CASE STUDY
How AgriChain Achieved 20% Faster Turnaround with Commodity Movement Analytics
AT A GLANCE
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Client: AgriChain
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Industry: Agriculture & Supply Chain
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Location: Multi-Site Operations
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Solution: Logistics & Commodity Tracking
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Key Impact: 20% faster turnaround, improved forecasting, higher asset utilization
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Background
AgriChain operates a complex grain supply platform managing the movement of agricultural commodities across multiple sites throughout the growing regions. The platform coordinates thousands of truck movements and large-scale tonnage transfers of wheat, barley, canola, and other agricultural products between farms, storage facilities, and end markets.
As agricultural markets became more volatile and margins tightened, AgriChain recognized that optimizing logistics operations and commodity flow was essential for maintaining competitiveness and service reliability.
The Challenge
AgriChain's logistics team was operating without real-time visibility into critical operational metrics across their supply chain network. The company managed thousands of daily truck movements but lacked a unified system to track throughput, identify bottlenecks, and optimize commodity flow. Management couldn't answer fundamental questions about operations: How many trucks were moving in and out across sites? What were the actual pickup and delivery times versus targets? Which commodities were experiencing the highest demand?
The absence of integrated reporting meant warehouse stock levels by commodity and grade remained opaque, with ownership splits between growers and warehouse operators tracked manually in spreadsheets. This fragmented approach made it impossible to optimize truck utilization or predict capacity constraints.
Without systematic measurement of tonnage movements, turnaround times, and commodity patterns, the company operated reactively to logistics challenges rather than proactively preventing them. The spreadsheet-driven reporting was not only time-consuming but also delayed, limiting the ability to respond quickly to operational inefficiencies.
The Solution
GrowthBI built a comprehensive Power BI dashboard providing real-time visibility into commodity movement and logistics KPIs. The solution consolidated data from AgriChain's transport and warehouse systems through automated Fivetran pipelines, creating a unified operational view.
The Truck Movements Tracking system monitored counts of inbound, outbound, and total trucks with real-time calculation of average pickup and delivery times. This immediate visibility enabled rapid identification and resolution of bottlenecks at specific sites.
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Commodity Volume Trends: Monthly tonnage tracking of key grains including Wheat, Barley, Canola, Fertiliser, Lime, Lupins, and Gypsum
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Stock & Ownership Analytics: Visual breakdown of commodity stock by grade with clear splits between grower-owned and warehouse-owned inventory
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KPI Monitoring Dashboard: Real-time metrics for tons moved, tonnage per hour, and average turnaround times
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Site & Grade Drilldowns: Granular filtering by location and commodity grade to identify operational inefficiencies
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Throughput Analysis: Hourly and daily tonnage tracking to optimize resource allocation
Results
The Logistics Dashboard transformed AgriChain's operational efficiency and decision-making capabilities. Turnaround times improved by 20% through better monitoring and proactive management of pickup and delivery delays. The real-time visibility enabled immediate response to bottlenecks, preventing cascade delays across the network.
Commodity forecasting accuracy improved significantly with clear visibility of monthly tonnage trends, enabling better capacity planning and customer commitments. Asset utilization increased as trucks and warehouse capacity were tracked and optimized based on actual demand patterns.
Key performance outcomes included:
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20% faster truck turnaround times
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Improved commodity forecasting with tonnage trend visibility
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Higher asset utilization through effective tracking
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Reduced operational bottlenecks with real-time monitoring
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Enhanced grower satisfaction through transparent stock tracking
The dashboard revealed seasonal patterns and commodity-specific logistics requirements that enabled proactive resource planning and strategic capacity investments.
Looking Forward
AgriChain plans to enhance their logistics analytics with predictive modeling for harvest volumes and integration with weather data for improved planning. The company is exploring IoT sensor integration for real-time truck tracking and automated queue management.
The success of this implementation has positioned AgriChain as a technology leader in agricultural logistics, with expansion plans for additional commodity types and international operations.
Want to see the technical details behind this implementation? Read our technical deep-dive to learn how we integrated transport systems with Power BI using Fivetran and SQL Server.