Aptean Apparel ERP, RLM Edition Case Study: Johnny Was

Johnny Was, known for its modern Bohemian fashions, is an L.A.-based women’s apparel and accessory brand. For over 30 years, the business has nurtured its wholesale roots, expanding to reach approximately 1,500 specialty retailers and department stores.

The Challenge

Over the past decade, Johnny Was accelerated its growth, opening nearly 30 of its own retail stores, launching an eCommerce website and creating a catalog. As the company grew its business and expanded the breadth and depth of its product offerings, it began to face a variety of operational challenges.

• Quarterly counts were done manually, and it was hard to get a clear view of inventory

• Automation was needed to continue meeting demand without dramatically expanding the workforce

• Products that required finishing were being performed by local contractors and keeping up with the comings and goings of the garments was difficult

The Solution

The answer to these challenges was to implement an advanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. To that end, in January 2017, Johnny Was went live with Aptean Apparel ERP to manage all aspects of its wholesale operations, including financials, design, electronic data interchange (EDI) and warehouse management. Overall, Aptean Apparel ERP helps automate processes and assures:

• A full audit trail of garment-dyed product purchase orders, without duplicating work in process

• An audit trail from undyed into the actual dyed colorways

• Inventory valuation

• Three-way matching of all purchase orders for both dyed and undyed garments

The Result

With Aptean’s apparel ERP automating key processes, streamlining operations and providing real-time visibility Johnny Was quickly realized a variety of significant benefits.

• The system has dramatically improved visibility, efficiency and control around the outsourced garment dyeing and finishing processes

• The company's Shanghai office can assess the system, create production and inbound shipments and even purchase orders to distribute to the factories

• Operations are streamlined, especially with invoicing and shipping products to specialty retailers

Before Aptean Apparel ERP, Johnny Was warehouse employees had to manually enter a customer’s account information into the FedEx or UPS machine to get the shipping cost. They wrote this on the invoice and then called the customer to confirm the amount was acceptable. Only then could they charge the credit card and ship the goods.

Now an interface between Aptean Apparel ERP and small parcel shipping providers (UPS/FedEx) allows for estimated freight costs to be automatically generated and added to the pro forma invoices, which Johnny Was personnel can send to the customer. Upon approval, they charge the retailer’s credit card with a single click, triggering all the necessary packing slips and tracking information to be created for every carton being shipped.

Johnny Was is leveraging technology to meet customer demand across numerous customer touchpoints, from its network of specialty retail partners to its own stores, website, and catalog. The scalable systems it has in place can support simultaneous growth from all of these channels without the need to add more staff, facilities or third-party logistics providers.

Ready To Modernize Your Business With Aptean Apparel ERP?

Whether you’re still using manual methods, legacy software or an entry level platform, if your system cannot support efficient processes and complete visibility, it’s time for a change. Switching to an advanced ERP helps you automate processes, reduce costs and improve customer service—meaning you can accelerate the growth of your apparel or fashion business.

Even better, by choosing Aptean Apparel ERP you’ll unlock industry-specific functionality to help solve your unique sector challenges and gain the support of our by-your-side team of experts, offering best practice advice and technical help through your implementation and beyond.

Finally, with our range of complementary cloud software solutions, you can power your digital transformation journey and continue to optimize your business as it evolves, all with the security and ease of one vendor.

But you don’t need to take out word for it—check out our other apparel customer success stories or get in touch with our experts to arrange a personalized demo and see it for yourself.