Case study · Distribution · Prototype
A steel distributor saw its procurement morning view working before it shared a single file
A family-owned steel distributor with several service centers asked what Claude could do for its purchasing team. Within days we built a working prototype on sample data, in English and Spanish, and a three-phase plan that keeps the company's data on its own server and leaves its ERP untouched.
- Company
- A steel distributor in Latin America with several service centers
- Industry
- Steel distribution
- Users
- The purchasing team, starting with one person
- What we built
- A working dashboard prototype on sample data, a three-phase build plan and a Power BI option
- Data
- Exports from the company's NetSuite ERP and the planner's weekly spreadsheets, read only
- AI in the product
- Claude
- Status
- Prototype and plan shown to the company, October 2026. The company's decision is pending.
- 5views in one morning page: briefing, transfers, supplier prices, plan check and history
- 2languages, switched with one click
- 3phases, with a commitment to the first one only
- 0writes back to the ERP
The prototype runs on sample data. No business outcomes are claimed.
The problem
The purchasing team worked from ERP exports and the planner's weekly spreadsheets: coverage days, averages, buy recommendations and backorders. The head of procurement wanted one view each morning of what was low, what was over, how supplier prices were moving and whether another branch could cover a shortage before anyone placed an order. There were two conditions: the ERP stays untouched for now, and the trial starts with one person.
What we built
A prototype the company could open and use.
The dashboard runs in a browser on sample data. It loads the company's own Excel or CSV files and recalculates, switches between English and Spanish, and keeps every week so stock and flags can be followed over time.
Transfer before you buy.
For every product below its minimum, the dashboard looks for a branch with spare stock that could cover it before anyone orders from a supplier.
Supplier prices and the weekly plan, side by side.
Every supplier and import offer per product sits in one table with its trend, and the planner's weekly purchase plan is checked line by line: buy, transfer, hold or ask for a better price.
Questions through Claude.
The team asks questions in a Claude project, in English or Spanish, such as “what is low at our second branch?”. Claude reads and flags. It never places an order or sends an email on its own.
A plan in three phases.
Phase 1 works on the exports, on the company's own server. Phase 2 moves to live read-only data. Phase 3 lets the team act from the view. The company was already building Power BI reports, so we also wrote up how a Power BI route would work.
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