In fashion, it's all about the details. Designers painstakingly search for that perfect balance of textures, fabrics and design to appeal to the detail conscious consumer.

For fashion retailers, attention to fine points is equally crucial, particularly in a seasonal, rendbased industry where customer tastes can shift quickly. The ability to intelligently and rapidly make changes at the item, class and size level can make or break a season.

Phillips-Van Heusen, the world's largest shirt company with a collection of brands including Van Heusen, Calvin Klein, IZOD, Arrow, Bass and G.H. Bass & Co., recognized this risk and sought a better way to drive its business decisions and profits. The company implemented JDA's Advanced Planning by Arthur application several years ago. More recently, the retailer implemented Advanced Allocation by Arthur and Performance Analysis by Arthur to strengthen processes across all five divisions. "In the Van Heusen Retail Outlet Division, basic stock makes up about 25 percent of our total business," said Jim Buehler, vice president of planning and allocation for the Van Heusen division of Phillips-Van Heusen. "By using the Arthur applications, we've been able to increase our in-stock rate from the low 90 percent range - which was about the best we could do in the past - to closer to 97 percent today with no significant increase in inventory whatsoever."

"In some cases, we've even reduced inventory and improved in-stock positions on the basics. We've definitely realized a positive impact from JDA's solutions."

Improved Sales Markdowns, Inventory Position Down to the Size Level

Phillips-Van Heusen has leveraged Arthur Allocation to significantly improve inventory positions at a detailed level. "We had a major push to improve our position beyond item and class to the size level. With Arthur Allocation working with our different formulas, we're doing size forecasting for basic stock merchandise and pre-pack optimization for fashion apparel. This combination has significantly contributed to our sales markdown improvements and has clearly boosted our sales and margins in recent years," explained Buehler.

Arthur Allocation Boosts Productivity, Efficiency

Buehler says the Van Heusen division's all-store allocation process routinely took between an hour and an hour-and-a-half to complete. Using Arthur Allocation, Buehler added, "We can literally have it done in 10 to 15 minutes now. And it's a more consistent and accurate allocation than before. That certainly is a benefit." In addition, previous manual training with a long learning curve is now a quick assimilation for Phillips-Van Heusen employees. "We've had quite a bit of turnover in that area of personnel, for positive reasons," Buehler stated. "Most of them have been able to move into higher-level positions, and the new people we bring in are up and running on the system in a matter of weeks."

Results and Support Make JDA a Strong Partner

The "spectacular" results and support package that JDA has provided recently convinced Van Heusen to expand its investment in JDA solutions. "We like the fact that JDA is always moving ahead and enhancing the products to address the areas that retailers need," explained Buehler. "JDA is a very strong partner for us and we will continue to go forward with them."

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