Background
Simone Rocha is a designer fashion brand based in London. Simone Rocha herself is an award-winning designer and daughter of designer John Rocha. They specialize in high-quality, high-value, low-volume goods which are distributed both to retailers (B2B) and to individual customers (B2C).
Simone Rocha have manufacturing and production around the world and also distribute to clients worldwide, though they are primarily based in London with offices in Paris and New York.
Why did Simone Rocha need an Optima WMS?
Why did Simone Rocha need an Optima WMS?Simone Rocha recently decided to take control of their own distribution and production by setting up and maintaining their own warehouse.
The warehouse is based in Porto as this is close to many of the material and manufacturing sites for the products and acts as a good point of distribution in and around Europe.
With the implementation of a new warehouse, they also decided to setup a new WMS in order to manage stock, orders and receipts, so, after looking at our website, learning more about Optimiser Warehouse Management Solutions, and reading case studies, they called Optima and while every project is unique, this was the type of challenge we thrive on.
As stock for the new season was due to be delivered and order processing start within around two months from the initial sign-off we had to work to a rather tight initial deadline but we still felt the 8-week timescale was certainly achievable.
What did Optima do?
We identified that the warehouse would need to be setup from scratch, including installation of hanging racking and shelving with bar-coded labels while hardware, such as printers, scanners, laptops and desktops, would all need to be purchased, setup and tested prior to live.
SMR arranged the installation and setup of all the racking and shelving within their warehouse, consulting Optima for advice on layout and naming conventions for the locations; something which was arranged far in advance of the training deadlines so that any problems could be dealt with prior to implementation.
This ensures that the clients receive the goods in the best possible condition, and as the product is of high value, provides the client with the item exactly as it would be straight from manufacturing.
As such, the clothing items are transporting to the warehouse on a hanging rail system, then immediately transferred to the hanging racking in the warehouse; before then being transported from the warehouse to the client via another hanging rail system or in large boxes, where the items can be laid unfolded and flat.
The integration with Simone Rocha’s ERP system, Zedonk, was especially successful with them being particularly helpful and providing detailed file specifications.
WIFI was also installed and tested across the length of the warehouse to ensure that there were no dead spots.
There were certain tasks that there wasn’t enough time for the warehouse to complete before go-live, like barcoding of warehouse locations, but we worked with them to put contingency plans in place with a plan for completing these tasks after go-live to ensure everything would run as smoothly as possible.
Results
Thanks to the flexibility of Optima and the fact that Optimiser WMS can be customised to meet individual customer needs, such as specific features, functionality and bespoke reports, Optima created software which allows Simone Rocha to manage their stock and orders much more efficiently than before.
As part of this project we introduced the following:
- Hanging racking and shelving for the storage of items
- Barcoding shelving for use with scanning system
- The ability to produce bespoke reports
- Robust receipting, picking and packing processes to new warehouse and staff
- Accurate accounting of stock movement and transactions
- Single administrator access in both London and Portugal
Simone Rocha have seen many improvements and benefits thanks to their Optimiser WMS and here are just some of them:
- Greater Stock Accuracy
The client immediately saw an improvement in stock accuracy thanks to proper receiving and despatching processes whereas previously they were manually adjusting stock figures which was more time consuming and much less accurate.
- Improved Warehouse Layout
It is critical to SMR that all clothing items are kept in box storage for a minimum amount of time or are never folded/creased both in the warehouse and in the transport process so the warehouse is now split into different sections for dresses, shirts, trousers etc, whilst the remainder of shelving storage is used for boxes items such as jewellery or shoes.
- More Accurate Reports
Reports for all aspects and elements mean that information can be found quickly and easily, meaning that information is available quickly and easily to whoever needs it. As a result they can now run any number of reports to see exactly what they have in stock and where it is located.
- More Efficient Picking and Packing Process
The new warehouse layout and greater stock accuracy, along with the new barcode system, meant that the picking process became a lot easier than before while also leading to more accurate accounting of stock movement and transactions.
- Flexible Licensing
SMR were initially setup with two Optimiser WMS licences which give a single administrator access in both London and Portugal so there is always oversight between the two locations.
Feedback
We worked closely with the client throughout the eight week time-frame to ensure they were fully up to speed with the work we were carrying out and where we were in terms of achieving the deadline which had been specified.
As the software was required to work in both the UK base and Portuguese warehouse our logistics coordinator flew over to be on-site in Porto, to ensure that she could see the warehouse processes and confirm in person, that everything was working as intended. This also laid the foundation for communication between the warehouse and administration in London and set the roles/responsibilities of each person before arrival of the new season stock.
The day prior to go-live was spent testing the system in its entirety, including co-ordinating dummy receipts, dispatches and consignments, to ensure everyone was comfortable with the processes.
What made this project so successful:
- Excellent communication from Simone Rocha and Zedonk throughout, highlighting and dealing honestly with any issues they were experiencing.
- Prioritisation and management of contingency plans by Optima’s projects team to ensure that the project would be delivered on time and running smoothly.
- Advice and consultancy provided by Optima’s projects team ensuring that the warehouse was set up and run well from the start.
Optima Comment
Overall, the project ran very smoothly, was well organised and was made much easier by proper resource management, deadlines and communication. The client was also motivated to get the project completed as quickly as possible but set respectable deadlines with contingency in order to achieve the goals they had set.
Dedicated personnel were assigned to the project, so communication was always easy, responsive and relevant – and the proper resources were allocated to ensure that the most important aspects of the project were completed on-time.