David's Bridal: A Supply Chain Delivering On Dreams Michael D. Cole
A conversation with the frontline executives who manage the supply chain for the indisputable leader of the retail bridal industry quickly reveals that they take their calling very seriously, especially given their unique market.
"You are dealing with customers who are making a highly emotional purchase," summarizes Michael Toth, the vice president of business systems and quality assurance for David's Bridal. "A late shipment is nothing any business wants to accept. But for us, it's not even an option. We have to satisfy the commitment we've made to each bride and her bridal party."
The company's reputed stature in the retail world, its proven track record for timeliness and quality service and an impressive history spanning more than half a century indicates they've succeeded mightily with that commitment.
David's Bridal has carved out a recognizable niche, considered the leading bridal authority with a national presence. Over the years, hundreds of thousands of satisfied brides and their parties have purchased their wedding apparel from David's Bridal. Estimates suggest 30 percent of brides nationwide today walk down the aisle in a dress from the retailer.
But the market success has come with its share of challenges as privately-owned David's Bridal has contended with daunting growth, particularly in recent years. (The Conshohocken, PA-headquartered retailer, with origins as a small bridal salon in Fort Lauderdale, now operates nearly 300 stores.)
Tony Coccerino, David's Bridal's vice president of distribution operations, notes that just 10 years ago, the specialty retailer's distribution operations spanned just 20,000 square feet.
"We kept expanding to the point where we knew we needed to figure something out," he says. "We were quickly running out of capacity." David's Bridal offers tens of thousands of SKUs according to Coccerino. The company sells both off-the-rack bridal dresses and special order bridal dresses, as well as special occasion dresses. It also sells any and all accessories and gifts associated with a wedding, including tiaras, veils, shoes, jewelry and cake-cutters, among other items; accordingly its merchandise includes garments on hangers (GOH) and flats (merchandise in cartons).
"We've done a very good job cornering the market," says Toth. "But we could not have succeeded without the competitive advantage we have built within our supply chain."
Admittedly, Toth says visibility wasn't where it needed to be. As of a couple years ago, the David's Bridal order fulfillment system consisted of seven legacy systems where a change in one system often required making a change in multiple systems. "There was a tremendous amount of overhead and risk involved in changing our business rules," Toth says.
Because David's Bridal operated in a batch-order environment, Toth notes: "We were receiving orders from our stores overnight, so orders that needed immediate attention were often handled outside of the standard processes. This increases costs and your opportunity for error."
Bridal preparations
Through extensive planning, a willingness to rely on vendors where needed, widespread implementation of technology, and good old-fashioned teamwork internally, David's Bridal has revamped its warehouse management system during the past few years, a strategy that eradicates the prior growing pains while positioning the retailer to accommodate more expansion in the foreseeable future.
David's Bridal embarked on the supply chain project when it convened a network analysis team in 2005. "We needed to make a decision on how to move forward in the next 10-12 years," Coccerino says. "The network analysis concluded that we needed to move."
Ultimately, David's Bridal chose a path of dual distribution operations that entailed purchasing a 192,000-square-foot distribution facility located in nearby Bristol, PA (it achieved operational status in September 2006) to accompany its existing 174,000-square-foot warehouse in Conshohocken. While the older warehouse distributes GOH products exclusively, the Bristol facility, located about a half hour away, distributes all flat merchandise. (Interestingly, flat merchandise generally includes the retailer's bridal gowns, which are typically delivered in bags, altered and then steamed and spruced at the respective stores where they are delivered.)
"It was a logical split," Coccerino says of the two-distribution-center setup. "When merchandise arrives from overseas it's easy to direct flats here in Bristol and instruct the rest to go to Conshohocken." Coccerino says the setup is so seamless that it is transparent to retail stores.
The selection process for the new distribution operations was in-depth, with a consultant enlisted. The Bristol-Conshohocken arrangement was chosen due to its proximity to headquarters (which are located on the outskirts of Philadelphia) and other intangible benefits, over an alternative location that offered other geographic advantages.
A marriage made in Heaven
Upon selection of the Bristol site, David's Bridal turned to a different third party, St. Onge, a York, PA full-service supply chain and engineering consulting firm, to assist with the transition into the facility. St. Onge also served a helpful role as agent, assisting with selection of equipment from third-party vendors, including conveyors and sortation.
"This was a major partnership and it went off without a hitch," Coccerino told Apparel during a tour of the Bristol facility. "There was nothing here but four walls and a couple of lights and fans. We added everything, from the electrical work to the material handling equipment (MHE). Everything is new."
Coccerino praises St. Onge for its wide array of expertise and its versatility in performing a variety of projects both large and small in scope. The firm specializes in project management and deploys skilled professionals, such as CAD designers on an as-needed basis for customers who don't have the necessary resources on staff. "It was a great relationship, very open, and they were not biased to any vendors or any single strategy," he says. "They understand ergonomics and can see efficiencies. But there was a back-and-forth exchange of ideas. If we suggested a different approach they would be happy to draw it up and show us how it looks."
According to Coccerino, Conshohocken's warehouse typically distributes 10,000-15,000 units per workday, with the Bristol building averaging 23,000-27,000 units per day.
The expansion project coincided with an upgrade of the Conshohocken warehouse management system (WMS), a solution from Manhattan Associates. "We had not upgraded since the initial implementation in 1999 and were eight releases behind," says Toth. "As a result, we viewed this as a re-implementation." The company successfully upgraded Conshohocken and continued to leverage its relationship with Manhattan Associates by installing the WMS in Bristol.
While WMS is leveraged at both sites, the key materials handling equipment is decidedly distinct. As Coccerino points out, the hanging sorter in Conshohocken is rare equipment not commonly used these days in most retail-oriented distribution environments. In Bristol, David's Bridal installed a high-speed "bomb bay" or bottom-drop sorting solution from EuroSort, one of the first such installations of its kind in the United States.
The bomb bay sorter is 242 feet long and was designed so that as many as 600 stores could be sorted simultaneously. Product passes through a scanner array and down the proper chute. The solution, according to Coccerino, allows for more room within the chutes to accumulate product. It requires little maintenance and, it operates quietly, as a tour of the facility reveals.
Both of the retailer's facilities have attained rare Level 2 certification from C-TPAT (Customs Trade partnership Against Terrorism), the voluntary supply-chain security program, led by U.S. Customs and Borders Protection focused on improving the security of private companies' supply chains.
With its warehouse operations, UPC labels on cartons of merchandise are scanned as they enter the distribution center and pallet loads are built in the receiving area. The WMS assigns putaway tasks to lift-truck operators charged with moving pallets. Lift-truck operators are directed by the WMS to the aisle location for placing the pallets.
To fill an order, operators obtain the item's location from the WMS and full cartons are retrieved from the racks and taken to the packing station. Operators pick the number of items required to fulfill an order, scanning each one after it is removed from the original carton, and then placing each item on the conveyor to take it to the sortation area. Merchandise is distributed to retailers via UPS.
By achieving efficiencies working with St. Onge, the end result yielded a day and a half time quicker to market while reducing costs substantially, says Coccerino.
Excellence in order lifecycle management
Another phase of the project was realized when David's Bridal went live in August 2007 on another offering from Manhattan Associates: its Distributed Order Management (DOM) solution. The emerging DOM technology is designed to allow retailers to attain global visibility and fulfill orders from multiple inventory sources (often in a multi-channel environment). The DOM solution provides functionality such as flexible order workflow definition and is designed using a services oriented architecture (SOA).
"DOM is continually reshuffling the deck," Toth says, "reprioritizing and reallocating to make sure our inventory is being prioritized and sourced correctly." Other benefits that Toth identifies include the ability to allocate sales orders against in-transit deliveries.
DOM leverages current information and transit/processing lead times to help calculate an in-store date. This allows David's Bridal to identify exceptions in advance and to proactively manage the supply chain. Additionally, Toth says David's Bridal now has the ability to flow through these orders allocated against in-transit deliveries. This eliminates the putaway and picking steps to reduce processing time and costs.
The culmination of the successful warehouse management project has freed Coccerino and Toth to explore an even more sophisticated world-class supply chain. Coccerino says he is currently evaluating RFID and voice technology, with the latter tool carrying the potential to replace the widespread scanning technology utilized: "We could gain a couple seconds per transaction," he says. "It may not seem like much but when you do thousands of transactions, it will definitely mean something at the end of the day." Meanwhile, Toth says he is now focused on other IT initiatives with his supply chain, store and merchandising teams.
As David's Bridal knows how to launch successful weddings, it is equally obvious that the firm knows a thing or two about strong relationships: Toth attributes close collaboration and teamwork for achieving all of the company's objectives on the supply chain front.
"It was a good partnership, not only with vendors like Manhattan Associates but also internally in the company," he says. "Tony and I can talk about all of this because we have a great working relationship. I think it bodes well when your IT group and your distributions operations team are working so well together. You are going to be successful when your partnership is based on sound principles. That means addressing issues head-on by keeping an open line of communication and being honest - even when it is not easy."
Michael D. Cole is associate editor of Apparel. He can be reached at mcole@apparelmag.com
systems at a glance
Distributed Order Management (DOM): Manhattan Associates Sortation (Bottom drop for flat merchandise): EuroSort Supply Chain and Engineering Consulting: St. Onge Warehouse Management System (WMS): Manhattan Associates
The company's reputed stature in the retail world, its proven track record for timeliness and quality service and an impressive history spanning more than half a century indicates they've succeeded mightily with that commitment. 
