COMPANY: Croscill
WEBSITE: www.croscill.com
INDUSTRY: Consumer Goods
COMPANY TYPE: Privately Held
JOHN GALT SOLUTION: Atlas Planning Suite
Company
Croscill began in Brooklyn, New York in 1946, when a new company introduced a twist on the standard window curtain. Since then, Croscill has spent over 50 years producing high quality textiles at an affordable price. They are dedicated to providing a wide array of elegant choices, from timeless classics to superb interpretations of the latest trends. Today, everyone can create a designer's custom look for their homes effortlessly with Croscill. Excell was founded in 1932 and is a recognized leader in the manufacturing and supply of basic and fashion bath and table linens. Excell was known as a shower curtain resource and has grown over the years through acquisitions including Kemp & Beatley table linens in about 1996. In February 1999, Ex-Cell Home Fashions Inc was acquired by Glenoit LLC further expanding its product assortment and capabilities. The division has a long history in the home fashions industry, serving department & specialty stores, national chains, and warehouse clubs.
Challenge
Croscill saw an opportunity to improve on their demand planning process. With Croscill's highly fashion-driven business, collaboration with customers was absolutely critical, but Croscill lacked an effective platform for collecting and reconciling these forecast opinions. In addition, Croscill's systems were unable to deliver data at the levels needed for effective demand-driven planning.
Solution
To address the forecasting problem 10 years ago, Croscill sought a software solution that would allow them to collaborate more closely with their key customers, manage their product lines by exception, and deliver data and reports at every level of detail needed. The Atlas Planning Suite from John Galt fit the bill perfectly. Atlas was able to help Croscill's planners prioritize the most important products to focus on, reducing the overall amount of time needed to forecast. Last year, Croscill upgraded their Atlas software allowing Croscill to add additional data and increase the sophistication of their processes.
Benefit
Upon implementation, Croscill was immediately able to take command of their demand through a more collaborative planning process. Croscill has been able to achieve 90% forecast accuracy rates despite the extreme difficulty involved in planning their promotion- and fashion-driven business. Croscill is now able to handle the rapid evolution of their product lines by incorporating customer input, despite their lead times. In addition, Croscill has been able to expand the scope of their planning process to their finance group, improving the effectiveness of the process overall.
