Springs Industries Inc. :: Business Management Studies

Springs Industries Inc.Springs Industries Inc. is a $2.2 billion textile company that isheadquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Springs Industriesfocuses its efforts into the production of the home furnishingsmarket, and operates under well-known provoker names such as Wamsutta,Springmaid, Disney, LizAt Home and Bill Blass. Their home furnishingssegment accounts for nearly 82% of the companys revenue, and remains angiotensin-converting enzyme of the leading producers of bedding, bath and other homefurnishing products in the United States (McFarlan, pg. 1, 1997). In 1995, Springs acquired several additional companies in which theycould facilitate the introduction of clean and complementary productsthat would forget them with a distinct set of product offerings. However, integrating these new companies into the exist operatingenvironment would pose significant challenges. Presenting one facethe customer was of the upper limit importance to Springs and fusing theback-office, adm inistrative, and marketing efforts of itsacquisitions would present numerous complexities (McFarlan, pg. 1,1997).Knowledge BuildingThe home furnishing market which Springs competes in is extremelyvolatile. In the home furnishings market, earnings are in a flashrelated to fast and flexible product development, short productioncycles, and ability to replenish stock supplies quickly. Recently,Springs industry rival WestPoint Stevens was making waves in themarketplace from the homecoming of their heavy investments the past fiveyears into technologies that increased their current capacity 12%. To further stress the need for Springs to re-work their existingstructure, one must starting signal understand that in this industry it iscritical to present a strong product lineup because retailersincreasingly wish to purchase from fewer suppliers. This is evidencesby some other competitor of Springs, Pillowtex, in recent times acquiredadditional smaller companies which will allow the expansi on of theircurrent offerings, and position them to compete directly with Springsin the existing home furnishing market (McFarlan, pp. 1-3, 1997). Wanting to remain competitive and on top of their respective market,in 1997 Springs Inc. hired up and coming executive Crandall Bowles tolead them into the new millennium. Bowles top priority was to directher efforts on the companys information systems and determine boththe breadth of expenditures and the pace of innovation necessary in indian lodge to increase profit by quickening the pace of its application ofnew technology and sources of information to marketing, customerservice, and inventory management (McFarlan, pp 1-2, 1997).Springs deals specifically with large retailers, the likes ofWal-Mart, Kmart and Target. These companies pick out that suppliersmanage their existing inventories according to current purchasingtrends, which are identified though the collection of Point of Sale(POS) data and the use analytical forward-looking I nformationTechnologies (IT).