Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) platform
- WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF)
- WebFOCUS Self-Service and Managed Reporting environments
Tech Stack
- JD Edwards World enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
- Sage SalesLogix CRM system
- IBM Lotus Notes applications
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Construction & Infrastructure
- Transportation
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Discrete Manufacturing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
L.B. Foster is a leading manufacturer, fabricator, and distributor of high-quality transportation and construction materials. The company is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and supplies the materials necessary to build and maintain infrastructure for companies in the transportation, construction, utility, energy, recreation, and agriculture markets. As a lean manufacturing organization, L.B. Foster embraces continuous improvement and is always looking to make things better. The company's diverse software infrastructure includes packaged applications such as a JD Edwards World enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a Sage SalesLogix CRM system, and more than 200 IBM Lotus Notes applications.
The Challenge
L.B. Foster, a leading manufacturer, fabricator, and distributor of high-quality transportation and construction materials, faced challenges in accessing, analyzing, and presenting information in a cohesive and timely way due to its diverse software infrastructure. This included packaged applications such as a JD Edwards World enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a Sage SalesLogix CRM system, and more than 200 IBM Lotus Notes applications. As the company grew and its pace of business accelerated, the ability to access and analyze information became critical for company managers. For instance, production personnel were creating bills of materials by hand for shop floor operations, a process that took two to three hours every day. They had to extract data from JD Edwards, key it into Microsoft Excel, analyze it, print it, and distribute it.
The Solution
L.B. Foster decided to purchase business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) technology from Information Builders. The company's BI team created nearly 400 WebFOCUS reports and applications, from parameterized production schedules to inventory commitment reports. This allowed about 100 users throughout the organization, from executives to plant and shop floor managers, to instantly retrieve information on their own. By empowering users at all levels to generate their own reports about everything from inventory and accounting to sales orders, L.B. Foster increased productivity company-wide. For example, production floor paperwork that used to take three hours a day to compile is now automatically generated by WebFOCUS. The company also used WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF) to reveal metric relationships and align operational activities with corporate strategy.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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