Marks and Spencer have taken on ediTRACK’s business process tracking system to gain visibility and control of its directly sourced merchandise.
ediTRACK’s event based structure tracks the progress of purchase orders all the way through the supply chain; holding detailed information on the activities performed to the orders, whether they have been consolidated at origin, loaded at the factory or if they have travelled by road, sea or air.
Integration with M&S’s supply chain partners makes information on shipments available in real time in addition to a complete audit history of all orders.
One tool is used to track and record quality audits and planned and unplanned reprocessing. This gives secure access to external reprocessors enabling them to view only orders assigned to them. Reprocessors use the tool to plan their workload and record the reprocessing of garments, detailing the quantity of stock received, the type of reprocessing which has been carried out and the associated costs.
This all enables real-time supplier KPI reports and responding to changing demands; expediting quick moving stock for example.
M&S can also conduct detailed historical analysis on their supply chain performance by reporting on areas such as container utilisation and cost-per-single.
Neil Firth, head of logistics at Marks & Spencer, said: “ediTRACK provides M&S with a valuable independence, enabling us to use any freight partner without any complicated IT interface changes.”
New developments include a critical path system for deployment to M&S sourcing teams throughout their regional offices. This system will be used to monitor product development and integrated directly into the order tracking system.
