Background

Deltex Apparels Inc., a global apparel retailer, was facing significant challenges in managing its fulfillment operations across multiple warehouses and regions. With an expanding customer base and complex logistics requirements, Deltex needed to optimize its order fulfillment process, improve communication across teams, and streamline its billing system. The company also struggled with inefficient cross-company stock management and delays caused by manual processes, which led to customer dissatisfaction and logistical bottlenecks.

The goal was to implement a robust, scalable solution that could handle multiple warehouses, storage locations, and different companies while ensuring smooth order processing, clear communication, and simplified billing.

Challenges

• Warehouse and Storage Location Management: Deltex operates warehouses in multiple regions, but inventory visibility and availability were inconsistent, leading to delays in order fulfillment.
  
  
• Cross-Company Fulfillment: Stock shortages in one warehouse sometimes necessitated fulfillment from another company (e.g., their U.S. warehouse), complicating the billing and invoicing process.
  
  
• Customer Communication: The lack of a unified communication process meant customers often received delayed or incomplete information about their orders, especially when items were shipped from multiple locations.
  
  
• Manual Processes: The company relied heavily on manual effort for tasks like order splitting, internal transfers, and cross-company invoicing, which led to inefficiencies and potential errors.
  
  

• Billing & Invoicing: Orders fulfilled from different warehouses or companies led to complex invoicing and accounting processes that were time-consuming and prone to error.

Solution

To address these challenges, we implemented a Multi-Warehouse and Multi-Company Fulfillment Flow for Deltex Apparels, along with integrated role-based dashboards for streamlined order management and enhanced team collaboration.

Fulfillment Logic

The new fulfillment process was designed to optimize inventory management across Deltex's warehouses and storage locations, ensuring the best possible customer experience.

1. Order Placement

• The system assigns a new customer order to the warehouse linked with the customer’s region or sales team.

2. Check Availability in Current Warehouse

• The system first checks whether the entire order can be fulfilled from the current warehouse.
  
  
• ✅ If stock is available: The order is fulfilled directly from the warehouse.
  
  

3. Check Availability in Backup Storage Location (Canada)

• If the warehouse can’t fulfill the order, the system checks two backup storage locations in Canada.
  
  
• ✅ If stock is available: An internal transfer is initiated from the storage location to the current warehouse. Once the stock arrives, the order is fulfilled from the warehouse.
  
  

4. Check Availability in Secondary Warehouse (Canada)

• If the stock is not available in the backup storage locations, the system checks the second Canadian warehouse.
  
  
• ✅ If stock is available: The order is split between warehouses. Products in the current warehouse are fulfilled locally, and the remaining items are shipped from the secondary warehouse.
  
  

5. Check Availability in USA Warehouse (Another Company)

• If stock is still insufficient, the system checks the USA warehouse (another company under Deltex's umbrella).
  
  
• ✅ If stock is available: A new order is created in the U.S. company for fulfillment, but the invoice remains with Deltex’s original company to ensure consistent billing.

Customer Communication

To enhance transparency and customer satisfaction, we automated the communication process to ensure customers were kept informed at every stage:

• Single Email Thread: Customers receive continuous updates about the status of their order in the same email thread, which includes:
  
  
• Which products are being shipped from which warehouse.
• Estimated delivery time for each location.
• Tracking details for each shipment.
  
  
• Order Splits: If the order is split across multiple locations:
  
  
• A separate sales report is generated for each warehouse or company.
• Customers receive a consolidated email with multiple reports, detailing the product, fulfillment location, quantity, and expected delivery timeline.

Billing & Invoicing

To simplify the financial process, even when orders were split between multiple warehouses or companies:

• Single Invoice: The system ensures that invoices are always generated by Deltex’s original company, keeping the billing process straightforward and consistent.
  
  
• ✅ Benefits:
  
  
• Single Point of Billing: Prevents confusion for customers and makes financial tracking easier for Deltex.
• No Cross-Company Accounting Issues: Simplifies reconciliation between different companies under Deltex's umbrella.
  

Dashboard Features

To help various teams manage their parts of the process, we developed role-specific dashboards that facilitated smoother operations across departments.

1. Warehouse Dashboard

• Purpose: Streamline warehouse operations by focusing on order fulfillment.
  
  
• Features:
  
  
• Pending Pick Orders: Displays orders awaiting picking.
• Order Status View: Tracks stages like “Ready to Pick,” “Picking in Progress,” and “Packed & Ready to Ship.”
• Warehouse Filter: Each warehouse only sees orders relevant to its location.
  
  
• Benefits:
  
  
• Eliminates confusion between different warehouses.
• Increases the speed of picking, packing, and shipping.

2. CSR Dashboard

• Purpose: Provides Customer Service Representatives with real-time order tracking and customer communication tools.
  
  
• Features:
  
  
• Overview of order status: New Orders, Orders Awaiting Payment, In Fulfillment, Partially Shipped, and Completed Orders.
• Delayed Order Alerts: Flags orders that are pending for over two days.
• Integrated Communication Tools: CSR can notify customers about order statuses, delays, and tracking updates.
• Sync with Accounting: Payment approval is reflected immediately in CSR’s dashboard, preventing delays in communication.
  
  
• Benefits:
  
  
• Ensures CSRs have up-to-date information to provide accurate customer support.
• Delayed orders are flagged early, improving customer satisfaction.
  

3. Accounting Dashboard

• Purpose: Gives the accounting team control over financial clearance before orders are processed.
  
  
• Features:
  
  
• Pending Payments List: Displays orders awaiting payment.
  
  
• Credit Limit Management: Tracks and manages customer credit limits.
  
  
• Payment Verification: Orders are held until payments are confirmed.
  
  
• Financial Summary: Provides a high-level view of orders on hold and those that have been cleared and invoiced.
  
  
• Benefits:
  
  
• Ensures financial checks are performed before order fulfillment, reducing risk.
  
  
• Improves cash flow by automating the payment verification process.

How Dashboards Sync Across Departments

Each department interacts with the system in a seamless, synchronized manner:

• Sales Team: Initiates the order.
  
  
• Accounting: Verifies payments and clears orders for fulfillment.
  
  
• CSR: Tracks the order’s lifecycle, communicates with the customer, and handles updates.
  
  
• Warehouse: Processes only orders cleared by accounting, ensuring smooth delivery execution.
  
  

Results and Benefits

By implementing this multi-warehouse and multi-company fulfillment flow, Deltex Apparels Inc. achieved significant improvements in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and financial transparency.

✅ Operational Efficiency

• Reduced manual intervention in order splitting and internal transfers, leading to faster order processing.
  
  
• Optimized inventory usage across warehouses and storage locations.
  
  

✅ Improved Customer Transparency

• Customers received clear, consolidated updates about their order status, fulfillment locations, and expected delivery times, even when their orders were fulfilled from multiple locations.
  
  

✅ Simplified Financial Processes

• Centralized invoicing ensured that billing remained consistent, even when orders were fulfilled from multiple locations or companies, making reconciliation much easier.
  
  

✅ Increased Team Collaboration

• The introduction of role-based dashboards improved interdepartmental communication and transparency, allowing each team to focus on what mattered most without distractions from irrelevant information.
  
  

Conclusion

The custom Odoo solution implemented for Deltex Apparels Inc. not only addressed their challenges of managing multi-warehouse and multi-company fulfillment flows but also integrated seamlessly with their existing business operations. By leveraging Odoo's flexibility and robust functionality, we were able to tailor the system to meet Deltex’s unique needs, from inventory management to order fulfillment, billing, and customer communication.

Through our Odoo customization, we ensured that Deltex’s teams—Sales, CSR, Warehouse, and Accounting—had role-specific dashboards, providing them with real-time visibility and reducing manual intervention. This streamlined the entire order management process, improved interdepartmental collaboration, and enhanced the customer experience.

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