Data Warehouse Provides Line Managers with Quicker Access to Key Information
The Client
- Steel manufacturer that has achieved ISO/TS 16949 certification, which is the highest international quality benchmark for manufacturers
What the Client Wanted
- Revise existing software application so that the data is easier to access and needed reporting can be compiled more quickly
- Improve productivity by developing a process that allows jobs from different customers with similar requirements to be run “back-to-back”
Challenges
- Existing application copied the entire transactional system each time a request was made for information, severely slowing down the run-time for reports
- Application must take into account the environment of the finishing line of a hot roll steel manufacturing plant; limiting the number of times the line needs to be stopped in order to adjust rollers for different custom orders is critical to improving productivity and lowering costs
LÛCRUM’s Solution
- Using advanced data management techniques, LÛCRUM built a data warehouse solution that was able to reduce the amount of time it takes for the supervisor on the finishing line to access information for analysis and decision-making
- Created a more extensible and scalable technical business decision-making platform for the line managers
- In second phase of the project, LÛCRUM worked with plant production managers to create a business solution for their “scorecard” reporting of key performance indicators; the system is used by the Caster Department, Melt Shop and Rolling Mill facilities
LÛCRUM’s Approach
- Used LÛCRUM’s unique iStream™ methodology to develop the solution, which relies on involvement and feedback from the client’s key stakeholders throughout the process
Efforts
- Initial application development: six months
- Implementation: two months
- Phase II enhancement: four months
The Benefits
- Easy-to-use system that helps manufacturing managers decrease production cycle time and combine “like orders,” increasing productivity and improving operating margins
- Reduces processing time needed to get information in a useful format for reporting, resulting in better and more timely support for decision-making
- Decreases the organization’s production costs by getting data to the quality analysts more quickly
- Increases the efficiency of the manufacturing operation by providing process managers with better access to the organization’s data
- By creating better processes in the manufacturing line, the business sales and quotation personnel can be more aggressive on pricing new proposals and orders, providing a more sophisticated pricing model in which margins are more predictable
- Because the new platform provides historical manufacturing process-related information, such as what the margins were last time on a similar kind of order, more knowledgeable (and aggressive) pricing and order-related terms are available for the sales group to use; this leads to greater customer satisfaction because special terms now can be offered on custom orders
“Prior to the Quality and Process Data Mart, our manufacturing users did not have an enterprise view of the quality and process data. Now with the Data Mart receiving data from the Caster, Melt Shop and Rolling Mill process control systems, our users are able to access the data easily, and make better decisions regarding our manufacturing process.”
- Manager, Information Systems
