£25,000 Award for Outstanding Business Achievement, courtesy of Microsoft and the Microsoft Award for Innovation through Technology.

Introduction
DB Shoes, a shoe manufacturing and distribution company specialising in extra wide fitting shoes, was presented with the Microsoft Award for Innovation through Technology and the ‘winner of winners’ £25,000 Award for Outstanding Business Achievement at the very first Chamber Awards in November 2004.

Prior to entering the Chamber Awards, DB Shoes, a member of the Northamptonshire Chamber, had been close to receivership due to the downturn in the footwear manufacturing industry. In order for the company to survive, company director David Denton’s brother Charles developed a strategy for recovery. To implement the strategy efficiently meant the development of a manufacturing database. This database assisted in the reinvention of DB Shoes by revolutionising the company’s manufacturing operation. This has enabled the company to pursue its vision of positioning itself as a leading consumer brand in a specialist niche market of wide fitting/deep toe box footwear.

Since winning the £25,000 cash prize, DB Shoes has been able to invest heavily in the business. A second moulding machine and further sets of moulds have been purchased which has increased the output of the company as a whole.

DB Shoes background
DB Shoes, based in the traditional shoe making town of Rushden in Northamptonshire, was founded over 80 years ago. The company specialises in the manufacture and distribution of extra wide fitting shoes – EE, EEE and EEEEEE+ - in order to address the needs of people requiring more footspace. The company is now recognised as a market leader in this sector of the market, and its Easy B branded shoes are currently stocked by leading footwear companies.

After having experienced a severe downturn and faced closure, DB Shoes made the decision that it would need to reinvent itself quickly if it was to survive and prosper in the future. In order for sustainable recovery to be achieved and for DB Shoes to survive, change and specialisation were identified as key. However, to gain the consumer brand recognition in specialist niche markets, radical action needed to be taken and the company had to change the way that it did business.

One of the main ways of enabling this to be achieved was through the data systems in place at the company and during the latter part of 2002 DB Shoes developed its Manufacturing Database, a revolutionary system which replaced the manual systems and spreadsheets that the company had in place. It was hoped that the development of the database would revolutionising the company’s manufacturing operation, and allow the company to run a footwear manufacturing unit that would add value and be a key sourcing unit for specialist footwear outlets and customers.

The winning entry
Recognising that the Manufacturing Database had been instrumental in the turnaround and survival of the company, DB Shoes entered the project into the Microsoft Award for Innovation through Technology category of the Chamber Awards 2004. The category was designed to recognise success and growth in business as a direct result of technology, and the judges felt that DB Shoes’ story demonstrated excellence and was worthy of being celebrated and rewarded.

The DB Shoes Manufacturing Database was developed entirely in-house using the Microsoft Access Database Package. In an industry not recognised for technology, DB Shoes used ‘shoe people’ to create a ‘shoe database’ which from the outset demonstrated improvements in factory deliveries, reductions in costs, improved flexibility and quicker responses to customers and suppliers.

At the outset, the company required a database system that could be changed easily to meet future requirements, that was inexpensive and that would yield considerable cost savings for the company. After an assessment of the database systems market, it became evident that DB Shoes would have to custom build its own system in order for all the requirements to be met. Coincidentally a member of staff had recently completed a Microsoft Access Immediate course, so a basic database was developed. From this, the DB Shoes Manufacturing Database was formed, which has the full functionality of a professional system. It is made up of 40 tables, 390 queries, 296 forms, 116 reports and 397 macros.

DB Shoes has reaped many benefits from the database, including increased cost savings and productivity. It has achieved an improved visibility of customer orders, which has allowed for high customer services levels, thus encouraging repeat business. Reporting is quick and easy, so instead of month end financials taking two days to complete, it can now be done at the touch of a button within five minutes. The system allows for more effective monitoring of stock levels, which means that there is no surplus stock and that the manufacturing unit can respond quickly to changes in the market. The simplicity of the system also meant that DB Shoes could be the first member of the British Footwear Manufacturing Association to introduce flexible holidays across its entire workforce, moving away from an annual shutdown. This has lead to improved plant utilisation.

Judges comments
DB Shoes won the Microsoft Award for Innovation through Technology for successfully implementing life saving advanced technology in the form of a manufacturing database. Natalie Ayres of Microsoft said, “This technology brought DB Shoes back from the brink of receivership. The company, though not in a business sector known for innovative technology used their own team of ‘shoe people’ to develop and write a sophisticated, multi functional database which ultimately led to its turnaround.”

As well as being awarded for innovation through technology, DB Shoes also went on to scoop the ‘Winners of Winners’ £25,000 Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award was given to DB Shoes because it demonstrated that it was possible to reverse the trend of declining manufacturing within this country. Natalie Ayres of Microsoft commented, “Unfortunately there could be only one winner and the judges were unanimous that DB Shoes met all the criteria to qualify as the inaugural overall winner of the Chamber Awards 2004. DB Shoes managed, by careful strategic planning and the use of innovative technology, to come back from a point of insolvency to sustainable growth and achieved what can only be described as a formidable turnaround. This traditional company is a great example of how, with the right management and business vision, success can be assured in the toughest of markets.”

Life after the awards
Winning the awards and the £25,000 prize has meant a lot to company director David Denton, and his employees. He commented,

“What we do at DB Shoes is part of our day to day life, and usually we don’t think of it as being anything special. The public recognition of having demonstrated outstanding achievement is wonderful, as it makes you stop and think about what the hard work of the company and its employees can achieve.

“Everyone at DB Shoes was genuinely delighted about the awards. It has been a long hard slog over the last seven year as everyone had experienced the downturn and had seen the company facing closure. Winning the awards has improved morale amongst the workforce, and the prize money enabled us to reward our staff with an additional bonus last year.”

The prize money has been used mainly for the investment in a second moulding machine and a new set of moulds, which means that DB Shoes has been able to increase its output.