Retail group enhancing visibility, reducing labor costs by implementing WMS from Manhattan Associates
Atlanta — August 25, 2004 — Apparel retailer Casual Male Retail Group has completed an implementation of an warehouse management system (WMS) from Manhattan Associates at a company distribution center as part of an initiative to gain global visibility, improve efficiency and reduce labor costs for inbound and outbound warehouse logistics.
Casual Male Retail Group (CMRG) stakes a claim as the largest retailer of big and tall men's apparel, operating 489 stores, an e-commerce site and a catalog business. The company reported sales of $429.5 million in its 2003 fiscal year.
The retailer implemented Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution in its Canton, Mass., distribution center (DC), deploying all core components of the solution, including labor and slotting applications. Manhattan Associates' solution was implemented in tandem with JDA's Portfolio Merchandise Management System (MMS).
When CMRG acquired the assets of Casual Male Corporation in 2002, the new management team found that the company had been running its business on a mainframe computer and legacy information systems. According to Chief Financial Officer Dennis Hernreich, the systems lacked the scope and capacity to incorporate today's distribution industry best practices. Reengineering business processes and updating the technology infrastructure became a top priority to put Casual Male back on a path to profitability and growth.
"In sourcing a distribution solution, we looked for broad functionality and built-in flexibility and scalability to handle growing order volumes," said Hernreich. "We also wanted a vendor with the experience and expertise to help us identify where we could add value and address our workflow bottlenecks. Selecting Manhattan Associates was an easy decision on both counts."
Hernreich added that Casual Male believes that Manhattan Associates' solutions have the flexibility to allow the company to handle any changes in its distribution chain or any challenges that the company may face in the future.
Early results have been positive, according to Manhattan. For example, one of the CMRG DC's more complex challenges was handling truckloads of seasonal pre-pack merchandise shipments. Offloading, sorting of merchandise and purchase orders, repackaging and shipping to stores used to take two to three days. With the new automated solution it now takes about two hours, saving time and labor costs and reducing the amount of inventory in-transit, which ultimately reduces our inventory investment.
Hernreich said that in implementing the warehouse management solution, Manhattan Associates met Casual Male's timelines. "Most important, they helped us understand how to maximize the operational benefits and business value of their solution by reengineering certain processes in our distribution chain," Hernreich said. "As a result, our full-scale roll-out was smooth and successful."
Atlanta — August 25, 2004 — Apparel retailer Casual Male Retail Group has completed an implementation of an warehouse management system (WMS) from Manhattan Associates at a company distribution center as part of an initiative to gain global visibility, improve efficiency and reduce labor costs for inbound and outbound warehouse logistics.
Casual Male Retail Group (CMRG) stakes a claim as the largest retailer of big and tall men's apparel, operating 489 stores, an e-commerce site and a catalog business. The company reported sales of $429.5 million in its 2003 fiscal year.
The retailer implemented Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution in its Canton, Mass., distribution center (DC), deploying all core components of the solution, including labor and slotting applications. Manhattan Associates' solution was implemented in tandem with JDA's Portfolio Merchandise Management System (MMS).
When CMRG acquired the assets of Casual Male Corporation in 2002, the new management team found that the company had been running its business on a mainframe computer and legacy information systems. According to Chief Financial Officer Dennis Hernreich, the systems lacked the scope and capacity to incorporate today's distribution industry best practices. Reengineering business processes and updating the technology infrastructure became a top priority to put Casual Male back on a path to profitability and growth.
"In sourcing a distribution solution, we looked for broad functionality and built-in flexibility and scalability to handle growing order volumes," said Hernreich. "We also wanted a vendor with the experience and expertise to help us identify where we could add value and address our workflow bottlenecks. Selecting Manhattan Associates was an easy decision on both counts."
Hernreich added that Casual Male believes that Manhattan Associates' solutions have the flexibility to allow the company to handle any changes in its distribution chain or any challenges that the company may face in the future.
Early results have been positive, according to Manhattan. For example, one of the CMRG DC's more complex challenges was handling truckloads of seasonal pre-pack merchandise shipments. Offloading, sorting of merchandise and purchase orders, repackaging and shipping to stores used to take two to three days. With the new automated solution it now takes about two hours, saving time and labor costs and reducing the amount of inventory in-transit, which ultimately reduces our inventory investment.
Hernreich said that in implementing the warehouse management solution, Manhattan Associates met Casual Male's timelines. "Most important, they helped us understand how to maximize the operational benefits and business value of their solution by reengineering certain processes in our distribution chain," Hernreich said. "As a result, our full-scale roll-out was smooth and successful."
