Quick Access to Case Studies
Baby
Lulu - Clothing Designer
and Manufacturer
www.babylulu.com
Description of Customer's Business:
Baby Lulu is a manufacturer and distributor of baby and toddler
apparel products. They operate out of a 15,000 square foot warehouse
in Los Angeles. Description of System: Baby Lulu
is using a customized version of FabricTracker to track their inventory
of fabric rolls. Upon receipt of a fabric roll from their vendor,
the warehouse staff process's a receiving function that prints out
barcoded hangtags with a unique roll number per fabric. The fabric
rolls are received into the system and are available for the production
staff to pull from. Fabric rolls are put away and recorded into
unique bin locations. When it is time for production, the operations
staff generates a cut ticket and the warehouse staff will locate
and pull the appropriate fabric rolls based upon the roll number
and bin locations recorded in Fabric Tracker. At various times during the production process, Baby Lulu will
send out the fabric rolls to third party contractors for cutting
and sewing or some other type of processing. They use the system
to "issue" the fabric rolls to the contractor (in essence
moving the rolls from their warehouse to the contractors warehouse
in the system). The rolls then either get consumed and don't exist
in inventory any more or get received back into Baby Lulu's warehouse. See
this hardware Problem Solved: The Fabric Tracker
System solved a huge problem for Baby Lulu in that they were loosing
track of the fabric rolls that were being sent out to third party
contractors. These contractors would conveniently loose or misplace
the rolls resulting in approximately 20% loss to Baby Lulu. In addition,
Baby Lulu had a difficult time tracking the fabric rolls within
their own warehouse. Fabric Tracker has given them the mechanism
to track their fabric rolls and hold their vendors and employees
accountable for these expensive inventory items. Back to Top
Dearden's Warehousing/Distribution/Retailing Description of Customer's Business:
Dearden's is a retailer of furniture, TV's, watches, etc. to a mainly
Hispanic customer base. They operate 11 retail stores in and around
Los Angeles. They have two distribution centers (DC): Vernon (100,000
sq ft) & their main headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. These
two DC's are the main distribution point for their products.
Description of System: Dearden’s
has a legacy HP-9000 home-grown accounting system and wanted to
integrate a real time data collection bar code system which would
allow them complete visibility to their entire inventory. Since
this project involved multiple warehouses, it would have to be rolled
out in two methodologically planned phases. Phase one of the project
was to provide the Vernon warehouse workers with a method to receive
and put-away goods using a IEEE 802.11 based access points and radio
frequency (RF) bar code scanners. The primary purpose of this system
is to receive goods from their vendors and process store to store
cross docking transfers through the Distribution Center. This system
will also process and route all store transfers through the Distribution
Center implementing the Hub and Spoke concept. Phase 2: The system
was rolled out and implemented at their Los Angeles Distribution
Center which acts as a warehouse for small piece goods.
See this hardware Problem Solved: Merchandise was taking
too long to be put-away and the labor cost for the warehouse was
getting out of control. Because of the lag time to receive and put-away
merchandise, Dearden's was loosing sales and product was not flowing
through the warehouse in a timely manner. The bottom-line was that
this "paper-based" receiving system was too slow, caused
too many errors and was resulting in a loss of sales. The DataToolz
custom designed “Middleware” gave Dearden’s clear
and concise visibility to their entire distribution operation and
reduce the cost of each order processed. Back to Top
Hi-Tek
- Distribution arm of Clothing Manufacturer
www.m8-otb.com
Description of Customer’s Business:
Hi-Tek Warehouse is a wholesale distributor of young men’s
and women’s apparel. Their major customer is JC Pennies. Hi-Tek
operates a 55,000 square foot warehouse out of the City of Industry.
Hi-Tek handles in the neighborhood of 7,000 transactions a month
using QuickStock. This translates into about 30 shipments and 30
receipts per day. They have over 600 bin locations and over 20 plus
multi-level racks in which they store and track their merchandise.
Description of System: Hi-Tek uses
QuickStock from the minute their items hit the dock doors. They
use the system to receive goods into QuickStock, and as they move
their items from the receiving area to the bin locations in the
warehouse. When a customer order is taken, Hi-Tek uses the system
to pick and fulfill the order. Hi-Tek is constantly relocating product
within the warehouse to make room for new items, they move items
for more efficient picking and moving older merchandise towards
bin locations in the back of the warehouse. The warehouse staff
uses the handheld’s to record the movement of stock from one
location to the other.
See
this hardware
Problem Solved: Prior to the implementation
of QuickStock, Hi-Tek was using a paper-based system to locate items
within their warehouse. They were constantly spending time searching
for merchandise up and down the warehouse aisles. In addition, current
stock was extremely inaccurate and was causing a loss in sales due
to not knowing what they had in stock. QuickStock improved their
operational efficiency and increased their inventory accuracy ten
fold.
Opera
Pacific
- Premier Opera Company on the West Coast
www.operapacific.org/Music
Local Company Comes to the Rescue of Opera
Pacific’s Costume Dept.
DataToolz, Inc., the provider of custom solutions for inventory
control and warehouse management, came to the rescue of the Opera
Pacific costume department by generously donating a complete system
that will streamline the departments ability to control, manage
and locate all the costumes and accessories in their inventory.
The number of costumes owned, and co-owned, by Opera Pacific has
been growing significantly over the last years mostly due to the
addition of new productions like Brundibar, Carmen and Dead Man
Walking. Today, with just under 2,000 costumes in stock and no computerized
inventory control system Christine Jordan, Costume Director, is
facing a huge challenge. For example, keeping track of the pieces
that come in and out has become a daunting task, especially for
a production like Carmen, which can involve over 550 pieces of various
sort. Furthermore, next season’s Trovatore and Salome will
generate a significant increase in the company’s costume stock.
The system offered by DataToolz, Inc. is designed to give the Costume
Department better control of their growing inventory. Not only will
all current tasks related to costume rental be made easier and faster
but the whole operation will gain in efficiency and accuracy. This
system will also allow the tracking of the current stock of shoes
and accessories, and maintain a central database of the measurements
and preferences of each artist. The solution is composed of a customized
inventory control software and a handheld infra-red scanning device
that reads barcode labels specially designed for costumes. The pieces
are scanned with the handheld unit upon reception and the data is
automatically transferred to the computer, avoiding time-consuming
manual data entry and potential errors. The software also assigns
each costume or piece a storage address in the warehouse which makes
locating them accurate and convenient.
According to Mrs. Jordan, Opera Pacific will be the 1st company
in Orange County in our industry to benefit from such an advanced
inventory management system.
To learn more about DataToolz and their products, contact Paul K.
Gunther, MIM at 949-584-2110 or visit their website: www.datatoolz.com. See
this hardware Back to Top
Warner
Brothers,
Inc.
www2.warnerbros.com
Description of Customer's Business:
Warner Bros. is a global leader in the creation, production, distribution,
licensing and marketing of theatrical motion pictures, television
programming, video/DVD and related products. Founded more than 75
years ago as a motion picture studio, Warner Bros. has evolved into
a fully integrated global entertainment company, standing at the
forefront of feature films, television, home video, animation, product
and brand licensing and international theaters Description of System: Warner Brothers
uses a proprietary ERP system and wanted a better more cost effective
methodology of tracking their Master Film Library and other film/video/TV
assets. See
this hardware Problem Solved: DataToolz helped
program a custom interface to Warner Brothers legacy system integrating
a Locator Asset Tracking System using bar codes and wireless scanning
hardware from HandHeld Products. Back to Top
Del Bianello Corporation Description of Customer's Business:
Del Bianello is an importer of fine furniture from all over the world.
They specialize in hand crafted items from Countries like Egypt, Malaysia,
Burma, Italy, etc. They operate a 45,000 square foot warehouse in
the greater Los Angeles area. They sell their items to retailers,
through designers and to end consumers.
Description of System: Del Bianello
is using the QuickStock inventory management system integrated with
QuickBooks 2002. QuickStock consists of a PC-based system and mobile
batch handheld barcode terminals.
All item numbers, customer and vendor information reside in QuickBooks
and through the DataToolz interface are connected to QuickStock.
Purchase Orders are entered into QuickBooks and through the interface
are transferred to QuickStock in real time. When the goods arrive
at the warehouse from the vendor, the warehouse worker uses a barcode
handheld terminal to receive against that purchase order by simply
scanning the product and entering a quantity. The warehouse worker
then uses the handheld terminal to “put-away” the merchandise
into barcoded bin locations. When a customer purchases an item,
an invoice is entered into QuickBooks. This invoice is transferred
to QuickStock, in real time, through the interface. The warehouse
worker then uses the handheld terminal to pick the order. QuickStock
takes the worker through a directed walk through of the warehouse
in a logical sequence to pick the items for this particular order.
The warehouse worker scans the barcoded locations and items to record
the picking of this order.
In addition, the warehouse worker will use QuickStock to record
moves from one bin location to another. He/she will also use QuickStock
to perform cycle counts and print a wide variety of reports about
the inventory in the warehouse. QuickStock also supports kits or
sets. Del Bianello uses the QuickStock/QuickBooks kits to assemble
furniture sets such as chairs, dining room tables, pillows and sofas.
Problem Solved: The QuickStock /
QuickBooks integration has given Del Bianello a mini-ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) system at a very reasonable price. They now have
the tools to manage their business’s finances AND their warehouse
with ONE integrated system. QuickStock has given Del Bianello unparalleled
inventory accuracy and efficiency. At any given time, they know
what they have in stock and where it is located within the warehouse.
In addition, QuickStock is able to manage the sets or kits that
are very important to a furniture wholesaler. Del Bianello’s
customers are happy because the warehouse staff can easily and efficiently
pick and process their orders. The end result is that Del Bianello
was able to implement a completely integrated financial and inventory
management system at a fraction of the cost of currently available
systems.
Back to Top
Disney
Consumer Products
licensing.disney.com
Description of Customer’s Business:
Disney Consumer Products is responsible for the manufacturing, marketing
and sales of all Disney Branded Products. They sell these items
internationally through company owned Disney Stores, through various
national and international retailers and via a company owned website.
The Disney Consumer Products group is located in four separate states,
across 7 different office buildings.
Description of System: Disney currently
uses the Peregrine Enterprise Asset Tracking Software to trace and
track information technology assets such as monitors, laser printers,
computers, telephones etc... Peregrine keeps track of these IT assets
at an employee and office level. Thus, an employee and/or office
will contain the assets. When new items are received, items are
moved from one office to another, or items are retired from service
they must be manually entered into the Peregrine Asset Tracking
system.
Our solution adds onto the functionality of The Peregrine system
by giving the user a Windows CE-based handheld barcode-scanning
device to automate the current manual, paper-based data capture
process. The portable CE-device allows the user to add new items
as they are delivered to the office receiving area. It allows them
to perform audits of offices and employees to verify what assets
they currently own. It allows the user to move assets from one office
to another office in an efficient and timely manner. When all of
this data is collected, the handheld is “synchronized”
to the server and this information is automatically posted into
the Peregrine Asset Tracking system. See
this hardware
Problem Solved: This automated system
has completely replaced the need to manually key enter items into
Peregrine. Furthermore, it gives the Disney Team complete mobility
when verifying, moving or adding assets into the Peregrine Asset
Tracking system. With the use of multiple handhelds the Disney Team
is able to audit and record the current assets ten times faster
than the previous paper-based manual system. The system has paid
for itself in a matter of mere months and the IT staff is more accurately
informed as to what assets are currently owned. This ultimately
prevents Disney from wasting money on IT assets that are unnecessary
or redundant and can more readily help with the accuracy of the
balance sheet.
Back to Top
Sunshine
Products
www.timelessvessels.com
Description of Customer’s Business:
Sunshine Products is a importer and wholesale distributor of pedestals,
pots and furnishings. They sell their products to local and national
hotel chains. Sunshine purchases their products from overseas manufacturers
and receives bulk products in weekly container load shipments. They
operate a 35,000 square foot warehouse facility that has two separate
warehouse locations. Description of System: Sunshine utilizes
the DataToolz QuickStock Locator system. The QuickStock Locator
system is a scaled down version from QuickStock-Full in that it
does not utilize the Sales Order and Purchase Order modules. When Sunshine places an order with their overseas vendor, they
print barcoded labels from QuickStock and send them to the vendor.
The vendor labels the products that Sunshine has ordered prior to
shipment. When the containers arrive at the receiving dock, the
warehouse staff utilizes portable handheld scanning devices to receive
the stock directly into a bin location. At this point, Sunshine
now knows how much stock they have and where it is located within
the warehouse. When a customer places an order, a barcoded sales order is printed
from their Solomon Accounting System. The warehouse staff scans
the barcode on the sales order and QuickStock directs the staff
member to the appropriate bin location. The warehouse worker scans
the bin location, scans the product and key-enters a picked quantity. In addition, Sunshine Products performs light manufacturing of
large plant pots. They take blank pots and paint them with various
tints or add other designed features. Sunshine then utilizes the
flexibility of QuickStock in this process by allowing the warehouse
staff to move the product to the manufacturing area and then adjust
it out of stock as a blank product and re-adjust it back into stock
as the manufactured product, essentially converting from one part
number to another part number! See
this hardware Problem Solved: Sunshine was having
tremendous difficulty in locating their products within the warehouse.
In addition, the company had grown and expanded to a second warehouse
adjacent to their current facility. These two factors accelerated
the necessity to either hire more warehouse staff or to automate.
Sunshine chose to automate, and with this decision, they have reduced
their order picking time by over 50%, they have improved their inventory
accuracy by over 65%, and they have greater visibility of their
inventory movement. In addition, Sunshine Products has been able
to use the QuickStock Locator System to help reduce stock levels
and increase the efficiency of tracking their inventory. Back to Top
Schwarzkopf
Professional
www.schwarzkopf.com
Description of Customer’s Business:
Schwarzkopf Professional - - A Division of Henkel the multi-national
German Conglomerate has a global presence in over 80 countries and
is one of the leading international companies within the hairdressing
marketplace. Schwarzkopf USA is the wholesale distributor and manufacturer
of Schwarzkopf-branded cosmetics for the North American Market.
They operate a 40,000 square foot facility that serves thousand
of customers throughout the United States. Their customers are cosmetic
retailers and distributors who sell Schwarzkopf products to beauty
salons and retail stores.
Description of System: Schwarzkopf
currently uses the Best Software Enterprise Suite of accounting
system interfaced to a Warehouse Management System (WMS) provided
by DataToolz, Inc.. The WMS is a web-based system that integrates
barcodes and wireless data collection with rules based client/server
software that manages the flow of products in and out of the warehouse.
Being a web enabled system, orders and data can be accessed 24/7
from any computer with internet access and proper security authorization.
The integration of these two systems provides Schwarzkopf with an
enterprise level ERP solution that offers complete visibility to
their entire inventory online, along with the associated statistics
Management may require.
Products are ordered using the Best Enterprise Purchase Order Module.
When the product arrives at the Schwarzkopf facility, the warehouse
staff uses wireless portable handheld scanning devices to receive
the items by purchase order. The purchase order can be received
by one person or by a team of Schwarzkopf’s warehouse staff.
The products are then put-away into bar-coded bin locations. The
warehouse worker scans the bin location, the product and then key-enters
a quantity to put away. At this point, the Schwarzkopf sales staff
knows, in real time, how much product they have and where it is
physically located in the warehouse. When a customer places an order, the Schwarzkopf customer service
staff key-enters a sales order into the Best Enterprise Accounting
System. The sales order is transferred to the WMS and the warehouse
manager is able to make business decisions about when and how this
order should be picked. If it is a large order, he/she may send
a team out to pick the order or he/she may opt to send only a single
picker to pull the order. Whatever the case, the warehouse worker
assembles a “wave” of orders to pick and proceeds to
the start of the warehouse aisles. The WMS then takes the worker
on a directed pick of the warehouse in logical order based upon
bin location rules, picking quantities, and product packing types. See
this hardware
Problem Solved: Schwarzkopf was having
a big problem with inefficiencies caused by mis-shipments, spending
too much time finding and picking product in the warehouse, and
extreme issues with receiving weekly container loads of product
from the various manufacturing plants. With the Warehouse Management
System from DataToolz, they were able to reduce the time spent receiving
one container from two days to two hours! In addition, they were
able to cut their mis-shipments by over 90% and reduce the picking
time by over 35%. All in all, Schwarzkopf has tremendously increased
their productivity and efficiency in the warehouse.
Back to Top |
