Business context
A management team had been sent from headquarters to lead an operational reset at an aerospace manufacturing site. I created and implemented data, reporting, and analytical support for that team, with a focus on logistics, manufacturing parts, and readiness for planned production. As one of the facility's few data and analytics resources, I also provided ad hoc support across financial operations reporting, parts management, and people management. Daily inventory reporting was one practical improvement within this broader role.
The challenge
A senior inventory manager arrived early each day to extract ERP data before normal working-hour system constraints made retrieval difficult. The manager then performed a complex sequence of spreadsheet transformations. The overall extraction and preparation process took about an hour, and its complexity had prevented handover to the night shift.
My contribution
I observed the manager's workflow, documented the steps, and built an Excel Power Query and VBA tool to select the ERP extract, transform the data, and save the output.
Results
The repeatable transformation process could be handed to the night shift, making prepared data available for inventory and logistics reporting. Data quality improved, and the manager no longer needed to arrive early each morning to carry out the process personally. Across the broader manufacturing work, automation of data integration and reporting substantially shortened the time to actionable information for operational teams.