Vantage Point Apparel Software Integrated software for the apparel industry
Key Features
a) What manual steps do you perform to check sales orders for exceptional or unusual conditions? (Questionable prices, dates, etc.)
The answer should be “none”. Our system automatically finds certain user-defined exceptional conditions (such as questionable prices, terms, and dates) and sets those sales orders aside for your review. This concept greatly reduces your manual efforts by focusing your attention on the minority of orders with potential issues, allowing the majority of orders to be processed without delay.
b) Are distribution orders automatically matched with bulk orders?
The answer should be “yes”. Our system automatically finds the bulk order and decrements it by the distribution quantities received. Exception reports indicate where a bulk order cannot be found or where the sum of distribution quantities exceeds the bulk order quantity. Our system also transfers the credit and production status of bulk orders automatically to matched distributions. This automation is important in that it protects you from having sales orders doubled-up, throwing off raw material requirements and finished goods availability.
c) Are sales orders automatically allocated to finished goods inventory?
d) Do you pay a separate service to handle your EDI?
As your business evolves, it becomes more cost effective to bring EDI in-house. You’ll have more control over the promptness and quality of work. Plus the fees for an outside service grow to the point where it’s cheaper to do it internally.
e) What manual steps do you perform to receive EDI orders?
The answer should be “none”. Our system automatically calls each day to get purchase order documents (850’s), converts them from VICS format, and transfers them to your sales order files. Your only manual effort is to deal with the minority of orders automatically set aside as exceptions, where the system found questionable prices, terms, dates, etc.
f) Are credit requests and responses automatically processed for factored orders?
The answer should be “yes”. With our system, requests for credit are automatically sent to the Factor. Responses are automatically received and posted to sales orders. Your only manual effort is to deal with those orders where credit is declined.
g) What office steps are required to send Advance Ship Notice and Invoice documents?
This is important! The answer should be “none”. Our system integrates the collection of carton contents, box weights, and freight costs with steps that already occur in your warehouse to automatically build these EDI documents. Computer generated bills-of-lading complete the documents and they’re automatically transmitted at day-end.
h) Do you match shipped quantities against picking tickets?
This is important! To minimize charge-backs, the answer must be “yes”. All warehouses should perform verification (scanning items picked and comparing them to picking tickets) to some degree. Consider it as quality control on picking. The more expensive or coordinated your garments are, or the more charge-backs you receive, the more you need this process.
Our shipping process helps insure the right garments go in the right boxes, either by verification or by comparing calculated box weights to actual weights. Our system allows you to control, as a whole and individually by customer, what percent of orders are verified.
For example, you might specify 20% overall but 50% for a certain customer where you receive many charge-backs. Verification can be performed while goods are being packed or as a separate step prior. (Note that our unique software design eliminates the need to scan all garments to get carton contents for Advance Ship Notices.)
i) Are shipping labels produced as goods are being packed?
Again, the answer should be “yes”. Some systems print shipping labels in an office after goods are packed. This is very inefficient because packers must write shipping information on picking tickets, write or stencil reference information on boxes, and set the boxes aside in a staging area. Then, redundant data entry must be performed in an office, labels must be collated with packing slips, and the inevitable mistake of placing the wrong label on the wrong box is waiting to happen. This of course leads to charge-backs.
Our approach is to automate the packing process. Terminals and printers at packing stations collect shipping information and print shipping labels on the spot. This eliminates all the redundancies and disadvantages above and replaces it with a process that works with packers, not against them.
j) Are bill-of-lading forms automatically printed?
Once again, the answer should be “yes”. We use an integrated bill-of-lading process to alleviate the manual entry of weights, freights, and tracking numbers. We interface directly with UPS and Fed-Ex systems. For common carriers, we have our own bill-of-lading programs to collect this information and print bill-of-lading forms. This integration also serves as an additional control that all shipments are processed for billing (no chance of shipments not being invoiced).
k) What manual steps are required to invoice shipments?
The answer should be “none”. Because we’ve already collected carton contents and bill-of-lading information via the shipping process, there’s nothing left to key. Our day-end process automatically creates Advance Ship Notice and Invoice EDI documents, converts them to VICS format, and transmits them to your trading partners. Invoices can be printed individually to go with the shipment or printed in batch as part of day-end. Our system allows you to not print invoices for EDI customers, who don’t want them anyways. You can also stop printing invoices for your records (our system electronically files invoices, displaying and printing them on demand). Think of all the forms and manual filing costs you could save.
The answer must be “yes”. You should know not only how much raw materials are required, but when. It’s not enough to know, for example, that you need 5,000 yards of fabric ABC; you must know that 2,000 yards are required in two weeks and 3,000 yards are required a month later. Without the element of time, you might purchase 3,000 yards too early and incur the corresponding storage costs and cash flow difficulties.
m) For domestic production, does your system know the status of each cut and does it highlight those cuts running late before the due date is reached?
The answer must be “yes”. Without centralized and accurate production reports, people in your organization---to steal a phrase---aren’t all on the same page. Your company is probably working from various spreadsheets, each requiring separate data entry and each with their own set of numbers.
Our system provides a more collaborative approach. We keep a production schedule for each cut, identifying the manufacturing steps that are completed and those that remain. We interactively collect progress and work-in-process costs for each cut, thereby keeping a production database that’s accurate and up-to-the-minute. Because we know the planned due date of each manufacturing step, we can identify cuts running late much earlier in the process, giving you a better chance of catching up or getting extensions.
n) For imports (packaged goods), does your system know what goods are on their way?
The answer should be “yes”. Our system can receive an advance ship notice (an electronic packing slip) from your vendors indicating the specific styles, colors, and sizes on the way. This can be received by EDI, importing a spreadsheet file, or remote data entry. The great benefits are that you get a jump on making any allocation adjustments and you can use the information to better expedite and control the receiving process.
o) Do your accounting applications integrate with your operations?
This one question says it all, and the answer must be “yes”. Most Accounting departments are islands of their own. Our system eliminates the double entry, accruals, and reconciliation often associated with accounting applications by directly integrating them with operations. For example, receiving from a purchase order automatically interfaces the liability to Accounts Payable and the distribution to General Ledger. Updating contractor progress for a cut does the same. As does receiving imported goods. Invoicing a pick ticket automatically updates General Ledger for sales, cost of sales, and finished goods inventory.
Wouldn’t it be great if control accounts in the General Ledger for raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods inventories balanced with their detailed subsystems? Wouldn’t it be great if discounts and cost of sales in the General Ledger matched the sales and gross profit reports used to operationally run the company? Wouldn’t it be great if financial statements could be produced just a few days after the end of a month? With our system, these visions are real.