As businesses struggle to understand and effectively use the growing volumes of data they are collecting, they face a wide range of challenges in designing and implementing an effective Business Intelligence (BI) strategy. It takes hard work to develop a BI program that successfully produces data-driven business decisions. 

The first challenge is defining a solid BI strategy that meets the needs of the business and delivers a return on investment. This is immediately followed by the challenge to secure the approval and funding for a Business Intelligence program. BI managers are faced with the task to find the right balance between agility, governance, and useful data. Faster time to insight can provide a competitive advantage, but this needs to be balanced against data security and privacy concerns. Useful, accurate data is key so business users can answer the questions they have and not perpetuate inaccurate analysis. 

In today’s business environment, data is everywhere. But what value is the vast amount of data a business collects if it is not correlated and transformed and integrated into daily business decisions? Leveraging your Business Intelligence empowers your decision makers to achieve the goal of continuous business improvement. 

 A key issue paper producers struggle with is the dynamic nature of order delivery and how that impacts their ability to predict their shipping requirements.  These issues can make it difficult for producers to gain the benefits from their Transportation Management Systems (TMS).  Transportation Management Systems (TMS) are a key component of a manufacturers Supply Chain Management software tools.  TMS help companies optimize the sending and receiving of shipments by utilizing the best transportation modes and shippers available. More and more TMS solutions enable companies to have up to the minute tracking of their shipments, and analytics to help better manage their supply chain and significantly reduce costs.  

Implementing a new manufacturing execution system (MES) is a complex and time-consuming task.  Once an MES is installed and implemented, it will likely remain in place for a long time, so it’s important to select the best possible system for your organization. 

Paper is truly one of humankind's greatest inventions. It has helped shape history for thousands of years and continues to be the most sustainable substrates in the world today. In short, you gotta love paper

There are a lot of things that get measured by our pulp and paper customers to gauge the health of their business. There are some key metrics that show up in the most successful companies that epitomize Peter Drucker's quote,  "What gets measured, gets managed."  I believe that the best of those metrics have three elements to them. 

Three Elements of a Great Measurement

The Trucker Shortage

As manufacturers ramp-up production to meet the increasing demands of a growing U.S. economy, they are forced to deal with transportation shortages.  They are faced with driver and equipment shortages for both long-haul and local deliveries. In addition to these issues, they are also experiencing significant increases in rail delivery lead times.  As one of our customers put it, the rail and truck delivery systems are running at maximum capacity.  The transportation system is full.  Companies across the spectrum including manufacturing, retail, agriculture, and consumer goods must manage increased transportation costs and longer delivery times for both truck and rail shipments.