Sleep Innovations Rests Easy with Single EDI System

Sleep Innovations knows a thing or two about resting assured. That's exactly why this multimillion dollar manufacturer of foam bedding and sleep products needed to find the right EDI system to seamlessly integrate its OEM plants and retail trading partners.

 

In its plants, Sleep Innovations manufactures three nationally recognized brands of sleep products -- Novaform, Personal Expressions and Comfort Plus. Additionally, it creates similar products under private-label programs for major retailers, including Target, Sears, Kohl's, Costco and Overstock.com.

 

In 2007, the company acquired a new division of eight plants, bringing its total manufacturing locations to 11. The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in those plants was not compatible with two of Sleep Innovation's key customers. After some review, Sleep Innovations also realized that its existing ERP was not adequate for meeting the company's growing demand.

 

So, Sleep Innovations implemented Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne ERP suite. However, its legacy EDI system was no longer able to handle all the transactions required in the company's supply chain process. This was because the existing EDI system could not handle certain EDI transactions demanded by customers.

 

"Ninety percent of our business goes through EDI, and we required something more comprehensive and flexible so that we could satisfy any demand our customers have," says Malek Shamoun, chief information officer of Sleep Innovations. "In a short period of time we needed to find an EDI package that could handle our EDI and B2B integration needs."

 

After a review of available EDI packages, a consultant recommended EXTOL EDI Integrator to Sleep Innovations. Its ability to automate business processes in real time was important to Sleep Innovations, as well as its capacity to deliver EDI collaborations that integrate with applications and IT resources across various platforms.

 

"EXTOL has the ability to integrate various aspects of EDI such as purchase orders and invoicing in EnterpriseOne without the need for custom programming," Shamoun says. "It also allows us to tailor the B2B/EDI process for each customer because they all have different requirements for supply chain management."

 

EXTOL EDI Integrator helps Sleep Innovations manage its inbound and outbound requests. Inbound transactions (purchase orders) take data from an external customer source, and EDI Integrator converts it into a format compatible with EnterpriseOne. Outbound transactions (invoices) that originate in EnterpriseOne are processed by EDI Integrator and converted back into a format acceptable to the customer.

 

Step by step, here's how EXTOL EDI Integrator is automating the order-to-ship process for Sleep Innovations.

 

--A customer sends Sleep Innovations an EDI purchase order.

-- EXTOL EDI Integrator receives the purchase order and automatically sends acknowledgement of receipt to the customer.

-- EXTOL EDI Integrator connects the order data with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, which generates the official customer order and invoice.

-- When Sleep Innovations is ready to ship the merchandise, EXTOL EDI Integrator produces an advanced ship notice and sends it to the customer.

 

Unlike the company's former EDI system, EXTOL EDI Integrator can coordinate more complex transactions and shipping scenarios in real time. It does this for Sleep Innovations by routing individual line items on purchase orders to different manufacturing units. For example, customers often send Sleep Innovations one purchase order. When that order arrives, it needs to be filled with inventory from four different facilities.

 

"EXTOL does its magic and segregates the purchase order to the appropriate plants and feeds it into the EnterpriseOne ERP system according to those parameters," Shamoun says. "Then we don't need to worry about anything."

 

For example, if a customer requires such a transaction, Sleep Innovations fulfills the order, the EDI software puts all the orders back onto one invoice for the customer and sends it out, completing the process.

 

Additionally, the solution can work with various EnterpriseOne modules as needed, including sales analysis, inventory, transportation and product configuration.

 

While Shamoun and his team have three of the 11 Sleep Innovations manufacturing plants fully integrated with EXTOL EDI Integrator, he plans to have all of the locations fully integrated by November 2010. Sleep Innovations also plans to implement the solution into its corporate headquarters in the near future.