Carter s Achieves Excellence in Supply Chain Management with NGC

Carter s Achieves Excellence in Supply Chain Management with NGC

Customer: Carter s, Inc. is the largest branded marketer in the United States of apparel and related products exclusively for babies and young children. The Company owns the Carter s and OshKosh B gosh brands, two of the most recognized brands in the marketplace. These brands are sold in leading department stores, national chains, and specialty retailers domestically and internationally. They are also sold through more than 700 Company-operated stores in the United States and Canada and on-line at www.carters.com and www.oshkosh.com. The Company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Challenge NGC and Carter s have worked together for more than a decade, and Carter s relies on NGC s Supply Chain Management as a strategic platform for a wide range of supply chain and logistics management capabilities. Carter s recently turned to NGC to provide new solutions for vendor management, including Vendor Payment Automation.

Carter s and NGC: A Long-time Partnership with a Well-Loved Brand Carter s has been a part of consumers lives since its beginnings as the William Carter Company in 1865. The Company, which acquired OshKosh B gosh in 2005, is one of the most trusted providers of apparel and other products for infants and young children. As an NGC customer since 2002, Carter s has developed a robust set of supply chain capabilities to manage production and logistics at several hundred overseas factories. Carter s currently relies on NGC s Supply Chain Management system in a number of strategic areas, including: Using NGC production tracking to deliver P.O. s to agents and factories, with rolelevel controls and calendars. Creating, controlling and managing bookings with logistics providers, ensuring that logistics information is tightly integrated with other supply chain information in a single system. Utilizing shipment tracking and container tracking features of NGC s software. Managing quality audits by agents, factories and Carter s own internal quality teams using the Quality module in NGC s software. We don t rest on our laurels. We have a strong partnership with NGC, and we are always focused on where we re going, and what we need to accomplish next year and in the years ahead.,,,,,,,,,,,, Danny Woodson, Director, Sourcing and Logistics Systems As Danny Woodson, Director of Sourcing and Logistics Systems for Carter s, says, NGC s software gives more visibility to all stakeholders in the production process. The communications capabilities are huge, and the system provides us with one point of truth for everyone involved in Carter s supply chain.

New Initiatives Help Carter s Create Excellence in Vendor Management Carter s recently worked with NGC on new initiatives aimed at helping the company fulfill its goal of excellence in vendor management. Carter s works with several hundred factories, with seasonal fluctuations based on production volume; in addition, new factories are continually being added or dropped, based on changing requirements and factory performance. Carter s knew that vendor management was a key area to further improve Carter s supply chain management, and the company worked with NGC on implementing the company s Vendor Payment Module as the first step in reaching its goal of excellence in vendor management. Carter s goals for the Vendor Payment Module project were to: Automate the creation of commercial invoice and packing lists via enterprise systems. Streamline the commercial invoice submission process by moving from Excel spreadsheets to NGC s Supply Chain Management solution. Provide a three-way match between the PO, ASN and invoice. Establish audit and security controls for payment approvals. Provide payment status visibility to all trading partners at all times. Interface with Carter s account payment and general ledger systems.

Carter s and NGC worked together to establish the project workflows and implementation timelines, and the company expects the solution to add new productivity and efficiency to its vendor management process. Our main goal was to automate the vendor payment processes, which is important, given the volume of Carter s business, says Woodson, summarizing the recent project. We also wanted to create a repository to store all the information. With vendor payment, there is visibility for all stakeholders; the factories know the status of payments, since they can access the information. This moves the payment processes off of Excel spreadsheets and onto NGC s software. We have more control and tracking of vendor payment through the system. Looking ahead, Carter s is considering further possible initiatives with NGC for vendor master data, in keeping with the company s continued pursuit of excellence. As Woodson says, We don t rest on our laurels. We are always focused on where we re going, and what we need to accomplish next year and in the years ahead. NGC s industry knowledge helps us quickly resolve software issues, and the relationships we ve formed with them are irreplaceable, adds Tammy Feldt, Systems Manager, Sourcing, for Carter s. Sometimes, I feel like our NGC team works for Carter s they are invested in our success. Connect with us: