Case Studies

Regarding the former, the company has outsourced its clothing manufacturing, helping keep costs low for itself, its customers and the buying public. And regarding the latter, Astro has begun building an integrated business system that makes it more nimble—and better able to react to changes in its industry.

While many companies would deploy a one-size-fits-all ERP solution to achieve its integration goal, Astro decided instead to look toward a more niche application suite. This came in the form of Comprehensiv^TM from the IBM business partner Xperia Solutions. Although Xperia is now in the process of broadening the scope of its software offerings, hoping to reach customers in other industries, one of its main focuses remains on the clothing business, something Astro has come to fully appreciate. Now, thanks to its combination of the Xperia software and the IBM eServer iSeries server on which it runs, Astro has a perfect technological and business fit.

The Scranton, Penn.-based Astro is a relatively small company of around 60 to 70 employees, but its presence in the apparel business is far reaching, having two well-known brands, Bensol and Rifle, that it distributes to everyone from large department stores to small boutique shops, and the warehousing, distribution and administrative responsibilities for Kaynee and Concorde companies (of which Astro is a partner).

The company, which has been operating for around 50 years, began as a domestic sewing shop, manufacturing and distributing its own line of clothing. About 10 years ago, however, Astro decided to outsource the sewing, going with less-expensive plants in countries such as “Italy, the Dominican Republic, China, Mexico and a slew of other places,” Daniels says. The products are then imported to Astro’s Scranton headquarters, where they’re warehoused and then distributed for each of the Astro-related divisions.

Although no longer directly involved in the needle-and-thread end of the business, the company is still considered a manufacturer. As Daniels explains, “In a true business sense, we’re a wholesaler, but in the apparel industry, we’re referred to as a manufacturer. Contractors have the actual sewing machines and are making product, and manufacturers such as us distribute the product.”

Prior to moving to Comprehensiv^TM, Astro had been using a homegrown suite of software. Running on the AS/400, it had served the company well, but as changes occurred within both Astro and the apparel industry, the company decided it needed software and hardware that would help it move more nimbly forward. For example, the older system didn’t allow for daily report runs, in part because, Daniels says, “It wasn’t a database program, which meant that somebody would have to write a program every time someone needed a report.” In fact, Daniels would have to wait until the 25th of the month to view the prior month’s financial activities.

“We had all these modules, including order entry/sales, production/warehousing, general ledger and payroll, but we had to wait until well after the month was over to get the month-end report,” Daniels recalls. “So if there were any errors, we would have to go over the queried data to find them, whether rounding errors, mis-keyed information or other mistakes. In addition, we sometimes didn’t have a handle on inventory, which is key in this business.”

Several years ago, Daniels and a few other Astro employees attended an apparel-related conference in Atlanta. As is common at conferences such as these, software vendors had booths set up so potential customers could learn more about their products. It was at this time that Astro began looking for possible replacement applications for its own homegrown system. “We looked at about a dozen different packages while we were down there, and we narrowed them down to four; Xperia was one of them,” Daniels remembers. “I spoke to the other three companies, and we had demos from two of them. Eventually, we narrowed the list down to Xperia.”

Part of the reason for this decision had to do with the platform on which Comprehensiv^TM can run: the iSeries. Because Astro’s IT department is rather small, having only three people on staff, the company felt it was important that it maintain its current IT infrastructure rather than switching to an entirely new one. (“A move to Windows or another platform would have required an entirely new set of skills,” Daniels notes.) In 2003, shortly after it had made its decision to go with a packaged software solution, the company began the deployment of both the software and a then-new iSeries 810, which replaced its aging AS/400.

At the same time, the company began using DB2 for its database and, with the assistance of Strategic Computer Solutions, WebSphere’s Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) to create Web-friendly access to the system for its customers. (Internally, users can either retain the green-screen Comprehensiv^TM interface or use the software’s GUI.) Although Astro’s larger customers use EDI to conduct business with it, many smaller ones either work through sales representatives or call or fax the company to place orders. Currently, these customers can only view order status online, but Daniels hopes to allow them to also place orders online. According to him, “This will help cut down on errors introduced through manual order placement.”

Within the company, the move to the Xperia software, which went live in 2004, has made huge differences. For example, when orders are placed over the phone, the customer service representatives enter the data directly into the application. In the past, they would write down the order details and then later enter the data. This direct-to-application data-entry model is much more streamlined, resulting in quicker order turnaround.

More important, though, this type of immediate data entry brings the database up to date as of the day. Before moving to Comprehensiv^TM, reports were requested and issued only monthly. Now, employees such as Daniels can look at daily reports gathered via the Sequel database-reporting tool. If there are errors in these reports, they can be quickly rectified, as opposed to the past, when it would take nearly a month to get a report and there was a significant delay in error rectification. “Everything we now do on a daily basis,” says Daniels, “including all financials, whether from the sales journal or the production journal or the warehouse, is posted for that day. I can then print off a report and check on all of these financials and, if there’s a problem, I don’t have to go through 30 days’ worth of activity.”

This quicker reporting, with month-end reports now coming out on the 10th of the month rather than the 25th for the prior month’s activities, has also allowed Astro to keep inventory levels on a more manageable and financially stable foothold. As Daniels points out, this is important in every industry, but in particular in the apparel industry. “We used to bring in inventory well in advance of the start-ship date on orders—sometimes two or three months—just to be safe,” he says. That window has since been narrowed, now that the company can track inventory on a more frequent basis and order from the contractor based on current and anticipated inventory levels.

The company hopes to bring its contractors online as well, giving them the ability to indicate when orders have shipped. This is currently done via the error-prone methods of fax and e-mail; online access would essentially eliminate these and givesAstro constantly updated and up-to-date information. Additionally, because Astro has such confidence in the Xperia system, many of these paper-based transactions are being eliminated. Instead of each department keeping a copy of a transaction, filing them in separate cabinets, people can simply go online to view pertinent data. “This has helped me become much more efficient. I used to keep copies of all reports until I got used to the idea that I could just pull it up on the screen. If you could have seen my office a year ago versus today… Well, I can see my desk again,” Daniels says, “We have been very successful in making our office as paperless as possible.”

Of course, the real proof of success is in the numbers. For example, Daniels believes that he can increase the company’s volume by 20 percent without adding any additional administrative staff. (He adds, though, that warehousing staff might have to increase to handle the additional sales volume—a good problem.) Similarly, he estimates that the company has cut inventory by 50 percent to 70 percent, compared to pre-Xperia days, even though “our sales are increasing,” he adds. Daniels further explains that overhead has been reduced by nearly 25 percent. According to him, that included primarily staffing, “because we don’t need as many people to process everything.”

Although he may not look like Brad Pitt, Daniels is every bit as much of an action hero. He and his company took a chance by moving off their homegrown applications to the iSeries and Xperia solution, which, while proven in the industry, was a major shift in Astro’s company culture. But as he points out, “It just makes everything easier.”