Spartanburg, SC · Upstate · Spartanburg County
A part-time CIO for Spartanburg, SC automotive firms.
Automotive and distribution operations on I-85, where a shipment schedule will not wait for a quarterly report.
Systems common in this market. The figure is city population.
The market
What Spartanburg looks like from here.
Spartanburg is automotive and advanced manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and the industrial services that support both along the I-85 corridor. When your customers run on shipment schedules, you need to know today what shipped, what is late, and what it cost. Right now that answer probably comes from an export someone runs and a spreadsheet someone fixes. The AI tools your planners and dispatchers have started using to speed that up are almost always unmanaged.
The usual systems are an ERP, the system that runs orders and production, a warehouse system, Microsoft 365, and a month-end export that becomes the report. We connect the ERP and the warehouse system directly to a dashboard you own wherever the software allows it, so operations reporting is current instead of monthly. The AI rules come first, written for the planning and dispatch roles that are already using the tools. Spartanburg County and the rest of the Upstate run on schedules that make quarterly reporting close to useless.
What we would expect to find here. Automotive and distribution schedules mean operations reporting has to be current every day. A live connection to the ERP and the warehouse system beats an export every time the software allows it.
Current enough for a schedule
When customers run on shipment schedules, a Spartanburg firm needs to know today what shipped, what is late, and what it cost. That answer currently comes from an export someone runs and a spreadsheet someone fixes.
Base dashboard deployment connects the ERP and the warehouse system directly wherever the software allows it, so operations reporting is current instead of monthly. The rules for planning and dispatch roles are written first.
Spartanburg is a service area, not an office. One team, based in North Carolina, works in your own systems.
Where this has run
A profile close to this setup.
Reporting was three exports reconciled by hand.
Light manufacturer · ~120 staff
Industries in Spartanburg
Who we work with here.
Start here
- AI Use Policy — Advisory review
- Applications assessment — Assessment
- Base dashboard deployment — Deployment
Where we work
Around Spartanburg and across SC.
Where are you based and do you work remotely?
Third Shift Group LLC is based in North Carolina and works with firms across North and South Carolina. Most of the work runs remotely, against your Microsoft cloud account and your systems. Policy meetings and leadership sessions can be on site where that helps. See where we work for the regions and towns we cover.
Shipment schedules drive everything. How current is the reporting?
When shipment schedules drive everything, the reporting is monthly at minimum and connected rather than exported wherever the systems allow it. Connected systems feed the dashboard on a schedule you set. Operations reporting that arrives after month end is too late to change what happened that month.
Can the dashboard show today what shipped and what is late?
Where the software allows a live connection, the ERP and the warehouse system feed the dashboard directly, so the figures are current instead of monthly. Cost sits with what shipped and what is late.
When is a live ERP connection possible instead of an export?
Whenever the software allows it. A live connection beats an export every time the ERP and the warehouse system can support one. If they cannot, the export remains the path. Quarterly reporting is close to useless on these schedules.
Start here
The first step is the same in every location.
Advisory first, in Spartanburg as everywhere else: a written assessment you own.