Stores Magazine - December 2007 - (Page 54)

NUTS AND BOLTS / WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT Make Room for Fashion New automated warehouse boosts efficiency, accuracy for Vera Bradley BY LAURI GIESEN nnual growth in the neighborhood of 30 percent would not generally be thought of as a problem by most companies. But for Vera Bradley, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based provider of handbags and fashion accessories, such rapid growth was putting a severe strain on its distribution system. The firm’s warehouse was too small to facilitate the expanding business, and its ability to locate and fulfill orders from retail stores was inefficient. A Rather than just add more space to its existing 25-year-old facility, Vera Bradley decided to start from scratch. It used consultants and technology firms to design a new facility that utilizes the latest in warehouse and merchandise management technology. In early February, Vera Bradley went live with a new 200,000-sq.-ft. facility in Fort Wayne. “We had to completely change the supply side of our business,” says vice president of operations Matt Wojewuczki. “We did not have the processes in place to support our growth. Our issues were mostly related to becoming more timely and accurate.” Under the old system, everything was pretty much written on paper. Stores would send in orders for stock and employees would have to walk through the warehouse, pull the items and place them in a carton. The process took a lot of time and there was no control or available information regarding the status of an individual order. It was further complicated by the fact that orders were coming from 3,500 retail locations. And stock was often retained in multiple warehouse facilities, making it difficult to control orders for multiple products. With the warehouse control system 54 STORES / DECEMBER 2007 designed and integrated by Cincinnati-based Forte and warehouse management software designed by Manhattan Associates, Vera Bradley changed all that. “We reached the tipping point where we could not just add on again,” Wojewuczki says. “We needed to improve the process first, then add the technology as well as get a bigger facility.” Now, orders which ORDER used to take two days ACCURACY to fulfill can be completed in as little as 10 minutes, which allows the warehouse to handle an average of 1,000 orders daily. The system not only oversees the products that are being picked and their efficient delivery to the shipping area, but the control system keeps Vera Bradley management aware of the status of each order down to the item level. “Before, they had no idea where an order was in the pipeline until it was completed,” says Drew Forte, director of supply chain improvements for Forte. “Now with the warehouse management system, they can look up each order and 99% see where it is in the system. This provides a lot of information about how much work is out there and allows the company to forecast their employment needs better and project workforce fluctuations.” “Everything has been bar-coded and WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Stores Magazine - December 2007

STORES - December 2007 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Holiday Shopping Extravagance What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Niche Marketing Eight Predictions for 2008 Concept2Watch Merchandising Strategy Sourcing E-Commerce Supply Chain Warehouse Management Software Contactless Payments Marketing Marketing Online Loeb Retail Letter ARTS Update Point of View NRF News Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

Stores Magazine - December 2007

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