The Client

LynnCo Supply Chain Solutions is an applied technology company that provides solutions through engineering and optimization of complex supply chains. They are brought in by executive management to assess improvement opportunities and operationalize tailor-designed solutions that achieve high performing results. LynnCo delivers enhanced logistics performance for manufacturers and distributors by simplifying the supply chain, promoting supplier compliance, improving transportation effectiveness, and increasing cash flow.

The Problem

For those not as familiar with supply chain logistics, the challenges are interesting because you get a lot of data, but then have to ask yourself, “Can I trust the data? Is the data any good?” Bad logistics data is rampant. So mining the data, taking measurements, defining accuracy and making a repeatable solution is key to success. This process is imperative, not only with internal operations at the company, but it allows the customer to better understand their data, looking for anomalies and opportunities for increased efficiencies.

LynnCo, with their emphasis on providing exceptional customer service, decided to attack the challenge of providing customers with more tools so they can have the same visibility operations has. Putting that kind of power into the customer’s hands is remarkable in several facets: more timely information allowing for more rapid response to challenges and opportunities; no additional cost borne on to the operations department due to the necessity of creating new reports and queries; and more ownership on the data itself – just to name a few. In 2014 our client called upon Momentum3, partnering with them to find and implement the best solution.

Solution Benefits

The goals for this initiative included:

  • Provided a web-based self-service reporting solution that gave the customer the ability to create any report they desire, along with canned reports and drill downs that were needed on a recurring basis.
  • Utilized the best breed of web technologies, making the information derived consumable and informative through the use of charts and graphs along with download capabilities.
  • Created a responsive design to enable reporting access from any device. This was very important knowing that users’ expectations have changed as they have become accustomed to immediate access to information from multiple devices.
  • Took existing (legacy) reports and convert them into the new solution for continued availability.
  • Created customizable dashboards, that provided customers with a rich set of information, available at a glance.

Momemtum3 teamed up with the operations and technology departments to methodically devise the best solution. This process started with thorough requirements gathering, both internally as well as with a cross section of the customer base, ensuring the “right” features and services were identified. Also, M3 assisted in creating a competitive analysis of the supply chain solutions market which helped to create a compelling solution and provided yet another market space for the client.

The next phase of the project was tool selection. With the requirements and objectives now clearly in focus, M3 was able to confidently propose the implementation of a toolset that would provide real-time, web-based analytics functionality and have support, maintenance and upgrade options for the future. This proposed solution enabled their developers to continue focusing on their core application instead of being sidetracked while building (and later supporting) a reporting solution.

Once the tool was chosen, a methodical approach to implementation of the solution was devised:

  • Solution prototyping
  • Ad hoc querying and reporting development
  • Legacy report conversion and dashboard development
  • New dashboards and drill downs development

This approach resulted in a successful completion of this implementation ahead of schedule and under budget.