Operations Dashboard: Real-Time Logistics Visibility Platform
A real-time operations dashboard that replaced 6 spreadsheets and 3 SaaS tools with a single view of warehouse inventory, shipments, and delivery status.
Client: Confidential E-commerce Company
Full-width dashboard with KPI cards at top (orders today, shipments in transit, inventory alerts), a map showing active deliveries with status pins, and a table of orders with status badges.
The Challenge
The operations manager started each day by checking ShipStation for shipments, Inventory Planner for stock levels, Google Sheets for vendor purchase orders, another sheet for returns, and Looker for daily revenue. By the time she had a complete picture, it was 10 AM and the morning standup had already happened with stale data. When a customer called about a delayed order, looking up the status required checking 3 different systems. She needed a single screen that showed everything in real-time so she could walk into standup with the full picture in 30 seconds.
Our Approach
We built a unified dashboard that pulled data from existing systems via APIs and webhooks. ShipStation webhooks pushed shipment status changes in real-time. Shopify API provided order data. The inventory module read from their warehouse management system's REST API. We added a vendor PO tracker that replaced two Google Sheets. The dashboard rendered on a wall-mounted TV in the warehouse with auto-refresh. The UI had three layers: KPI summary cards at the top (orders today, in transit, delivered, returned, low stock alerts), a geographic map showing active deliveries with color-coded status pins, and a filterable table for drill-down. Alerts fired to Slack when inventory hit reorder thresholds or shipments were delayed beyond SLA. We added a simple returns workflow that replaced the returns spreadsheet entirely.
What We Built
Delivery Timeline
Day 1-3: API Integration
ShipStation, Shopify, and WMS API connectors. Webhook receivers. Data normalization.
Day 4-7: Dashboard UI
KPI cards, delivery map, order table, TV display mode with auto-refresh.
Day 8-10: Inventory + PO Tracker
Inventory monitoring, reorder alerts, vendor PO CRUD replacing spreadsheets.
Day 11-12: Returns + Alerts
Returns workflow, Slack integration for alerts, notification rules engine.
Day 13: Hardening
API failure handling, data sync verification, security audit.
Day 14: Launch
Production deployment, wall-mount TV setup, team training.
Tech Stack
Architecture
frontend
Next.js with auto-refresh for wall-mounted TV display mode.
backend
Hono on Railway with webhook receivers for ShipStation and Shopify.
auth
Better Auth with Google Workspace SSO.
data
PostgreSQL for aggregated data. Redis for real-time dashboard state.
integrations
ShipStation, Shopify, and warehouse WMS REST APIs.
Security
rbac
Operations, Manager, and Executive view levels with data scoping.
secrets
API keys encrypted in Railway environment variables.
monitoring
Health checks for each API integration. Slack alerts on API failures.
qa
Integration tests for each data source webhook handler.
The Results
“I used to spend 90 minutes every morning gathering data from 6 different places. Now I glance at the dashboard and know everything. The Slack alerts for low inventory alone have prevented 3 stockouts.”
Key Takeaways
The biggest ROI in operations tools comes from eliminating tab-switching. One dashboard that aggregates 3 to 5 data sources saves hours daily.
Webhooks beat polling for real-time dashboards. ShipStation and Shopify both support webhooks. Push updates mean the dashboard is always current.
Wall-mounted TV mode is a high-impact low-effort feature. Auto-refresh plus a large-format layout gives the whole warehouse team visibility.
Deliverables
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
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