Manufacturing analytics transformation across seven plants
Replacing manual spreadsheets with a governed analytics platform cut month-end reporting by 78% and surfaced downtime patterns worth 1.4M a year.
Client
Multi-site manufacturer
Industry
Manufacturing
Services
Data & Analytics, Consulting
Timeline
16 weeks
Challenge
Conflicting numbers in seven dialects of Excel
Each plant maintained its own reporting workbook. Definitions of output, scrap and downtime differed slightly at every site, so group-level comparison was unreliable and month-end took nine working days to produce.
The operations director needed two things: one trusted view, and the ability to spot downtime patterns while they were still worth acting on.
Solution
One governed platform, seven identical definitions
Standardised metrics
Workshops at each plant produced one agreed definition for 18 operational metrics.
Automated pipelines
Machine data flows hourly with quality checks that block bad records at source.
Layered dashboards
Supervisors, regional managers and the board each get the right level of detail.
Outcome
Reporting time down 78%, savings identified
Month-end now closes in two days. Downtime analysis revealed recurring changeover losses on two production lines, and the resulting maintenance changes are worth an estimated 1.4M a year.
- Reporting analysts moved from data preparation to analysis
- Plant managers adopted daily dashboards within three weeks
- The internal team now extends the platform without our involvement
78%
Less reporting time
2 days
Month-end close
18
Standardised metrics
1.4M
Annual savings identified
Client feedback
We had two failed attempts behind us. This time the numbers matched from week four, and by the end our own analysts were building the dashboards.
Operations Director
Manufacturing client