Dallas February 5, 2003 Federated Department Stores is set to use a solution from EXE Technologies in a bid to improve inventory planning and management for the retailer's private label programs across the country.
Federated operates more than 460 retail stores in 34 states under the Macy's, Bloomingdale's and other names. Federated develops and markets private brand merchandise in its stores across the United States and in selected non-competing retailers internationally.
EXE, a supply chain execution software company, is working with Federated Merchandising Group (FMG), a division of Federated that is responsible for the design, sourcing and marketing of such private label brands as Charter Club and I.N.C. FMG selected EXE to deploy its EXceed Adaptive Inventory Management (AIM) software to improve FMG's productivity and demand forecasting accuracy.
EXceed AIM represents EXE's ongoing effort to marry supply chain execution and supply chain planning into an integrated solution. EXE's said EXceed AIM helps companies manage inventory more accurately and efficiently by matching demand and supply in real time.
The solution centralizes information, eliminating the need for managing multiple spreadsheets, calendars and vendor schedules. The software also automates data-intensive processes like replenishment planning, demand forecasting, purchase order generation, order sizing and product allocation, running these processes behind the scenes with little or no user intervention.
"This partnership with EXE will contribute to the continued growth of Federated's private brand business," said Harry Frenkel, chief financial officer at FMG. "Ease of use and speed of implementation were key factors that we considered in selecting a supplier, and we feel comfortable and confident in working with EXE."
"Because EXceed AIM automates the replenishment process, Federated Merchandising Group should realize improvement in its service level and inventory-turn results, and also realize productivity increases," said Joe Cowan, president and CEO of EXE Technologies. "The software will allow FMG buyers to significantly decrease the amount of time expended on certain administrative duties that were once a large part of their job and now focus on analysis and research."
The latest version of EXceed AIM includes such new features such as a forecast repository, classification code maintenance, item history copy and a new user interface.
