Managing Supply Chain & Deployment
Problem
A large retail brand wanted to optimize the purchase and distribution of their custom headwear line by managing a direct-to-factory model, which would deliver higher quality products directly to customers while maximizing margins. The brand was looking to take their product from high inventory to no inventory, bypassing distribution centers that had previously struggled. The brand engaged Excelerate to help them assess and implement a cross-functional workflow to enable the new offering. The scale of this project would be the largest the brand had implemented in five years as it required coordination across all their financial modules and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
Approach
The project began with a discovery phase and full assessment of the process, people, and technology needed for implementation. Excelerate developed process maps to connect stakeholders and identify business requirements from each team.
The organization had initially planned to leverage an existing workflow within the company. However, after assessing the workstream, Excelerate discovered that there were operational and financial challenges with the existing workflow. The team recommended a new workflow be created not just for this custom headwear initiative, but for all custom workflows moving forward. This recommendation significantly increased the scope and market potential for the project.
As the magnitude of the project grew, Excelerate’s role in the implementation and expertise with cross-functional workflows proved imperative. In addition to working with an expanded group of stakeholders to gather, develop and test requirements, Excelerate focused on collaboration and integration among the teams, overseeing the development of each system and workflow. The increased dependency of each system on one another also added a new layer of vulnerability. Excelerate increased testing and conducted end to end user acceptance testing to ensure all systems were functioning effectively prior to going live.
Results
The Excelerate team produced a new workflow that seamlessly delivers higher quality, customized headwear to customers. The new system provides a high level of cross functionality that was not previously feasible, and addresses legacy issues and challenges. In addition to meeting the initial project goals, the client now has a successfully vetted and implemented workflow to serve as a gold standard and scalable model for future programs.