Home | Vraj Shah | Product Designer

CASE STUDY

Transforming Inventory Management: Inventory by Node

A holistic view: This Inventory-by-Node dashboard provides near real-time trend data across different life-cycle phases, allowing users to proactively track inventory value changes and anticipate future needs.

AbbVie's objective for this project was to improve inventory management for Legacy Allergan products, a process hindered by manual errors and inefficiencies.

To solve this, the company sought to create an Inventory-by-Node application within Ops Launchpad, enabling AbbVie's Operations Finance and Supply Chain teams to access inventory data and manage it more effectively.

PROJECT DURATION

20 Months

ROLE

Lead User Experience Designer

TOOLS

Adobe XD, Figma, Illustrator, JIRA

THE CHALLENGE: INACCURACY & INEFFICIENCY

The previous inventory management system relied on heavy manual data input, which made it susceptible to human error. This led to a high risk of inaccuracies in inventory data, often resulting in stockouts, overstocking, and lost revenue.

As one key stakeholder noted, "The current process of making the data ready for management users is open to human error and difficult to manually map nodes, input key materials, calculate cost per patient and format."

My goal was to solve these critical business challenges by providing a single, reliable source of truth for all inventory data.

Defining the Strategic Vision: I led the design of the new inventory dashboard to address the critical issue of manual errors, ensuring that the design was a direct solution to a key business problem and not just a visual update.

Championing a User-Centered Approach: I collaborated closely with business users, product owners, and product managers to gather user requirements and validate design decisions. This ensured the dashboard was built to meet the real needs of all stakeholders.

Providing Real-Time Insights: I championed a real-time data visualization system to provide users with immediate, accurate insights into inventory levels, empowering them to make faster, more informed decisions.

Minimizing Human Error: I designed and integrated task automation features into the dashboard. This was a direct response to the core challenge, significantly reducing the need for manual data input and minimizing the risk of errors.

MY STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTIONS

My role on this project was to act as the design lead, guiding the solution from initial concept to a successful implementation. My core contributions included:

THE "CONTROL TOWER": A NEAR REAL-TIME VIEW

The "Control Tower" in action, providing a real-time snapshot of key performance indicators for efficient monitoring and decision-making.

My design provides a "Control Tower" view that visualizes the end-to-end inventory journey. This was a critical step in addressing the challenge of inaccurate, outdated data. I broke down the inventory into specific, logical phases including Raw Material, Drug Substance, Drug Product, and Finished Goods.

This detailed breakdown, along with the Total Inventory and Total Inventory Rolling 3-month Average, gives users immediate, actionable insights into where bottlenecks and issues may arise. By providing this holistic view in near real-time, the dashboard empowers teams to make faster, more informed decisions, significantly reducing the risk of stockouts and overstock.

The multi-functional inventory dashboard, designed with flexibility in mind. It features a high-level visual overview for quick insights and a data-dense table layout for detailed analysis and comparison.

MULTI-FUNCTIONAL DASHBOARD FOR EVERY USER

This dashboard was designed to be multi-functional, providing various view options to cater to different user needs. I understood that a single view wouldn't be enough to serve every workflow. My solution included:

Data Visualization View: Designed for a high-level overview, providing quick insights into trends and patterns.
Grid View: For a clean, scannable summary of inventory data.
Table View: To support detailed comparisons and in-depth analysis.
Location/Map View: To give users a geographical understanding of where inventory is located, enabling them to make better decisions about distribution and logistics.

This suite of flexible views ensures that the tool is intuitive and efficient, empowering users to interact with the data in a way that best suits their needs and goals.

THE IMPACT: FROM INACCURACY TO EFFICIENCY

The successful implementation of the inventory dashboard had a direct and significant positive impact on the business. By providing real-time visibility into specific inventory phases and offering flexible viewing options, my design empowered stakeholders across the Supply Chain and Finance teams to make better decisions.

The results were clear and measurable:

Inventory accuracy and efficiency were significantly improved.
The company was able to reduce stockouts and overstocking by nearly 70%.
This led to substantial cost savings and improved inventory optimization.

The positive feedback from the business validated the project's success, confirming that a user-centered design approach can directly lead to powerful, tangible business outcomes.

Closing the Loop.

Thank you for taking this journey with me, from initial challenge to final impact. Just like in design, the best discoveries are made at the end of a long journey.

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OPERATIONS LAUNCHPAD

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MY PROCESS FOR FISERV

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Transforming Inventory Management: Inventory by Node

Defining the Strategic Vision: I led the design of the new inventory dashboard to address the critical issue of manual errors, ensuring that the design was a direct solution to a key business problem and not just a visual update.

Championing a User-Centered Approach: I collaborated closely with business users, product owners, and product managers to gather user requirements and validate design decisions. This ensured the dashboard was built to meet the real needs of all stakeholders.

Providing Real-Time Insights: I championed a real-time data visualization system to provide users with immediate, accurate insights into inventory levels, empowering them to make faster, more informed decisions.

Minimizing Human Error: I designed and integrated task automation features into the dashboard. This was a direct response to the core challenge, significantly reducing the need for manual data input and minimizing the risk of errors.

My role on this project was to act as the design lead, guiding the solution from initial concept to a successful implementation. My core contributions included:

This dashboard was designed to be multi-functional, providing various view options to cater to different user needs. I understood that a single view wouldn't be enough to serve every workflow. My solution included:

​

Data Visualization View: Designed for a high-level overview, providing quick insights into trends and patterns.

Grid View: For a clean, scannable summary of inventory data.

Table View: To support detailed comparisons and in-depth analysis.

Location/Map View: To give users a geographical understanding of where inventory is located, enabling them to make better decisions about distribution and logistics.

​

This suite of flexible views ensures that the tool is intuitive and efficient, empowering users to interact with the data in a way that best suits their needs and goals.

​

The results were clear and measurable:

Inventory accuracy and efficiency were significantly improved.

The company was able to reduce stockouts and overstocking by nearly 70%.

This led to substantial cost savings and improved inventory optimization.

​

The positive feedback from the business validated the project's success, confirming that a user-centered design approach can directly lead to powerful, tangible business outcomes.

Closing the Loop.

Thank you for taking this journey with me, from initial challenge to final impact. Just like in design, the best discoveries are made at the end of a long journey.