The Client:
Sinv, a company in the fashion sector, is internationally active in the production and distribution of licensed clothing of prestigious brands, including “Love Moschino”.
With a consolidated and constantly enriched leadership in 30 years of activity, Sinv supports licensors with its industrial know-how and includes several offices and showrooms.
The problem:
the client required integrating their management software with the logistic software StockSystem to manage finished garments. As they did not like the use of the traditional method based on transfer files, we decided to transfer all the files on the DB because the logistics software is designed to interface with the SQL Server database tables. They also required punctual monitoring of the transaction flow and an alert in case of any possible abnormalities.
The solution:
The packing / shipping bill is sent to the StockSystem logistics application by the corporate information system on AS400. The packing/shipping bill is used by the department software for the picking, customization and packaging of the finished garments. DUPLO controls the flow of these data from AS400 to StockSystem.
The packing process begins with the logistics system creating a packing bill matching the garment packing specifications. As soon as the packing bill is ready, DUPLO synchronizes the data and transfers them in real time to the As400 before the packed unit reaches the weighing and labeling station. Here it is weighed and labeled, and the data are collected on As400 thru a special interface with the weighing and labeling systems.
Each unit packed is then conveyed to the storage platform, where its barcode ID is detected and saved by the operator using the StockSystem. The information saved is then transferred by DUPLO to the As400 in real time, so that the customer services can always check the units that are ready for shipment. It is now possible to logically group all packed items for shipment to the customer (process managed by As400).
This flow involves the returning of the data from AS400 to the StockSystem so that operators are alerted every time a unit is picked and shipped. A confirmed picking bill is then sent to the As400 that issues a Bill of Lading/Invoice. At this stage also, all data are synchronized in real time by DUPLO, to comply with the extreme short times required throughout this process.
Advantages for the client:
using DUPLO allows the client a complete management of the two-way data flow between the IT system on As400 and the StockSystem logistics application in the SQL Server database, installed in a remote corporate location, in the finished product warehouse. All processes are performed in real time and without errors.
The first major advantage of using DUPLO is that, as compared to other solutions, the entire synchronization process occurs in the background without the operator having to supervise, as DUPLO is equipped with an effective active monitoring system, able to report any problems related to the process of data alignment automatically.
Thanks to a powerful data tracking and controlling system, the adopted system architecture also enables prompt tracing of any data management or entry anomaly.
Real-time data interfacing saves you any intervention at application level and allowed us to use the same architecture for the automatic weighing/labeling systems. This enables data bi- directional synchronization in the short period between the weighing of the packed units, the application of labels and the shipping.
"After nearly four years of operation, we can actually say that Duplo data management system has been running trouble-free. The product works fully in background and requires no man-operation, while the operator can monitor the data synchronization processes. Reeboting the servers (Duplo/Stocksystem/As400) and any stops due to connectivity problems do not affect data synchronization processes, as DUPLO buffers all transactions and reconstructs the exact sequences of data realignment after restart. “
Eng. Luigi Bianchi
IT Manager
SINV SpA