Sizing Up Inventory

Unionbay Sportswear, a division of Seattle Pacific Industries (SPI) targets teens and young adults with moderately-priced jeans, casual sportswear and accessories. Founded in 1981, SPI designs, produces, and markets a wide variety of sportswear under Union Bay, Reunion, Sergio Valente, Saltare and Union labels. SPI began working with Jesta I.S. in 1999 and implemented Jesta's Sourcing and Demand Management system shortly afterward. Jesta provides supply chain solutions for consumer goods retailers, manufacturers and importers. Its Vision Suite is a modular Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution built on the Oracle platform. Modules include: Vision Merchandise Management and Inventory Control, Vision Sourcing and Demand Management, Vision Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Vision Supply Chain Management (SCM).

"Before selecting Jesta, we went through a substantial evaluation of software packages from a number of different vendors," says Jonathan Jacobi, manager of IT and Logistics for SPI. "When we selected Jesta, we were actually one of the first manufacturers to come on board with them." At the time, Jesta proved to be the only vendor that could handle the scale SPI needed in terms of its dimensions, such as waist size and length.

Handled With Care

Jesta's Vision and Demand Management module is capable of handling a number of functions for SPI, according to Chris Petzold, project manager. It is able to track all of Unionbay's sales orders, set up its styles, place and track production purchase orders, manage allocations, handle planning (reviewing demand and schedules), and track RMAs.

Jesta released version 7.2 of Vision Sourcing and Demand Management in October 2004, and SPI adopted it shortly afterward. Version 7.2 enables the user to control the production process and optimize the delivery of their goods. It is tailored to address the unique needs of the apparel industry, in that it provides multiple procurement and production paths that allow users to track associated costs for individual products. It also monitors all phases of order processing, inventory and allocation. "We recently upgraded to Version 7.3.5," adds Petzold.

"The new version provides improvements to the speed of daily functions with advanced sales and PO entry features," says Jacobi. Some of the system's functions can be run on a scheduler, allowing Unionbay to run tasks beyond regular business hours and eliminates the unnecessary use of the system's resources during peak usage times. It also provides additional automation, including automatic invoicing and allocation.

"It has definitely been meeting our expectations," says Jacobi. "In customer service, for example, we have been able to reduce staff from 30 to under 15." Overall, Petzold says the company has been able to achieve a huge cost savings through the automation and better information that is now available. The staff reduction, for example, was the result of being able to absorb the entire allocations function into the customer service department.

Jesta's package also allows Unionbay to track and comply with customer requirements, including packaging and EDI requirements. "They have done a good job meeting our requirements," says Jacobi. "Our relationship with Jesta is more of a partnership than a transactional one."

The Future

SPI is not done with its Jesta applications, though. In fact, there are a lot of opportunities for new initiatives. One area includes software tweaks that will help manage charge backs. When handled properly, charge backs can be another means to proactively collaborate with retailers, says Jacobi. SPI consulted with other manufacturers, and they all agree that, at least currently, there are no clean-cut solutions to manage this area. As such, SPI and Jesta plan to work together to address this challenge.

Jesta also has another product called Vision.FC, which is tightly integrated with Vision Sourcing and Demand Man-agement. "We are currently looking into the possibility of using this to further enhance our supply chain integration," explains Petzold. Vision.FC is a web-based applic-ation that Unionbay's vendors would be able to access.

Probably the most ambitious goal, though, is to utilize Jesta's technology to continue to move Unionbay forward in its commitment to supply chain excellence. "We want to be on the forefront of supply chain management and efficiency," says Jacobi. "As such, one thing we want to focus on is operational excellence metrics, implementing 'lean' -- getting more done quickly and with fewer people. Information should flow just like an assembly line. We want to use Jesta software to support these efforts."