Product Distribution
Operational Centre Systems
The WorkFlow.Plus system was de-
signed to be the integrated system for
all sales activities and inventory opera-
tions of an enterprise.
Integrating sales activities through the
use of business lines which support the
necessary interface for trade, web, mail
order catalog and retail sales.
Integrating inventory logistics, the flow
and fulfillment of orders through the use
of a facility, warehouse and planned
routing organization.
Working with such companies as Dylex
(Biway, NLS, Fairweather), Games
Workshop, Trisi Sales, GolfTown, Your
Expression we learned a great deal
about retail, sales, logistics and making
it all work together. This system was
our way of making a home for all that
experience and a place to integrate our
legacy technology into a substantially
more modern system and database.
We also wanted to achieve some new
things such as a shared repository for
images and digital media that we could
associate with business elements like
items and transactions. We called that
Image++.
We also wanted a way to speed up the
supply process using a more intelligent
construct than min/max logic and we
did that with a three stage automated
replenishment model which can source
from supply and supplier encompass-
ing basic demand and the fluctuation of
that demand over time.
The WorkFlow.Plus system exists to
automate the product development and
distribution activities of a business with-
in a single system.
At the heart of the system is a relational
database repository surrounded by
both web and desktop applications and
special attention to performance with a
flexible component architecture which
could be placed at the right location to
support performance for small and
large companies that have one or many
locations and reduce the impact of
database licensing costs.
The merchandise database provides for
many elegant and straight forward ways
to describe and present the product.
The Image++ component provides a
digital media library with active objects
such as a product image and rich text
description that are equally useful on
the desktop and on a web site.
Image++ also provides the ability to
store any digital media file, such as
drawing files, product specification and
instruction documents, streaming data
media such as video and sound and
any other computer generated file. A
system publishing control allows for
items to be marked as public or remain
private to the business, which also
controls their availability at the web site
level.
A hierarchical classification system with
division, department, category and
class of product provides the initial
system catalog structure for a basic or
complex search and grouping of items
through other elements such as the use
of customized groups or strategic units
of a business.
EDI was important to integrate with the
system, although we looked to the
market for mapping software to work
with, we integrated the workflow and
standards into the system and it can
work with any mapping software you
choose.
Sales from channels are integrated into
a common order processing workflow
that streams into the order fulfillment
process (EDI, Web, Mail Order, Trade
orders) which is also combined with the
retail chain store fulfillment process
because we envisioned that happening
at the same facility if that was needed.
We developed an inventory transfer
process to manage retail chain store
replenishments from a central inventory
distribution so that order fulfillment
could be managed at the facility with a
view of all requirements.
EDI orders and other multiple destina-
tion and “ship to distribution centre”
requirements are supported via a
product and destination subset to the
standard order line level for greater
control of fulfillment rates. So our orders
can manage multiple ship to breakouts
of line items.
This approach also holds true in other
areas of the system such as orders for
purchase and replenishment/transfer
orders. A unique transaction number
management organization uses both a
master transaction number and a child
transaction number, in order to give the
operational level unique data level while
holding the transaction together at the
higher management level.
We envisioned different businesses and
their unique models of planning and
logistics to put our system together. We
put a substantial amount of thought
into WorkFlow.Plus (AOC) from what we
learned working in the market space
since 1990.