Project Description
Evaluation of software and development of new business processes across multiple areas to drive industry-leading capabilities in support of a client’s supply chain transformation
The Client
A multi-brand leading manufacturer and wholesaler of bedding and accessories in US and Canada. The company manufactures most of its own product, but also sources from domestic and overseas suppliers.
The Challenge
Traditionally, the client’s manufacturing has been predominantly a “make to order” business. Recently, with consumer demands of quicker lead-times and the advent of “mattress in a box” (MIB), the client wanted to enhance their make to stock capabilities. Additionally, raw materials shortages emphasized the need for better supply chain visibility. These new demands, the current environment, and a recent merger of multiple companies required the client to enhance their capabilities of three key supply chain systems: advanced planning (APS), order management (OMS), and warehouse management (WMS).
Each of these systems plays an important role for the company’s brands. As a continuously growing and changing company, the client wished to seize the opportunity to optimize their planning, order management, fulfillment, and warehouse management capabilities to improve efficiency, reduce costs and improve business practices.
The Parker Avery Solution
The client’s supply chain transformation initiative began with two major projects. The first project was to conduct three simultaneous evaluations of industry leading software that addressed the supply chain focal areas (APS, OMS, WMS). Key activities for the system selection work streams included:
- Gather business requirements from stakeholders and identify key pain points
- Create a request for information (RFI) for each area to send to potential software vendors
- Select vendors to conduct demos
- Create vendor demonstration scripts to understand software fit to client requirements
- Create quantitative scorecards to aid in the selection; organize and facilitate the demos
- Develop business case and implementation roadmap for the selected software set
After the selections were complete, the second project focused on developing new business processes for each area using industry best practices. Key activities for the business process project were:
- Confirm pain points and barriers to achieving business goals
- Assess current capabilities against leading and emergent industry practices and identify gaps
- Identify and prioritize improvement opportunities
- Create level 0, 1, and 2 process maps depicting proposed future business processes for each area
The Result
Following the selection, the client had a primary and backup vendor for each area with a business case that justified the implementation cost benefit. Additionally, the client was equipped with new business processes that will enable them to take advantage of industry best practices. The Parker Avery Group will lead implementation of the new processes and supporting solution set, which will ultimately deliver best in class capabilities and drive the client’s supply chain transformation goals.
