Case Study: Build-A-Bear Workshop achieves inventory clarity and cost reductions with Manhattan Associates' Extended Enterprise Management

Build-A-Bear Workshop® keeps hugs, fun and friendships flowing worldwide with Manhattan solutions

Build-A-Bear Workshop, a global interactive make-your-own stuffed-animal retailer with over 400 stores and 4,000–7,000 active SKUs, needed to reduce costs while maintaining high guest service across a complex supply chain of multiple DCs and franchise service centers. The supply chain team’s goal was to “de-average” processes and target exceptional cases where excess spending occurred, improving inventory clarity and reducing exceptions from new routes and vendors.

Build-A-Bear implemented Manhattan Associates’ Warehouse Management and Extended Enterprise Management—chosen for ease of implementation and tight integration with in-house systems—and rolled Extended Enterprise out to key vendors (covering 97% of volume). The on-time, on-budget deployment eliminated in-plant labeling, enabled same-day processing, improved vendor compliance and scorecarding, and optimized shipments and inventory. Results included reduced transportation and labeling costs, better buying decisions, lower fuel exposure, improved capacity planning, and a single source of inventory visibility to support available-to-promise.

Build-A-Bear

Jonah McIntire

Supply Chain Improvement Bear