To meet the demands of selling seasonal sportswear (sweats and shorts) to mass merchants, Sara Lee Branded Apparel (SLBA) decided it made sense to outsource. They wanted to focus on their core weekly replenishment, and not on ramping up temporary capacity to meet seasonal demands.

Plus, SLBA knew they could rely on the ability of logistics partner, DSC Logistics, to provide the extensive planning and coordination required to flex labor and space.

The tight three-month shipping season’s demands required advance production. SLBA made and held inventory for fall shipments in late August through November. Spring shipments started in January and extended through April. Both seasons kicked off with an initial store set scheduled to arrive floor-ready, simultaneously at 3500-plus stores with a non-negotiable in-store date.

DSC managed the inventory, assembled the floor-ready store sets and shipped to meet the merchant required arrive-by date.  DSC’s operation provided counter seasonal balance that allowed SLBA to pay only for space and labor used.

DSC’s ability to execute was critical in the case of aisle displays for SLBA’s largest customer, Wal-Mart. DSC stored the apparel and all of the display components—in four buildings because of high inventory levels. Transferring product and materials from the storage facilities to the assembly line in a just-in-time fashion took careful planning; missing product or components would have created costly delays. Timely execution and shipment was critical to meeting advertising and in-store dates. The multiple configurations of displays required DSC’s flexibility and speed in converting the display assembly line based on inventory availability and ship dates.

While DSC provided the management team and skilled DSC forklift operators, the majority of the work was performed by temporary labor. The DSC management team coordinated with multiple temporary agencies to staff the assembly line with anywhere from 200 to 300 employees on a temporary basis.

DSC’s flexibility enabled us to execute within an unforgiving seasonal shipping window and build complicated multi-SKU corrugated displays while meeting a nationwide simultaneous arrival date. We delivered for SLBA, as we do for all our customers.