New Distribution
Pattern at Arts,
Crafts Supplies
Provider
As business continued to grow at Darice, reportedly the country's largest full-line arts and crafts whole-
saler and distributor, so did inefficiencies in its distribution system.
f you’re into scrapbooking, costumes,
floral displays or any of hundreds of
other activities that require paper
mache, beads, glitter or similar items,
The Strongsville, Ohio-based provider
of arts and crafts supplies works hard to
supply national retail outlets with all the
wicker, “foamies”, wood crafts, jewelry
items and paint brushes their customers
could need.
Darice procurement teams source
worldwide, and the company has an office
in China to expedite and track orders. The
sales team offers planograms, product suggestions, promotional ideas and direct
import opportunities to assist retailers and
manufacturers.
A family-owned business, Darice began
in 1954. Today, it is reportedly the largest
full-line craft wholesaler and distributor
based in the United States. It produces more
I
than 80,000 products. From Strongsville,
just outside Cleveland, Darice vends its
product line through wholesale channels,
though it also owns and operates the Pat
Catan’s retail chain. Additionally, its e-commerce channel is growing.
“We have a strong focus on family values, customer service and innovative product development to keep our products fresh
and unique,” said Jim Petkunas, vice president of technology.
However, with the growth of the business, there were challenges with the legacy
WMS system keeping pace. The company
had to look outside for help.
Management wanted to contain and
reduce warehouse management expenses,
Petkunas said.
The setting for the supply chain revamp
is Darice’s warehouse and distribution facilities. They encompass more than 750,000
square feet, a 300,000-square-foot pick
module and a 12,000-square-foot showroom. It’s there that every day five to 10
trucks roll in with 6,500 cases. Darice
processes 3,000 orders that may affect up to
40,000 order lines. It gets a bit complex,
especially when done manually.
In 2002, the company implemented an
ERP system with a warehouse management
capability, but Darice’s growth in business
over the next five years simply outstripped
the capabilities of the bolt-on module.
It cost too much to make system adjust-
ments, Petkunas says, and Darice couldn’t
react swiftly enough to change customer
requirements for volume, labeling, trans-
portation and picking. “We struggled with
our company experiencing significant
growth and the inability of our legacy sys-
tem to scale and keep up with the demands
of customers. That was a real problem.”
Other issues with the system included
difficulty extracting information and overall
performance. The company was also look-
ing to the future—it wanted to strengthen
transportation functionality and make other
enhancements, but it felt the ERP-based
