Process Improvement via Automation
Turbine manufacturer turns to Y&L to automate its import data management processes.
Our client, a major turbine manufacturer out on the West Coast, had a significant issue with entering and extracting Import log data into their systems at their main distribution facility. Employees dreaded dealing with the current import data process and the issue had been going on for years. No one wanted to receive an import job which was commonly 20 pages long, containing 300-line items. The long manual process required the individual to look up each item approximately three times. Each part number had to be manually entered into three different screens and extraction information needed to be handwritten to log the import, then typed into an Excel spread sheet for the shipping delivery broker. It was so time consuming that one import log could take days to complete. Although the imports needed to be handled, no one wanted to sign up for the task of doing it.
Y&L was called in to develop and deliver a solution.
Our BI project manager/architect and lead developer were set on making sure they understood everything the client wanted in this new program, documented the requirements, and developed the solution over two months.
As part of the Global Trade Automation project, our team automated the import logging process by implementing a new “decode” logic to transform these tariff codes into a “ready-to-use parts” report which could be run for any set of sales orders.
Now, it only takes 5-10 minutes to handle a 300-line-item import log. According to our client, Y&L has already saved them incalculable amounts of time and stress in just the few short weeks the automated solution has been in production.
Company employees are happy, processes have been streamlined and automated, and no one even thinks twice about handling an import log.
The environment included: Oracle 11g with more than 3.5 terabytes of Enterprise data, several data marts running ETL with Informatica Power Center 9.1, and IBM Cognos 10.2.1 using ERWin 12.5.1.
Solar turbines case study-process improvement through automation 10-1-14.doc
