Anna's Linens Drives Efficiency

Alliston Ackerman

10/15/2010

In the world of home furnishings, Anna's Linens continues to become a leader in value. Since being founded in Costa Mesa, Calif. in 1988, the company has made a name for itself by selling quality fashions for the home, including bed linens, window coverings and bath accessories, at an extreme value to its customers. The retailer now operates 258 stores in 18 states.

As the company grew, so did the need to improve the efficiency of its supply chain. Anna's Linens supplied its products by means of store-level purchase orders, which totaled more than 750,000 orders annually. The majority of the movements were smaller less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments with full truckload and intermodal making up the remaining shipments.

Anna's Linens needed a transportation management system (TMS) that would increase its supply chain visibility and allow for consolidated shipments.

Opting to Outsource

Anna's Linens decided to transform its supply chain by outsourcing its transportation management to a third-party logistics provider. This approach would allow Anna's Linens to manage the movement of its 45,000 to 50,000 annual inbound and outbound shipments without adding staff or significant technology infrastructure. After a comprehensive search, Anna's Linens selected Transplace to assume full responsibility for all domestic transportation management activities.

"We wanted to leverage a broader base of systems, capabilities and experience in transportation management, but an internal solution could have taken two to three years to set up and launch under the best conditions," says Miles Tedder, vice president of supply chain for Anna's Linens. "Transplace demonstrated the skill set required to deploy innovative logistics technology."

Double the Challenge

The implementation was rolled out in two phases. The first action was to take control of inbound shipments from vendors to its distribution centers (DC), and second was to manage movements from the DCs to stores. Improving the visibility and efficiency of inbound shipments would help develop an optimal shipping schedule. Streamlining processes for outbound shipments to stores would allow for consolidated shipments and Anna's Linens to take advantage of backhauls.

At the same time, Anna's Linens was switching providers for its DCs and was moving the locations of the facilities in Charlotte, N.C. and Houston. This switch meant that Anna's Linens needed to form new relationships with the new provider on that end in addition to its new partnership with Transplace.

Anna's Linens is now using on-demand TMS to control its order management, shipment planning and optimization, execution, tracking and visibility, and performance monitoring of its extensive freight network. Transplace's Scenario Pro Technology is leveraged to help consolidate shipments and decrease the number of LTL shipments going to and from stores and DCs. In addition, the use of Transplace's Business Intelligence allowed Anna's Linens to determine the cost of its transportation network to create reports and gain visibility of current budgeting and planning.

Following implementation in September 2008, Anna's Linens experienced significant savings:

--8 percent to 10 percent overall transportation savings

--26.9 percent savings per load for inbound shipments

--53 percent reduction in the use of LTL at the initial DC

As the retailer continues to grow, so will its relationship with Transplace, to address its unique challenges and continue to deliver quality, value-priced home furnishings.

FAST FACTS:

Company at a Glance

Anna's currently operates more than 264 stores specializing in home furnishings in 18 states and the District of Columbia, with more than 2300 employees.

Why Outsource?
Outsourcing its transportation management allows Anna's linens to effectively manage its shipments without adding staff or significant technology infrastructure.

New Opportunities
A new transportation management system enables Anna's Linens to build strategic and tactical reports to better measure service levels, performance and identify areas of opportunity.

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