AI Tools Drive Innovative Opportunities in Business Intelligence

August 29, 2023 in Artificial Intelligence, Business Intelligence, Data, Featured, Why AMEND?

We have reached a point where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been added to almost every digital platform. Phones, watches, and even washing machines are using AI to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. What used to be limited to large, expensive computer systems now fits in our pockets and gets your clothes clean using less detergent. With AI tools becoming common place for consumer products, what does it mean for your business intelligence tools and how can you leverage it to propel your organization forward?

There are a range of AI tools that have become commercially available in recent years. Many of which are easily attainable for non-technical users.

 

What AI tools can I use right now?

Popular business intelligence tools such as Power BI and Tableau have been actively developing AI features to expand their functionality for the past few years. Some of these features can be implemented by simply dropping a widget onto a dashboard and others require some configuration. Both platforms have a feature that allows a user to ask a data question in plain text and data is dynamically displayed based on the question asked. For example, a user could ask “what were the total sales by state?”

Power BI’s Q&A Widget uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to interpret the question, find the data, and select a visual type that is appropriate. This AI tool is ideal for the users who want to explore the data beyond what is on the dashboard, but don’t have the technical expertise to dive into the data on their own. This drastically reduces the time and effort needed to analyze the data and make an informed decision.

Similarly, Power BI deploys AI in the Smart Narrative’s feature to produce quick text summaries of visuals. These dynamically update as data is refreshed and advanced users can customize the selected metrics to surface the most relevant information for decisions makers.

 

AI tools continue to unlock potential in business intelligence

While current AI features rely on reports and visuals to be pre-built, future AI improvements aim to be involved earlier in the process by assisting in the initial development of the report. This could be as simple as entering a business question or selecting what data you want to see and the algorithm will present data. “Show me year over year sales with a focus on product type” could automatically pull data from your sources and output multiple visuals. These types of AI improvements will enable non-technical users to ask business questions, analyze the data, and make informed decisions without needing to involve technical stakeholders.

Current and future AI advances are incredibly exciting and promise to change how we utilize data in ways previously unimagined. Data tools are constantly releasing new features that make advanced techniques standard and unlock new potential opportunities for organizations to innovate. To maximize this potential, it is critical to keep in mind the importance of having well managed and governed data, so these AI tools can work appropriately. Without clean data, these features are at best limited and at worst will provide inaccurate outputs.  AI can be the goal, but it will deliver no competitive advantage without a solid foundation.

 

Get in touch:

Our team has experience that covers all of the top BI platforms with projects in dozens of industries. Whether you’re ready to start deploying these advanced features or starting to focus on business intelligence, AMEND is here to support and accelerate your goals.

 

Supply Chain AI Series, Part 2 of 5: Optimize Distribution Center Picking through Supply Chain AI

August 24, 2023 in Featured, OpEx, Supply Chain, Technology, Why AMEND?

In today’s fast-paced distribution center (DC) environment, efficient picking processes are crucial for ensuring smooth operations, reducing labor costs, maximizing capacity, and meeting customer expectations.

At AMEND, we understand the challenges faced by organizations like yours and offer comprehensive solutions to optimize distribution center picking utilizing our proven people, process, and systems method.  These three components combined help lay the foundation for meaningful change and improvement. By leveraging advanced techniques in pick path optimization, optimal pick assignment, trip scheduling, and implementing monitoring dashboards, we help businesses achieve significant benefits, including lower labor costs, increased DC capacity, expedited deliveries, and real-time visibility into operations.

 

Optimizing Distribution Center Pick Paths:

Efficient pick paths play a pivotal role in streamlining the picking process within a DC. By utilizing advanced analytics and algorithms, we analyze the layout of your DC, product locations, and order profiles to optimize pick paths. This optimization minimizes travel time, reduces congestion, and maximizes productivity. With optimized pick paths, your pickers can navigate the DC seamlessly, resulting in reduced labor costs and increased picking efficiency.

Assigning Distribution Center Picks Optimally:

Optimal pick assignment is essential for achieving maximum productivity and accuracy. Our AI-driven approach ensures that the right picks are assigned to the right pickers based on factors such as location proximity, picker skills, and order priorities. By intelligently assigning picks, we minimize unnecessary travel and optimize picker utilization, leading to improved productivity, reduced labor costs, and increased order accuracy.

Scheduling Pick Trips:

Efficient trip scheduling is crucial for ensuring timely order fulfillment and minimizing delays. Our advanced scheduling algorithms consider factors such as order priorities, picker availability, and DC layout to create optimized pick trips. By sequencing picks in the most efficient order, we minimize travel distance and time between picks, enabling your team to complete more trips in less time. This results in expedited deliveries, improved customer satisfaction, and enhanced overall operational efficiency.

 

Monitoring Progress with Dashboards:

To provide real-time visibility into your distribution center operations and picking progress, we develop customized dashboards that display key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics. These dashboards allow you to monitor critical aspects such as picker productivity, order fulfillment rates, picking accuracy, and overall operational efficiency. With this real-time information at your fingertips, you can proactively identify bottlenecks, address issues, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your DC operations continuously.

 

Change Management and Implementation Support:

Change management is at the backbone of every AMEND implementation and project, and optimizing your distribution center picking process is no different. AMEND’s experienced team of leaders understand the ins and outs of change management to ensure that the team is ready for change, bought into the changes proposed, and able to deliver on the optimization of your organization. We understand that change is hard and we focus on working alongside your team to break down the barrier to ensure that sustainable change is made with you. Through our change management practice, we provide comprehensive implementation support to ensure a smooth transition and sustain our optimization initiatives.

 

 

Partner with AMEND for Optimized Distribution Center Picking:

At AMEND, we have a deep understanding of the challenges faced by distribution centers and the critical role that optimized picking plays in their success. Our expertise in applied AI, supply chain, advanced algorithms, industry best practices, and dashboard development allows us to deliver tailored solutions that address your specific needs. By partnering with AMEND, you gain access to our proven methodologies, experience, and commitment to driving measurable results.

 

Contact Us:

If you’re interested in optimizing your distribution center picking processes to lower labor costs, increase capacity, expedite deliveries, and gain real-time visibility into operations, reach out to us today. Our team of experts is ready to collaborate with you, leverage advanced AI tools, implement effective solutions, and develop custom dashboards that will unlock the full potential of your DC’s picking operations. Together, we can drive operational excellence, enhance your competitive advantage, and achieve sustained success.

Establish a Foundation for Growth in the First 100 Days of Ownership

August 14, 2023 in AMEND Transformations, Featured, Private Equity, Why AMEND?

Now more than ever in the Private Equity landscape, it is crucial to seize the first 100 days of ownership in a new investment. Whether it be a platform acquisition or an add on to an existing portfolio company, investment professionals need to move rapidly to lay a foundation for scale to capitalize on their newly operationalized dollars. With unfavorable borrowing conditions and slower than perfect deal flow, ensuring a successful deployment of capital is a must.

At AMEND, we partner with investment professionals and their portfolio management teams to ensure a smooth transition into new ownership, as well as to help build, execute, and sustain a strategic roadmap that maximizes enterprise value and generates quick returns.

 

Key areas to focus on in the first 100 days of ownership

In the hundreds of businesses that we have evaluated and transformed, here are the key areas we think you need to get right within the first 100 days to ensure a successful ownership period.

  • Performance reporting – you can’t improve what you can’t measure!
  • Strategic FP&A – ensure your finances are accurate and on time every time to plan ahead
  • Data management – set the foundation for technology and data to enable scale, not hinder it
  • Process automation – eliminate manual processes and get more out of less
  • Management systems – communication is critical. Set your leadership team up for success with the appropriate channels and organizational structure

AMEND can help you determine where to start

In a new business with a lot of opportunity, it can be challenging to determine where to start. AMEND partners with you to ensure your starting block is the right one.

Through our best-in-class assessment approach, we look at your business through the lens of People, Process, and Systems, and identify your highest value generating opportunities that can drive immediate value to your organization. We then leverage our proprietary Change Management Playbook to integrate existing processes or systems, taking care to involve the right players on your team to level them up to support sustainable growth.

What do those assessments cover? We can be as holistic or as targeted as you’d like, however here are our most common amongst our private equity offerings:

  • Full scale business assessment
  • Order to cash business scorecard assessment
  • Digital health and enterprise architecture assessment
  • Operational excellence manufacturing process assessment
  • KPI and reporting health assessment

Contact Us:

AMEND has a proven track record of identifying value creation opportunities through our assessment offerings, and relentlessly driving EBITDA growth through the execution of five core service offerings: Operational Excellence, Business Intelligence, Data Science, Technology Applications, and Finance & Accounting.

 

Looking for additional support outside of the first 100 days?

Want us to look at an existing portfolio company? AMEND can partner with you to help identify and drive enterprise value through expedited assessments and project execution. We like to move fast, and would love to be your value creation partner.

Overachiever? AMEND helps support our investment partners with diligence work during the deal process as well. Partnering with your firm, we can deliver those assessment insights PRIOR to the deal, allowing you to understand the opportunities (or lack thereof) up front, and to get a head start on driving value from day 1!