Inspiration
Our inspiration was the prompt given by Yazaki, which we thought seemed like an interesting and useful idea to deliver a real solution to a problem identified in the manufacturing industry.
What it does
Our solution allows you to upload an Excel file containing information about manufacturing plants and generates an interactive map from the data that allows users to quickly and easily see hotspots for viable plants. The real functionality comes into play with the ability to filter the list of generated plants, allowing for dynamic and easy visualization of different categorizations of manufacturing plants for informational and decision-making purposes.
How we built it
We implemented a web application using Flask that utilizes Mapbox API technology to generate an interactive map. For the map data, we used example data provided to us by Yazaki and converted it to a usable JSON format, also adding our own information about regions of interest to help refine which areas would be highlighted on the map.
Challenges we ran into
Some challenges we ran into were that not all team members were familiar with the different frameworks and technologies we were using so there was a learning curve involved. We also had to reach out to Yazaki to get clarification on certain items to make sure we were delivering a solution that was what they were looking for. Their valuable input allowed us to refine our application and improve the design to better fit the requirements. We also had problems with a lack of feedback on certain errors, such as API response to incorrectly formatted JSON files that caused us to spend too much time investigating what was wrong.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud to have completed an application fitting the requirements set by Yazaki that works and is usable for the average consumer. We also got a late start on development and are proud that we were able to work under a limited timespan and still deliver a working solution with solid functionality.
What we learned
Planning is essential and should be done early so that we have plenty of time to overcome any obstacles that arise during development. Members of our team who were unfamiliar with the technology we were working on also learned a lot about development in those areas and using specific tools.
What's next for Mapufacture
Another feature we would like to be able to implement is the ability to save generated maps to our application and reference them later on so that data doesn't have to be regenerated every time. We also didn't get a chance to implement all of the filters we wanted to so we would like to add more of those in the future.
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