Feetures Case Study

Feetures, a family-owned and operated company based out of Hickory, North Carolina, gets their customers moving with their targeted performance socks designed with an active lifestyle in mind. With socks created for everyone and every activity, the international company needed a quick shipping process to deliver to customers all around the world.

Feetures knew that as a customer service-driven company, getting product out the door promptly could make or break a satisfied customer. After seeing record growth, Feetures decided to evaluate their supply chain from start to finish to uncover areas that could make them more efficient.

“The capacity that has to leave our door is ever-growing,” said Daniel Roath, IT Manager. “People love the brand and people love the socks. Trying to get them out the door as quickly as possible has been a challenge; with the Amazon model, people want it the next day.” 

Feetures elected to partner with RF-SMART for NetSuite as their warehouse management system. When they started evaluating shipping solutions to keep up with the competition and order volume, Feetures turned to RF-SMART in search of a comprehensive solution that could be leveraged from receiving to shipping.

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Running an Efficient Warehouse with Technology

Before RF-SMART Shipping, Feetures was experiencing a bottleneck at their shipping stations. They tried to resolve this problem by increasing their staff, but they were still experiencing a slowdown in the shipping process. Products were being picked in record time, but the shippers were having to make complicated and costly decisions that kept them from getting shipments quickly out the door.  

“We needed a full solution that got us from receiving to the goods leaving out the door, and everything in between. RF-SMART stepped in and gave us that full solution,” Daniel said. With RF-SMART providing their WMS software, hardware, and shipping, Feetures had visibility to their full supply chain.

A Shipping Solution That’s Fast

One of the slowest parts of the shipping process is the amount of manual rate shopping and decision making that falls on the shoulders of the shippers. Not only that, but shippers are often relying on the speed of their technology. With these challenges in mind, RF-SMART created RF-SMART Shipping to be fast, configurable, and easy to use. Leveraging a wedge scanner, Feetures can simply scan three barcodes to ship a package in seconds. “It is a three-step process: Step one, scan the tote or sales order, and put the order on the scale. Step two, scan a barcode to get the weight. Step three, scan to ship it, pull the label off, and put it on the package,” said Daniel. 

RF-SMART Shipping also eliminates tedious, manual rate shopping from the equation. “RF-SMART Shipping provides the cheapest option to deliver to the customer within the Service Level Agreement days,” said David Barringer, Director of Supply Chain and Operations, “We can choose the correct method, the cheapest way, and the fastest way to get it there.” RF-SMART Shipping automatically selects the best rate within Feetures’ preferences, helping them meet customer demand and reducing transaction times by 85%. 

Configurability was Key

While improving their shipping times, Feetures has also made their processes more efficient by configuring RF-SMART Shipping to match their exact needs. RF-SMART Shipping provides an innovative no-code Rules Engine that allows users to set perimeters within the shipping solution that they can set and forget.  

For Feetures, the ability to organize the solution further removed decision making from the hands of their shippers. RF-SMART Shipping automatically makes the adjustments for them, allowing shippers to do their jobs free from the distraction of remembering shipping specifics.

A Personal Record in Ease of Use

In addition to decreased shipping time, training time was reduced as well. “If you were to come in and just step into the shipper shoes without knowing anything, it's easily done,” said Daniel. In fact, RF-SMART Shipping is so intuitive that most users can ship a package simply by following the instructions on the screen – decreasing training time to seconds.  

Feetures was up and running with RF-SMART Shipping in less than one month. This included calling out to the carriers, applying custom fields from NetSuite, and working with the team to ensure everything was done correctly. For Feetures, it was a smooth and fast process. 

“We knew that if we reached out to RF-SMART, somebody would respond in a timely manner,” said Daniel. “They listened to our needs, they adapted to our needs, and they provided the solution to meet our needs. I would recommend RF-SMART as a good business partner for any NetSuite user.”

A Comprehensive Solution from Start to Finish

From the start of their supply chain visibility journey, Feetures knew that an ERP system and inventory management were an absolute need for their business. Before NetSuite and RF-SMART, all their data was fragmented across multiple different systems, from finances to inventory to customer management. “A lot of times, the data didn't transfer correctly,” said David. “It was not real-time. The information didn’t match sometimes and caused a lot of problems, especially from an invoicing and an inventory standpoint.” 
 
Feetures has seen improvements in multiple areas from efficiency to visibility to accuracy. They have been able to leverage several of the features from RF-SMART’s expansive solution, including task picking with Pick Manager. Before Pick Manager, the warehouse manager spent hours printing off hundreds, and even thousands, of print tickets and manually organizing them for picking efficiency. Now, that entire process is automated. During the holiday season in 2020, the Feetures team was counting more than 9,000 steps a day moving all over the warehouse in an inefficient pick path. In peak season the next year, employees were seeing a reduction to 5,600 steps a day because of Pick Manager. 

With Pick Manager, pickers are directed to pick in the most efficient path while being guided by the mobile handheld. They are also able to pick multiple orders at once, saving time. “Pick Manager has really sped up our productivity,” said David. “Based on the zones, we can also predict where we are, the number of orders we have, and what kind of labor allocation we need in each area."  

Feetures loves that RF-SMART is designed so that every aspect of the supply chain is working together.  Pick Manager works seamlessly with Shipping, so that shippers simply scan the multi-bin totes to pack orders. “Just the overall flexibility is something that stands out in my mind when it comes to RF-SMART,” said Daniel. 

“We are seeing 50% to 85% improvements in our efficiency, productivity levels, and on-time shipments,” said David. “In terms of product allocations and making sure we are shipping things complete and on time, it’s helped our customer service levels and productivity in the warehouse. RF-SMART has made a huge difference in our operations.” 

 

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“We are seeing 50% to 85% improvements in our efficiency, productivity levels, and on-time shipments. In terms of product allocations and making sure we are shipping things complete and on time, it’s helped our customer service levels and productivity in the warehouse. RF-SMART has made a huge difference in our operations.” 

Read how RF-SMART provided a shipping solution to help Feetures reduce transaction times and automatically select the best rate.

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