Dorcy International boosts the efficiency of its global supply chain with software from IBM Business Partners EXTOL and Vormittag Associates.
Published on: 14-Mar-2008
http://www.ibm.com/vrm/tela/stp/successstories_USEN/132074961
Customer: Dorcy International
Deployment country: United States
IBM Business Partner: EXTOL Vormittag Associates
Industry: Fabrication & Assembly
Solution: Small & Medium Business
Overview
Dorcy International (Dorcy) is a global distributor of flashlights and flashlight accessories, generating US$50 million in annual revenue. Nearly 90 percent of the company’s U.S. business is from giant retailers, such as Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.
Business need: The company needed to streamline its fragmented global supply chain.
Solution: Engaged IBM Business Partners EXTOL and Vormittag Associates to deploy a suite of supply chain managment software and robust IBM System i hardware.
Benefits: Boosted supply chain efficiency, improved document accuracy and gained real-time visibility into inventory.
Case Study
Dorcy International (Dorcy) is a global distributor of flashlights and flashlight accessories, generating US$50 million in annual revenue. Nearly 90 percent of the company’s U.S. business is from giant retailers, such as Sears, Target and Wal-Mart.
Challenge
Reliant on 25-year-old homegrown applications and a long-standing hardware platform, Dorcy had trouble rolling out newer solutions to support its business needs. For example, the company’s electronic data interchange (EDI) system
required ongoing manual intervention and wasn’t integrated with its other enter prise applications, resulting in lengthy custom-coding processes to on-board new trading partners and considerable charge-backs for incorrect shipments and missing or inaccurate EDI documents.
The fragmented system required staff to allocate time to aggregating data from multiple systems to create financial management reports using spreadsheet software, further taxing employee time. The company was determined to improve
its ability to manage its global supply chain.
Solution
IBM Business Partner EXTOL and IBM Business Partner Vormittag Associates helped Dorcy boost the efficiency of its worldwide supply chain and drive growth for its operations from Asia to North America.
EXTOL’s EDI integrator software is the backbone of the solution, offering multiple entry and exit points. S2K Enterprise for Manufacturing, Version 3.7.4 software from Vormittag Associates handles inquiry, maintenance, translation, communication and reporting tasks.
The client installed the solution on a robust IBM System i5™ 520 Enterprise Edition running the IBM i5/OS®, Version 5.3 operating environment.
Benefits
• Reduced the number of charge-backs by 90 percent through an increase in the accuracy of EDI documents
• Cut in half the time needed to add new partners
• Saved 50 percent in accounting staff time
• Limited inventory variances with real-time visibility
Products and services used
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware: System i: System i5 520
Operating system: i5/OS