Flexible Enterprise Software Helps Furniture Manufacturer Bassett Respond to Customer Needs

Furniture World Magazine

A new breed of highly-flexible enterprise business software is helping furniture manufacturers re-engineer to respond more nimbly to customer needs. Enterprise software has traditionally offered the advantage of tying together manufacturing, inventory, purchasing, order entry and financial information systems to help increase the responsiveness of the supply chain. The key difference in the newest generation of software is its ability to rapidly adapt its functionality to strategic shifts or environmental conditions. For example, manufacturers can quickly adjust the basis upon which production machinery is scheduled to optimize the trade-off between lowest possible setup times and fastest customer delivery times under different market conditions. This makes it possible to improve customer service while maintaining manufacturing costs at low levels. An example of the need for flexibility is provided by the fact that, historically, the furniture industry has tended to minimize setup times by scheduling long production runs. The disadvantage of this approach is that material tends to build up in finished goods inventory while at the same time customers have to wait long periods for finished goods. Increasing numbers of furniture manufacturers, especially those on the high end, are making rapid delivery part of their value proposition. In order to keep costs under control with this approach, it's critical that customer orders be entered as quickly as possible into the enterprise software system and that sophisticated computerized scheduling routines manage the problem of meeting delivery requirements while keeping setup times under control. For example, when demand is high manufacturers may institute time fences, windows for production floor scheduling that shift from one product to another relatively quickly in order to ensure that customers are satisfied. On the other hand, when demand slackens, the time fences may be removed in order to minimize changeover time and reduce manufacturing costs. These changes had to be hard-coded into the earlier generation of enterprise software but the latest releases require only simply processing option changes. A wide range of other changes can be made without information technology department involvement such as setting up retail programs, changing pricing structures, adding new products or lines, or even new manufacturing and distribution facilities. An early implementer of leading-edge flexible enterprise software is David Bilyeu, vice president of information systems for Basset Furniture, a company with 23 manufacturing plants and 1998 revenues of $398 million. Bilyeu selected J.D. Edwards OneWorld enterprise software because of the openness of its architecture and because it supports the IBM AS/400 platform. "In the retail area," Bilyeu said, "our customers now have the flexibility of doing business the way they want to do business. We're not held hostage to a system. We can change and flexibly meet their needs at any time." For example, Bassett's sales representatives can now access real-time sales data to quickly find out if a desired fabric or frame is in stock – while the customer waits. "We plan to increase from 40 to 200 retails stores by 2003 so we needed the flexibility to easily tailor applications to meet changing business needs and J.D. Edwards solutions will allow us to do that," Bilyeu said. Greg Schindler, vice president of finance for Woodard, Inc., one of the nation's leading manufacturers of casual furniture, said that J.D. Edwards ERP software will help the firm manage complex order requirements. "In the near future, our reps will be able to enter orders over the Internet," Schindler said. "The flexibility of the system is also beneficial. Bret Ackerman, chief financial office of Indiana Furniture Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of mid-market casegoods and seating, said that the flexibility and user friendliness of J.D. Edwards software has allowed the firm to substantially improve its reporting capabilities. "We can track our expenditures through each of our four facilities and report separately on each," Ackerman said. While 1998 was a record year for the furniture business, growth is expected to slow in 1999, so competitive pressures can be expected to increase. Shipments totaled $24 billion in 1998, up 13.2% over the previous year. That followed an increase of 6.3% in 1997. But late in 1998, the Furniture Manufacturer Association predicted that sales would rise only 2.1% in 1999. Furniture manufacturers that want to increase their sales in this fiercely competitive market recognize that they need to dramatically improve customer service and increase internal operating efficiency. Companies in this business will increasingly be competing not only on the strength of their product lines and distribution networks but also on the ability of their information systems to allow them to respond rapidly to customer requirements. Flexible enterprise software that can adapt rapidly to changing business conditions can help to meet these challenges. Additional information can be obtained by contacting the Company at 1-800-727-5333, or via the Internet at www.jdedwards.com.