Integrated Fulfillment Management at

Mason Companies, Inc.

Ryan Plotz, Sr. Systems Analyst, Mason Companies, Inc.Dan Raffesberger, Sr. Systems Analyst, Mason Companies, Inc.

Oracle Value Chain Summit 2015

Agenda Company Background Initial State Objectives Project Team Implementation Transformation Process Go-Live Success Project Impact

Company Background Founded in 1904 by August Mason and son Bert Mason Family owned, located in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin

1922 –Door to Door

1985 – Mail Order

1996 –Credit Offer

1999 – Multi-Channel

Company Background

Company Background

Company Information Top 100 largest internet retailer in the US Marketing channels

Catalog mailings Email marketing Websites

All 10 catalog sites ShoeMall, Ebay ShoeMall, Amazon ShoeMall Ebay Enabba

Logistics 3 Distribution centers High number of purchase order receipts High volume of returns High picking/packing rates

About iNYXA • Chicago-based global Oracle integration Partner

& Software Developer, since 2008.• Focused exclusively on E-Business Suite –

Supply Chain & Manufacturing functions. • Several complex implementations, pre-built

solutions & bolt-on products for customers in Retail, Industrial Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, Healthcare.

• Cost competitive with Global Delivery Capability using Development Centers in India, and an experienced Onsite team.

Select Customers

Operational Consulting

Oracle Product Expertise

Custom Development Capabilities

Project Management &

Execution Excellence

Mason Initial StateOperational Platform Issues:

Highly customized, built for Mason, minimal support/knowledge community

Obsolete technology stack (Mason one of the largest users in the world)

Different technologies for supply chain and financial components

Warehouse control system (automation) integration issuesBusiness Issues:

Business expansion opportunities hindered by current system limitations:

Drop-ship, acquisitions, new/different product linesHowever:

Distribution operations very efficient Met or exceeded industry standards

Initial Architecture

Transformation Objectives Integrated financials More user friendly/supportable environment Tighter integration within fulfillment systems Eliminated non-supported technologies Enhanced ability to expand into different business

opportunities Transferred legacy sourcing/distribution licensing to other

business areas Reduced legacy risk Improved business self sufficiency/reduce IT dependency for

business tasks

Transformation Process System Selection Process

2011-2012 - All tier 1 vendors evaluated Well defined requirements Extensive sales demonstrations

Phase 1: Implement Oracle Financials Summer 2013

Phase 2: Implement Inventory/Purchasing/WMS Integrated with Product Information Management and

legacy Order Management System Summer 2014

Phase 3: Stabilization Ongoing

Transformation Approach Limit to required supply chain components for

initial implementation phase Use vanilla EBS wherever possible No core EBS customizations – keep upgrade path Maintain legacy system efficiencies where

appropriate All components on one technology stack Unit test individual components prior to

integrated testing Multiple integrated testing events, several rounds

of load testing

Transformation Team Mason

IT/Technical (6) Functional and subject matter

experts (6) Executive sponsor (1)

Inyxa Inyxa solution architect (1) Inyxa functional/technical lead (1) Inyxa development team (7)

Transformation Process Details All supply chain operational areas touched – broad and

deep Impact Special interest and attention:

Very seasonal, fashion-based product Unique attributes for industry and vast product base

400+ attributes stored at 3 different hierarchical levels, with inheritance All Interfaces (STIBO, legacy OM) must be robust Complex purchase orders: 100s of lines with multiple and changing product

types Detailed operational evaluation of receiving, crossdock, putaway, waving,

picking, packing, multis, equipment, returns, cycle count (a lot of time) All standard implementation steps

but very complex due to overall scope of project

Warehouse Implementation Highlights

• We did not start the discussion with what the Oracle WMS system can do, instead we started with what the ideal process for Mason should be.

• Warehouse on legacy system was fairly efficient since sorting / conveyer equipment purchased over the years was optimized with legacy system.

• Goal was to build on the strengths of the legacy system while addressing known limitations.

• Even though several extensions were built, with over 30,000 lines of code written, no customizations were done to Oracle code, making the overall solution upgradeable & patchable.

A dozen Mobile User Interfaces to enable efficient integration with conveyer / sorting equipment & retail centric processes.

ADF – Web based portal that handle the very high reverse logistics volume.

Integration with Parcel Manifesting, Dropship & other marketing systems. Parcel

ManifestingDrop Ship

AggregatorProj

ect H

ighl

ight

s

Planning/Purchasing & Handling Style SKU’s

• A Planning / Purchasing web portal was built to provide a grid interface for purchasing Style SKU’s

– Ability to recommend purchase quantities & react to changing demand projections by highlighting opportunities for pull-in & push-out of supplier delivery dates.

– Ability to seamlessly integrate with EBS Purchasing. Purchase Orders started in custom screen can be completed EBS and vice-versa.

• Real-Time integration with STIBO Retail PIM

– Ability to leverage hierarchical mass item attribute management in PIM and interface it back into EBS in near real-time.

– Ability to handle extremely large data volumes & two way item creations (Open Items crated in EBS and interfaced to PIM)

PIM

Mid

dlew

are

Initial Go-Live Success! Go-live plan very important(~1000 line project plan…)

Conversion and mass loading of Inventory items (over ½ M SKUs)

73K stock locators, and over 1M inventory item quantities and costs for 3 facilities

25K purchase orders Millions of customers Millions of legacy orders (returns) Millions of outstanding prepaid returns Thousands of suppliers Thousands of orders in initial load

More Go-Live Success! Timed with fiscal year end

(June 25th – 29th, 2014) Minimal impact to

business/customers Order management unaffected Warehouse and purchasing only offline 2

business days Resumed normal warehouse/purchasing

operations Monday, June 30th as planned No additional resources required to meet

shipment demands caused by downtime Shipped normal-day volume within

the first 24 hours!

“This is probably the smoothest transition of a major IT system that I have ever seen.”

Daniel J. HuntPresident/CEO

Mason Companies, Inc.

Transformation Results after 6 Months…

Busiest holiday season in company history Shipped millions of packages!

Had highest unit shipping day in history of the company! (and 3 of top 10)

No disruptions to business efficienciesPicking efficiency IncreasedIncreased customer satisfactionExpanded call center – removed legacy license

constraints

Transformation ImpactStrategic transformationReduced legacy riskIntegrated financialsMore user friendly/supportable environmentTighter integration within fulfillment systemsEliminated non-supported technologiesMore efficient business processes – cut out IT middle

manBetter positioned company to pursue new business

ventures

Keys To Success Right people

Good partners Internal resources with the prior Oracle EBS experience Small but focused team Executive support

Right technology Stable release Required core functionality existed Flexibility of APIs

Multiple iterations of testing

Future State - Mason Companies, Inc. + Oracle Partnership = High Volume/ High Performance Retail

Integrated Fulfillment Management at Mason

Companies, Inc.Ryan Plotz, Sr. Systems Analyst, Mason Companies, Inc.

Dan Raffesberger, Sr. Systems Analyst, Mason Companies, Inc.Oracle Value Chain Summit 2015