By streamlining warehousing operations, we stacked the benefits in one toy retailer’s favor.

Gaining a warehousing advantage

In today’s retail environment, companies need to be flexible enough to adjust to changing market conditions and customer demands. For retailers, it is about providing the right product, at the right place, and at the right time to take advantage of full price selling.

Working with a major U.S. toy retailer, Whiplash was called on to create a solution to enhance the company’s warehousing and distribution operation with the goal of improving inventory utilization and reducing costs. Prior to signing on with Whiplash, the retailer was using multiple warehouses for its businesses—pulling from separate inventories for its retail and e-commerce businesses. This model prohibited the retailer from quickly adjusting to market conditions and reallocating inventory as required by the market.

Smart and strategic consolidation

Whiplash created a warehousing and distribution center providing the major retailer with the ability to consolidate all its inventories into one, which allowed them to leverage multiple distribution channels from a single place. This was achieved through Whiplash’s innovative Warehouse Management System (WMS). Whiplash and the retailer utilized this technology to support the operational flow and demand of the merchandise—significantly reducing the variable labor to control two inventories.

Whiplash also helped the retailer reduce costs by improving its process for picking orders using the WMS technology. This proprietary software allowed Whiplash to “batch” orders, “slot” inventory, prioritize picking, and streamline variable labor costs.

30 percent greater productivity—and a lot more fun

In less than 3 years, these effective solutions planned and implemented by Whiplash, allowed the retailer to improve productivity by 30 percent, decreased through-put time, and increased customer satisfaction.

In addition, with the consolidated warehouse solution, Whiplash allowed creative, value-add services for the special building of products for customized online orders—allowing customers to choose specific products and accessories and have the customized orders shipped directly from Whiplash’s facilities to the retailer’s customers.