Elizabeth Arden experiences a 25 per cent reduction in overtime costs despite a 25 per cent increase in volume with TRAXi3

Elizabeth Arden had a problem. Its international business was growing, but its ten-year old system for generating documentation was not able to keep up. Plus, with more and more restrictions being placed on shipping some of the ingredients that were used in their products, they needed a system that would make sure they stayed in compliance with hazardous material regulations.

Meanwhile, major changes were underway at Elizabeth Arden. The company had been acquired by French Fragrances, Inc, and the new management team decided to consolidate all shipping operations from their facility in Miami to the Elizabeth Arden warehouse in Roanoke, VA. So when TRAXi3 went live for the first time in the summer of 2004, it was in an expanded environment that was shipping more product then ever before. Plus, the timing was critical: Since Elizabeth Ardens sales are highly seasonal, implementing that late in the year meant that nothing could be allowed to go wrong or the international orders would not get out in time for holiday sales.

What started out as a trial at one packing station has spread across 10 packing station for two shifts, and TRAXi3 is now being used for all of the international shipments leaving the Roanoke facility. However, coping with the volume that the old system could not handle and being able to fulfill the new HazMat requirements are not the only ways that Precision Software was able to help Elizabeth Arden. Under the old system, an order was picked into separate cartons and the cartons were routed to the dock. Once all of the cartons were full, they would be sent to the export packing stations for assembly onto a pallet. The packing person would then go to an office and give the pick slips and other information to a shipping clerk who would then create the packing list. This was all done manually which took more time and created more opportunities for error.

Now, the re-keying of information has been eliminated with a Scan Pack system that Elizabeth Arden has built using the workflows within TRAXi3. When the cartons come off of the sorter, they are palletized and staged in the export operations area. Upon packing, a new TRAXi3 pallet label is created to represent the pallet. The operator scans each carton UCC128 label against the new TRAXi3 pallet label to systematically build the packing list. Once the packing list is completed, other documentation like the Shippers Export Declaration, Shippers Letter of Instruction, the Bill of Lading, and Invoice, along with all of the HazMat materials, are generated.

Elizabeth Ardens unique Scan Pack system shows the flexibility of TRAXi3, and the way Precision Softwares customers can use the power of its rule-based workflow engine. In a study done by Barry Brady, the Export Packing Operations Supervisor, overtime in his area has dropped by 25 percent in a month-to-month comparison of now vs. a year ago before they installed TRAXi3. And that was in spite of a 25 percent increase in volume!

Tight integration, volume capacity, and system flexibility are all strengths of TRAXi3. Roy Drilon, Senior Vice President, Logistics summed it up: Elizabeth Arden expects our international volume to continue to grow in volume and complexity. Now, thanks to TRAXi3, we dont have to worry about our export operation being able to keep up with the demand.