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Information Builders > Case Studies > Medline Extends Self-Service Analytics Throughout the Enterprise
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Medline Extends Self-Service Analytics Throughout the Enterprise

Technology Category
  • Analytics & Modeling - Predictive Analytics
  • Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries
  • Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
  • Logistics & Transportation
  • Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
  • Inventory Management
  • Predictive Maintenance
  • Supply Chain Visibility
Services
  • Data Science Services
  • System Integration
The Challenge
Medline Industries, a global manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products, faced the challenge of developing a self-service analytic environment that would provide workers with an accurate view of every aspect of the business. This included inventory management, plant capacity, labor, and finance. The company needed to streamline business processes and deliver analytics and audit tools to ensure ongoing efficiency and profitability. The challenge was to track thousands of products and dozens of distribution centers as part of a worldwide supply chain, which involved a lot of moving parts and an extraordinary amount of data.
About The Customer
Medline Industries, Inc. is the largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of healthcare products around the world. The company supplies essential products to hospitals and other medical providers. Medline Industries has more than 40 distribution centers and delivers more than 350,000 types of products. The company's roots date back to 1910 when A.L. Mills founded a Chicago garment factory that made aprons for the stockyards. Today, it is a $8.1 billion global manufacturer and distributor serving the healthcare industry with medical supplies and clinical solutions that help customers achieve both clinical and financial success. Medline’s clientele includes hospitals, nursing homes, retail centers, home health providers, retail surgery centers, and extended care facilities.
The Solution
Medline Industries chose Information Builders’ business intelligence (BI) and analytics WebFOCUS platform to monitor many aspects of its operations. The company created WebFOCUS dashboards and InfoApps to streamline business processes, and deliver analytics and audit tools to ensure ongoing efficiency and profitability. The company used WebFOCUS to develop domain-specific InfoApps and dashboards for payroll, time keeping, warehouse management, and labor management, as well as InfoApps for the executive team and supervisors at more than 40 distribution centers. The engineering team now has an InfoApp to monitor warehouse activity and validate inventory storage strategies via interactive charts and graphs. Many other departments depend on WebFOCUS dashboards. One dashboard shows trends in warehouse performance by using several different labor staffing models to balance warehouse expenses and compare best practices.
Operational Impact
  • WebFOCUS tracks participation in Medline’s Incentive Pay Program (IPP), which allows more than 2,000 hourly warehouse operators to earn bonuses by increasing warehouse efficiency.
  • The labor management dashboard reveals the time it takes to complete designated tasks, making it easier for managers to gauge the efficiency of the workforce.
  • The Freight Expense dashboard allows transportation analysts to segment freight expenses by transportation mode, account type, origin, destination, zip code, and many other variables.
Quantitative Benefit
  • Anticipating a 5 percent reduction in put-away travel time across the network from this WebFOCUS application.
  • Balancing the workload ensures appropriate staffing at the distribution centers, with the aim of maximizing productivity, as well as providing team members a consistent work schedule to reduce turnover.
  • Freight Expense dashboard conservatively results in a 0.5 percent savings in freight expense.

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