Posted by Thomas Kim, Managing Director, NetSuite Philippines
Dowi Hosiery Mills produces socks and other specialty garments at a large manufacturing(opens in new tab) plant spanning an entire hectare in Valenzuela City, Philippines. Until recently, however, the software running the business was aging and out of date. Dowi operated for years on homegrown, custom software and databases. Like many such custom projects, the software was inflexible and provided for a poor user experience.
These challenges limited the company's ability to strengthen its retail relationships, and made it difficult to accurately match manufacturing output with demand.
“Our old software needed too many clicks and actions to complete basic transactions, which led to numerous delays,” said Marvin Tan, VP for operations at Dowi Hosiery Mills.
That's why Dowi joined the thousands of companies who have overhauled their custom systems, modernizing financial controls and streamlining order management(opens in new tab) by implementing NetSuite.
Dowi's retail partners include some of the nation's most prominent names, including SM, Robinsons, and Landmark. Each retailer has its own requirements for order integration and data transparency, and their needs are growing more sophisticated every day.
But Dowi was struggling with the unnecessarily complex processes needed to print and apply barcode stickers to products based on the retail partner receiving the shipment. The delays required too much manual intervention to correct and have affected Dowi's ability to ship in a timely fashion. After evaluating other solutions, Dowi chose NetSuite in order to take full advantage of software designed for the cloud—one best suited to the needs of a modern, growing business. Because NetSuite is designed for rapid implementation, Dowi was able to go live on NetSuite within just a few months, speeding up time to value.
NetSuite's efficiency and productivity advantages helped Dowi save eight full time positions that otherwise would have needed to be added just to keep up with the order processing and inventory(opens in new tab) tracking demands under the old system. It also helped speed the path to market for new lines of socks with high-tech fibers, because Dowi can now manage a more diverse range of products and retail partners without the need for additional personnel.
NetSuite's intuitive, easy-to-use design is a significant improvement over Dowi's previous, homegrown system. Users are much more productive, both in day-to-day use, as well as when processing complex or unusual transactions. Integration between NetSuite’s order management system and the barcode printer which labels Dowi's finished product for sale at each retailer, the company has reduced shipping delays and improved order accuracy.
Under the old system, inventory tracking was a serious challenge. Returns, spoilage, aging products and even stock levels were difficult to assess in real-time. With NetSuite, Dowi now has a clear view of stock levels, both in-house and at major retail partners. This transparency helps the company anticipate and prepare for re-orders. It also helps Dowi monitor inventory at distributor and retail locations, which is considered to be on consignment until the product is sold to the retail consumer. Inventory transfers are processed much more quickly, and Dowi's entire logistics chain is functioning more smoothly. This empowers the management team to make better and faster business decisions.
“With NetSuite, we understand all of our inventory with the click of a button, and we never have to worry about servers or software,” Tan said. “Everything we need in order to run our business is easy to see and operate, and we can access our solution from anywhere.”