Industry-Specific ERPHelping Avoid Redundancy

In little more than a decade, M&B footwear has established an impressive footprint for itself in both the manufacturing, and retail sectors of the expanding shoe industry. While in the transitional phase, the company had to enounter a whole host of challenges.

M&B footwear in the last 16 years has managed to create a niche market, however the competition is still tough with the existence of several players in the footwear industry, says Shishir Kumar, GM, IT, M&B Footwear. But Kumar also believes that success depends on having the right product, in the right season, and at the right place but to do this with a legacy system was a difficult job. The legacy systems at M&B were not able to deliver the timely information or business visibility, that the company needed to gain an upperhand on its competitors. Though M&B has been an IT-savvy company since its inception, its legacy system has to be replaced. Data was lying in silos creating bottlenecks for decision makers, avers Kumar. As a result, M&B decided to consolidate its operations on a single platform and gain improved agility, and efficiency across the organization.

Picking the Right Pick

During the search for the right solution, the question for the right SI to implement the solution also cropped up. The company was on the lookout for a more robust IT backbone to manage its countrywide operations, hence because of its vertically integrated business model, M&B focused on a solution that could fulfill a wide range of manufacturing, distribution, and retailing requirements. We zeroed on to an ERP solution that addressed the requirements of an industry like ours. We chose SAPs apparel and footwear application. The solution was the best fit for our operations, and was capable to handle diverse operations, adds Kumar. Once the solution was finalized, it was important to find out the SI, who had the expertise of implementing a business process solution. Choosing the right partner was equally challenging because we wanted someone who had the expertise, and could comprehend our business processes. We roped SEAL Infotech as our implementation partner, said Kumar.

Enjoying the Benefits

Today, M&B has consolidated its operations on a single platform, and claims to have gained greater visibility across the organization. The biggest bottlenecks including decision making, and productivity seem to have been removed. Because of the ERP, the company is improving both its manufacturing, and retail operations. In manufacturing, for example, regular reports for material resource planning ensures timely procurement of raw materials. In addition, improved expense tracking enables us to optimize the overall production costs, reveals Kumar.

Meanwhile the new automated processes have started yielding results, and helps M&B decrease the cost of carrying inventory. The company is able to ensure optimal supply in the distribution channels as well as boasts of achieving a 50% reduction in its inventory levels over the next 3 years.

M&Bs top management has a more comprehensive view of the companys retail operationsfrom the branded shops to its presence in large departmental store chains. M&B can easily analyze the profitability by various categories such as product, region, distribution channel, or customers. As a result, the company can better control the expenditures by brand or sales channel, using accurate data to drive their decisions. Besides, M&B plans to continuously deploy the latest tools, and expects to ramp up its shoe production by 60% as well as increase its retail base by 29% in the coming year. The businesses can now take an advantage of the ERP system, thereby bringing in agility and transparency into their business, suggests Kumar. He sums up by saying that an industry-specific ERP is a best-fit to avoid redundancy in a business.

Onkar Sharma

onkars@cybermedia.co.in