Client Success Story: Stampin' Up!Automated Warehouse Management System (WHMS)The CompanyStampin' Up! is a 15-year-old direct-sales company that offers an exclusive line of decorative stamp sets and accessories for home decor, greeting cards, craft projects, and scrap booking. The company's size and steady growth reflect the nationwide passion for decorative rubber stamping. Founded in 1988, the company now employs more than 400 employees. Stampin' Up! introduces more than 100 new stamp sets and accessories annually in its full-color Idea Book & Catalog, now more than 250 pages. Stampin' Up! products may be purchased at home workshops through a network of independent sales distributors. Currently, there are almost 30,000 distributors from all 50 U.S. states and Canada who teach the art of stamping. Stampin' Up! operates three state-of-the-art facilities, including a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility; an 110,000-square-foot distribution and warehouse center; and a 40,000-square-foot corporate office and demonstrator support call center. The ChallengeAs Stampin' Up! transitioned from a small company to a company with high volume inventory and shipment needs. Order demand was outpacing warehousing and shipping needs. Misplaced inventory was common, ordering at optimum inventory levels was difficult, staffing and carrying costs increased, and shipping times often took weeks. Order accuracy was also a problem as over 20% of orders incurred one or more errors in the cycle from order placement to order shipment. As part of their manufacturing and distribution strategy, Stampin' Up! identified the following additional technology needs:
Stampin' Up! asked Spring2 Technologies to assist them in automating their warehouse, implement a custom stamp solution, and assist with international shipping solutions to improve efficiencies and better track inventory. The SolutionWhen Stampin' up! moved into a new 100,000 sq ft. warehouse, Spring2 Technologies was with them. Spring2 Technologies led the process of selecting and implementing a cost effective warehouse management solution that would allow easy interfaces to both warehouse hardware components and other information systems such as order processing and financial systems. Spring2 led the warehouse information infrastructure implementation by installing a fiber-optic network backbone that tied LAN, WAN, and RF wireless access points back to centralized databases. After the infrastructure was in place the core warehouse management solution was implemented and interfaced with other enterprise systems. Logical inventory stores were identified, including primary inventory, secondary inventory, in transient inventory (for trucks coming from remote manufacturing facilities), and even forklifts. All of these locations were labeled for inventory and 15-20 RF guns helped warehouse personnel identify inventory location, identify inventory quantities, and identify exact locations for restocking and replenishment. Spring2 implemented an international shipping component that consolidated small packages into larger shipments to minimize tariffs, and a custom software package was developed to drive the manufacturing process for customized stamps. Order processing systems were integrated with the warehouse management system to send macro order and inventory information to the WHMS and then accept updated inventory and shipment information back from the WHMS. With this RF driven system, users can:
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