Zeeman textielSupers new user A3

Zeeman textielSupers currently has over 870 stores in Europe. You can find Zeeman in The Netherlands (447 stores), Germany (249 stores), Belgium (155 stores), France (19 stores) and in other countries. Zeeman is aiming at no less than 1.000 stores by 2007. New stores are opening every week. All stores are supplied from a 40.000 m2 distribution centre. All Zeeman textielSupers are recognisable by their yellow and blue colours and their standard-bearer, the sailor.

Zeeman's mission is to be a first class retailer and No. 1 in household textiles and basic clothing. Despite the massive growth of Zeeman, their philosophy has always remained the same: to offer a wide choice from a complete range of clothing and household textiles of the best possible quality at the lowest possible price.

The benchmarks that determine Zeeman's success are purchasing, distribution and automation. Zeeman has decided to implement A3 for the never out of stock articles to reduce stock, to spend less time on the purchasing process and to make the buying decision more transparent.

Engelbert Strauss new user A3

Engelbert Strauss has been a specialist in workwear for more than 100 years. Today the company is a mail order company, selling more than 10.000 articles via catalogues and Internet in the product ranges textiles, footwear, tools, gloves & protection materials.

The A3 modules that will be implemented at Engelbert Strauss are Rolling forecast and Net requirement. The A3 module Rolling forecast is designed to give the best possible demand forecast to support the planner/purchaser setting the demand plan. The module Net requirement calculates net quantities to buy, based on demand plan, stock, open purchase orders and logistic parameters.

Engelbert Strauss has identified the following main benefits of A3:

• Reducing stock levels while maintaining the already high service levels, in order to reduce the capital tied up in stocks.
• The automatic purchase advices will drastically reduce the amount of work for the purchasers.

Helly Hansen Workwear new user A3

Helly Hansen was started in 1877 by a respected captain Hansen, who knew how it felt to be soaked to the skin, cold and miserable. Helly Hansen and his wife started designing and sewing jackets, trousers and sou'wester hats for ocean use. Before the 19th century expired Helly Hansen was exporting waterproof clothing to many countries. Helly Hansen is now a global company represented in over 20 countries with product lines for men, women and children. Credo of Helly Hansen Workwear: Dry. Warm. Safe. At work.

Two seasons ago Helly Hansen Sportswear started working with A3 to improve the forecast of the season collection articles during the forward order period. Based on the good results of the forecast and the streamlining of the forecast process with A3, Helly Hansen decided to roll out A3 in the Helly Hansen Workwear division as well. Only one month after signing the contract with A3 Forecast Solutions, A3 was fully operational at Helly Hansen Workwear.

Cakewalk & Jottum new users A3

Cakewalk and Jottum have implemented the modules Season collection forecast and Size key. The module Season collection forecast makes an analysis of the customer buying behaviour and calculates a forecast of the forward order sales per style/colour. With the module Size key the planned quantities are split over the sizes, according to the by A3 calculated size key. The planned quantities per style, colour and size are interfaced to the central system for production and fabric planning.

With the support of A3, Cakewalk & Jottum have improved the forecast accuracy and efficiency of their forecast and planning process. Besides the better forecast, A3 saves the planners much time calculating the expected sales quantities.

The key to the success of the Cakewalk and Jottum collections lies in their cheerful nature, progressive styling, a slightly romantic attitude and a colourful image. Almost all fabrics are original Cakewalk designs. The objective of the Cakewalk & Jottum brand in the world of children's wear is to become a brand loved by children around the world. Collections are available for Kids, Mini and Baby.

A3 in Retail

Various companies use A3 to support the planning of their retail business since for Never out of Stock articles or Basics A3 can do the whole forecast and re-ordering process.

Based on Point of Sale information A3 calculates the expected demand per style/colour. This plan per style/colour is split over the sizes based on the dynamically recalculated size key in A3. Based on the expected demand, A3 calculates re-orders taking into account the current stock position (warehouses and stores), store space (quantity needed to fill all stores), open purchase/production orders, lead-times, calculated service stock and logistic parameters. The purchase orders are created for the central warehouse or different regional warehouses.

In Retail business, A3 is in use at for example Swiss Coop (all 22.000 non-food articles) and Mexx Retail. A3 is now being implemented at Zeeman textielSupers. If you are interested in the possibilities of A3 for your Retail business, don't hesitate to contact A3 Forecast Solutions.

Article TextilWirtschaft: MEXX and A3

TextilWirtschaft has published the article "Eine ganz neue Sicht der Dinge" (A completely new view) in its 4th of November issue. Tako de Haan (Director of Supply Chain) and Yves Baggen (Corporate Planning) explain in this article: "Going from 4 to 6 seasons means you have to change around the whole company. In the past we had 3 months time to prepare a collection, now we have to come up with 2 in the same time of period. Six years ago we started to use A3 for our NOS collection and pretty soon after also for the seasonal collections. Due to the decision to move from 4 to 6 seasons per year, we are forced to make forecasts without sales data. A3 supports us to convert the budget into a forecast on style colour level before forward order sales have started."

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