Under Armour Gears Up for Explosive Growth With Manhattan Associates
ATLANTA, June 7, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Everyone from professional athletes competing before huge stadium crowds to people taking a jog around the park rely on Under Armour products to keep them dry and cool. As the company continues to develop and enhance its athletic gear, the Under Armour mission statement is always at play: To make all athletes better through passion, science, and the relentless pursuit of
innovation.
The company's growth rate has been phenomenal since its inception in 1996, so much so that it had outgrown the processes that managed its footwear and athletic apparel distribution centers (DCs) for the previous ten years. This tremendous growth also underscored the need for improved inventory visibility and enhanced vendor communication to help prepare Under Armour for future growth.
We were simply bursting at the seams and had to upgrade our information systems, said Eric Olsson, director of distribution systems for Under Armour Inc. Not only were we challenged to keep pace with our current distribution levels, we had to scale for the future growth we expect.
Under Armour selected Manhattan Associates' (Nasdaq:MANH) Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) to manage processes in its footwear and apparel DCs, and leveraged Manhattan's Slotting Optimization to help the company make smart decisions about where products should be placed in the warehouse, based on demand. Under Armour also implemented Manhattan's Extended Enterprise Management (EEM) to provide automatic inventory updates that the company can communicate to its vendor network.
Manhattan's WMS has helped Under Armour save costs by reducing the need for overtime while improving the overall accuracy of its warehouse efforts. The company has used EEM to direct ship to more than 15 million units thus far, and estimates that number will climb several million more by year's end.
We achieved record levels of product shipments from our warehouses during the first September we were fully up and running, and EEM has enabled us to deliver on our available-to-promise with customers, said Olsson. It's the difference between making an accurate commitment or not. With automatic updates, we can know exactly what we have available and when it will ship. Our customers rely on that.
To read the Under Armour case study as a PDF, please visit
http://www.manh.com/sites/default/files/files/MANH-UnderArmour_CaseStudy.pdf
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About Manhattan Associates, Inc.
Manhattan Associates continues to deliver on its 20-year heritage of providing global supply chain excellence to more than 1,200 customers worldwide that consider supply chain optimization core to their strategic market leadership. The company's supply chain innovations include: Manhattan SCOPE(R) a portfolio of software solutions and technology that leverages a Supply Chain Process Platform to help organizations optimize their supply chains from planning through execution; Manhattan SCALE(TM), a portfolio of distribution management and transportation management solutions built on Microsoft. NET technology; and Manhattan Carrier(TM), a suite of supply chain solutions specifically addressing the needs of the motor carrier industry. For more information, please visit www.manh.com.
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