WebFOCUS Electrifies Data Access and Analysis for Panasonic
BI Enhances Staff Efficiency While Improving Data Usage and Business Forecasting
The Information Systems group at Panasonic Electric Works (PEW) has been supporting the company's technology needs for the past 40 years. When the organization spun off from Panasonic Electric Works Group in 1999, it transformed itself into a cutting-edge technology company, providing superior capabilities and a broad range of services that includes everything from consulting to full-time system maintenance.
Early on, PEW realized the importance of using the massive volume of data generated from daily corporate activities to evaluate the state of the business and forecast future conditions. The company comprises six main businesses – Lighting, Information Devices, Electronics, Building Materials, and Control Devices. Each is run autonomously, but all have made data analysis a priority since the 1990's.
At the time, end-user computing was popular and reporting tools were chosen and implemented by end users themselves. While the interfaces were intuitive, most solutions required extensive data preparation before analysis. Therefore, end-user dependence on IT was significant.
Illuminating Data for the Lighting Division
In collaboration with the Information Systems department, the Lighting and Control Device Divisions built an infrastructure for data analysis. The Lighting business department needed a data-analysis platform that could better support supply-chain management and work seamlessly with the related systems that were deployed a few years prior. After comparing several business intelligence (BI) solutions and examining their speed and usefulness in end-user reporting applications, they chose WebFOCUS.
"First, we knew that those who manage the information systems should be involved with the project," said Yoshio Shimizu from the Field Support Division of the company's Lighting IS Group. "We learned this lesson when configuring our previous data analysis environment. This time around, since efficiency was most important to our IT system managers, we needed a tool that offered simple data preparation, so reports could be generated and modified quickly based on user requests. WebFOCUS was the best among all the products we reviewed."
The Lighting Division reconfigured its data warehouse environment to enable data analysis. Data is incorporated into the data warehouse server from multiple systems, such as the product management application. Information is then organized for fast, easy retrieval and analysis by end users.
There are three ways the data can be used. The first includes reports for consolidated accounting and supply-chain management operations, which are available via a corporate intranet. Production performance comparisons, sales activity monitoring, inventory control, monthly progress tracking, and delivery monitoring can all be performed. Production managers from 12 separate plants access the system directly, while the scheduling and distribution capabilities of WebFOCUS automatically process the reports and dynamically distribute them to other users outside the firewall.
Since production reports are generated weekly, plants have the flexibility to respond swiftly to market needs. Information about changing customer and sales factors is made instantly available to plant managers, who can adjust production levels accordingly.
Data is also used in a reporting system for general users in the Lighting Division. Harvest Enterprise, a data warehouse developed by Panasonic Electric Works Information Systems, provides access to information to users who do not know SQL and are not familiar with data structures via the Internet. Users simply point and click on various objects to generate the needed SQL code, without having to understand technical terminology.
This system is so flexible that users can easily change the configuration of the data and application layers, depending upon usage and network settings. For example, a product manager from the Lighting Division can confirm delivery of finished goods to PEW by refining the reporting criteria such as plant or date. More than 50 users currently leverage this system to monitor data and prevent low or out-of-stock inventory.
Finally, WebFOCUS provides data analysis to power users who use Microsoft Access. This allows them to combine information from the data warehouse with other data they've accumulated separately, manipulate it in complex ways, and view it from multiple perspectives.
The role of WebFOCUS within the company is likely to expand, as more and more reports that were previously maintained in other formats will be transitioned into the WebFOCUS environment. Moving modules, such as Access macros typically used by power users, will make them available in a standard format that is more useful to a broader range of people. Additionally, reports generated from the host computer that are currently printed and distributed to individual plants will be posted on the Web.
Shimizu expects the expansion of WebFOCUS to have a tremendously positive impact on data standardization, user efficiency, management-level decision-making, and the speed of responding to changing customer demands and market conditions.
Controlling Data Analysis
The Control Device Division, which produces electronic components and systems such as connectors, relays and switches, sensors, programmable controllers, and image processors, also leverages WebFOCUS to report and analyze very detailed data from production, delivery, and sales management systems.
Prior to the WebFOCUS implementation, the division also used Harvest Enterprise, but users could only analyze data using free search techniques. The same searches were being performed redundantly in common formats, and managers were unable to see consolidated results in a single list without accessing multiple operating systems separately.
"WebFOCUS gives us GUI development tools that enable quick and flexible Web report creation," says Tetsushi Tamada, a senior engineer in the Integration System Service Division who helps support WebFOCUS report building. "Additionally, the generation of drill-down reports is much, much faster with WebFOCUS. And the tool has proven to be particularly useful when developing similar reports, because we can reuse portions of previous programs by simply cutting and pasting."
Panasonic Improves Operations
The Operation Devices Division (ODD) also assessed various solutions, ultimately choosing WebFOCUS because it simplifies the ability of information system managers to provide data to end users. However, the configuration is different from that of the Lighting Division's. Data is extracted from each main system database – not from a data warehouse – and housed on an intermediate server set up exclusively for WebFOCUS.
The ODD uses the system in two ways. In one scenario, WebFOCUS provides 20 to 30 different reports highlighting sales activities and related statistics, which are used by 300 employees of PEW's Automation Controls Co., Ltd., the subsidiary that oversees sales. WebFOCUS also provides timely delivery reports. About 50 percent of the products manufactured by the division are standard, while the rest are special-order items. When customers ask for the estimated delivery date for special-order items, they expect a prompt answer. WebFOCUS allows product managers to provide anticipated delivery dates immediately, leading to higher customer satisfaction rates.
The ODD plans to extend its use of WebFOCUS by providing drill-down capabilities. Users will be able to retrieve more in-depth information simply by clicking on certain elements within a summary report. This will help identify which products are selling well in certain regions to aid in market development in new areas and improve monthly budget control.
"We can now view sales results from as recent as the previous day, which is very useful for daily performance control," says Yasuaki Kishimoto, an expert in the Lightning IS Group's Field Support Division. "Also, the graphing functionality allows us to easily interpret sales trends, which are essential for our monthly conferences."
WebFOCUS is currently playing a major role in the IT operations of two of the main divisions at Panasonic Electric Works. The solution has been so helpful for the company's assessment of business health and strategy planning that other divisions are inquiring about its use.