Deploy Logistics Operational Dashboards with Python DataPane
Deploy Reporting Solutions using DataPane to Support Warehousing Logistics Operations for E-Commerce.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often struggle to compete with larger companies regarding data analytics and reporting capabilities.
But with the right approach, even smaller businesses can build the tools they need to succeed.
This article will walk you through a simple architecture for deploying reporting solutions using DataPane.
The focus is supporting your supply chain operations and improving logistics performance management.
Objective
Build reporting capabilities to provide supply chain visibility and support the operational teams of a mid-size retailer's distribution center.
Introduction
In some markets, like China, e-commerce has completely disrupted the retail industry.
The rapidly changing consumer behaviours have dramatically changed how these companies manage their business.
This directly impacts the Logistics Operations of these retailers, which now face high volume volatility, larger portfolios of products, and very short lead times.
Build Data Analytics Capabitilities for Small Businesses
However, SMEs (Small and medium enterprises) may need more money to invest in expensive data infrastructures to build reporting capabilities.
In this article, we will design a simple architecture to deploy an interactive dashboard for Warehousing Operations using the Python Library DataPane.
SUMMARY
I. Context: Warehousing Operations for E-Commerce
Warehouse to prepare and ship orders for an E-Commerce website
Objective
How can you support Operational Excellence with simple reports
II. Build reports using DataPane
1. Quick Introduction
Deploy and share your results with Datapane
2. Monitor the picking workload
Build visuals showing the number of orders received per day
3. Analyze the volumes pareto
How many SKU are representing 80% of your volume?
III. Conclusion & Next StepsHow to deploy dashboards without PowerBI?
Logistics Operations for E-Commerce
As a Continuous Improvement Engineer in the Distribution Center (Warehouse) of a midsize online retailer, you build reporting capabilities to improve operational teams' visibility.
Logistics Operations for E-Commerce
The distribution centre is in charge of order fulfilment and shipment
- Customers order products on the website
- These orders are received by the Warehouse Management System (WMS)
- Warehouse Operators prepare the orders and pack them in parcels
- Parcels are shipped to the customers
Reporting Solutions for Operational KPI Tracking
The most important Key Indicator of Performance (KPI) is the lead time between order receiving and parcel shipment.
All the processes in the chain impact this KPI; you will provide visibility on the key indicators impacting the overall performance.
For more information about Logistics Performance Management
You can find the full code and dummy data in my Github (Follow me :D) repository
Deploy reports with Python DataPane
You will not build a complete cloud architecture with ETL jobs and advanced visualization tools like PowerBI, Tableau or Google Studio.
The idea is to extract data from the WMS, process your data locally and deploy reports that operational teams can use.
Deploy reporting capabilities with DataPane.
This framework allows you to share the results of your Jupyter Notebook with your colleagues.
For instance, you would like to share this simple bar plot chart.
This chart shows the number of orders (and lines) the warehouse receives per day.
How can you share this graph with your colleagues?
It is a very simple process in three steps (Link)
- Get the client library using pip
pip3 install datapane2. Sign up on DataPane and register your Token
datapane login --server=https://datapane.com/ --token=yourtoken3. Deploy your visual
You must add a section in your code to deploy your visual; you can choose several templates.
They can even select the week with the button (top-left). This visual can be shared privately with a link you can send to the operational teams.
Next Steps
We will now build a set of visuals based on specific processes to bring visibility to the teams.
Monitory your workload
Focus on the Picking Process
Operators take their trolleys with a list of items ordered by the customer and will stop at each location to take the quantity ordered.
If you want to understand more about the picking process, have a look at the video below
a. Number of Orders/Lines
Question
How many orders (and lines) do we receive from customers every day?
A major indicator of the picking workload is the number of customer orders (and order lines).
Insights
Week-1 Sunday: picking teams faced a peak of order lines that could probably explain a bad performance this day.
b. Number of Pieces per Day
Question
How many items are ordered by customers every day?
This indicator can provide visibility on the turnover of the company for that day. It is also impacting the volume (cubic meter) of parcels shipped.
Insights
Week-1 Wednesday: we experienced a surge of the number of pieces per line due to a special promotion for a certain item.
Split of orders per ratio of line/order
Question
What is the split (%) of mono-line orders for each day?
With a high number of lines per order, your operators will see their walking distance per order increase.
Therefore, their productivity of picking is directly impacted by the number of lines per order.
Insights
We have a majority of mono-line orders (1 line/order) that can be picked by batch.
3. Number of Cities Delivered
Question
How many different cities do I need to deliver per day?
The number of cities delivered is impacted your workload for transportation management.
Insights
For a large part of the month you experienced a surge of the number of cities delivered that may impact your transportation costs.
Focus on the replenishment process
When the picking locations (on the ground) are empty, your forklift drivers perform replenishment tasks. They take items from the storage area above to replenish the picking locations for future orders.
Number of replenishments per day
Question
How many replenishment tasks are performed by your operators per day?
This process can become a bottleneck and impact your overall performance, you need to track your workload per day.
Insights
Week-1 Wednesday: you can see a surge of replenishment tasks that probably impacted your productivity.
Number of replenishments per alley
Question
Which area of your warehouse concentrates the majority of your volume?
Your warehouse is organized by alleys with cells and picking locations.
A major source of bottleneck is when you have a concentration of people in one area. If you experience this kind of problem, the best solution is to avoid grouping high rotations in the same area.
Insights
WEEK-1: You can see that A09 and A10 represent nearly 20% of the volumes in Pieces, this may cause a bottlenek when you have peaks of orders.
Analyze the Pareto
Question
How many SKUs are representing 80% of my total volume?
To optimize your processes, you must perform product segmentation based on the volume per item.
Items with high rotations need to be placed in full pallet-picking locations, while items with low rotations can be stored on shelves to save space.
Because the business is evolving, you must track your Pareto to adjust your layout and processes.
If you want to understand more about the Pareto law for layout optimization, have a look at the video below
Conclusion & Next Steps
Boost logistics performance management for SMEs with data analytics tools like DataPane to optimize operational indicators and improve international distribution networks.
Useful & Simple
You have built a set of simple (but very useful) visuals that operational teams can use.
For instance, they can be embedded in a Notion document with a comments area to make it a living document.
This solution will not meet the performance and functionalities of a proper cloud architecture. However, it can be easily implemented without any additional costs for small structures.
Deploy your solution on the cloud.
You can deploy the code you use to build these visuals in the cloud (Heroku, Google App Engine) to automate this process and trigger tasks daily.
Build a Supply Chain Control Tower
A supply chain control tower is traditionally defined as a set of dashboards connected to various systems using data to monitor important events across the supply chain.
It enables a Supply Chain department to track, understand, and resolve critical issues in real-time.
Datapane visuals will be used to follow the shipments and report incidents to the store and logistic managers:
- How many shipments have been delivered with delay?
- Where are the shipments currently in transit?
- How many transit shipments are at risk?
For more details,
About Me
Let’s connect on Linkedin and Twitter, I am a Supply Chain Engineer using data analytics to improve logistics operations and reduce costs.
For consulting or advice on analytics and sustainable supply chain transformation, feel free to contact me via Logigreen Consulting.
If you are interested in Data Analytics and Supply Chain, have a look at my website.
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