Dolls

American Girl Books

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Plenty new to read this summer, just no smash

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Where, O where, are the big books of summer? As in "Freedom"? Oh, wait - that must-read by Jonathan Franzen was released in September 2010, and no similar blockbusters are appearing on the horizon yet.
Are there books similar to the "America Girls Collection", but for boys?

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I loved reading the American Girls books when I was a young girl and through them experiencing history from the point of view of young girls like myself. Now I’m grown and I have a son of my own. Are their any books like this collection for boys?

The only thing that I know that is similar is the My Name is America. Basically diaries of historical people which includes boys and girls in history... of course for the boys, you would choose boys. Only thing about this series is that it is for a higher grade level (Middle School Grades) than American Girls.

All My American Girl Books

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QC Software Warehouse Control System Proves a Pleasant Surprise for American Girl

QC Software (www.qcsoftware.com) is the leading provider of Tier 1 warehouse control systems to the warehousing and distribution industries.   Since 1996, QC Software, utilizing state of the art technology combined with extensive research, development, and rigorous testing, has developed the QC Enterprise suite of products.  Designed to be modular in nature, easily configurable, and platform independent, this highly scalable solution satisfies the needs of any size warehouse. 

 

Pleasant Company, through the American Girl brand, has become a leader in the marketing and distribution of age-appropriate dolls and books for children. Founded in 1986 by educator Pleasant T. Rowland, Pleasant Company is today a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mattel, Inc., and one of the nation's top multichannel marketers, with direct, retail, and publishing divisions to serve the American Girl brand and its customers.

 

The continued success of American Girl resulted in increased sales for the company, but seasonal fluctuations led to difficulties with their existing Warehouse Control System (WCS). These problems included excessive recirculation, slow response times and system shutdowns, along with a lack of operational visibility or diagnostic tools. In addition, the conveyor control system was not confirming completion of packages which resulted in Pleasant Co. being fined by their shipping carriers.

 

 

 

To cope with ever-increasing sales volume, Pleasant Company needed to expand their system and replace the existing WCS without disrupting warehouse operations. Pleasant Company's requirements included:

• Receive multi-stop orders from the WMS.

• Provide enhanced carton routing to pick modules for order fulfillment processing.

• Track orders to ensure integrity.

• Deliver completed cartons to the designated shipping lane.

• Track and maintain production statistics through a more efficient and user-friendly logging system.

• Implementation and testing could only be done on nights and weekends so as not to impact daily order processing.

 

Sedlak Management Consultants was chosen by Pleasant Company to provide consulting, design, and systems integration services. Sedlak's solution for meeting Pleasant Company's productivity demands included the installation of the QC Navigator module of QC Software's QC Enterprise WCS, in large part because of its diagnostic tools and product maturity. According to Pamela Davey, Senior Consultant of Sedlak, "QC Software recognizes the value of good diagnostic tools and has taken the time and effort to include them as an integral part of the controls system. These tools made it possible to diagnose and fix problems that had persisted for over a year.…when installed it was like a light was suddenly turned on."

 

The QC Navigator's advanced throughput and diagnostic capabilities provided Pleasant Company the visibility to identify various operational anomalies that were not detectable with their previous WCS. QC Navigator's improved tracking capabilities allowed Pleasant Company's personnel to track the source and duration of the jams. As a result, Pleasant Company was able to double their processing volume, and handle increased seasonal demand with improved accuracy, reliability, and performance.

 

The project highlights and benefits of QC Software's technology solutions included…

• Doubled throughput.

• Increased efficiency and productivity.

• Implemented System Logging Tools.

• Implemented Controls System to route & track packages on the conveyor system.

• Installed without disruption to daily order processing.

 

 

QC Software, Inc.

www.qcsoftware.com

Jerry List

JerryList@qcsoftware.com

 513- 469-1424

About the Author

Professional Marketing Firm for the Manufacturing Community and Manufacturing Journalist to most manufacturing magazines