At Whirlpool, data warehousing is providing important support in all of these critical areas (see Table 1). To illustrate, Whirlpool’s data warehouse enables quality engineers to easily track the performance of component parts. This allows the engineers to assess new components that are being field tested, to quickly detect problems with particular parts, and to identify the high and low quality suppliers. From a different perspective, suppliers can check on the performance of the parts they supply and, consequently, can manage proactively the quality provided to Whirlpool. Purchasing
managers have parts information from around the world so that they can find the lowest-cost, highest quality part available on a global basis.