It’s no secret that logistics companies face a multitude of decisions with countless factors to take into consideration each day. To remain competitive, logistics companies need to focus not only on how to become more data driven, but more importantly, on how utilizing technology can reduce their workload. Tableau logistics dashboards are a great example; by quickly making sense of the large volume of data rapidly coming in, they enable people to reduce the time spent wrangling data. They also centralize key information in one location, to enable companies to dedicate their efforts towards making decisions that directly increase their profit margin.
Summarizing millions of data points into actionable information is one of the key reasons why companies, especially those dealing in logistics, should utilize Tableau. With vast amounts of data flying around, you need to be able to understand and act in real time or you will find your company falling behind competitors. Using a logistics dashboard to optimize profitability is a key way to achieve this. Tableau enables you to categorize and visualize the information as it comes in, so that you can easily see the important details without having to sift through the minutia. For example, if you wanted to proactively notify customers of any potential delays in shipments, you could create a logistics dashboard to track KPIs such as the average delay time by carriers for each customer. The dashboard below does just that. This additionally provides a clear argument to reassess business relationships with carriers who experience regular delays over a long period of time. Both of these actions would ultimately increase profitability by both satisfying customers so that they continue working with you and ensuring valuable business relationships. Need more convincing of these benefits? Seagate, a company that manufactures and distributes data storage products internationally, uses Tableau for exactly this reason, check out their story.
Not only does Tableau condense data into clear and actionable insights, but Tableau logistics dashboards provide tools that highlight key factors impacting business decisions in one place. These types of dashboards are leveraged by industry leaders for everything from ensuring flights are on time at Southwest Airlines to identifying the most profitable customers at AmeriPride. The flexibility of Tableau allows you to analyze any business solution your data supports in a variety of visuals ranging from detailed shipping maps to tables or bar charts. Tableau allows you to create a “one stop shop” where you can answer a variety of business questions using one dashboard with accurate and up to date information.
Take the dashboard below as an example. The company Factor Freight Solutions uses this logistics dashboard to optimize profitability by reducing the cost of routes they are taking. It combines information such as the cost over time, specific routes associated with the costs, and the average weight of the load. This Tableau logistics dashboard could answer key questions such as:
- Which routes are losing the most money?
- Which routes do we frequently travel that could be optimized?
- Which routes should we increase our charges on?
- Which routes should we reroute or adjust?
- How does the weight impact the cost of my route? What would the optimal weight be?
Tableau makes it easy to create a dashboard that optimizes profitability and allows your employees to work efficiently. The dashboards highlight and summarize key information, allow analysts to respond to events in real time, and ensure that your analysts are not losing time by surfacing key information in one place. Now that the business value of a Tableau logistics dashboard is clear, you may be wondering where to start. The first step is ensuring that your data is organized, reliable, and accessible in a data warehouse. After that, developing your dashboards requires identifying your KPIs and business goals, then building a dashboard which surfaces information relevant to achieving them. Aptitive has a vast array of experience in both preparing logistics data for analysis and developing Tableau logistics dashboards. You can reach us here to get started today.
Originally published at https://aptitive.com on August 21, 2020.
