MandMDirect.com, one of the UK’s leading fashion, lifestyle and sports e-tailers, recently completed a successful deployment of Manhattan’s Warehouse Management solution at its distribution centre (DC) in Hereford, U.K. The deployment resulted in improved stock management and accuracy, less paperwork and, for the first time in the business’s 22 year history, the completion of Christmas stock preparation ahead of schedule.
MandMDirect.com launched as a call centre business, but has evolved into an online retailer as internet shopping has gained in popularity. The company relocated its DC in 2008 and trebled the capacity to 290,000 square feet as part of a two-phase upgrade. The subsequent system deployment enabled MandMDirect.com to transition its fulfilment processes and fully utilise the barcodes on inventory via radio frequency, ultimately driving both improved productivity and real time visibility.
“The legacy system was paper-based, so stock had to be entered and counted manually,” explained Steve Robinson, chief executive officer, MandMDirect.com. “During peak seasons, it was difficult to keep on top of data entry because we couldn’t process inventory moves fast enough, and so we always had a delayed picture of the precise location of stock or inventory levels. This is now all done automatically and in real-time with Manhattan’s system so we expect to see much improved levels of inventory accuracy as well as operational efficiency.”
“The faster stock is booked in and made available for dispatch, the quicker it can be sold to the customer,” said Steve Smith, senior vice president EMEA, at Manhattan Associates. “It is essential for a business with fast flowing goods to adopt a system that can cope with the extra pressure of peaks in customer demand. We are delighted to have played such a key role by helping MandMDirect.com meet customer demand over the Christmas period and look forward to supporting the company’s growth in the future.”
MandMDirect.com plans to benefit from Manhattan’s additional functionality, including voice picking, in the near future.
Manhattan will be exhibiting on stand 141 at the upcoming Logistics Link South event at Sandown Park on 2nd – 3rd February 2010 and the team will be on hand to talk to event delegates about the project at MandMDirect.com, other recent successes at multi-channel retailers including Build-a-Bear Workshop, Halfords, House of Fraser and Tesco as well as the successes it has had in the food sector with the Co-op, Swizzels, McDonalds’s distributor Keystone Distribution and Weetabix.
The team will also be on hand to provide event delegates with an insight into some of the company’s latest product innovations including:
• Manhattan’s award-winning Distributed Order Management – the solution received the “Best ISV Partner Innovation” award during November’s IBM WebSphere Commerce Leadership Summit. The solution is capable of capturing an order from any channel in any location and fulfilling it from an extensible supply network.
• Manhattan’s FieldVision, offered within Manhattan’s Extended Enterprise Management Solution, which leverages technology from Microsoft Bing to provide a bird’s eye view of inventory and facilities within the supply chain network through real-time visual mapping.
• Manhattan SCALE™ 2010 (SCALE stands for Supply Chain Architected for Logistics Execution). The nimble, Windows-based supply chain management system is designed to provide companies speed-to-value, resource-light system configuration, implementation and maintenance, and the flexibility to scale up or down quickly in order to match customer demand. The latest release adds a customisable desktop experience, an expanded Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI) module and an enhanced Value Added Services component that can now direct products in the warehouse to where additional processing can take place.
manhattan associates tel: 01344 318071 www.manh.com
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