"Case Study: R.G. Barry"

If you receive errors when attempting to view this white paper, please install the latest version of Adobe Reader.

"The Internet has given global sourcing companies an affordable communication infrastructure for managing a wide range of applications. Using the Internet as a communications tool, NGC has developed a state-of-the-art sourcing and production system."
Source: New Generation Computing, Inc.

Resources Related to Case Study: R.G. Barry:

• Global sourcing (Wikipedia)

Case Study: R.G. Barry

Executive Summary

Company

R.G. Barry Corporation, the Dearfoams® company (), is among the world's leading developers and marketers of accessory footwear, a category that encompasses slippers, sandals, hybrid and active fashion footwear, slipper socks and hosiery.

The Challenge :

R.G. Barry lacked real-time visibility into production schedules at its factories and relied on emails and verbal communications. As a result, the company built more safety stock, required longer lead times, and could not quickly update customers on the status of their orders.

The Solution:

R.G. Barry selected e-SPS®, a web-based global sourcing solution that provides real-time visibility and collaboration throughout the supply chain.

The Results:

The company expects that e-SPS will help R.G. Barry reduce its lead times by 20-25 percent and reduce its inventory by 10-15 percent – freeing up cash and minimizing the risk of carrying excess inventory.

The Challenge

When R.G. Barry shifted from captive manufacturing to 100 percent outsourced production in 2004, it was an essential ingredient in a dramatic, highly successful business turnaround for "the Dearfoams® company," one of the world's leading developers and marketers of accessory footwear.

The company closed its three factories in Mexico, expanded its four year- old sourcing office in Hong Kong and shifted all production to Asian factories, allowing R.G. Barry to reduce overhead and better manage the fluctuations of its highly seasonal business. However, the move to global sourcing was only the beginning of R.G. Barry's quest to transform its supply chain efficiencies.

The Hong Kong office initially used a stand-alone system that wasn't connected to R.G. Barry's enterprise systems, hampering communications between company headquarters in Columbus, Ohio and Hong Kong. "We lacked real-time visibility into production schedules at the factories, and we relied on emails and verbal communications to understand when shipments were running late or if the factories had production problems," explains Glenn Evans, senior vice president of sourcing and logistics, R.G. Barry. "As a result, we needed longer lead times, we built more 'safety stock,' and we weren't as timely as we wanted to be in updating our customers on the status of their orders."

The Solution

Realizing the need for change, R.G. Barry embarked on a search for global sourcing software in 2007. The company reviewed solutions from a number of leading software vendors before selecting e-SPS from NGC® (New Generation Computing®). e-SPS is a web-based global sourcing solution that provides real-time visibility and collaboration throughout the supply chain.

A key factor in choosing e-SPS was the software's ability to easily integrate with R.G. Barry's existing supply chain solutions from Logility and American Software, NGC's parent company. "It's extremely important to us that all three of these systems are under one parent company," Evans says.

R.G. Barry began the software implementation early this year, working closely with NGC's offices in the U.S. and Shenzhen, China. "I was initially concerned with the distance – trying to implement a system in Columbus and Hong Kong and then training vendors to use it – but it's exceeded my expectations," Evans says. "All of our vendors are up and running on the system. A majority of our users are in Asia, so the support and expertise from the Shenzhen office was tremendously helpful during the implementation."

The Results

R.G. Barry has rolled out the first phases of the e-SPS software, which include P.O. tracking, visibility into the production process and the factory floor, and web-based collaboration between R.G. Barry's offices and vendors around the world. While the software will be put to the full test during R.G. Barry's fall season, the company is already seeing encouraging results:

Streamlined Communications Help Reduce Lead Time.

An improvement in communications is among the earliest results of the software implementation, according to Evans. e-SPS has centralized all supply chain communications in a single web-based portal, eliminating the need for email and verbal communications. The software's time and action calendars help streamline the workflow, and alerts are automatically triggered when events and activities don't happen on time. As a result, says Evans, "we're getting a much better flow of information on production status."

With e-SPS, R.G. Barry believes it will ultimately reduce its lead times by 20-25 percent, allowing the company to react much faster to trends; for example, quickly ramping up production of best-selling styles to meet increased demand. Evans says that e-SPS can also help the company reduce its inventory by approximately 10-15 percent by eliminating the need for safety stock. This will not only free up cash that was previously tied up in inventory, but will also minimize the risk of carrying excess inventory for slower-moving styles – and the resulting markdowns.

Greater Sourcing Agility

"We're getting a much better flow of information on production status"
Glenn Evans, Senior Vice
President of Sourcing and Logistics, R.G. Barry

With e- SPS, R. G. Barry can more easily scale to meet the fluctuations of its highly seasonal business. The company outsources to three primary factories in China but ramps up its production rapidly to meet seasonal demand. As an example, Evans explains that "in the month of May, we produced about a million pairs of slippers – but in the month of July, we produced 4 million pairs. With the seasonality of our business, we may expand production to 19 or 20 different factory locations."

R.G. Barry expects to see further benefits from e-SPS over time. The company plans to implement additional functions with e-SPS later this summer, including tracking the on-time performance of individual vendors as well as quality management at the factory level.