Leading footwear manufacturer Rocky Brands believes that technology can drive growth and innovation – and with the latest implementations of NGC’s fashion PLM and Supply Chain Management software, the popular outdoor footwear manufacturer has pushed PLM capabilities into new and exciting directions.
Rocky Brands designs, develops, manufactures and markets outdoor, work, western, lifestyle and military footwear as well as outdoor and work apparel and accessories under the Rocky®, Georgia Boot®, Durango® and Creative Recreation® brands. Rocky Brands is headquartered in Nelsonville, OH, with two company-owned manufacturing facilities in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, and an office in China.
As a long-time NGC customer, Rocky Brands relies on NGC’s PLM and SCM systems to continually improve productivity and efficiency. The company recently tapped the power of NGC’s software to bring major new improvements in three key areas.
“Step It Up” Project Extends PLM to Marketing, e-Commerce and Line Planning. Rocky Brands has recently extended NGC’s PLM to its Marketing and e-Commerce departments, providing “one-stop shopping” for all data related to a product. All product data—including detailed product descriptions, SEO data elements, e-commerce web copy and marketing bullet points— is now maintained once in NGC’s PLM and made available to the company’s B2C websites.
As a result, product data is no longer maintained in multiple locations, which has eliminated repetitive work and improved the accuracy of product descriptions and data. “Project Step-It-Up has been a tremendous boost for the productivity of our e-commerce and marketing departments, while also increasing the efficiency of our line planning, by making product information readily available for our line plans,” said Mary Lorenz, Vice President of Strategy Execution and Process Improvement, Rocky Brands.
ERP Item Master Integration Eliminates Data Errors and Improves Speed to Market. Rocky Brands has also tapped the power and integration capabilities of NGC’s PLM to create an automated, real-time and fully integrated process for item setup and updates, which ensures immediate data availability and integrity across all systems. This replaces previously manual and inefficient processes in the company’s third-party ERP system, which had resulted in data errors and inconsistencies as well as delays in P.O. placement – and ultimately, late product deliveries.
“As a result of the integration between NGC’s PLM and our ERP, our reporting is always in synch,” said Tawre Dellavalle, Commercialization Manager, Rocky Brands. “We’re now able to get P.O.’s to our vendors much faster and speed up the entire production process. You can’t put any limits on NGC’s software; this has literally taken several days out of the process.”
Streamlining Shipping Processes with NGC’s EZ-Ship. Rocky Brands has also implemented NGC’s new EZ-Ship software, a factory scan/pack system that integrates with NGC's web-based Supply Chain Management (SCM) system, ensuring carton compliance and inventory accuracy. With EZ-Ship, Rocky Brands has improved the flow of products through the scanning, packing and shipping process, while ensuring the use of standard carton labeling and ASN formats. The system has also enabled the company to improve its finished goods inventory management.
“NGC has enjoyed a very close, collaborative working relationship with Rocky Brands, and they continue to exploit new features and functionality in our software to drive dramatic improvements in productivity and profitability,” said Mark Burstein, President of Sales, Marketing and R&D, NGC. “Rocky Brands relies on NGC’s solutions as strategic enablers for business growth, and we’re proud to work with such a forward-thinking, innovative company.”
