Columbia Sportswear has been selling clothes faster than it can get them out the door.
The Portland, Ore.-based outdoor apparel manufacturer's revenue grew 31 percent last year, and sales have nearly doubled since 1997. But its inventory and supply chain systems, running on older RS/6000s, have not kept up with demand.
So Columbia hired Manhattan Associates to upgrade for the future. Manhattan, an Atlanta-based systems integrator and ISV, initially installed two IBM S70 servers, but Columbia's growth soon stretched the new system's forecasted capabilities. Midway through the project, Manhattan and Columbia decided to switch to the more scalable S80 server. It was a wise decision, say executives.
The project went beyond just a server upgrade, says Bjorn Zreloff, product manager at Manhattan Associates. "They replaced a warehouse management system, but they also revamped their entire operational processes," Zreloff says.
Manhattan integrated its PkMS warehouse management software with a JD Edwards package that Columbia was already using.
"We've increased our input/output channels eightfold. We know we have a better response time to our business partners. Our fill rate has been 99.9 percent-plus," says Bruce Miller, information services group manager for distribution at Columbia.
