The Kirby Allison story starts with a plastic hanger. Kirby Allison, CEO of Kirby Allison's Hanger Project, began his company after ordering a custom suit and having it arrive on a cheap, plastic hanger. This experience stuck with Kirby, and he began thinking about how he could improve the men’s luxury product experience by addressing how these fine goods were being handled and maintained. Kirby cultivated a high-quality product line to fill this space. As Kirby Allison’s success grew, the need to invest in powerful technology was key to their company’s growth.
Before implementing RF-SMART for NetSuite, the Kirby Allison team was operating with QuickBooks and an adjacent third-party WMS solution. As their business scaled, they transitioned to NetSuite for their ERP. Finding a new WMS solution was the next step in completing their digital transformation and maintaining their scalable success. Once they found RF-SMART, they were able to tackle some of the longstanding issues with their previous software, from inventory miscounts to slow mobile handheld glitches.
Shipping Transformed
Kirby knew that to maintain an excellent customer experience and increase customer retention, shipping orders efficiently and on-time had to be high priority. The Kirby Allison team was looking to invest in a new shipping solution that was highly configurable without sacrificing speed. The company decided to implement RF-SMART Shipping to address these concerns and ensure customer orders were being filled with maximum ease.
Previously, the Kirby Allison team faced slow processing times that threatened to reduce the number of orders shipped in a timely manner. “Before RF-SMART Shipping, we would encounter that spinning wheel of death while waiting for the label to print. Now that’s a non-issue – this change increased our ship rate by 30%.” This return was highly profitable for their business and was a huge marker of success for their team.
RF-SMART Shipping not only increased daily efficiency, but also made their shipments more accurate. In the past, while waiting for an order label to print, warehouse employees tried to fill this gap in productivity by busying themselves with other orders. As time went on, their shipping workstations would become cluttered, making it nearly impossible to keep shipments organized and separated. Because of this, the team found mis-shipments and errors happening more frequently.
Now, with RF-SMART Shipping, these errors are avoided. Through the solution’s speed and ease of use, the team can take advantage of printing labels and fulfilling order shipments at a faster pace. This has created a more seamless transition in between orders, allowing the warehouse team to confidently raise their productivity without sacrificing order accuracy.
Building on this success with RF-SMART Shipping, the team has enhanced their shipping process to add more strategy surrounding their international orders. In doing this, they were able to tackle one of the biggest areas of concern in their shipping process: undercharging.
“One of our biggest sources of bleed was our shipping coverage. Being able to determine what a customer will pay for shipping versus what we will charge is a huge cost saver,” said Kirby. By working with RF-SMART, the Kirby Allison team was able to find solutions that would update each NetSuite fulfillment record with the actual cost of shipping, allowing them to make clearer decisions that increase profitability in their business.
A Happy Holiday Season
For the Kirby Allison team, it was pivotal that their new shipping product supported success in both their off and peak seasons. When planning for a new software implementation, time was of the essence. Their RF-SMART Shipping implementation was completed in two weeks - a record-fast implementation, just in time for the holidays. With the solution's customizable rules engine and user-friendly configuration, their team was able to complete the process in a timely manner, setting them up for maximum success as they entered busy season.
“We did a really fast implementation,” noted Kirby. “RF-SMART was able to get Shipping implemented in two weeks. We got everything running by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which was a massive benefit.” This easy implementation allowed the Kirby Allison team to utilize the product fully during their busy season, growing sales and capitalizing on the holiday rush.
Scaling Small Business
Using RF-SMART as both their shipping and warehouse management solution gave them confidence that their small business challenges would be met with high integrity products at an affordable price. Kirby Allison’s team was able to operate more efficiently from the receiving dock to the shipping terminal.
“We're a small company and we don’t have multiple warehouses,” said Kirby, “As a small business, I appreciate that you can personalize the feature set and offer it to us at a price that we can afford.” Affordability without sacrificing functionality was just what the Kirby Allison team was looking for - and has proven to be a worthwhile investment. “It allows us to access enterprise level functionality at a fraction of the price,” Kirby said.
Aside from affordability, the team was also adamant about finding a solution that made day-to-day warehousing tasks easier. For a smaller warehouse team, having products that are fast, efficient, and easy-to-use is critical. RF-SMART’s user interface proved to be a standout feature for the Kirby Allison warehouse team.
“The RF-SMART user interface is more user-friendly than the inherent display. I go through the RF-SMART web interface to get easier visibility into product’s bin location. This allows me to spot check effortlessly,” he said. Having a user interface that displays a clear picture of warehouse functions has proven to be an unexpected benefit of RF-SMART.