Company Profile
A division of a large fortune 500 Corporation, this company is the world's leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of a select niche of goods within a fast growing recreational segment of the consumer products market. The parent corporation of this company is a global marketer and manufacturer of numerous leading consumer brands with headquarters in the United States.

Challenge
With a mission to enhance customer service and solidify its dealer relationships relative to a select group of service parts shipping to domestic and international distributors, this company needed a solution that would include strong systems and inventory management expertise delivering advanced order fulfillment and global shipping capability. The right service provider would not only posess these qualities, but also have extensive experience with supporting outsourcing initiatives in a quick-response setting.

In addition, a direct sales venture for an innovative new product was soon to hit the market. Therefore, the company was also seeking a specialized service provider who could seamlessly interface with its sophisticated 3rd-party Call Center / E-commerce specialist. This would require development of a complex systems interface and electronic file transfer process, managing the inventory, and providing pick-pack order fulfillment and shipping via UPS and select LTL carriers.

Solution
MDS custom configured its RF barcode Warehouse Management System and improved inventory accuracy to over 99.996% versus this company's former in-house system tracking at 85% - 90%. The custom MDS WMS application provided real-time capture, validation, and tracking of material movements including receiving, put-away, cycle-count, order and item selection, and shipping functions. The "new" system MDS provided consistently produced fulfillment accuracy exceeding 99.996%.

Supplementary value added by MDS for this company included customer invoicing, accounts receivable and payment processing. MDS provided multiple ordering channels versus the former single method of faxing. With MDS, customer satisfaction and dealer loyalty exceeded client expectations. Finally, out of a field of several major fulfillment players, MDS alone demonstrated the ability to develop a Web order interface with same day fulfillment response in time for the new direct to consumer product launch. Flexible FTP processes MDS developed within days were integrated flawlessly with this company's Web / Call center specialist.

Successes
After selecting MDS for its Service Parts Fulfillment, this company saw sudden improvement on order cycle times, experiencing consistent same-day and 24-hour shipping over a former 3-5 day response time. Order fill rates jumped to over 95% from the low to mid 80% range. On-line reporting, a first for the dealers, provided easy access to fresh, accurate inventory and order data.

In summary, MDS brought the required experience, creative solutions, and offered the broadest mix of value-add services amid proposals under consideration. The MDS solution, in this company's assessment, greatly encouraged their decision to outsource. Additionally, after successfully placing the service parts program with MDS, this client quickly realized they had a company who could provide them with other technologically supported service solutions in an effective and timely manner. Perhaps the most important benefit was the fact that this company's dealer's adapted quickly to the new outsourced arrangement, holding MDS in very high regard as a strategic partner.