Manufacturing

Slashing Shipping Costs: How Brainforge Saved an E-commerce Retailer Hundreds of Thousands

Stella Source: Innovating Steel Fabrication with Data

Streamlining Operations in a Complex Industry

Inefficient Quoting Process

Stella Source struggled with an inaccurate and time-consuming quoting process, leading to potential lost business and reduced profitability.

Lack of Operational Visibility

The company had limited insights into their fabrication processes, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks and optimize operations.

Limited Customer Understanding

Stella Source lacked comprehensive data on customer behavior and preferences, hindering their ability to improve services and target marketing efforts effectively.

The Challenge

Inefficient Quoting Process

Stella Source struggled with an inaccurate and time-consuming quoting process, leading to potential lost business and reduced profitability.

Lack of Operational Visibility

The company had limited insights into their fabrication processes, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks and optimize operations.

Limited Customer Understanding

Stella Source lacked comprehensive data on customer behavior and preferences, hindering their ability to improve services and target marketing efforts effectively.

The Solution

Advanced Quote Activity Reporting

Developed detailed reports tracking quote activities, providing insights into costs, statuses, and organizational details. This enabled accurate tracking of material and labor costs, helping identify cost-saving opportunities.

Integrated Data Management

Created a centralized data repository in Snowflake, integrating data from various sources including HubSpot, Zendesk, and Fullstory. Implemented dbt for data transformation, enabling more advanced analytics and potential predictive modeling.

Custom Operational Dashboards

Developed role-specific dashboards using Rill Data, providing real-time insights for executives, managers, and operators. This enabled data-driven decision-making across all levels of the organization.

Transforming Operations with Data-Driven Insights

The implementation of Brainforge's solutions resulted in significant improvements across Stella Source's operations:

  • Enhanced Quoting Accuracy: Streamlined quoting process with detailed cost breakdowns, improving accuracy and efficiency.
  • Operational Efficiency: Identified bottlenecks in fabrication processes and improved inventory management through detailed cost segmentation.
  • Improved Customer Insights: Integrated customer data for better CRM, enhancing customer support and satisfaction tracking.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Custom dashboards and advanced analytics enabled real-time insights and predictive maintenance.
  • Financial Performance: Implemented daily/weekly/monthly KPI reporting, providing better visibility into financial metrics and markup strategies.
Book your free consultation call
Explore Brainforge

Implementing Comprehensive Data Architecture

Advanced Quote Activity Reporting

Developed detailed reports tracking quote activities, providing insights into costs, statuses, and organizational details. This enabled accurate tracking of material and labor costs, helping identify cost-saving opportunities.

Integrated Data Management

Created a centralized data repository in Snowflake, integrating data from various sources including HubSpot, Zendesk, and Fullstory. Implemented dbt for data transformation, enabling more advanced analytics and potential predictive modeling.

Custom Operational Dashboards

Developed role-specific dashboards using Rill Data, providing real-time insights for executives, managers, and operators. This enabled data-driven decision-making across all levels of the organization.

Learn from your data—start today!

Get an in-depth overview of our data analysis services.

Slashing Shipping Costs: How Brainforge Saved an E-commerce Retailer Hundreds of Thousands

Behind Stella Source’s reporting transformation: a leaner data workflow, smarter insights, and zero guesswork.

Team Members

Your embedded expert at Stella Source provides direct access, weekly check-ins, and taps in specialists as needed—working with trusted vendors to deliver fast, effective solutions.

Amber · Proj. Manager
Casie · AI Engineer
Miguel · AI Engineer
Annie · Data Analyst

Context

Manual workflows. Hidden costs. Shrinking margins.

Stella Source is one of North America's largest steel fabrication providers, processing thousands of custom quotes monthly. With limited data infrastructure, disconnected systems, and manual estimation processes, profits suffered while competitors gained ground.

Data trapped everywhere

Quote calculations locked in spreadsheets. Pricing formulas in emails. Material costs in disconnected systems.

Margins under pressure

No visibility into cost breakdowns. Inconsistent markup strategies. Competitors winning on speed.

Systems that can't change

Core fabrication software embedded in operations. No budget for rip-and-replace approach.

Challenge

Without a single source of truth, Stella's team struggled to optimize their fabrication process.

Quoting inefficiencies
Material cost uncertainty
No process visibility

The result? Lost opportunities, unpredictable margins, and no way to identify bottlenecks.

Solution

To help, we built The Stella Data Platform, a unified data architecture that gives fabrication teams complete visibility into quoting, costs, and customer insights.

Centralized Snowflake data warehouse with end-to-end visibility
Custom dashboards via Rill for real-time decision making
Integrated CRM data for complete customer understanding
Data quality monitoring through Elementary
Turning fabrication insights into competitive advantage

Results

The Stella Data Platform quickly became the go-to tool for fabrication teams, cutting quote times, boosting accuracy, and driving profitability. With rapid adoption and strong feedback, it's now central to Stella's fabrication workflow.

60%

reduction in quote turnaround time

95%

cost estimation accuracy achieved

<24 hrs

time to actionable insights

Impact

We didn't just fix quote calculations. It transformed how the entire organization makes decisions and serves customers.

From pilot to company-wide

Expanded from estimation team to production and executive visibility in 8 weeks

No workflow disruption

Integrated with existing fabrication systems without replacing core infrastructure

Blueprint for data success

A proven model for any manufacturing business with disconnected information

See what our clients said

Brainforge helped us streamline support by organizing our documents and building an AI assistant our team actually uses. What stood out most was their dedication — they took time to understand our needs and worked closely with us every step of the way. Our agents are faster, more focused, and no longer waste time digging for answers. We'd absolutely recommend them.

We needed fast, reliable data engineering support — and Brainforge delivered. They spun up quickly, laid strong foundations, and brought in the right people for every stage, from infra to modeling. Their team made onboarding seamless and scaled with our needs. Highly recommend.

Brainforge expertly resolved a complex issue with seamless communication, strong organization, and deep expertise in single-page applications and data analytics. His professionalism and clarity with non-technical stakeholders make him highly recommendable.

If you’re looking for a world-class, experienced, easy to work with product analytics expert, Robert is it! He was an absolute pleasure to work with, easy to communicate with, and a reliable expert.

Brainforge set up our product analytics from scratch, including Amplitude implementation, tracking priorities, and dashboards. Robert’s sharp expertise and clear guidance made the handoff smooth and effective.

Robert had an answer to every obscure and nuanced question we had! We were looking for a well-rounded, world-class product analytics expert for our project, and we’re SO grateful for his help

Robert from Brainforge was a tremendous asset, helping us identify needs, close gaps, and implement solutions with speed and precision. His thorough, organized approach made every interaction focused and productive—we’d gladly work with him again.