Information Builders Case Studies North American Lighting Standardizes on WebFOCUS for Business Intelligence

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	North American Lighting Standardizes on WebFOCUS for Business Intelligence Information Builders

North American Lighting Standardizes on WebFOCUS for Business Intelligence

Information Builders

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Applicable Industries	Automotive
Applicable Functions	Discrete Manufacturing Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Manufacturing System Automation Predictive Maintenance
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	North American Lighting (NAL) was using a legacy reporting system to monitor its continuous manufacturing operations. However, when the legacy system was retired, the company saw it as an opportunity to standardize on a more versatile reporting system. The challenge was to consolidate disparate reporting tools to reduce costs and increase the number of report developers. The company needed a system that could deliver real-time data about shop floor operations as the pace of production accelerated. The IT department was tasked with migrating more than 150 legacy reports into the new environment and creating more than 100 new reports. Read More
About Customer	North American Lighting (NAL) is the largest non-affiliated lighting supplier in North America. The company produces lighting products for many of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. As a Tier 1 automotive supplier, NAL does business with many of the world’s largest automotive companies. The Paris, Illinois-based supplier has been producing lighting products for name brand vehicle manufacturers since 1983. The company runs a continuous manufacturing operation and workers need to ensure that the company can deliver the orders it has committed to, in the right amounts, and at the right times. Read More
Solution	NAL decided to standardize on Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform. The IT department migrated more than 150 legacy reports into the WebFOCUS environment and created more than 100 new WebFOCUS reports and InfoApps. The company also integrated WebFOCUS dashboards throughout the company to provide management with consistent data to accurately compare one plant to another. The data for NAL’s reports comes from a DB2 database on an IBM midrange platform that underlies many of NAL’s production applications. WebFOCUS reads the production databases to provide a continual, real-time glimpse of the operation. WebFOCUS also accesses data stored in Microsoft SQL Server as well as from an Oracle data warehouse that is refreshed once per day from the production systems. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Applicable Industries

Automotive

Applicable Functions

Discrete Manufacturing

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Manufacturing System Automation

Predictive Maintenance

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

North American Lighting (NAL) was using a legacy reporting system to monitor its continuous manufacturing operations. However, when the legacy system was retired, the company saw it as an opportunity to standardize on a more versatile reporting system. The challenge was to consolidate disparate reporting tools to reduce costs and increase the number of report developers. The company needed a system that could deliver real-time data about shop floor operations as the pace of production accelerated. The IT department was tasked with migrating more than 150 legacy reports into the new environment and creating more than 100 new reports.

About Customer

North American Lighting (NAL) is the largest non-affiliated lighting supplier in North America. The company produces lighting products for many of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. As a Tier 1 automotive supplier, NAL does business with many of the world’s largest automotive companies. The Paris, Illinois-based supplier has been producing lighting products for name brand vehicle manufacturers since 1983. The company runs a continuous manufacturing operation and workers need to ensure that the company can deliver the orders it has committed to, in the right amounts, and at the right times.

Solution

NAL decided to standardize on Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform. The IT department migrated more than 150 legacy reports into the WebFOCUS environment and created more than 100 new WebFOCUS reports and InfoApps. The company also integrated WebFOCUS dashboards throughout the company to provide management with consistent data to accurately compare one plant to another. The data for NAL’s reports comes from a DB2 database on an IBM midrange platform that underlies many of NAL’s production applications. WebFOCUS reads the production databases to provide a continual, real-time glimpse of the operation. WebFOCUS also accesses data stored in Microsoft SQL Server as well as from an Oracle data warehouse that is refreshed once per day from the production systems.

Impact #1	Production schedules are planned more quickly and orders are filled more efficiently.
Impact #2	Customer shipments are tracked more accurately.
Impact #3	Executives have a real-time view of operational performance.

Impact #1

Production schedules are planned more quickly and orders are filled more efficiently.

Impact #2

Customer shipments are tracked more accurately.

Impact #3

Executives have a real-time view of operational performance.

Benefit #1	Migrated more than 150 legacy reports into the WebFOCUS environment.
Benefit #2	Created more than 100 new WebFOCUS reports and InfoApps.

Benefit #1

Migrated more than 150 legacy reports into the WebFOCUS environment.

Benefit #2

Created more than 100 new WebFOCUS reports and InfoApps.

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Overview

North American Lighting Standardizes on WebFOCUS for Business Intelligence

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit