Evaluate InetSoft's Business Analytics Dashboard App

Don't rely on outmoded inflexible dashboard development approaches that make you constantly rely on IT assistance. StyleBI is a BI platform that enables the creation of attractive management dashboard, allowing nontechnical users to quickly access, integrate, and display whatever data they need. It connects to almost any operational data source, including those that are not integrated into an existing data warehouse. StyleBI is comprehensive without being complex; no need to understand the intricacies of the underlying data schemas like a technical genius. Anyone in your business can use it.

Happy Analytics Dashboard Customers

InetSoft solutions have been deployed at over 5,000 organizations worldwide, including 25% of Fortune 500 companies, spanning all types of industries. Here are some testimonials from some of our InetSoft customers:

“One of the advantages of this tool is that we started using it from the very beginning without major changes in the extracted data. Using StyleBI from InetSoft gave us the ability to provide a graphical representation of the key data to top management right ‘out-of-the-box’ and move from static tables of numbers to charts and graphics that are much easier to understand. Before the use of Style Scope, it took us months to build KPI dashboards that were simple enough to manage by end-users; now in a couple of days we can customize several graphic views, and even the users can build their own reports without IT intervention. With InetSoft tools, we’ve been able to create consolidated sales figures very easy and quickly.” - Sergio Riojas, Chief Technology Officer at Grupo Multimedios

“We had previously selected another BI solution, however delays in the installation process coupled with insufficient documentation curtailed our confidence in its efficiency. We decided to give InetSoft another look, and were pleased when were able to deploy the solution within one afternoon. Another deciding factor in our decision to go with StyleBI was ease of installation and setup. ” - Eric Jamieson, Director of Business Intelligence at Underground Elephant

“The Computing and Decision Sciences department consistently tries to incorporate real-world experience and tools into the school’s curriculum. After seeing the power and flexibility of InetSoft’s data visualization software, the department thought this would be the perfect vehicle to provide students in a variety of courses exposure to this class of software.” - Dr. David Rosenthal, Chair of the Department of Computing and Decision Sciences, Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University

Optimizing Operations and Performance: How a Custom Sewn Bag Manufacturer Uses InetSoft’s Open Source StyleBI Business Analytic Dashboard Software

In today's competitive manufacturing landscape, businesses that tailor niche, high-quality products—such as custom sewn bags—face increasing pressure to optimize operations, reduce waste, accelerate delivery timelines, and simultaneously deliver exceptional craftsmanship. This is particularly true for manufacturers serving industries like medical supply, military, promotional retail, and specialty sporting goods. These firms handle a vast variety of SKUs, client-specific requirements, and just-in-time (JIT) delivery schedules, making the need for insightful business intelligence absolutely critical.

For one such mid-sized U.S.-based custom sewn bag manufacturer, the adoption of InetSoft's open source dashboard and analytics platform, StyleBI, has become a cornerstone in achieving digital transformation. By centralizing disparate data sources and translating operational chaos into coherent, real-time dashboards, this company has transitioned from reactive management to data-driven decision-making.

This article delves into how the manufacturer integrated StyleBI into its technology stack, the strategic use cases it tackled, and the transformative results that followed. The piece is written for IT professionals and business technologists tasked with selecting or managing enterprise BI software in complex manufacturing environments.

The Challenge: A Complex Web of Data and Processes

Before implementing StyleBI, the manufacturer was grappling with the classic pain points many mid-sized production companies face:

• Siloed Data: Production metrics, supply chain data, customer orders, and financial information were stored in disparate systems, including an on-premises ERP, Excel-based tracking sheets, and a separate CRM.
• Limited Visibility: Managers had to wait for end-of-day reports to see productivity figures. Real-time updates were nonexistent, and data accuracy was often compromised by manual entry.
• Customization Overhead: Each customer order had unique specifications—ranging from fabric types and thread strength to dimensional tolerances—making forecasting and capacity planning especially difficult without a tailored dashboarding tool.
• No Predictive Insights: Past performance was captured, but the company lacked the analytical capabilities to forecast lead times, identify future bottlenecks, or proactively manage vendor reliability.

The IT director summarized the pre-StyleBI environment bluntly: "We were working in the dark, constantly. Our people were competent, but they lacked a data infrastructure that matched their skills."

Why StyleBI?

Unlike monolithic and expensive BI platforms such as Tableau or Qlik, InetSoft's StyleBI offered a lightweight, cloud-native alternative—particularly attractive to an IT department with limited budget and staff. Being open source, StyleBI also brought additional flexibility for customization and integration, allowing the IT team to tweak connectors and apply company-specific rules to data transformations.

Several key advantages made StyleBI the right fit:

• Microservice Architecture: The software could be deployed modularly, scaling with the company's growing needs.
• Flexible Data Mashup Layer: StyleBI made it possible to join real-time production data from IoT-enabled machines with historical purchasing records and ERP inventory data, forming a unified operational view.
• Open Source DNA: The company's developers appreciated being able to look under the hood and extend the platform without incurring licensing fees or vendor lock-in.
• Rapid Dashboard Creation: Business users could design dashboards themselves using StyleBI's intuitive UI, reducing IT workload and enabling departmental autonomy.

Implementation: An Agile Integration Approach

Deployment began with a hybrid model: StyleBI was installed on the company's internal servers with API access to its SQL-based ERP system, while some of the lighter dashboard components were hosted in the cloud for mobile access.

Step 1: Data Inventory and Cleansing
The first milestone involved creating a data map and assessing the accuracy and consistency of data sources. StyleBI's data modeling capabilities allowed IT staff to identify redundant entries, flag inconsistencies, and automate transformation pipelines to normalize and cleanse the data.

Step 2: Role-Based Dashboards
The IT team worked in agile sprints with department heads to co-design role-specific dashboards. For instance:

• Operations Managers gained access to real-time workstation utilization dashboards, showing units produced per hour, average downtime, and defect rates.
• Procurement Specialists used dashboards that combined supplier lead times, fabric consumption trends, and reorder points, helping them anticipate material shortages weeks in advance.
• Sales and Customer Service leveraged dashboards that merged CRM pipelines with production status, enabling accurate ETA quotes and proactive customer communication.

Step 3: Alerts and Predictive Modeling
Using StyleBI's support for embedded R and Python scripts, the company's IT team built predictive alerts for things like:

• Late-stage production delays, based on order complexity and team utilization rates
• Fabric overstocks or shortages, derived from moving average forecasts and seasonal cycles
• Quality variance, based on real-time defect data and equipment calibration logs

Real Business Impact: From Intuition to Intelligence

The effect of StyleBI was immediate and measurable. Within the first six months of going live:

• Production efficiency increased by 17%, thanks to better visibility into machine downtime and employee output trends.
• Late order deliveries dropped by 42%, driven by proactive alerting and improved coordination between customer service and production.
• Inventory carrying costs decreased by 12%, due to more accurate material forecasts and just-in-time purchasing.
• Customer satisfaction scores improved by 23%, as clients received more accurate delivery timelines and could track their order status live via embedded dashboards.

Perhaps more importantly, StyleBI helped change the company culture. Business users were no longer dependent on IT to access or interpret critical data. Teams began to challenge assumptions, make faster decisions, and explore "what-if" scenarios collaboratively.

Custom Sewn Complexity: Dashboards for a Unique Business Model

Manufacturing custom sewn bags involves a level of variability and craftsmanship not present in mass production. A single customer might require:

• High-visibility fabric for outdoor applications
• RFID or security tags for transit control
• Compliance with ISO, OSHA, or MIL-SPEC standards

Each variable adds complexity to scheduling, costing, and fulfillment. StyleBI allowed the company to build order-specific dashboards that mapped out required materials, tracked labor input by job ticket, and benchmarked profitability per order.

The finance team particularly benefited from profitability dashboards that showed real-time cost accumulation per SKU. They could instantly identify when margins fell below thresholds—prompting process changes or renegotiations.

Looking Ahead: Next Steps in the Data Journey

Encouraged by its success with StyleBI, the company is now working toward additional initiatives:

• Integration with IoT Sensors: Using StyleBI's streaming data capabilities, the IT team plans to integrate real-time temperature and humidity readings from storage areas to better preserve sensitive fabrics.
• Mobile Dashboards for Floor Managers: Tablet-based dashboards will allow supervisors to track KPIs and assign tasks without returning to office terminals.
• Customer-Facing Portals: Embedding secure dashboard widgets in the company's customer portal will enable clients to check order progress and historical purchase trends independently.

Final Thoughts: Why StyleBI Works for Mid-Sized Manufacturers

Many mid-market manufacturers are caught in a tech limbo: too complex for entry-level tools like Google Data Studio, but too resource-constrained for enterprise BI giants. InetSoft's StyleBI fills this crucial gap by delivering scalable, open source business analytics tailored for real-world manufacturing environments.

The custom sewn bag manufacturer's story is a testament to the fact that BI doesn't need to be expensive or overwhelming to deliver massive returns. What's needed is a clear vision, a flexible tool like StyleBI, and the willingness to trust data over intuition.

In a business where every stitch matters, so does every data point. With StyleBI, this manufacturer has stitched together not just bags—but a better, smarter future.

Technical Stack at a Glance:

• BI Platform: InetSoft StyleBI (Open Source)
• Data Sources: SQL-based ERP, Excel spreadsheets, CRM, IoT edge devices
• Languages Used: Python for predictive modeling, SQL for transformations
• Deployment: Hybrid (on-prem for core data, cloud for dashboard access)
• User Base: ~75 active users across 5 departments