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Manufacturing Industry

TSI built to win

Bobbin, Jan, 1999 by Kathleen Desmarteau

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TSI's systems have been known to identify inventory inaccuracies in retailers' data, triggering corrective action on the retailer's part. "Our approach helps the retailers use their own information," Pulsipher says. "We summarize the data at the retailer's regional, district and store levels. When inventory looks out of balance, the system suggests, by a comment at the end of a summary report, what ought to be done. ... We can then ship product in the right sizes and quantities to meet demand, and they sell more product."

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The ultimate driver behind TSI's herculean systems endeavor is its goal of offering the best value in a full package program that a retailer can find. And the company is finding that the service side of a program is just as important, if not more so, than the product, especially as retailers develop their own in-house sourcing capabilities.

As president Richard Domino asserts: "When I have an opportunity to sit down, one on one, with any retailer, I can show that retailer why it is more profitable for him to do business with me than it is for him to do a program himself."

The Western Hemisphere Sourcing Strategy

Another essential element in TSI's ability to maintain a steady stream of on-time shipments to its retail customers is its focus on the Western Hemisphere in its sourcing. Ninety percent of its products are produced by contractors in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. TSI currently uses between 11 to 15 contractors in the Dominican Republic and approximately six in Mexico.

"As far as we're concerned, they're U.S.-based," Domino states, pointing to TSI's 36-days-and-falling average turn time. "That is about as quick as anybody is doing [work] here in the United States."

The remaining 10 percent of the firm's goods, usually products that call for a higher level of needlework, are imported from the Far East or other regions. Yet even for this one-tenth of production that is sourced from afar, TSI always has contingency plans in place to supply the goods closer to home. "Whatever we do in the Orient, we also do [through an 807 program] as a safety mechanism so as not to hurt our customers. We're the only company I know of that aggressively goes after that approach," says Elliott Lightman, executive vice president of sales, marketing and merchandising, who oversees TSI's non-Western Hemisphere import programs.

The firm's sourcing strategy is paying off nicely. Case in point: JCPenney recently had a need for 100,000 pair of Arizona flat-front twills. The retailer was not able to acquire these units from its supplier on time. TSI stepped to the plate, and provided the goods (from piece goods to finished product) within 28 days. "If we weren't around to service that program for them, they would have lost those sales, period. In today's world, things are too competitive to just lose sales because your supplier can't deliver on time," Lightman emphasizes.

Manufacturing Industry

TSI built to win

Bobbin, Jan, 1999 by Kathleen Desmarteau

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