Lipari Foods Keeps It Fresh: Visual Analytics Modernizes Operations and Automates Supply Chain
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- WebFOCUS
- Accelerator for Supply Chain Management: Visual Warehouse
- InfoAssist
- iWay DataMigrator
Tech Stack
- SQL
- AS/400-based Warehouse Management System
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Productivity Improvements
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Functional Applications - Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
- Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Logistics & Transportation
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Automation
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Lipari Foods is a leading independent 'perimeter of the store' distributor in the Midwest, delivering a wide range of quality bakery, dairy, deli, packaging, seafood, meat, specialty grocery, food service, confectionery, and convenience food and beverage products to more than 7,500 customers across 16 states. The company, headquartered in Warren, Michigan, employs more than 1,000 people to support its continually expanding network of accounts, including more than 200 drivers and 180 warehouse selectors. The company was founded by Jim Lipari, who began delivering unique products from the back of his Buick station wagon in 1963.
The Challenge
Lipari Foods, a regional wholesale food distributor, was facing a challenge as it was consolidating its warehouse operations from five facilities to two. The construction of a new $40 million facility necessitated a system that could provide real-time visibility into warehouse operations. With over 30,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and 200 new items arriving every week, the company needed to optimize operations, ensure just-in-time delivery, and meet and exceed service-level agreements (SLAs). Traditional bar and pie charts couldn't provide the real-time visual analytics required. Additionally, the company wanted to improve visibility into sales activities by unifying fragmented sales data.
The Solution
Lipari Foods implemented Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform to eliminate manual analytical processes that were heavily reliant on IT resources. The platform serves as the foundation of an analytical environment that allows non-technical users to interact with, summarize, and visualize large volumes of transactional data. The company also introduced innovative new visual analytics that transform the way it manages the inventory in its newly built warehouse facilities, providing visual representation of all critical activities. A responsive sales portal delivers deep sales intelligence to everyone from VPs to sales reps via mobile devices. A visual analytics environment depicts warehouse operations on a heat map to enable real-time warehouse insights.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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