05 Apr How to use Software Solutions to Add Efficiency and Visibility to Transportation Company
How to use Software Solutions to Add Efficiency and Visibility to Transportation Company
Enterprise Custom Software Solution to keep Railroads and Trucks Moving.
New Pride Corporation (NPC)
Transportation
2010
Java, MSSQL
Overview
New Pride Corporation (NPC) is a service provider that specialize in maintaining transportation equipments. The company provides maintenance work for railroads, trucks and trailers. IMS operates in most of the shipping hubs in the United States providing an outsourced maintenance service to shipping operators in the region. IMS has provided services for many large shipping providers, such as Union Pacific, CSX and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF).
NewPride also manufactures their own products, including various parts for railroads, trucks and trailers. They also produce new and recycled tires in multiple facilities in the United States and China.
The Challenge
Despite the size of the organization, the back-office was relatively out-dated. All of the paper work and communication were being handled via MS Word/Excel documents and emails. This created a huge friction in all the workflows and provided very little visibility into each operation. The management lacked an updated view of the day-to-day status.
The distributed structure of the company was also a major obstacle. The communication between each service posts, the head office and the factories were disconnected. Due to a lack of central system, it was difficult to have updated information about the status of projects in each location.
Due to the distributed nature of the organization, and outdated manual method, centralized accounting was a big challenge. With data buried in multiple Excel spreadsheets for multiple entities, the data needed to be consolidated on a regular basis, a process that was cumbersome and took a lot of time to accomplish.
Why was Daxima choosen?
Daxima has a proven track records in providing automated back-office solutions to various companies. Daxima also has expertise in web application development, and coupled with extensive experience in accounting and ERP solutions, was very well suited to solve the problem that NPC was having.
Daxima worked with NPC in every step of the process, from requirement gathering, specification, wireframes, prototyping to final product development and deployment. We used an Agile development methodology through the entire development life cycle.
Our Approach
Centralized Web Application
Due to the distributed nature of NPC, we believed that a centralized web application is the most suitable approach. This allowed all NPC remote service posts, branch offices and manufacturing facilities, both in the U.S. and China, to access the system and for management to have a singular view of the financial and inventory data. The web application eliminated the need to install custom software and updates at each of the location, thus reducing maintenance work. The application was developed using C# .Net, along with SQL Server database with extensive canned and custom reports.
Streamlined Accounting Process
Instead of manual Excel spreadsheets, the accounting process was streamlined into a consolidated web application that handled purchase order, account receivable, check posting, inventory and billing. The system became a central place for all branch offices across the U.S. and China to consolidate their data. This approach gave company management the ability to see up-to-the-second financial and inventory numbers through reports and system notifications.
Online Inventory Management
Instead of paper inventory, the process was replaced with an online inventory tracking system. Each branch managed their warehouse inventory electronically using a combination of RFID and barcodes, with full data visibility to the central office. The system also supported in-transit inventory tracking, which was previously very difficult to track.
Real Time Report Generation
The system includeded a variety of real-time financial and inventory reports with notifications to keep management on top of the changing landscape.
The Result
With the new system in place, NPC was able to expand and add more locations around the world quickly. They were also able to meet customer Service Level Agreements faster and significantly reduce the paperwork and most importantly their bottom line.