arco-clothing-centre.jpgThe UK’s leading work wear and work equipment supplier, Arco, has responded to increasing customer demand for quality service and delivery by implementing a SAP Warehouse Management System (WM) at its clothing facility in Fulwood, Lancashire. Arco has experienced a massive growth in demand for safety wear and casual work clothing over the last five years and Arco Clothing Centre now processes around 50,000 garments per week. To cope with the increased demand, the implementation of an up-to-date process management system was essential and, as a long standing SAP user, Arco was keen to utilise and benefit more from its SAP product suite. The company selected leading business systems integrators, CSI to deliver the solution.

Arco Clothing Centre’s Project Manager, Paul Cottam, commented: “We were looking for a solution that would not only provide standard warehouse functionality but could also accommodate our garment decoration facility. Our existing system was badly in need of updating and was proving costly to run. The newly implemented SAP WM system will help us to meet the expectations of our customers’ ever-increasing demands as well as providing us with the foundation for future business growth.”

The project had to be completed within 20 weeks and it was vital to the business that the deadline was achieved. Paul added: “We set a specific and immovable deadline and, I’m happy to say, CSI delivered the system on time for testing. The support and training that CSI gave us through the testing phase was especially helpful.”

Arco’s WM Solution allows the tracking of products from receipt through to despatch using RF devices to trace every movement. CSI’s Logistics Practice Manager, Jon Rail, commented: “Real time data capture was an essential element of the solution and the design of the RF transactions was critical to the success of the project. We took Arco’s existing RF devices and integrated them into the new system using SAP Console.

“The performance of the warehouse is vitally important to Arco so we spent a great deal of time with the key warehouse users working on the ergonomic success of the transactions. We also provided key performance indicators to their intranet-based reporting system. Individual Arco branches are now able to use this to monitor the status of their orders as well as the throughput of the distribution centre.”

Using EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) one of Arco’s major suppliers has also been integrated into the new WM system. This enables advance shipping notification and means that goods received in the warehouse can now be entered onto the system by the simple scanning of a barcode, increasing accuracy and improving production throughput and customer service.

Arco and CSI are now working together on a programme of continuous improvement for the Fulwood site. Jon concluded: “The new SAP WM integrated system has improved warehouse throughput for Arco without the need to increase its space and/or workforce. We are looking forward to improving systems further to reduce stock holdings and increase visibility of work rates to help Arco achieve its future strategic goals.”

Benefits of a SAP WM System:

  • Increased productivity and efficiency
  • Improved inventory accuracy and order fulfilment
  • Significant reduction in errors and rework
  • Reduced handling time
  • Higher level of accuracy on packing
  • Visibility to all SAP users of warehouse inventory and transactions
  • Single inventory process throughout entire order-to-cash cycle
  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Reduced Total Cost of Ownership

A video presentation on how the SAP WM system was implemented at Arco has been produced and is now available. Interested parties can register online at www.csiltd.co.uk/arco to receive their USB copy.

CSI Ltd
Tel: 01623 726300
Email: info@csiltd.co.uk
www.csiltd.co.uk

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