tracking and brought, following best industry practices for Power BI. 

From vendor management to spending to non-moving stocks, they could see everything they required with few taps. Other than monitoring and decision making, the dashboards were also helpful with quarterly and year-end financial activities, providing required information on vendor bills and inventory expenses. Their operations became more agile and sustainable, and they could make decisions quickly based on near-real-time data.