Supply Chain Collaboration
A rapidly growing contract manufacturer (CM) had a problem. Their business relied on spreadsheets, email, and phone calls to manage an increasingly complex supply chain. In an attempt to improve their operations, they engaged a local software firm to develop a custom workflow platform. 24 months later, the failed project left them with lost time and money, plus 100% of their code scrapped. Still determined, the CM’s CEO and VP of Operations decided to try again, but this time they turned to P1ston.
"With such rapid growth, our workflows just couldn’t keep up with our scaling supply chain. We were breaking under the weight of our own success."
VP of Operations
Contract Manufacturer
Custom Solution
The two executives had a clear mandate for us: automate wherever possible, then streamline remaining manual tasks. In short, make supply chain workflows easier for both the CM and its suppliers. Taking the CM’s previous experience and goals in stride, we got to work.
Approach
Our product and UX design specialists led the team through discovery, analysis, and prototyping work. Subject matter experts from the CM and their suppliers participated throughout. In parallel, our lead architect began establishing a cloud-based, API-first, and event-driven infrastructure to serve as the foundation for upcoming coding efforts.
Process
- Business Strategy
- User Experience Design
- Cloud Architecture Design
- Development
- QA & Maintenance
Overcoming Roadblocks
Despite prototyping and extensive testing, a multi-week software pilot uncovered shortcomings. Priorities changed, with users requesting collaboration features originally scoped for later releases. As a result, our team accelerated messaging and file-sharing features to better meet the CM’s workflow needs and drive adoption.
Results
The CM’s supply chain transformed from a bottleneck to a growth driver. In addition, the CM stopped throwing bodies at its scaling challenges, producing an increased operating margin.
3
Supply Chain Scaling
4
Labor Offset
100
Mobile, Tablet, & Desktop Compatible
“These guys killed it. After the first failure, we were nervous, but the P1ston team delivered. And this platform feels as easy as any of my favorite apps.”
Chief Executive Officer
Contract Manufacturer
