StORES Magazine - August 2007 - (Page 68)

SOFTWARE technology systems to the point where the software tools no longer appeared to meet the business requirements. Inventory turns were lagging, merchandise had begun to back up and inventory accuracy was hit-or-miss. Pile on disjointed business processes and a lack of visibility into the business and one begins to get a sense for the business challenges Steever faced. “In other companies the mindset might have been to rip and replace, but … we were committed to maximizing the ROI on the software investments we had already made,” he says. Last summer, the decision was made to bring in a JDA Software professional services team and critically examine all aspects of Vitamin Shoppe’s product lifecycle processes. Product Lifecycle Rx Replenishment system boosts energy levels at The Vitamin Shoppe BY SUSAN REDA E mployees at The Vitamin Shoppe are accustomed to coaching shoppers on how to use vitamins and supplements. “It’s not as simple as swallowing a few pills,” one associate explained to a shopper on a recent shopping trip. “It’s part of a total lifestyle approach that includes eating right and exercising.” Scott Steever, director of application development at The Vitamin Shoppe, understands the principle of managing multiple projects all too well. Shortly after joining the North Bergen, N.J.-based company he tried to fix what he describes as a “broken” replenishment system. He quickly discovered that it wasn’t just the replenishment system that was problematic for the After the Cure multi-channel retailer; in fact, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Inventory UP “We had no standard procedure for disconturns 6% tinuing an item,” says Steever, citing one example. “That led to excess inventory in both the Service UP warehouse and the stores — not to mention lost levels 6% sales on new items that could have created In-store DOWN more margin. We had situations where items inventory 5% were being discontinued, but open orders for those products were not cancelled. It was causing serious inventory bottlenecks.” In-store inventory UP And there was more. The Vitamin Shoppe’s record accuracy 2% IT team had heavily modified the company’s 68 STORES / AUGUST 2007 Six-week journey The journey began with a six-week assessment plan, including a series of strategic workshops. It culminated in Vitamin Shoppe’s choosing JDA’s Business Performance Optimization (BPO) services specifically focused on improving product lifecycle and maximizing the value of JDA’s Merchandise Management System-I (MMS), Performance Analysis by IDEAS solutions and other connected technology. Nine months later, it was clear that Steever and his team had made the right call. Inventory turns had improved by 6 percent, service levels across all products had also improved by 6 percent and the company had succeeded in reducing instore inventory by 5 percent. In-store inventory record accuracy is also moving in the right direction now; it has improved by 2 percent over the past nine months. And the changes continue to yield results. “This was not just an IT project,” explains Steever. “It was a business problem that required everyone in the organization to come together, address the issues and get it right. Support from the top was there from the beginning; the challenge was convincing everyone to speak up about the problems they were facing, with an understanding that we WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of StORES Magazine - August 2007

Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Upfront NRF News Retail People Concept2Watch Supermarkets Cover Story Online Marketing In-Store Marketing RFID Data Management Payment Systems Software Loss Prevention E-Commerce Risk Management Communications Loyalty Marketing Human Resources Mobile Commerce Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View Advertising Index Retail Industry Calendar

StORES Magazine - August 2007

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