Riding The Growth Wave

Just like one of the celebrity surfers the company endorses, Quiksilver is riding high on a wave of growth. Last year, the company acquired DC Shoes and just a few months ago, ski equipment maker Rossignol who also owns Cleveland Golf, also became a part of the growing Quiksilver family of brands. "We haven't seen how Rossignol is going to fully affect us yet but we are already exploring how our companies can work together and synergize strengths," says Andy Engel, operations warehouse management system director, Quiksilver. "It's a real exciting time. We never know from day to day what the next big move is going to be for the company."

Quiksilver sells its products in surf, specialty, and department stores worldwide. It also owns 170 of its own stores, including Boardriders Clubs (stores showcasing board sports), Roxy (junior apparel stores), and Hawk Clothing (stores featuring products named for famed boarder Tony Hawk). Quiksilver has expanded its stable to include eyewear, watches, and casual apparel, but the original name and products still capture more than 50 percent of sales. FMR Corp. owns more than 12 percent of Quiksilver, which -acquired Rossignol and Surfection this year.

A Complete Shoe-In
Soon after the ink dried on the DC Shoes acquisition, Engel says Quiksilver was eager to get the IT systems of the sizeable shoe company acclimated with its own. DC now runs on Quiksilver's HighJump WMS system replacing an outmoded paper-based one. "We'll be the same from a warehouse management standpoint but as brands, we are two unique identities." Engel admits a lot of blood, sweat and tears were poured into IT integration with DC Shoes, especially when it came down to aligning the different ERP systems. Quiksilver utilizes a highly customized AS/400 system that runs the apparel operation and handles a good majority of financial parts of the company's business. "We decided early on that we weren't going to customize their system to death so we are basically giving them the same functionality and modules that we run," says Engel. "We are probably giving them more than they need but at the same time it made for a much smoother implementation as it meant there were no differences between our WMS systems."

Benefits Emerge
In about six weeks DC Shoes was up and running on HighJump, able to accomplish all of the things Quiksilver uses the system for. As the company becomes more acclimated with HighJump Quiksilver will introduce to end users at DC Shoes some of the more advanced features of the tool. "We really just wanted to give them the basics they needed to start before giving them the world," says Engel. The reaction from DC Shoes? At first there is a little bit of reluctance, according to Engel because it is a new system. "Once they see the benefit of scanning and they can find the inventory, their accuracy improves. They realize they can do their jobs a lot more efficiently."

"Through the old system, their backlog was two to three weeks where they were chasing cancel dates on the orders," says Andres Castillo, vice president of distribution Operations. "When we got them up and running with the HighJump WMS system, they were back on track within one month and started shipping on the start ship date. It was a very big accomplishment."

Engel says Quiksilver chose the HighJump WMS system because it was obvious that the technology could grow with the company and handle the massive amount of inventory the company manages on a daily basis. Currently, the SKU count at Quiksilver Huntington Beach is 130,000 with the location count at 60,000. Typical with the fashion industry, the inventory is being moved every three to four months. Shuffling between warehouses is commonplace so accuracy becomes vitally important and knowing what stock is on hand at all times. "We actually doubled our productivity within the last year and a half," says Engel. "HighJump's WMS system is an integral part of retaining that level of accuracy that we need."

Other areas currently on tap to improve Quiksilver's operations includes an integrated keywell system out to replace FedEx, UPS and parcel post stations with one integrated system. It will provide all typical mailing services in addition the LTL needs through Quiksilver's EDI system. "It will make us much more efficient", says Engel.