Prior to 2007, Burlington Coat Factory managed its own internal process for printing tags and labels for its merchandise sold in over 350 stores throughout the United States. Challenges associated with their internal operation included:

• management and supervision of personnel
  
• management and costs associated with maintaining an inventory of paper stock and supplies
  
• investment and operating costs associated with equipment
  
• quality and service issues which impacted profitability of the supply chain

When Burlington’s management team decided to evaluate the option of outsourcing the ticketing function, they established a set of objectives which included:

• integration with other Burlington systems
  
• minimizing waste and expense
  
• maximizing quality and accuracy
  
• quick deployment

In addition to establishing objectives, Burlington included multiple departments in the decision making process, performed rigorous cost/benefit analyses and established  specific requirements for its outsourced provider. Among the supplier requirements were:

• sophisticated technology
  
• domestic and Pacific Rim production capabilities
  
• turnaround times comparable to their internal operation
  
• high service level to vendors

FineLine Technologies was chosen to become the outsourced provider. FineLine and Burlington collaborated to put together project teams from both companies which crossed functional lines and included representatives from Supply Chain, Distribution, Merchandising, IT and Finance. A project plan and timeline were put in place which included communications, deliverables and accountability.  The plan also involved extensive communication to the Burlington vendor community.

The product of the the two companies’ collaboration was a system which integrated Burlington’s purchase order system with a web-based ticketing ordering system developed by FineLine. The system has the capability of producing merchandise tickets for Burlington vendors virtually in real time using purchase order data provided by Burlington buyers. Tickets are produced and shipped to vendors from FineLine facilities in the U.S, Hong Kong and mainland China. In addition to improving quality control over ticketing and accelerating turnaround times, the system provides powerful tools for tracking and managing the ticketing process.

Pilot testing was conducted with certain vendors for approximately ten weeks and a full roll-out of the new process was implemented some six months after inception of the project. FineLine is now providing hang tags and labels for virtually all of Burlington’s vendors throughout the world.