F. Curtis Barry & Company

Industry Leading Operations & Fulfillment Consultants

Is The Economy Recovering Happening For Your Business?

In a recent NRF SmartBrief, daily newsletter, it reported that “Retailers cautiously optimistic as sales beat expectations”… “It’s safe to say the worst is over for most retailers. And particularly for those outside the home goods area, the tide is turning,” said economist Frank Badillo. “We’re seeing consumers continuing to spend, in much the same way they did in November, December and January, with an increase in demand for apparel and smaller-ticket items.” You can find the full article with this link: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=122992

While this may be true for some of the big retailers, what do you see when you visit local sole proprietor businesses in your community?  Are they seeing a radical change in both traffic and sales in their establishments, that they feel the economy has now turned around?  Has the economic recovery happened to you?  The recovery is only over for your business when you see it in your sales and your paychecks.

Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a warehouse, systems, and inventory consulting firm with a focus on catalog, eCommerce, retail, wholesale, and manufacturing; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Planning A Warehouse Move – Issues And Questions To Resolve

We recently have been working with a few warehouse clients that are involved in moving to a new warehouse facility. Along the way, it became apparent that the planning for the move required a lot more time and effort than originally thought. What seems like a simple concept can become a daunting task in a hurry.

If you are considering a move, the following thoughts might help save some time and headaches during the move itself.

1. Make sure you have researched all of the applicable building codes for the area you are moving to. Determine what information and the level of detail that is required to obtain the necessary permits to outfit and occupy the warehouse.
2. Most warehouses require some type of sprinkler protection. Investigate what the requirements are for the overall facility, mezzanine areas, pallet rack storage areas, and any other work areas in the warehouse. If changes are required, make sure there is adequate flow and pressure to meet the codes.
3. Most areas have varying policies when it comes to determining when you can occupy the space. Some will allow the storage of materials and product as long as no order processing activity takes place; while others ban all storage or use of the space until all work is completed and permits issued.
4. One issue that seems to come up often is the need for routes of egress for emergency evacuation, if needed. Make sure the code requirements are understood and met when the warehouse layout is being developed.
5. If you plan on staying in operation during the move, and most companies do, this presents significant issues to overcome. Make sure you get a realistic estimate of the amount of time required to move inventory and any equipment to be reused from the current warehouse.
6. Take into consideration small issues such as purchase order information for product that is on the way to your warehouse during the move, changing the address for returns or trucking pickups, mailing address changes, etc. that can fall through the crack but cause major time consuming issues if not addressed.
7. Since most people involved in the move will have full time jobs to do while moving, make sure you allocate enough management time to oversee the move on both ends.
8. This is a good time to think about getting rid of aged or dead inventory and not move it to the new space. Allocate time and focus on doing this before the move.
9. Decide whether you are going to try to take an inventory count while you move. Although this may sound like a good idea, since you will be handling the entire inventory, think twice before you try to take inventory on-the-fly. It will take a lot longer than you think and will slow down the move.
10. It may cost you more to reuse all of your existing equipment and storage media in the new space (while staying in business during your move) rather than purchasing a segment of the total equipment required to get started in the new space. Look at the big picture and the feasibility of doing this before deciding.
11. A safe planning bet is to double the time you think it will take, and then be pessimistic as to meeting that schedule. Things will go wrong and happen not as planned; so you might as well provide a buffer to take care of them.

Having pointed out a few hurdles to get over when moving, a well thought out plan and constant monitoring of progress against the plan will make the move go as efficiently as possible. Remember that many steps will be dependent on others being completed; so the sequence of steps as well as the completion of required steps has to be considered also.

Define the detailed steps to be performed in a master plan, assign accountabilities to those involved, and establish realistic timelines to complete the steps to make sure the move is completed as planned.

Bob Betke is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a warehouse, systems, and inventory consulting firm with expertise in direct, retail, wholesale and manufacturing. Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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UPDATE: Virginia House Kills “Amazon” Law

Senate Bill 660, introduced by Sen. Emmett W. Hanger Jr. (Augusta County), was officially defeated yesterday by the Virginia House of Delegates Finance Committee. Senate Bill 660 would have created a new nexus standard to require certain Internet retailers to collect Virginia sales tax from its Virginia customers even if the retailer is not physically located in Virginia. The House Finance Committee adopted a subcommittee’s recommendation to lay Senate Bill 660 on the table, which effectively ends the bill’s chances of passing in this session of the General Assembly. However, the provisions of Senate Bill 660 are still present in the Senate’s version of the budget for the next biennium. To be adopted, the House of Delegates would have to concur with its inclusion in the budget.

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Micros-RETAIL in 2009

In our continuing series of highlighting the positive aspects of 2009, I had a recent conversation with Chris Sarne, Regional Vice President of Sales for Micros-RETAIL and he shared the following insights to their successes in 2009.

Chris had the following insights regarding Micros-RETAIL for this past holiday season.  Many of Micros-RETAIL’s clients had great success from Black Friday to Cyber Monday and that tremendous performance continued throughout the holiday season, with performance up over last year by as much as 70%.

Although Chris could not elaborate specifically on which clients, because of confidentially reasons, a number of these clients experienced:

• Re-platform resulted in 5x the total online sales
• Re-platform resulted in 76% increase in sales from 2008 to 2009
• 70% increase in sales after checkout redesign
• 47.9 % increase in total online revenue post re-platform
• 13% increase in AOV after site merchandising redesign
• Re-platform resulted in 8x revenue increase in 12 months
• Re-platform resulted in increase from $4M/day to $8M/day within 12 months
• Revenue is 15% above plan after re-platform
• 20% of total business is online, fully integrated Micros-RETAIL-built Gift Registry Solution is 45% of those sales
• Year over year sales are up 40% post re-platform
• Year to year revenue up 30% in first quarter post re-platform

Chris also expressed that other divisions of Micros-RETAIL had similar customer experiences with their other software application suites last year.  One additional item that Chris did elaborate on was the new Serenade product release 2.5 which was just release at the end of January.  Some of the features in this release include:

• Pre-Order Quote Processing
• Customer Item History screen – provides customer service representatives a more efficient way to view items that a customer has previously ordered
• Credit card security enhancements – Ability to purge / replace credit card data and retain the order
• Ability to fulfill backorders from retail store inventory using integration with MICROS’s Locate Order Broker
• Membership cancellation emails – A base membership cancellation HTML email template has been provided that you can use as-is or as a starting point to create your own HTML email template
• Ability to email purchase order form as an attachment
• Warehouse Receiving using wireless / hand-held devices
• Physical Inventory count entry using wireless / hand-held devices
• Updated online user help and other reference manuals

Chris also stated that in FY’09 they added more than 50 new customers across the Micros-Retail brands.  Pretty impressive for a down economy!

Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Escalate Retail’s 2009 Highlights

In our continuing series of highlighting the positive aspects of 2009 I had a recent conversation with Brian Johnson, Vice President and General Manager for Escalate Retail and he shared the following insights to their successes in 2009.

With Escalate Retail’s release of Ecometry Commerce Suite version 10.0.4 last December, customers now have PCI certified PA-DSS compliant payment application. This certification is extremely timely as starting July 2010; the PCI Council (comprised of the five largest credit card brands) will require retailers to use a PA-DSS compliant payment application. Multichannel and direct marketers that are looking for a compliant application to manage and fulfill orders across one or many channels can be assured that this latest Ecometry release is PA-DSS compliant.  In addition, this release also included:

• Advanced Non-Offer Promotional Capabilities
• New User-Based Fraud Monitoring
• Intelligent Promotional Insert Functionality

Brian elaborated on 2009 and stated that Escalate Retail had the best financial performance (both as a percent and in dollars) and the strongest end-of-year cash balance in the history of the company.

Brian went on to say that in the last quarter of 2009 Escalate Retail had the strongest new written sales quarter in over two years and they added several new “logos” in 2009; implementing 15 new customers on the open systems platform.

In addition Brian stated that he has heard from many of their customers that they were above plan for 2009 – and almost all are predicting modest growth in 2010.

Additionally, here are a few of Escalate Retail’s upcoming releases for 2010:

10.1.1 – April/May 2010

• Settlement file auditing
• Lexis/Nexus external fraud integration
• Improved package checking station management

11.0.1 – 3rd Qtr 2010

• COBOL.net  / phase I – which provides access to Microsoft tools and other advanced technology
• New Credit Card Reverse Authorization and Partial Authorization options (required by Visa/MasterCard)
• Enhanced Accounting Functionality around Three-Way Invoice Matching and Costing management

All in all Escalate Retail and most of their customers experienced a better 2009 than you would have thought possible.

Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Warehouse First Impressions Tell A Lot During Assessments

When we are asked to perform a warehouse operations assessment for a client, the first thing I like to do is take a quick walk around the warehouse. It may surprise you, but it is usually possible to determine what we will see during the detailed assessment in the first minute or two of the walk around. The initial impression gained in the warehouse is a pretty good indicator of how efficient and productive the operation will be.

I usually put together a few observations occurring in that first few minutes that can be a good indication of what to expect when the detailed operations assessment is underway.

These are some actual situations I have encountered recently during the first quick walk around:

1. In a 25 foot clear stacking height warehouse, only the bottom10 feet were utilized for storage.
2. Pick slots were all the same size.
3. Locations were not clearly numbered in a logical schema.
4. Pallets and boxes were found in the aisles.
5. The “dust factor” on product was significant.
6. Employees work pace was slow.
7. Pick slot replenishments were taking place while picking was going on.
8. Product was backed up on the receiving dock and the returns area.
9. There was a lot of trash and debris between racks and behind pallets.
10. Food wrappings and cups were found on the floor.
11. Break rooms or cafeteria areas were a mess.
12. Pack stations were cluttered and disorganized.
13. Pickers were picking one order at a time while walking the entire pick line.
14. Packers were walking to find the right packaging materials for their orders.
15. Warehouse staff were being held up and delayed due to congestion and interference.

Most people point out that warehousing is not “rocket science”. This is true, but if you run an inefficient warehouse operation with some or all of the symptoms above; satisfying your customers and having them return to buy again can be as difficult as landing a man on the moon.

Take a look at your warehouse to see what condition you are in and develop a plan to correct it. Remember that the key requirements to running a good warehouse are a common sense approach, discipline in making sure procedures are followed, structure to make it possible to change, and a positive environment where employees want to succeed.

Bob Betke is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Diverse Targets For Warehouse Cost Reduction

I recently took a step back and tried to determine what type of company would use our warehouse consulting services.  We try to help businesses with their warehousing needs by providing a variety of consulting services. Our goal is to help businesses cope with these challenging economic times by making recommendations for controlling their operating costs.  My focus was on developing a list of potential businesses that might need assistance. In the past, our client base consisted of the companies you would traditionally think of as direct to customer and business to business entities.  I thought a good place to start would be to research recent past warehousing clients.

A sample of the large variety of recent businesses that used us to help in their warehouse operation or requested information on our consulting service offerings looks like this:

1. One of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies used us to help strategize on the fulfillment of their sales and collateral materials.
2. A government- run laboratory that manages the operation of a particle accelerator needed help organizing their five storage facilities and the storage of parts and equipment used in experiments and maintaining their accelerator.
3. A restaurant supply company that manufactured, among other things, pizza trays and dish covers wanted assistance in refining their fulfillment operation.
4. A manufacturer/packager of nuts is looking for a way to increase storage capacity.
5. A large state-run university is looking for help in consolidating their storage facilities.
6. A campus and online medical college needed assistance in finding an outsourced partner to fulfill orders for textbooks for correspondence courses.
7. A regional hospital is redefining the use of their warehouse and is looking for layout help.
8. A large third party logistics company is looking for “best practice” implementation in their warehouses supplying “Just In Time” computer components.
9. A multichannel company providing supplies to the pet industry and groomers is moving to a larger facility.
10. A book publisher asked for help in improving their warehouse operation and inventory control processes.

I started looking for one common denominator between all of these businesses and quickly realized what it was — that most businesses in the country have some connection to a warehousing function and overall supply chain issues. Since most of these, if not all of these, companies face similar issues; it would seem that we all need to focus on finding ways to reduce costs.

In the past, most of our emphasis to reduce supply chain costs was with those multichannel companies that we traditionally considered as “major” players with warehouse and supply chain issues. We now realize that there are a significant number of “non-traditional” businesses as well that impact or are impacted by the costs of their supply chain.

I think my takeaway from this revelation is that – if we want to help improve the supply chain in the US, as well as address the current economic issues facing businesses – F. Curtis Barry & Company needs to look at almost every company and industry in the US to see how we might increase efficiency and reduce costs in the warehouse. No matter what industry you are in, it should be in all of our best interests to look for ways to lower costs and improve service in warehousing anywhere we can.

Bob Betke is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Natural Solutions’ 2009 Summary

As there has been so much negativity in the press about the economy and business failures in 2009, F. Curtis Barry & Company would like to focus on some of the positive aspects of last year.  This is the first in a series of blogs that will highlight clients and vendors in the multi-channel retail space and their successes in 2009.

In a recent phone conversation with Tyce McIntosh, President of Natural Solutions, a multichannel order management system provider, we had a chance to discuss and focus in on a number of accomplishments they had in 2009.

From a Natural Solutions’ viewpoint they have viewed the economic time that we experienced in 2009 as an opportunity to do general housekeeping within their application for enhancements that may not necessarily generate new business but make the application better for their customers. Tyce sited the following examples of some of the initiatives they completed in order to enhance the Natural Order application:

• Updated the user and technical document
• Modifications to the daily procedures to improve the throughput
• Performance tuning
• Internal staff training
• Customer visits to review operational procedures
• Taking on new vendor alliances that don’t necessarily have end user contracts.

Tyce also sited that this economic slow down allowed for some of their customers to take on new projects that, under normal busy times, they would not have had the time nor staff to engage in. One customer Tyce sited is Dinn Brothers Trophy, that with the economic slow down it allowed them to be able to devote the time and personnel to the implementation project. He stated that in busier times the resources would not have been as easily accessible. This allowed the implementation of Natural Order at Dinn Brothers to be completed within the time frame that they had established.

Additionally, Tyce said their existing customers look for alternate methods of generating new business; an example of this is Natural Solution’s new partner Taurus Software. Taurus’s business intelligence tool, Manage Metrix, will allow Tyce’s customers to better understand their business metrics and improve upon them.

I asked Tyce what some of the enhancements to Natural Order are planned for 2010.  Tyce was kind enough to share the following examples:

• Completion of the Credit Card Compliancy to the latest standards
• Expanded personalization module
• Expanded continuity module
• New vendor interfaces
  • Taurus Software, Manage Metrix, data integration project
  • Mid size ecommerce supplier
  • Expansion on Midco’s interface

In a time when our economy was severely down, positive things can still emerge!

Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Does Your Order Management System Need To Be Replaced?

Coming out of 2009 there seems to be some positive momentum from this past holiday season with a 2.9% increase over 2008; some of our clients experienced results above their 2009 plan. Because of the tough economic times over the last couple of years; most companies have not invested heavily in the infrastructure of their business with new software technology – even if the need was there.

Now is the best time to asses your current systems infrastructure. Were you able to meet the demands of this past holiday season and meet your service levels of customer satisfaction?  Did you have the right inventory to meet demand at the right times?  Was your inventory forecasting accurate enough to get the inventory in time to meet your customer’s needs?

Does your current order management system have the functionality needed for future growth? Is it flexible enough to meet the changing needs of your marketing department?  What challenges will you face this year to get new functionality added to meet the demands of the business? What system functionality or business processes do you need or want to change?

You should look back now on all of the exceptions that you had this past holiday season – whatever they may have been – and determine how you will over come these this year.  It is time you asses your business processes and order management systems as well as prioritize what needs to be enhanced or replaced in order to better prepare you for 2010 and the upcoming holiday season.

Don’t hesitate to contact Jeff Barry at jbarry@fcbco.com or 804-740-8743 if you want to discuss your system needs and projects.

Paul Sobota is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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Healthcare Projects on the Rise

Over the past few months, we have noticed a new trend occurring in the type of clients contacting us about our warehousing and fulfillment consulting services. We typically consult to Business to Consumer (catalog, Retail, E-Commerce), or Business to Business companies. More recently, in addition to completing a fulfillment assignment for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, we have been contacted by regional hospital chains, medical device companies, a vitamin supplier, a medical college providing correspondence courses and others in the healthcare field.

Over 26 years of providing consulting services to hundreds of warehouses around the world, this is the highest concentration of contacts we have received from this vertical. The common theme for almost every one of these assignments or inquiries has been the desire to control and reduce costs. They are looking for ways to increase productivity, improve layout and space utilization, increase service levels to their customers, and to increase control over their inventory. By focusing on these areas, there is a good chance that costs can be reduced. Most other businesses have realized over the years, that warehousing and fulfillment can be viewed as a competitive advantage rather than a cost center only.

With all the attention focused on the healthcare debate, it is encouraging to me to see a segment of this industry trying to “bend the curve” relating to cost. I hope this is a sign of more to come and more companies in this arena contact us and others for advice on how to reduce costs.

If we can help you evaluate and cut costs will improving your productivity and space utilization in your warehouse, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Bob Betke is vice president of F. Curtis Barry & Company, a multichannel operations and fulfillment consulting firm with expertise in multichannel systems, warehouse, call center, inventory, and benchmarking; Learn more online at: http://www.fcbco.com

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