Case Study: USDA achieves real-time, faster, lower-cost cotton grading with TIBCO Software's Spotfire

USDA Cotton Program Picks Spotfire for Accuracy, Efficiency

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Cotton and Tobacco Program, which grades every pound of U.S. cotton for global markets, faced a slow, manual quality-control process. Offices nationwide sent daily grading results and overnight samples to headquarters for retesting and email-based analysis, creating a one- to two-day lag, heavy labor, and resistance to change that limited efficiency and competitiveness.

The program implemented TIBCO Spotfire analytics to provide real-time, easy-to-use data visualizations and automated decision triggers from lab instruments. That eliminated the 48-hour wait for test results, enabled instantaneous accuracy checks, reduced the number of instruments (and maintenance costs), streamlined staffing while increasing throughput, unlocked faster, data-driven decisions across hundreds of millions of data points, and energized employees—while paving the way for predictive analytics and an industry-facing data portal.

USDA

Darryl Earnest

Deputy Administrator