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Successful Solutions
Case
Study
Industry Segment: Retailer
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major Texas computer retailer wanted to broaden the value it delivers to
customers by offering a complete series of training classes. Company instructors
lead classes of 6 to 12 students per class using training materials purchased
from a competing training content company.
In an effort to enhance the brand image of their company, unify their training into a common training theme and provide a consistent offering throughout 200+ training center locations, the retailer made the decision to create and distribute their own branded training materials. The Challenge The retailer’s strengths were marketing computer and software training courses as an enhancement to its core retail business and a strong instructor base to deliver the courses. But they had two challenges to address: How would they develop industry-leading content? And, how could they handle the production and distribution of the materials to support hundreds of courses delivered in hundreds of locations all across the United States, including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico? Initially, the content development challenge was handled by establishing a strategic partnership with a Florida content developer. Additionally, each course topic had CBTs that students could practice on, even after the class was over. An initial roll-out of one course resulted in a strong endorsement by the field instructors who would be teaching thousands of students every month. The production and distribution challenge was a complex set of issues and questions. How would forecasting, printing, inventory, shipping, departmental billing and returns be handled? Would central staff need to be added to co-ordinate the ordering and manage the purchase of the printed materials? Should their own store distribution channel, used for their core retail items, be used? The decision was made to consult printing and logistics companies for potential help with the production of their materials. The solution proposed by Johnson Printing Service solved all of the “sticky issues” related to production and distribution. The Solution The account team from Johnson Printing Service presented a comprehensive solution that allowed the retailer to focus on its core strengths. The solution was actually a set of solutions. Dynamic Inventory Management JPS implemented their INView System (a dynamic inventory management system) to tackle the forecasting and inventory management problem. For high-volume courses, an inventory of materials are warehoused and orders are shipped the same day the order is placed. The inventory can be managed “dynamically” at several “demand scenarios.” The “demand scenarios” range from products with growing demand, stable demand, and even, declining demand. The demand is predicted by a matrix of: demand type, seasonal demand and a six-week trailing demand. This eliminated the need for the retailer to spend time on forecasting, with the exception of large one-time roll-outs. The stock program is complimented by a Print-on-Demand system. The Print-On-Demand system opened access to over 650 potential training courses without the need to do any up-front investment of print material inventory – and the books are printed and shipped in less than 48 hours. With the seasonal demand adjustments and an integrated Print-on-Demand strategy, the number of scrapped or obsolete books has been held to less than 1%. The combination of these two approaches resulted in an initial cost per unit savings of 14% and ultimately, with the addition of shipping management services, the overall savings were over 28%! Branch-Level Ordering To reduce the need for central administrative staff to place and track orders, JPS launched a web order site. At each branch, the person who books the course is able to order printed materials through the JPS web portal. The portal, a custom-designed web site, is the focal point for orders. But in addition to simply placing orders, the status of each order can be tracked and an order history is available. Also available are overviews for each course as a downloadable PDF of the instructor materials and a product list of all available courses. The instructors and training center managers immediately used the site and found the portal to be an important tool to run their business. Although fax ordering is available, 100% of the incoming orders now come through the portal. Easy Accounting…and More! After wading through hundreds of invoices each month from their previous vendor, the retailer was pleased with the streamlined billing from JPS. Weekly summarized billing is generated. A summarized invoice is backed by an electronic report of the critical data needed and is prepared each month. This preparation is matched to the company’s fiscal calendar for accurate accounting. The data for departmental accounting billing codes are included in both the hardcopy and electronic versions of the invoice. The Results The partnership between the retailer and JPS has grown and strengthened. At quarterly business performance reviews, quality, service and volume metrics are tracked. JPS routinely ships over 7,500 orders, over 21,000 line items and over 150,000 books for the retailer per year. Getting quality books delivered right and delivered on time is key to keeping the training instructors and thousands of students happy. The retailer has confidence that JPS will come through and JPS has done so with a delivered right/delivered on time performance of 99.79%. On an ongoing basis, Johnson Printing Service and the retailer work together to continuously improve the order, print and distribution workflow and this collaboration has produced additional benefits. One such initiative drove the expedited shipping costs from over 23% of shipments to the current level of less than 8% of shipments. The partnership between the retailer and Johnson Printing Service helps the retailer remain the leader in their industry and adjust to changes in the training needs of their customers.
Since consolidating
their operations for print, fulfillment and distribution,
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