Pinstripe supplies many high street stores with young
ladies high fashion. From its head office in Manchester
Pinstripe design garments and then source manufacturing
from partners in the Far East, Europe and the Middle
East.
Business Process
Pinstripe is a garment sourcing operation. Products
are designed and specifications created, which are
then assigned to one or more suppliers. Visibility
of progress is key to Pinstripe as products are sourced
from multiple countries and suppliers. Once the supplier
has shipped the order the garments are imported into
the UK for distribution to customers. This process
requires careful management, due to the time sensitive
nature of the apparel and footwear industry - if the
right garments are not in the shop at the pre-determined
time then margins may be reduced by penalties, or
lost sales opportunities.
The Challenge
The company’s previous IT system was a bespoke
system that had been heavily adapted to cater for
the requirements of the garment industry. The lack
of integration of the existing system and lack of
management information led to numerous problems such
as late deliveries, stock shortages, and surplus stock.
Andrew Anastasi, Financial Director at Pinstripe
explains, ‘We didn’t feel we were gaining
any benefit from our existing IT set-up, we had simply
outgrown the system. We were looking for a solution
that could provide us with visibility of stock and
suppliers aiding our management of customer orders.’
The Solution
40 Protex enterprise management solution users. Andrew
talks about some of the elements of the system, ‘We
now have a much better financial picture of our business.
Our management of stock control has improved dramatically.
We actually know what stock we have and what is due
in. Having this type of information at our finger
tips enables us to manage our customers expectations
leading to an enhanced level of customer satisfaction.’
Benefits
Andrew comments, ‘A major benefit for our company
is our stock levels are now kept at appropriate levels
for the current business activity reducing costs of
inventory. Visibility of suppliers and order progress
has made us become a much more proactive business.
We can monitor performance of suppliers making sure
we make correct choices relating to who manufactures
what type of product, who is good at delivering quality
garments in short timescales etc. As soon as there
is a delay or problem with an order we have the information
available enabling us to manage that problem. We can
react to it early on in the process rather than finding
out when a product hasn’t arrived.’
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