rue21

rue21 offers the latest in trendy fashion, but needed a timeless solution to get their fresh looks from the distribution center to their rapidly growing store shelves.

The Challenge:

rue21 offers a broad assortment of the newest emerging fashion trends in apparel and accessories for girls and guys. With such a wide selection of styles rue21 was growing rapidly, opening 8-10 stores per month. They needed to cost-effectively improve operations to support not only their existing stores, but also the hundreds of planned retail stores. 

The Solution:

FORTE's expert team of supply chain management consultants planned, designed and implemented a solution to convert a manual, paper-based, put-to-store system to an automated environment. The retrofit significantly leveraged FORTE's Automation Director Warehouse Control & Integration System to accomplish Dynamic Routing. The new second floor work platform greatly improved accuracy and throughput and after a successful go-live of the upper level, the lower level manual system under the work platform was converted to match resulting in no down-time or productivity lull for rue21.

The Result:

10%increased productivity

19%production increase year-to-date

Even after the additional stores, rue21 was able to decrease from two shifts to just one, thanks to FORTE's supply chain consulting services. Their new packing put-to-light system helped increase productivity by 10% and they are enjoying a 19% production increase year-to-date and will allow for growth to 1,300 stores without any DC expansion. The entire warehouse automation project occurred during peak season and went live just after the season, paving the way for their Initial Public Offering.

Key Services Employed Strategic Development Early-Stage Planning