Power Apps-> Quality inspection app to go paperless.

The manufacturing industry faces numerous challenges in maintaining quality inspection and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). Traditional paper-based procedures are inefficient and prone to mistakes and delays. Manual data input frequently results in errors, missing papers, and a lack of real-time data visibility.

Furthermore, the time-consuming process of gathering and evaluating paper records hampers timely decision-making and corrective action. Being unable to easily access previous data restricts the detection of trends and root causes, making retracing a considerable challenge.

Necessity of Power Apps:

The inability to quickly access historical data complicates the identification of trends and root causes, making backtracking a serious issue.

The need for a digital transformation is evident, and Power Apps offers a compelling solution. Power Apps, part of the Microsoft Power Platform, enables businesses to create custom applications with minimal coding, making it ideal for developing a comprehensive Quality Inspection App that can digitize and streamline the inspection process.

Power Apps: A Cost-Effective Solution:

One of the significant advantages of using Power Apps for quality inspection and back tracing is its cost-effectiveness.

Developing applications using Power Apps is significantly cheaper compared to traditional app development for Android and iOS.

Power Apps allows manufacturers to design customized applications without requiring extensive coding experience or a big development team. This low-code platform eliminates the need for a large initial investment, making it affordable for businesses of all sizes.

Rapid Development and Deployment:

In addition to being cost-effective, Power Apps offers a remarkably quick turnaround time for app development.

Traditional app development might require months of design, coding, testing, and release. In contrast, Power Apps enables the quick development and deployment of apps, frequently within few weeks.

This speed is critical for manufacturers that must respond quickly to changing needs and continuously improve their quality control methods.

Let’s take a deep dive in Quality Inspection App:

->Creating a Quality Inspection App with Power Apps requires a few steps:

First, configuring Power Apps is simple. Users may create a new project, get to know the interface, and use the platform’s core functions.

Designing the user interface is critical to ensure that examiners can efficiently login data. This includes building user-friendly data entry forms and tailoring the interface to the inspection team’s specific requirements. Integrating data sources is another critical step.

 ->Data Connectivity:

Power Apps seamlessly connects with various data sources such as SharePoint, SQL Server, and Excel, enabling real-time data updates and ensuring that all inspection data is centralized and accessible.

 ->Downtime Reduction:

Automation of operations through workflows utilizing Power Automate improves efficiency. Workflows can automate quality checks and approval procedures, allowing for more prompt inspections and follow-ups. These automated techniques eliminate manual involvement, reduce mistakes, and shorten the inspection cycle.

 

Safety & Quality Control:

Safety & Quality Control, KPI such as defect rates, inspection pass rates, and corrective actions are essential. Digital checklists and the ability to capture photos of defects streamline the inspection process.

Data analysis tools within Power Apps allow for the visualization of trends and identification of improvement areas.

Backtracking quality issues becomes straightforward as defects can be traced back to specific production stages and responsible personnel, enhancing accountability and corrective action effectiveness.

 

The Challenge of Back Tracing in Manufacturing:

One of the critical components of quality control in manufacturing is the ability to backtrace a product’s history.

Back tracing is the process of tracking a product from raw ingredients to final production. This procedure is critical for determining the underlying cause of any quality issues that develop and guaranteeing that all goods satisfy the appropriate standards.

However, back tracing can be a considerable challenge due to the complexity of manufacturing processes.

Each product may pass through numerous stages, involving different machines, operators, and materials. Traditional methods of back tracing rely on paper records and manual data entry, which can be time-consuming and prone to errors.

This complexity makes it difficult to quickly and accurately identify the source of any issues.

 

Backtracking made easy:

Implementing backtracking for KPI’s in Power Apps is crucial for continuous improvement. By interlinking data entries, such as linking incidents to specific inspections, and setting up audit trails to track changes and actions taken, businesses can ensure comprehensive traceability.

Power BI can be used to generate comprehensive visualizations that enable retracing and provide insights that lead to better decision-making and accountability.

Real-world case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of backtracking in terms of compliance and continuous improvement.

 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, a Quality Inspection App designed using Power Apps has several advantages, including increased efficiency, accuracy, and traceability.

The digital transformation journey can result in significant changes in how industrial processes are controlled. As the industry evolves, potential future enhancements like AI integration and predictive analytics will further boost the capabilities of such apps.

Share your thoughts with us, we’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our Power Apps services, please feel free to contact us.

Dose of Data for Success: Power BI for Pharma Industry

As the pharma industry is driven by innovation, it also faces unique challenges from pricing to patenting, and developing new products with the evolving patient needs. Besides, external challenges – including pressure to meet regulatory standards and ensure compliance, add layers to its complexity.

By implementing Business Intelligence tools such as Power BI for pharma, the industry can ride on the wave of digitization and smoothly navigate through these challenges.

Data plays a non-negotiable part throughout a pharmaceutical company’s value chain – from discovering drugs to developing them and getting them to the market.

There is a massive potential in the large amount of data a pharma company generates from different sources – including clinical trials, research and development, manufacturing operations, sales & marketing and supply chain. Without the right technologies and tools to manage this raw data, its potential could be wasted.

However, data analytics and visualization tools like Microsoft Power BI for pharmaceutical industry can streamline all stages of their operations.

Let’s explore in this article how Power BI for pharma can help companies utilize their data most efficiently and accelerate growth.

HOW POWER BI HELPS THE PHARMA INDUSTRY IN VARIOUS FUNCTIONS

DRUG DEVELOPMENT

Drug manufacturing companies heavily rely on patient data, medical publications, and industry updates while developing a new medicine. With Microsoft Power BI, pharma companies can organize all this data and share it in real-time, thereby increasing collaboration in the development team and streamlining the process of developing new drugs.

CLINICAL TRIALS

Every phase of a clinical trial at a pharma company is a costly and time-consuming process. Tracing and accurately analyzing the complex data generated during every aspect of the clinical trial is critical.

Power BI pulls data from different databases and spreadsheets and centralizes it in one place.

The clinical research, statistics, and regulatory teams can share interactive graphs and charts from Power BI across different teams and focus on the most significant metrics for the trials.

Furthermore, real-time sharing of the advanced analytics from Power BI can help the researchers identify any issues and predict potential outcomes to improve the performance of the trial.

Ultimately, informed decision-making with transparency in data improves efficiency and patient outcomes.

MANUFACTURING AND PACKAGING

During the production and packaging of medicines, there are many specific, well-defined targets called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in a pharma company that the manufacturing team must meet.

These could be equipment performance, labelling and packaging guidelines, and many more.

With dashboards from power tools, the operations team can easily view and track these KPIs in graphs and pictures, and quickly decide the course of action.

SUPPLY CHAIN

Recent times and the COVID pandemic have highlighted the importance of an on-point supply chain process in delivering medicines.

Power BI and pharma data analytics can aid organizations to improve supply chain and logistics efficiency by making use of their valuable data in ways such as:

1. Optimizing storage and shipping of perishable drugs through real-time access to accurate Inventory data
2. Tracking delivery schedules of medicines
3. Identifying and promptly addressing disruptions and delays in shipment
4. Improving demand forecasting
5. Lowering costs and increasing labour productivity

COMPLIANCE

There are numerous laws and regulations that the pharmaceutical companies need to follow. These regulations significantly impact the timeline for a pharma company to release a drug to market.

With Power BI dashboards for pharma industry, the compliance team can share the data across borders and teams in an easily understandable visual format, highlighting any gaps in regulations early – hence avoiding losses and legal troubles. Not only this, Power BI can also help large organizations manage their finance compliance processes.

SALES & MARKETING

Power BI software can analyze and derive insights from all the sales & marketing data in a pharma company – from market research to pricing, from evaluating how effective marketing campaigns are to measuring the sales performance of different products. The sales and marketing teams can use these insights to increase their market share and revenues.

CONCLUSION

We can see how the pharmaceutical industry can harness the potential of data to serve its unique needs and improve business performance with business intelligence tools like Power BI.

The ease of representing complex data in beautiful dashboards makes Power BI an effective tool that pharma companies can use for better decision-making and improving business performance. Further, with increased collaboration with real-time insights and accurate data forecasting, Power BI can give a significant boost to functions ranging from supply chain and marketing to compliance in the pharmaceutical industry.

Have you encountered any specific challenges or roadblocks in utilizing your valuable data for your pharmaceutical company? What data analytical solutions are you seeking to streamline all your pharma functions?

Share your thoughts with us, we’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions or would like to know more about our Power BI consulting services, please feel free to contact us.

How Power BI Can Transform Finance Industry Workflows.

Power BI is a great tool for the finance industry because it makes it easy to visualize and analyze big chunks of data. Finance professionals can pull in data from different sources, create real-time dashboards to keep an eye on key metrics, and spot financial trends at a glance. It’s also handy for generating reports and making predictions, which helps with planning and managing risks. Overall, it helps make better decisions and keeps things running smoothly. In this blog, we’ll look at how Power BI can make financial workflows easier and boost efficiency.

Streamlining Financial Reporting:

One of the key advantages of Power BI is its ability to interface effortlessly with a variety of data sources, including Excel, SQL Server, and cloud services. This interface enables automated data refresh and real-time changes, which reduces the time spent on human data entry. Customisable dashboards allow finance professionals to generate dynamic, visually attractive reports based on specific financial parameters such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow. Furthermore, by automating data gathering and reporting, Power BI improves data accuracy while lowering the chance of manual mistakes.

Enhanced financial analysis:

Power BI includes advanced analytics capabilities, such as DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) for complicated computations and AI-powered predictive analytics. These technologies provide detailed financial research, allowing experts to discover patterns and create accurate projections. Users may simply dig down into data for deeper insights and link multiple reports using the drill-through capability, resulting in a comprehensive picture of financial results.

Improved Decision Making:

Real-time information is critical for making quick financial decisions. Power BI’s real-time dashboards and reports provide financial professionals with up-to-date information, allowing them to make rapid and educated decisions. Furthermore, Power BI’s scenario analysis tools enable users to do a what-if analysis, which aids in strategic planning and risk management. Collaborative features like shared workspaces and report sharing improve team cooperation and ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page when making decisions.

Compliance and Security:

Data security is critical in the finance business, and Power BI solves it with strong security features including data encryption and role-based access control. It also assures compliance with industry standards and laws, such as GDPR and SOX. Power BI’s audit trails are critical for keeping track of report updates and enabling openness and accountability in financial reporting.

Furthermore Power BI can help to tackle the issues in these KPIs and prove to be a real problem-solving tool.

  1. Revenue and Profit Metrics: Power BI allows finance teams to track revenue streams, profit margins, and trends over time. Interactive dashboards enable quick identification of high-performing areas and potential issues, facilitating data-driven decision-making.
  1. Cost Management Metrics: Power BI provides detailed insights into various cost categories, helping in monitoring expenses and identifying areas for cost reduction. It enables comparison against budgets and forecasts to ensure efficient cost control.
  1. Liquidity and Solvency Metrics: Power BI can track cash flow, current ratios, and other liquidity indicators. It helps finance professionals assess the organization’s ability to meet short-term obligations and long-term financial health.
  1. Efficiency Metrics: Through Power BI, organizations can monitor key efficiency metrics such as return on assets (ROA) and inventory turnover. It helps in identifying inefficiencies and optimizing resource utilization.
  1. Performance and Growth Metrics: Power BI helps in tracking sales growth, market expansion, and overall business performance. It allows for benchmarking against industry standards and setting strategic growth targets.
  1. Market and Customer Metrics: Power BI provides insights into customer acquisition, retention rates, and market trends. It helps in understanding customer behaviour, segmenting markets, and tailoring strategies to improve customer satisfaction and market share.
  1. Risk Management Metrics: Power BI assists in identifying and monitoring financial risks, such as credit risk, market risk, and operational risk. It provides tools to assess risk exposure and implement mitigation strategies effectively.

Conclusion:

Power BI has the ability to improve financial workflows by speeding up reporting, boosting analysis, facilitating decision-making, and assuring compliance and security. Its extensive features and user-friendly layout make it a great resource for financial experts. If you would like to know more, get in touch with us and discover how expert Power BI consulting services may transform your financial data analytics and reporting requirements.

Using Power BI for Transformative Insights in the E-commerce Industry.

In today’s fast-changing digital world, e-commerce businesses face many challenges and opportunities. To stay competitive, they must make data-driven decisions. This requires real-time insights into customer behavior, sales trends, inventory, and marketing. Power BI helps e-commerce businesses by turning their data into easy-to-read charts and graphs. This makes it simple to see important information, like which products are selling the best or which marketing efforts are working. With Power BI, business owners can quickly understand their sales trends and customer behaviors, helping them make smarter decisions to grow their business.

Basics of Power BI:

Power BI, a business analytics tool from Microsoft, helps by turning raw data into clear, actionable reports and dashboards. E-commerce companies can track key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates, average order value, and customer acquisition costs in real-time. They can also monitor sales performance across products, categories, and time periods to spot trends and irregularities. Furthermore, Power BI provides customer insights by analyzing demographics, purchasing behavior, and preferences through detailed segmentation.

Let’s Deep Dive into Key Performance Parameters:

This blog explores how Power BI can revolutionize the e-commerce industry by delving into crucial performance parameters such as website performance, financial metrics, marketing effectiveness, customer metrics, sales performance, and operational efficiency.

1. Website Performance:

Website performance is crucial for e-commerce. A slow or unresponsive site can lead to lost clients and sales. Power BI integrates with tools like Google Analytics to provide a comprehensive view of website performance. By visualizing metrics such as page load times, bounce rates, and user engagement, businesses can identify and address bottlenecks. Interactive dashboards allow stakeholders to resolve issues quickly.

2. Financial Metrics:

Financial health is crucial for the long-term success of any e-commerce organization. Power BI allows organizations to track critical financial data like sales, profit margins, and cash flow. Power BI can automate financial data gathering and visualization by linking to financial databases and accounting software. This saves time and guarantees accuracy. Customizable dashboards and reports enable organizations to track their financial performance in real-time, resulting in better decision-making and strategic planning.

3. Marketing Effectiveness:

Understanding the impact of marketing initiatives is critical to optimizing ROI. Power BI can combine data from several marketing channels, including social media, email campaigns, and paid advertising. This allows e-commerce enterprises to measure the success of their marketing campaigns. Metrics such as conversion rates, cost per acquisition, and customer lifetime value can be used to determine the performance of marketing initiatives. Businesses that identify the most effective channels and campaigns may deploy their marketing money more efficiently and get greater results.

4. Customer Metrics:

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are paramount in the e-commerce industry. Power BI can help businesses understand their customers better by analyzing metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and customer feedback. By integrating with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, Power BI provides a comprehensive view of customer behavior and preferences. This insight allows businesses to tailor their offerings and improve customer experiences, leading to increased satisfaction and retention.

5. Sales Performance:

Sales performance is a clear measure of corporate success. Power BI has powerful features for measuring sales KPIs including total sales, average order value, and sales by product category. Power BI delivers real-time sales performance updates by linking to sales databases and e-commerce systems. Businesses use visualizations and trend analysis to uncover top-selling items, seasonal trends, and sales possibilities. This provides more precise forecasting and inventory management, allowing firms to satisfy client demand without overstocking.

6. Operational Efficiency:

Operational efficiency has a substantial influence on profitability. Power BI can assist businesses improve operational workflows by offering insights into KPIs like order processing time, inventory levels, and supply chain performance. Power BI integrates with enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to provide a unified picture of operations while emphasizing opportunities for improvement. Dashboards may be tailored to measure important operational KPIs, assisting organizations in optimizing their operations, lowering costs, and increasing overall efficiency.

Power BI can greatly improve the e-commerce sector by optimizing average delivery time and return rate. For average delivery time, Power BI offers real-time data visualization and tracking, allowing organizations to discover bottlenecks in their delivery process and simplify processes for faster deliveries. Addressing return percentage, Power BI provides precise information on return patterns, assisting businesses in identifying common issues like as product quality or delivery faults and implementing methods to decrease returns and increase customer happiness.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Power BI is a crucial tool for the e-commerce industry, providing insights into performance metrics. E-commerce businesses can use Power BI to improve website performance, financial health, marketing, customer satisfaction, sales, and operations. In a data-driven industry, employing expert Power BI consulting services offers the analytics needed to stay competitive and achieve sustainable growth.

From Data to Delivery: Power BI for Logistics

In the fast lane of logistics and transportation, every minute and every detail counts. While speed, precision and efficiency are non-negotiables, staying ahead of the curve requires companies to innovate and develop new ways to automate and streamline their operations.

Since it is a crucial aspect of the supply chain which directly affects the customer, the logistics industry requires significant planning and seamless coordination between teams to deliver value.

Furthermore, with the quick post-pandemic recovery of logistics coupled with the current wave of digitization, the industry must adapt to using Business Intelligence tools in its planning and data analytics capacities.

According to a comprehensive study by Gartner, 79% of the supply chain industry leaders have rated Advanced Business Analytics and digitization tools as crucial for their business success.

Power BI, a Business Intelligence tool by Microsoft, can transform data into meaningful insights and visualize the data in a user-friendly, real-time format. These insights can be shared seamlessly across teams and geographies and are used for informed decision-making.

In this blog, we will delve into how Power BI transforms data analysis to drive operational excellence in the logistics industry.

GOALS OF LOGISTICS OPTIMIZATION

The logistics industry strives to achieve these goals to optimize its operations:

Reduce costs of shipping, storage and transportation
Generate higher revenues through optimized operations
Minimize overstocking and wastage of goods
Improved delivery time and customer satisfaction

POWER BI AND ITS ROLE IN LOGISTICS FUNCTIONS – Power BI for Logistics

Typically, the operations in a logistics company encompass several functions. Each of these functions generates unique data. This data can be valuable if the company uses it to extract insights and make timely and informed decisions to save costs and streamline operations.

Power BI has emerged as a game changer for logistics companies worldwide. If implemented correctly, the logistics industry can experience the myriad benefits of Power BI in all stages of its operations- from order to delivery and customer ratings.

PROCUREMENT:
It includes planning, purchasing and managing supplier performance. Using Power BI, companies can analyze supplier performance, track procurement costs, and identify opportunities for cost-saving and efficiency improvements in the procurement process.

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT:
This includes ensuring optimal stock levels to meet demand. Power BI can provide real-time visibility into inventory levels, track inventory turnover rates, and identify slow-moving or overstocked items, thus helping to optimize inventory management and reduce carrying costs.

WAREHOUSING:
Efficiently managing the storage of goods is essential for the supply chain. The storage conditions should be optimal for goods – considering their nature, size or weight, and shelf-life. The warehouse team can leverage Power BI’s analytical capability to optimize warehouse layout and storage capacities, track warehouse utilization, and identify opportunities to improve efficiency in warehousing operations.

DISTRIBUTION:
Distribution begins at the supply chain immediately after the stock is produced. The goods are shipped to the retailers and distribution hubs before reaching the customer. Interactive dashboards from Power BI can help the distribution and delivery team analyze delivery routes, track delivery times, and optimize distribution networks to minimize transportation costs and improve delivery performance.

ORDER FULFILMENT:
It includes picking and packing the goods ordered by the customer, shipping and tracking the status of orders. Power BI can provide insights into order processing times, order accuracy, and fulfilment rates, helping to identify bottlenecks in the order fulfilment process and improve overall efficiency.

TRANSPORTATION:
With data analysis from Power BI, users can track transportation costs, analyze carrier performance, and optimize transportation routes to reduce shipping times and costs.

RISK MANAGEMENT (INCLUDES REVERSE LOGISTICS -RETURN OF GOODS):
Power BI can help to assess and mitigate logistics risks – including tracking and analyzing return rates, identifying the reasons for returns, and implementing strategies to reduce return rates and improve customer satisfaction.

HOW POWER BI HELPS LOGISTICS COMPANIES ACHIEVE OPERATIONAL GOALS

Here is how Power BI for logistics companies can transform data analysis and visualization and maximize operational efficiency in logistics:

COLLECTING AND PROCESSING DATA
The Power BI Desktop feature can be connected to the data source, whether Excel, SQl, or a cloud database like Azure. It then imports the data and loads it.

ASSESSING DATA IN REAL-TIME
With the connectivity of Power BI with databases like Microsoft SharePoint, SAP, Oracle, or any other database, Power BI can consolidate data from various sources and visualize it into an all-accessible dashboard. All the teams can effortlessly access the data and view updates as and when they occur, as the data keeps getting refreshed.

CUSTOMIZED DASHBOARDS AND REPORTS
As a matter of fact, different teams can have requirements for varied categories of data in a logistics company. For example, the strategic team may benefit from a different set of data metrics than the data required for an operational team. With Power BIs drag and drop filters, users can filter data fitting their requirements from the same report instead of generating a separate report each time.

EXTRACTING ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS WITH POWER BI ANALYTICS
Power BI can help its users gain insights from data for prompt and improved decision-making. For example, what are the benchmarks of a retail store or a warehouse performance? What is the estimated lead time of deliveries? What type of stock is moving fast in the delivery chain? Analytical dashboards from Power BI can help users answer all these questions. These answers help the team make more informed decisions.

TRACKING KPIS
The dashboards from Power BI can accurately track the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) across different business verticals, delivery units or suppliers. For example, the KPIs could be – expected and actual delivery times, inventory levels and location or storage optimization.

CONSOLIDATING DATA FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES AND VISUALIZING IT
Whether the data source is an Excel, SQL, or CSV file, Power BI centralizes data from all these sources into reports and visualizes them as dashboards with interactive graphs and charts.

CONCLUSION

Many logistics companies are now harnessing the power of data to achieve operational goals of lower costs and higher revenues, with increased customer satisfaction.

Essentially, Power BI has proved to be a valuable tool for the logistics industry to utilize data for analysis and visualization in optimizing their various functions. Its capabilities in collecting and processing real-time data from diverse sources and creating customized reports can help optimize logistics through data-driven decision-making and enhanced performance.

If you are a logistics company looking to explore the benefits of Power BI consulting services for your organization or someone who would like to know more, get in touch with us – we’d be happy to hear from you.

Ready to explore Power BI data analytics solutions but haven’t decided yet to go for the full implementation right away? We understand your concerns. Schedule a call with us and let us help you decide with a free consultation.

Driving Efficiency, Going Green – Power BI for Manufacturing

POWER BI

Driving efficiency, going green - Power BI for Manufacturing

Driving Efficiency, Going Green – Power BI for Manufacturing

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today” – Malcolm X.

As the manufacturing industry grapples with significant and rapid technological advancements, they face increased pressure to improve performance and stay relevant in the market.

The era of using cumbersome manual processes and prolonged data processing is quickly fading.

The industry dynamics are shifting, and manufacturing companies must evolve to stay afloat in the digital era.

What does digitizing operations mean for manufacturing?

Though operational excellence is a widely used term, its implications are significant for manufacturing companies.

At a broad level, optimizing the operations starts with a shift in the mindset and then comes down to implementing the practices or initiatives to ensure that every employee can see or fix the inconsistencies in the process.

Digitizing the operations and automating repetitive tasks through Power BI for manufacturing, can empower manufacturing employees to work seamlessly and collaborate to produce results more aligned with the business’s strategic goals.

According to a survey from PwC India, manufacturing companies are increasingly adopting digital tools for their operations, and 54 per cent of the companies have already implemented AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Advanced Analytical tools for their business.

When the context is data, how companies implement digitization can range – from going paperless in the production process to extracting value from that data for making informed decisions.

Efficient use of data is one of the key tactics that manufacturing companies can employ to improve their operations and achieve better output and profits.

Why manufacturing companies need to go paperless/Drawbacks of paper-based data collection

Manufacturing companies typically produce more data than is used for decision-making, owing to the complexities of their operations.

However, with the traditional paper-based methods of data reporting and analyzing, there is a risk of falling behind.

1. Relying on manual data entry and processing is time-consuming and risks delays.

2. There is an increased chance of human errors with paper-based reporting, thereby hampering productivity and scalability.

3. Going through piles of data to pinpoint the exact cause of a production issue or a lag can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

4. Besides, in a manufacturing team with various capacities, data is collected from different sources and is prone to inconsistencies, which renders it useless for making crucial business decisions.

Choosing suitable tools for data analysis and reporting and going paperless can be a fruitful investment to achieve growth in the long term.

One such robust Business Intelligence (BI) and analytical tool that enables operational excellence in manufacturing companies is Power BI by Microsoft.

Enter Power BI

Power BI is a data analytical and visualization tool from Microsoft. It analyzes data to provide meaningful insights and presents data in an organized, visually appealing way through graphs, pie-and-bar charts, and images. The data processed and presented using Power BI is accurate, easy to comprehend and can be connected to a wide range of data sources, from spreadsheets to cloud services.

Ways in which Power BI helps manufacturing companies

Streamlining Operations

Operational efficiency is one of the strong pillars of success in manufacturing. With real-time insights from Power BI dashboards, demand forecasting can be accurate, resulting in improved supply chain, production targets and inventory management.

For example, a Power BI dashboard for the supply chain can visualize delivery schedules, equipment downtimes, and product lifecycle from factory to consumer.

React Multiple Select - Metronic Theme and React Hooks

Improved decision-making

With real-time access to data across all departments and geographies through Power BI dashboards, everyone in the organization, from shopfloor executives to leaders, can communicate more effectively. Also, consistency in reporting data from various sources can result in better and faster decision-making.

For example, a Power BI dashboard for management reporting can visualize and represent graphs for overall production, safety parameters, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), and business unit performance.

React Multiple Select - Metronic Theme and React Hooks

Increased productivity & cost-savings

With accurate data visualized in an easy-to-understand format using Power BI, employees can save time exhausted on manual tracking and data entry and focus on more productive tasks. Further, operating in real-time with accurate data means reduced operational costs.

Improved communication & collaboration

When all departments and geographies receive consistent and updated information, it enables them to share and access reports across all teams and operate with a higher level of transparency.

Cutting-down carbon footprint

By reducing paper-based processes and providing digital insights from data, Power BI helps manufacturing organizations balance output and margins with reduced carbon emissions and achieve sustainable growth.

Conclusion

We can see how, in times defined by technological disruptions and environmental consciousness, manufacturing companies must adapt to digitizing their operations to thrive in the long term. One of the efficient ways to do that is Power BI.

Harnessing the benefits of Power BI using expert consulting services can help achieve operational excellence using the power of data for manufacturing companies. The interactive, easy-to-understand and analyze reports generated by Power BI dashboards can not only streamline operations and increase productivity – all while enhancing communication and facilitating faster decision-making with a reduced carbon footprint.

Achieving operational excellence in today’s era marked by digitalization and sustainability isn’t just a strategic milestone; it’s a commitment towards continuous improvements and efficiency. By going paperless and adopting Business Intelligence, manufacturing companies can achieve this goal while ensuring greener growth.

If you’re a manufacturer looking to use your data to achieve your operational and strategic goals, schedule a call with us to explore using our Power BI consulting services for your organization.

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React Multiple Select – Metronic Theme and React Hooks

This article introduces the React Multiple Select using React Hooks.

I have vendors in various cities who are providing service to their customers. The situation is I need to assign societies to vendors as per their preference. A vendor may provide service to multiple societies in an area.

For this, I used Metronic theme and React hooks – useEffect.

There is a list of vendors and now I want to assign societies to a particular vendor.

To do so I redirected to details of the vendor.

First, select a city, then an area and then I want a filtered list of societies from that area of the city.

 

React Multiple Select - Metronic Theme and React Hooks

Step 1 :
Fetched a list of cities using async-await with useEffect hook.

/* Get list of all Cities */

const apiUrl = API_ENDPOINT + “city_list/”;

useEffect(() => {

const fetchData = async () => {

const result = await axios(apiUrl).then(response => response.data)

.then((data) => {

setData(data.data);

let count = Object.keys(data.data).length;

setcount(count);

})

};

fetchData();

}, []);

/* End Get list of all Cities */

 

Step 2 :

Fetched a list of areas from the selected city using async-await with useEffect as —>

/* Get area list by City */

const apiUrlArea = API_ENDPOINT + “area_list/”;

useEffect(() => {

let postAreaData=”;

if(formdata.city_id && formdata.city_id !==”){

postAreaData = {city_id:formdata.city_id}

const fetchData = async () => {

const result = await axios.post(apiUrlArea,postAreaData).then(response => response.data)

.then((data) => {

setareadata(data.data);

})

};

fetchData();

}

},[formdata.city_id]);

/* End Get area list by City */

 

Here formdata contains details of the vendor to edit.

 

This code will get executed as we change City and we are able to get a list of all areas from the selected city.

 

Step 3 :

Now I have a city and area , I can get a list of all societies in that area.

/* Get Societies by City & Area */

const apiUrlGetSociety = API_ENDPOINT + “society_list”;

useEffect(() => {

let postCityAreaData = {

area_id:formdata.area_id,

city_id:formdata.city_id,

}

const temp_slist = [];

if(formdata.area_id && formdata.area_id!== ” && formdata.city_id && formdata.city_id!== ” ){

const fetchData = async () => {

const result = await axios.post(apiUrlGetSociety,postCityAreaData).then(response => response.data)

.then((data) => {

data.data.forEach(element => {

const obj_temp = {‘id’:element.id, ‘name’:element.name};

temp_slist.push(obj_temp);

});

 

setAllSocieties(temp_slist);

setShowLoading(false);

console.log(“allSocieties”);

console.log(temp_slist);

 

})

};

fetchData();

 

}

},[formdata.area_id,formdata.city_id]);

/* End Get Societies of Area */

 

Here I get a list of societies as an array of object – {id,name}

 

let  allSocieties = [ {“id”: 6,”name”: “Abhiruchi”}, {“id”: 2,”name”: “Sahara Society”}, {“id”: 3,”name”: “Satyam Society”},]

Now we have a filtered list of societies with respect to the area from the city.

Step 4 :

To show listing on form I used form-components from Metronics.

( https://keenthemes.com/metronic/preview/react/demo2/google-material/inputs/selects )

 

The Select component can handle multiple selections. It’s enabled with multiple property.

<FormControl className='form-control'>

<Select

multiple

name = “societies”

id = “societies”

value = { selectedSocieties }

onChange = { handleChange_multiple }

input = { <Input id=”select-multiple-chip” /> }

renderValue = { selected => (

<div className = {classes.chips}>

{ selected.map( s => {

const chipname = allSocieties.find(soc => soc.id === s);

return (chipname

?   <Chip

key={s}

label={chipname.name}

className={classes.chip}

data-aaa={JSON.stringify(allSocieties)}

/>

: ”)

})}

</div>

)}

MenuProps={MenuProps}

>

{ allSocieties.map((itemsociety) => (

<MenuItem

key={itemsociety.id}

value={itemsociety}

>

<Checkbox checked={selectedSocieties.includes(itemsociety.id) } />

<ListItemText primary={itemsociety.name} />

</MenuItem>

))}

</Select>

</FormControl>

 

In the above select component, we have passed selectedSocieties to value attribute.
selectedSocieties is an array of ids of societies which are already assigned to vendor.
I can get list of assigned societies to vendor as –>

 

useEffect(() => {

setShowLoading(true)

setformdata(props.data)

if(props.data.vendorSociety && props.data.vendorSociety !== ” && props.data.vendorSociety !== ‘undefined’ ){

props.data.vendorSociety.forEach(el => {

const obj = {‘id’:el.id, ‘name’:el.name};

temp_selected_slist.push(el.id);

})

setSelectedSocieties(temp_selected_slist);

 

}

}, [props.data]);

react multiple selection

After selecting one/more societies, handleChange_multiple event bind selected societies data to selectedSocieties . See the following code:

 

const handleChange_multiple = event =>{

 

let newitems = event.target.value.filter(t => typeof t !== ‘number’);

let changed = newitems[0].id;

let cleanthis = event.target.value.filter(t => typeof t === ‘number’);

newitems.forEach(i => cleanthis.push(i.id));

const newSelectedItems = selectedSocieties.includes(changed)

? selectedSocieties.filter(v => v !== changed)

: […selectedSocieties, changed];

setSelectedSocieties(newSelectedItems);

 

}

 

In the example given in Metronic , handleChange event deals with an array of the name only. In above we are dealing with an array of objects.
In the above code, in handleChange_multiple event, we get newly selected items as an object – newitems {id,name}. Then extract id from it and saved to changed. 

Now I can check with changed whether it exist in  selectedSocieties.

 

const newSelectedItems = selectedSocieties.includes(changed)

? selectedSocieties.filter(v => v !== changed)

: […selectedSocieties, changed];

setSelectedSocieties(newSelectedItems);

 

In above article , we learned how to use multiple select in combination with array of objects and obtain required results.

 

 

React JS Environment Setup and Component Creation

This article introduces the environment setup and how to create React component.

Overview of React JS

React is a JavaScript library for building interactive User Interfaces (UI’s) & it’s developed by Facebook in 2011. It follows the component-based approach which helps in building complex and reusable UI components.

Environment Setup
Tools required for ReactJS environment
1. Node.js
2. Visual Studio Code(Editor) / you can use any editor

Steps to Setup ReactJS Environment

To run the React application, NodeJS should be installed on our PC.
Then follow the below steps:

Step 1: Install NodeJS. You need to visit the official download link of NodeJS to download and install the latest version. Once we have set up NodeJS on our PC, the next thing we need to do is to set up React Boilerplate.

Step 2: Create a directory for React.js App:
using command –
mkdir ReactWorkspace

picture1

Step 3: Go to newly created ReactWorkspace directory location using command – see screenshot:

cd ReactWorkspace

Step 4: Setting up React Boilerplate.

We will install the boilerplate globally.

npm install –g create-react-app

Create a React Boilerplate using the above command – see screenshot.

-g represents the global installation type.

Step 5: After successfully installing a global react environment. Create react demo app using the following command:

create-react-app demoapp

The above statement will create a new directory named demoapp inside your current directory with a bunch of files needed to successfully run a React app.

Let’s have the look at the directory created by the above command:

In the following directory, you will see a number of files. The main files we will be working on within the basic course are index.html and index.js. The index.html file will have a div element with id = “root”, inside which everything will be rendered and all of our React code will be inside the index.js file.

Now, that we have successfully set up the development environment for React Js.

The last thing is to start the development server.

 

Step 6: To start the development server, go inside your current directory “demoapp” and execute the below command:

npm start

After successfully running the above command your compiler will show the below message on your screen:

And after starting our first React application, we will see the default screen on the browser.

Component creation in React Js:


            Components are the reusable peace of code for building blocks of any React application. It’s like JavaScript functions. They accept arbitrary inputs (called “props”) and return React elements describing what should display on the screen.

We have seen the default structure of the ReactJS application in step 5 second screenshot.

Create a new component file in /src folder-
I have created Welcome.js and add component code in that file-


import React from 'react';
class Welcome extends React.Component {
render() {
return (

Welcome to React Js

)
}
}
export default Welcome;

see the following screenshot:

And we need to add our newly created Welcome.js file into index.js to see it on the browser screen:

Now we can see the output on browser screen:

In the above article, we learned how to setup React JS Environment and create simple components.

Process of Understanding and Adapting to React Js

When I got to know that our company will be focusing on new technologies, I was excited and nervous at the same time. JavaScript is the language that is currently trending, so it was an obvious preference. We were using JavaScript but only in limited projects that are making the pages dynamic. There are many frameworks built-in JavaScript for both frontend and backend. Initially, it was finalized API will be built in Nodejs as it is widely used and very easy to understand and as it is widely used it is easy to develop and debug code. I found some useful tutorials for Express Js (Node Js framework) and it felt very easy to understand as we had experience in Laravel Framework (PHP framework). API for me was a straightforward task but the real fun began when we started with the frontend part. Initially, it was finalized to go with AngularJs (framework) as it is a widely used JavaScript framework but it was not straightforward to understand and many people had issues adapting the angular Js. And then we were introduced to React Js (we got tutorials from an expert as well).

So, after working on React Js for the last 4 months, I will put forward the blockers we had and also the interesting bits of React Js. many people confuse it as an Alternative framework to AngularJs but it is not. It is an open-source Library created and managed by Facebook. React Js can be integrated with any framework as it is the V of MVC that is, it just renders the code in the browser with the help of JSX. So, let’s start with the Advantage we felt of the React Js.

1) Easy to Use

Documentation is the key to any framework/library and the documentation for reacting is maintained very well and it’s easy to understand and move forward with. There are also many courses and tutorials available online which helps further.

2) Reusable Components

Components are used for managing the Html code which will be further rendered in the browser. A component has its own set of control and logic. Components can be nested with each other that further helps for reusability.

3) Virtual Dom

React Js uses a virtual DOM-based mechanism to fill data in HTML DOM. The virtual DOM works fast as it only changes individual DOM elements instead of reloading complete DOM every time

4) Benefit of JavaScript Library

React Js is used by most of the Developers thanks to its flexible nature, there are no specific parameters. Developers get a free license to manage the code as per their feasibility

Now every coin has two sides and React Js is no different. Adapting to React Js was not a tricky task but there were some blockers that we can consider as a disadvantage. The following are the Disadvantages listed below.

1) JSX is a barrier

React Js uses JSX which has a syntax similar to Html, but therein lies the problem. Any developer who has used Html finds it hard to adapt to the JSX due to its complexity.

2) V of MVC

React Js cannot be used as a stand-alone platform as it is wholly dependent on the other technology to manage the data. They are only the UI layers of the app and nothing else.

3) Hard to Adapt the Pace of its Development

React Js introduced hooks which help in reducing code Complexity and Reusability but for a newbie, it becomes hard to debug the code as all the previous code is not built around hooks. So in general developers have to always adapt to the changes being done in the library.

4) Documentation can be Maintained Better

As I mentioned above React Js is a very rapidly growing library but if we look at the documentation it does not provide adequate information on the new things introduced and the developers are left with trial and error for adapting to new things.

5) Not SEO Friendly

There are tools available to Render our Meta tags on the page but unfortunately, Facebook does not crawl through them and we are left with managing the Tags with some other Platform for the Particular Page.

Overall if we consider, React Js is the Present and the Future of JavaScript web development. It has its sets of Pros and Cons but to be honest it makes the process of Dynamic web development fun and easy thanks to its flexibility.