CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
2 January 2007
Implementation Investments
Circuit City Live with TradeStone Suite for PLM and Global Sourcing
TradeStone Software announced that Circuit City Stores, Inc., a leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics and related services, launched the TradeStone Suite to unify its global sourcing processes and help expand its private label offerings.
Circuit City selected several of the TradeStone Suite modules, which are designed to work throughout the product lifecycle, from product design and refinement, sourcing, vendor collaboration, and managing time and action calendars. All this will help Circuit City as it expands its private label product offerings.
"The consumer electronics industry moves at a rapid pace with new product introductions launching throughout the calendar year, so it is mission critical that our sourcing managers, product managers and buyers are all working from the same information as our manufacturers around the globe," said Ron Cuthbertson, senior vice president of supply chain and inventory management at Circuit City. "We are excited to use the solution to have tighter supply chain coordination and collaboration with our key vendors."
Circuit City has rolled out the software to its sourcing offices in Richmond, Va. and Barrie, Ontario, as well as to its Asia-based sourcing offices. This first phase of the implementation, which includes the Product and Sourcing modules of the software, was completed in 115 days- on time and on budget. Over time, the retailer is looking to TradeStone to help grow its private label brands to extend over several categories, which currently include accessories for MP3 players, audio/ video and computer peripherals.
"In today's retail environment private label merchandise is emerging as a key growth strategy," said Sue Welch, CEO of TradeStone Software. "Retailers like Circuit City are increasingly turning to private label merchandise to help grow revenue. What's more, financial analysts are recognizing corporations for their sourcing strategies as part of their overall growth plans. The TradeStone Suite helps companies achieve both of these goals and continue to grow in new and innovative ways."
The TradeStone Suite offers a complete solution that enables buyers, merchants and sourcing engineers to quickly develop product specifications and communicate to potential suppliers by generating Requests for Quotes (RFQs) that are put out to bid to manufacturers worldwide. By normalizing disparate currencies, languages and lead times, and automatically calculating the estimated landed costs for goods, the TradeStone Suite enables product managers and buyers to easily and accurately compare offers from different manufacturers, regardless of their location.
When the offer is accepted the TradeStone Suite automatically assigns quality assurance testing, pre-production and production plans that are managed collaboratively with the supplier to ensure delivery of quality products on-time and within budget. With complete time and action calendaring throughout work in progress and finished goods inventories, TradeStone provides a financial and merchandise view of sourced and ordered items across all lifecycle phases.
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