Press Release 01/28/04

Web-based Solution

We had a problem and DiCentral was able to solve the problem quickly," says Penna. "I had never used their EDI product before. I spent five minutes on the phone with customer support and the process was simple to understand and easy for the warehouse to use".

Joseph Penna
Supply Chain Information
Manager Linens 'n Things
Linens 'n Things

Customer Success Story

Linens 'n Things

Profile

Linens 'n Things Inc. is one of America’s largest home goods retailer. The company operates 500 superstores in 45 states and five Canadian provinces.

This retailer provides brand named merchandise at reasonable cost to the consumer.

Linens 'n Things has reached inventory efficiency by implementing the “cross docking” method throughout their supply chain. This process instructs the supplier to pack product by carton that is store specific and then ship to the warehouse. Here the product is unloaded from the truck and loaded on to multiple trucks that are delivering to the individual stores -- all without unpacking or repacking the cartons.

Problem

Early in August, their Distribution Center received a large shipment, from an import vendor. The purchase order had instructed the supplier to pack for store and ship to the distribution center. Unfortunately, what arrived was a large shipment packed by item. Linens 'n Things would need to unpack and repack cartons for individual stores.

While the product sat on the warehouse floor, managers reviewed their options. The goods consumed a large portion of the warehouse floor and could not be properly received and processed to the stores. Additional IT effort would be needed to properly receive the product and label the cartons for stores. The IT staff quickly determined this effort would be monumental and time consuming. They needed the solution now.

Joseph Penna, Supply Chain Information Manager for Linens 'n Things, called DiCentral for help.

Solution

Linens n Things implemented the DiCentral Web EDI solution in the warehouse. This enabled the warehouse personnel to create an ASN from the Purchase Order specifically for cross docking and re-label the goods for distribution to the stores.

Snapshot Business Challenge:

  • Create a correct ASN after repacking their cartons by store when they were originally packed by item.