Customers

Case Study - Cosalt

Cosalt:Ballyclare supplies personal protective equipment (PPE) and workwear to some of the UK's biggest organisations - from Mercedes and Vauxhall, DEWALT® and Network Rail to several police forces and over 5,000 firefighters. A wholly owned subsidiary of Cosalt plc - a leading industrial services and leisure products manufacturer established in 1873 - Cosalt:Ballyclare employs 110 people at four sites in Reddish, Barnsley, Maidstone and County Antrim. With a turnover of over £20 million, the company is a major player in the UK's £200 million technical clothing market and is renowned for its high quality and hardwearing garments.

Overview

Cosalt:Ballyclare is both manufacturer and service provider, looking after the needs of over 250 customers who choose from nearly 15,000 style lines. The lines vary from everyday workwear to fire-resistant protective clothing and all points in between. With domestic manufacturing - plus offshore facilities in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Lithuania and the Czech Republic - control and precise supply chain planning are critically important. That means providing the right items, in the right sizes, in the right volumes, to the right people, in the right place, at the right time - and all at the right price. Underpinning this capability is the new version of PrimaNet®, the modular, enterprise-wide business solution developed specifically for the clothing and footwear industry by Loughborough-based Prima Solutions. PrimaNet® is a major component of Cosalt:Ballyclare's daily operations, providing a platform for every aspect of the company's finance, purchasing, customer ordering and stock management processes. And the result? Significant improvements to customer service, stock availability, cost control productivity and profitability.

 

Cracking the Service Delivery Code

The market for PPE and workwear for tough, hazardous environments places a unique set of demands on the organisations serving it. Quality control and compliance with stringent health and safety requirements are non-negotiable: in many applications, wearers will be relying on their clothing to protect them from serious injury and even death. Garments also need to be lightweight, offer maximum freedom of movement and be stylish.

Because such garments are subject to far greater wear and tear than everyday clothes, maintaining them is very important to the customer. Bearing this in mind, Cosalt:Ballyclare - one of the UK's most respected suppliers in this market - opted for PrimaNet®. The solution underpins a service-led approach to manufacture and supply that operates 365 days a year and balances both domestic and international operations.

Carlton Greener - Cosalt:Ballyclare's commercial director - sums up the position "Our public and private sector customers want hassle-free supply and replenishment that ensures their people can do their jobs with neither interruption nor delay - an end-to-end, outsourced clothing solution.

"So our requirements as a business are simple: we need to ensure the right kit is with the right people. That means service and stock are paramount. We need a service capability that's profitable and cost-effective; mistakes cost money so it also needs to ensure orders are right first time. Plus, with garment lead times of up to 15 weeks in the Far East and 8 to 10 weeks from Eastern Europe, we need stock management and order processing that's accurate, scalable and that works in real-time. Finally, with nearly 15,000 current style lines and 65,000 SKU's we need very tight control over costs."

"Automation is the key. With PrimaNet®, we can deliver a fully-managed service that covers the entire lifecycle of all customer garments - from specification and manufacture through to delivery, cleaning, collection, repair and replacement."

Delivering control


Cosalt:Ballyclare's legacy system was relatively complex, unwieldy and overly rigid, and wasn't providing the fingertip control needed to support the business model. Greener's team was also finding it increasingly difficult to generate the level of management information needed to support responsive decision-making. With the cost of a legacy upgrade the same as selecting a new generation system that would future-proof the business as well as providing the scalability for growth, the decision to seek a replacement was simple.

PrimaNet® was already being used successfully elsewhere within Cosalt plc but a competitive bid was employed to 'pressure test' all the options. Over six months, a group-wide assessment team judged PrimaNet® the superior solution in two key areas: stock management and service management.

The solution's Wardrobe Management module meant Cosalt:Ballyclare could manage stock with great precision right down to garment and wearer levels; the Garment Service Care module delivered the managed service capability for providing the end-to-end, outsourced clothing solution for customers. This powerful combination meant the technology would support the business instead of vice-versa.

Says Greener "We are asking a lot from the new system: we need significant improvements across management information and reporting, streamlined processes for improved productivity, better cost control, stock control and visibility plus total precision for order placement and fulfillment. With distributed processing across multiple sites handling around 10,000 transactions a day, our 70 plus users demanded ease of use, with a familiar, Windows look and feel and Internet access for customers and suppliers. PrimaNet® has ticked every box."

At the stock management level, PrimaNet® has outperformed all expectations. The PPE market is subject to many variables says Greener, from seasonality and speed of delivery to volumes and the precise personalisation of garments. The system updates stock planning throughout the day to give his team pinpoint control and total visibility of stock held.

"We wanted a true, enterprise-wide solution. PrimaNet®'s modular functionality enabled us to deploy it right across the business. It is multi currency as well as multi-lingual, which supports us as we develop the international side of the business. It handles all our financial operations - from management accounts and payroll through to HR management and executive reporting. It also controls every aspect of order processing: from purchasing, raw materials, wardrobe management, stock control, allocation, picking and tracking through to despatch, proof of delivery invoicing and reconciliation."

eCommerce and eProcurement are key development areas for Cosalt:Ballyclare. Gone are paper-based, fax orders - and the human errors that typically go with them. The ability to receive and then process orders electronically speeds up processing, significantly improves accuracy and has transformed customer service. eProcurement is a key capability for working with public sector organisations and the utilities: PrimaNet® is easily integrated with their systems and provides strong and secure order authorisation through the web browser.

Bottom line benefits, future potential

PrimaNet®'s capabilities have been of substantial benefit to Cosalt:Ballyclare. Product management and cost control have been improved significantly and the ability to manage margins much more effectively has delivered improved profitability. Operational reporting has been improved right across the business to provide a level of unprecedented visibility and clarity.

The system has gone down well with users too. Implementation, training, help desk and full technical support have all been superb. New users are up and running quickly with inevitable knock-on improvements to personal productivity.

Concludes Greener "Without doubt, the capabilities of PrimaNet® are pivotal to the future of our business. We are a service led business and our success stands on our ability to deliver for our customers - in every sense. PrimaNet® provides us with that stability and the platform to deliver a wealth of time saving facilities."

"We expect a quick return on investment from PrimaNet® but that's not the primary benefit. PrimaNet®'s capabilities are crucial to the business because they underpin our service operation and the whole managed approach to providing PPE and workwear. The fact that PrimaNet® delivers these capabilities in spades is our key performance indicator."

"PrimaNet®'s capabilities provide us with even greater operational business potentials. This is helped by the partnership approach that the Prima Solutions team takes. They have demonstrated real business smarts as well as technical expertise: by challenging the requirements, they have helped improve our processes even further. "