Balancing demand and supply: True to this motto, Walbusch Walter Busch GmbH & Co. KG has chosen REMIRA TIA A3 Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) as their planning solution. The previous system landscape hardly met the requirements of the fashion company. In the future, the Walbusch Group wants to use TIA A3 to harmonize and ideally support the processes for the central procurement of all brands.
For the growing multi-channel company, TIA A3 is to be the basis for greater planning accuracy and an improved procurement process. Walbusch is facing increasing challenges in both e-commerce and stationary retail: A large part of the planning functionalities was previously covered by Excel and internally programmed software solutions. However, these were in parts too strongly oriented to catalogue processes and no longer suited current multichannel requirements, as Franca Sperling, Head of Procurement and Supply Chain Management at the Walbusch Group, states: "We wanted to replace an overall aging, in-house programmed software landscape that no longer met our requirements. In addition, over the years, various workarounds have been created in Excel which, on the one hand, were poorly interconnected and, on the other hand, were sometimes associated with a high workload. There was also a corresponding susceptibility to errors and lack of transparency."
Specialized planning software for multi-channel companies
Walbusch was founded in 1934 as a mail order company in Solingen, Germany, and has made a name for itself by providing excellent shirts since the 1960s. Today, the Walbusch brand offers a full range of high-quality men's and women's fashion. Starting from the catalogue range, Walbusch offers the complete service of a multi-channel provider: customers can make their order by phone, online, or in one of the more than 40 Walbusch specialty stores. Meanwhile, the Walbusch Group includes other fashion brands with different focuses and target groups, such as Avena or Mey & Edlich. The Walbusch Group employs over 1,000 people.
As a replacement for the ERP system it had been using before, Walbusch decided during a one-year evaluation process not to look for a completely new ERP system, but to pursue a "best-of-breed" approach. For this purpose, components that support specific Walbusch processes were to be reprogrammed internally. In principle, however, the company relies on ready-made and standardized industry solutions and adapts to these in terms of processes. External specialist systems include an already implemented supply chain management tool, future product lifecycle management and a planning & procurement system. When selecting the planning system for procurement, it was important to the Walbusch Group that it was a provider with experience in print-oriented mail order and that there was already an existing end-to-end solution from seasonal planning to order proposal. Christian Kuth from Walbusch explains from an IT perspective:
"The possibilities of configuration and customization for Walbusch – with a guaranteed release capability of the software – were very important to us."
Holistic planning with REMIRA TIA A3 S&OP software
Those responsible found what they were looking for at REMIRA, whose S&OP software supports companies in all phases of product management with precise sales planning and forecasting and serves as the basis for resilient and holistic planning. The Walbusch Group wants to use TIA A3 for the entire supply chain – from sales and demand planning to order proposals. The high functionality in sales and procurement planning was particularly convincing. As part of the project, joint functional enhancements and action planning modules are also being planned and budgetted for. The Walbusch Group works with a TIA system in which all demand sources (from stationery and distance selling – with print and online initiated) are planned and determined. The aim is to meet this demand with ideal order proposals.
The project was carried out remotely, with the exception of a joint workshop in Solingen. Currently, the standard software is installed in a test configuration and the modules are successively implemented – with simultaneous reorganization of the target processes. Processes and system capabilities are to be aligned in an ideal manner. Over the year, all relevant processes and module adaptations and configurations will be defined. As a result, the Walbusch Group expects fewer manual activities, fewer system breaks and more transparency in the overall process.
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