Napoleon once remarked that an army marches on its stomach – those at Yakka Apparel Solutions believe there's more to it than that.

As clothing supplier to the New Zealand Defence Forces, Yakka prides itself that our country’s soldiers, sailors and aircrews are always ready for action… by ensuring they are among the best dressed in the world.

Part of the Australasia-wide Yakka group of companies, the company supplies everything from uniforms and boots to thermal underwear and sleeping bags. And it’s all done with military precision thanks to a state-of the-art warehouse on Auckland’s North Shore and an award-winning e-commerce intranet, which makes the operation easily accessible from any PC within the armed forces or for other Yakka clients such as the New Zealand Fire Service and Aviation Security Service.

On parade
There was, however, one chink in this impressive e-armour – the selection and ordering of the apparel itself for new recruits.

Soldiers know all about name, rank and number. Throw in shoe size and inside leg measurement, the laborious manual entry of data, and several days’ wait, and that pretty much summed up the strategy for kitting out troops, says Yakka managing director Simon Harvey.

“New recruits would try products on. After finding the right one, they would walk to a clerk who would note on a sheet of paper the size, quantity and product code of each item they were wearing. Once this process was completed, NZDF staff would manually enter the data as purchase orders.”

Positive ID
The challenge was how to move from a slow and error-prone manual system to a smart and real-time electronic solution.

Yakka worked closely with its IT partner, Manufact Data Systems (MDS), and developed an innovative ordering solution using read-only Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

“We have created a software program where the soldier is identified with an RFID wristband and all garments are identified with an RFID tag,” says Harvey. “Once the solider has tried on and found the right size for a variety of clothing – he might have on a layer of thermal underwear, camouflage shirt, thermal liner and wet weather jacket, trousers and boots – he simply stands in front of an RFID scanner. The wristband is scanned to identify the soldier, and then the garments are scanned to identify the size and SKU (stock keeping unit) number.”

Each soldier’s clothing entitlement is already logged into the system. Once all the items in the entitlement are accounted for the program automatically sends a purchase requisition in XML format to NZDF’s computer system, which authorises the order and sends it through to Yakka via its existing intranet where it is loaded straight into the company’s warehousing system.

The result is guaranteed accuracy, and an order processing time that is quicker by more than two days.

On the double
The new process was tested for the first time on 20 of the Army’s June intake at Waiouru Camp.

“Fundamentally, it worked really well,” says Ian Parker, managing director of MDS, creators of the pioneering solution. “It was simply a matter of sitting down with Yakka and developing a system that met the end requirement.”

By the way, if you were wondering why RFID tags were used and not barcodes, the answer is simple. Tags allow for several layers of garments to be scanned at once. They can also survive being laundered – the fate of all next-to-skin products after every fitting session.

Parker admits there were a few minor bugs. “For example, at the last moment an item was withdrawn from the entitlement scale, which confused matters – but it’s a relatively simple program that automates a previously labour and time-intensive process.”

Simplification of the process has resulted in several benefits to all involved. Before, recruits would march in on a Monday and get sized on a Tuesday. Generally, this meant Yakka wouldn’t receive the orders from Defence HQ in Wellington until Thursday but it had to despatch them by Friday evening.

“Using the RFID solution, the orders came through within a matter of hours, rather than days,” says Parker. “They were also staggered rather than appearing in one big batch.”

There was also a significant reduction in the time required to complete the recruit sizing process, as well as an improvement in the overall accuracy.

“A scanner is a hell of a lot quicker than writing down notes or ticking boxes,” says Harvey. “Although we only did 20 this time, the larger intakes can be as many as 240 recruits. The overall benefits will be huge for these numbers.

“The system also avoids any data entry errors or omissions. It simply doesn’t allow for things to be forgotten.”

Not surprisingly, the solution passed muster with the Army, whose response Harvey describes as “very positive”. Approval has now been given to roll out the solution the Navy next, and eventually the Air Force as well.

“It’s a significant value add that we as a supplier are giving to our customer. I think they’re delighted that a commercial vendor like us is able to show initiative and innovation with technology,” says Harvey.

Simple, fast and effective. Napoleon would have been impressed.

For more information
www.yakka.co.nz
www.nzdf.mil.nz
www.manufact.co.nz

IBM New Zealand
www.ibm.com/nz

Gary Elmes
IBM Software Marketing Manager
09 3592679 
locutus@nz.ibm.com

September 2005