CASE STUDY:

THOMAS GOLF

Explosive growth was having a negative impact on customer satisfaction and overhead costs. S2O turned that around fast.

S2O streamlined production technology and fulfillment to dramatically increase profitability and make customer satisfaction soar!

CASE STUDY:

How Contract Manufacturing Solved the Challenges of a Custom Golf Club Company

OVERVIEW

A manufacturer of custom golf clubs was experiencing an explosion in growth. They were having a hard time keeping up with the increased demand and the resulting labor requirements. As a result, the number of quality issues, late shipments, and missed orders compounded to the point that customer dissatisfaction was growing at an alarming rate.

Supply Source Options was contracted to create automated systems to streamline production, shipping, and return processing. The custom-built automated system resulted in significantly better customer satisfaction, a dramatic decrease in labor overhead, and fewer returns due to product quality.

By outsourcing the assembly of their custom golf clubs, the manufacturer has freed up employee bandwidth, allowing them to focus on growing their footprint, developing new product lines, and finding higher-quality vendors.

MANUFACTURER’S CHALLENGES

With sales increasing drastically for a national manufacturer of custom golf clubs, the company was having difficulty scaling out the production process and delivering top-quality products their customers had expected. With the current economic environment, it was extremely challenging to find the proper labor force due to the seasonal nature of golf across the US.

Orders were shipping out slowly, often with errors – the manufacturer was experiencing an alarming increase in return rate because of build quality errors – that were crushing their profits.

Determining the labor cost-per-product was nearly impossible because of production inefficiencies and continual refunds.

They needed help fast to save the company! Luckily, they reached out to Supply Source Options.

S2O SOLUTIONS

Supply Source Options leveraged its seasoned workforce, custom-built warehouse and proprietary, customizable production software solutions to quickly overcome the challenges faced by the golf club manufacturer!

S2O jumped right in and developed a module within our production software system that utilizes advanced barcodes, called license plates, and sophisticated tracking to streamline incoming and outgoing inventory. To assemble the custom-built golf clubs accurately, S2O needed to track each component and process flawlessly.

The proprietary software was developed to do just that! It allows for nearly unlimited, customizable fitting options for the end-user and eliminates the need for the assembler to make subjective decisions while building each custom club.

And speaking of assemblers, it’s one of the things we do best! With a strong labor market in West Michigan, S2O has created an excellent production team that is always ready to start a new project. The seasonality of the golf club business was complementary to our current production volume, so we could get started quickly, “flexing in” additional labor when required, ensuring the manufacturer never missed a beat.

S2O has taken over the complete assembly and fulfillment processes for the golf club manufacturer. We receive and manage 200+ individual inventory components, assemble each golf club to the end-user’s exact specifications, and ship orders the next day. We also handle all returns and provide 100% transparent reporting to the manufacturer to understand the entire process.

RESULTS

The custom-built software module has reduced the overall error rate by more than 200%, and the customer retention rate has risen accordingly.

Using a per-finished-piece model for pricing, the manufacturer can fully understand their out-the-door labor and overhead costs per order.

This pricing model has dramatically increased the manufacturer’s profitability and eliminated nearly all the old pain points. Customer satisfaction is now at an all-time high!