As a technologist, I’ve always been interested in the behind-the-scenes workings that make our programs do what we want them to. How does Siri know when to listen to us and how to respond? How is Waze able to give us traffic tips on the fly? The answer lays in smart programming, which is often rooted in predictive analytics and powerful technology platforms.
While ‘cool tech’ has made it possible for us to automate many problem-solution scenarios in our daily lives, it’s also disrupting the enterprise and offering ever-new ways for forward-thinking companies to implement competitive strategies and optimize previously manual or clunky operational processes.
READ THE BLOG FROM FICOXPRESS’ ZAHIR BALAPORIA ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF SCENARIO ANALYSIS FOR OPTIMIZATION
Nowhere is this truer than for supply chain practitioners. As we emerge out of the pandemic and enter a new normal, supply chains must remain robust against global disruption, labor shortages and sudden spikes in consumer demand. Although these are new challenges, they also present an opportunity for technologists to come in and make a significant bottom-line impact.
Transforming manual or people-intensive processes with an optimized technology stack is inherently going to help speed things up. But, perhaps more importantly, technology can arm supply chain practitioners with real-time data and help them turn on a dime when market conditions suddenly shift.
I’ve seen the benefits of an optimized technology stack first-hand with a large aluminum manufacturing client Profit Point has been working with for nearly a decade. At one of their biggest facilities that accepts raw ore and recycled materials, the manufacturer began to see huge fluctuations in demand throughout 2020. Because we had already established an optimized technology solution for their team, everyone from the CEO to the shift leads in the warehouse were able to immediately respond to changes in demand and pivot to an optimized product that met the market conditions of the moment.
While these team members are all extremely talented, they were able to make informed decisions quickly based on real-time data in their customized web-based solution that provided everyone with a single source of truth.
For example, in today’s market where demand is constantly fluctuating, the optimization solution we built for this client helps them change their manufacturing efforts to focus on blends and grades that secure the biggest return on investment at any given time. When market conditions shift, the client can login to the UI, reprioritize different grades and pivot their manufacturing processes on a dime.
Recently, we did an evaluation of the effectiveness of our solution for the client and identified a cost savings of more than $1 Million annually in material cost and increased margin directly correlated to their implementation of this technology.
Coming full circle to my passion as a technologist, it’s not every day that we ‘behind the scenes IT buffs’ get to see such a profound impact from our work with the zeros and ones that ultimately control these tech-enabled solutions. Especially during a time of great uncertainty, it’s incredibly rewarding to see our clients succeed and future-proof their business with a web-based analytics tool.
If you have a similar project that you’d like to tackle, drop us a line! You can reach me directly at scutler@profitpt.com.