By Claudia Perez
The automotive company is one of the businesses that have implemented the use of this data visualization tool. One of the challenges for the automotive giant was that it generated vast amounts of data and information in a dispersed manner. According to its Regional Data Director for North America, Danielle Beringer, they were “drowning in a sea of spreadsheets.” They had the information but did not know the best way to organize, process, and leverage the insights it provided.
How do they use it, and why is it important?
Nissan primarily uses Tableau for its internal operations. With this tool, they can unify, visualize, and process information from different categories, such as:
- Production-related data: Manufacturing times and plant efficiency.
- Sales-related data: Sales performance across different geographic regions.
- Online interaction data: Surveys on customer preferences, opinions, and comments from digital platforms. This information reveals key insights about customer service and product satisfaction levels.
- Warranty data: Incidents, deficiencies, defects, and claims made to the company under warranty. This is one of the most valuable datasets as it helps improve production and the quality of new products, preventing losses and maintaining the company’s brand equity.
- Inventory data: Deliveries of parts and vehicles. This helps detect delays or deficiencies in services.
For example, by inputting these datasets into Tableau—which they usually do through CSV files or SQL databases—the company can simultaneously process information such as:
Date / Dealership / Car Model / Sales / Inventory / Customer Satisfaction)
X (Per)
Region / Example: Tampa (United States) / Tokyo (Japan) / France (Paris)
By leveraging these data categories, the company can make informed decisions. For example, if a specific region has a high number of warranty claims, the company can investigate and detect if there are failures in any of its production plants.
Another use of Tableau is across the company (transversally). Nissan has implemented the system throughout its entire structure, from headquarters to the supply chain and subsidiaries. This ensures data consistency and alignment across different departments and offices.
Conclusion
The unification of data across different business lines enables the company to anticipate customer needs, provide better responses, enhance production efficiency, improve customer service, optimize business operations, and prevent financial losses. According to Beringer, with the implementation of Tableau, Nissan has generated multimillion-dollar savings.
You also deserve these savings. What are you waiting for to implement Tableau?