See Clearly, Act Decisively: What Your Glass Supply Dashboard Must Deliver
In glass distribution, timing is everything—and visibility is non-negotiable. Whether you’re managing float glass inventory, custom IGU production, or multi-site fulfillment across North America, the ability to track operational performance in real time can mean the difference between a successful project and a costly penalty.
That’s why performance dashboards are no longer optional for U.S. and Canadian glass distributors. Below is a strategic checklist of what your performance dashboard must include to support daily operations and long-term strategy.
✅ 1. OTIF (On-Time In Full) by Customer and Product Class
Track delivery performance for laminated safety glass, tempered sheets, and architectural glazing units. Break it down by geography, customer segment, and order complexity.
✅ 2. Inventory by Warehouse and Age
View real-time stock levels for high-turn SKUs, identify aging inventory (especially fragile or coated SKUs), and monitor warehouse-specific performance.
✅ 3. Breakage and Return Rates
High return volumes on certain carriers or products? Your dashboard should visualize claims trends and root causes—helping reduce damage and freight costs.
✅ 4. Margin by SKU
Understand profitability at a product level. A dashboard should show margin erosion for specific glass types due to freight or fabrication labor costs.
✅ 5. Freight Cost per Order
Compare freight costs by carrier, region, and order size. Critical for managing margins on low-weight, high-fragility shipments.
✅ 6. Backorder Volume and Resolution Time
Display open backorders by SKU and customer priority, along with average resolution time. Helps align customer service and ops.
✅ 7. Order Cycle Time
Track time from order intake to delivery. Pinpoint bottlenecks in production, pick, or transport stages.
✅ 8. SLA Compliance by Key Account
Monitor fulfillment accuracy against promised SLAs for large commercial or municipal clients.
✅ 9. Labor Productivity Metrics
Measure output by shift, department, or facility to identify trends in warehouse or fabrication performance.
✅ 10. Exception Alerts
Enable automatic flagging of delays, errors, or anomalies—so managers can act before customers do.
Conclusion
Your dashboard should be more than a report—it should be a command center. With the right setup, glass distributors can control margin, reduce errors, and deliver excellence from quote to crate. If your current dashboard can’t check every item on this list, it’s time to upgrade your visibility toolkit.
