PROPHIX CPM Blog

Executive Dashboards Power R. E. Phelon

Background

For over 60 years, R. E. Phelon Company, Inc. has been developing and manufacturing innovative ignition systems for the outdoor power equipment industry, from garden tractors and lawn mowers, to weed trimmers and chain saws, and for most everything utilizing a small gasoline engine. Founded in 1947, Phelon's global presence includes plant facilities in South Carolina, Massachusetts, Sweden, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Challenges

R. E. Phelon has never really implemented a solid dashboarding solution. Their previous solution consisted of Crystal Reports and Excel. However, neither had the ease of use along with the charting capabilities they required to create effective dashboards, which managers could utilize on a regular basis for decision support. A major challenge for R. E. Phelon was minimizing the time it took to get closing information to end users, so their ideal solution would immediately pull data and clearly present the information in a visual format. They needed to create month-end dashboards that would include sales, production and financial information.

Why PROPHIX

Already using PROPHIX's performance management solution, R.E. Phelon implemented the Advanced Data Visualization (ADV) tool as soon as it was released. "We've always wanted to present our data in a visual format, so when ADV was announced at the 2008 PROPHIX User Conference, we were excited with the opportunity. PROPHIX has always been great with evolving their products," says Chris Wood, Plant Manager, R. E. Phelon.

Key Benefits

With the use of dashboards, R. E. Phelon's main priority was to get information into the hands of the people that need it. Chris explains, "With PROPHIX ADV, each department head can access their dashboard when the books close each month and pull information relevant to them." ADV is used in their monthend meetings to track KPIs, such as overtime premiums and inventory turns, and managers are able to drill down for further details. As months roll over in PROPHIX, their dashboards are automatically updated with the correct data.

To benefit the entire company, R. E. Phelon intends to display dashboards throughout the plant floors-distributing information as soon as it's available. Chris says, "The way that ADV is presented significantly reduces the learning curve for end users; more people would be involved, which would ultimately help us achieve corporate goals and optimize resources to the fullest."

Being in an industry that needs to closely monitor metrics, such as rising costs in raw materials and equipment downtime, R. E. Phelon relies on ADV for its interactive, visual analysis. PROPHIX ADV helps maximize operational visibility and creates a smarter exchange of information across the company.

Click here to learn about how other customers use PROPHIX Software to enhance their businesses.

 Subscribe to the PROPHIX Financial Performance Management Software News RSS Feed

 Follow PROPHIX Software on Twitter