From Concept to Customer With ENOVIA PLM From Dassault Systèmes

1 August 2008| Source: Dassault Systèmes ENOVIA

How PLM Can Help Apparel Companies Compete in a Changing World

As a $550 Billion global business, the apparel industry has witnessed remarkable change in the last five years. Globalization, greater brand recognition and the development of new market opportunities have all generated a number of challenges including intense competition, pricing pressures and increased season/line complexity. These challenges are also complicated by the fact that the apparel supply chain is growing longer, more geographically diverse and, ultimately, more complex.

To achieve real competitive advantage apparel brands, retailers and suppliers have to differentiate themselves by creating more seamless links between product development and the actual sourcing of the products. This approach helps to create a symbiotic relationship between trend-setting creative and practical production. However, before this can happen a number of traditional barriers need to be addressed. In the past, a lack of communication often led to unnecessary and costly reworking – for example, sample tests being repeated because people were unaware of previous tests or were unable to easily access earlier results.

Facing such a complex set of issues, it is imperative that companies evaluate and select technology partners and solutions that can help them strengthen innovation, implement best business practices and manage the flow of information – enter product lifecycle management (PLM).


Two leading industry analysts reported:

‘PLM has been one of the hottest technology areas in the apparel industry for the past 18 months. As organizations have focused on getting their arms around all of
their material and product data and gaining visibility to the status of different development activities, they are increasingly looking to PLM vendors for support.’
AMR Research,
Top Technology Trends
in the Apparel Market,

‘Pressure is building on product development to increase the number of product designs produced per season, to develop the right products quicker in moving from “mind to market,” such as in “fast fashion,” and to reduce costs. Accelerating the need to innovate as sales grow requires a constant stream of new product offerings to keep the customer coming back and buying more. PLM can help by providing a common platform for internal and external collaboration, enabling suppliers, manufacturers and retailers to combine strengths and ideas to enhance the product innovation process.’
Gartner,
Fast Fashion Demands PLM,


PLM solutions are proving to be important tools for building stronger linkages between the traditionally separate steps of the apparel process. PLM can now play a significant role in creating integrated sourcing processes that incorporate all of the key elements of the supply chain including planning, product development, production allocation and authorizations. By enabling greater collaboration apparel companies can realize a number of clear benefits including enhanced time
to market, improved supply chain performance, and ultimately, superior quality.


The ENOVIA Solution

ENOVIA’s offering for the apparel industry is the ENOVIA MatrixOne Apparel Accelerator for Design & Development™, a commercially available, off-the-shelf, product lifecycle management solution for apparel design companies. This solution enables companies to rapidly deploy a state-of-the-art, scalable enterprise solution for apparel design and development to take products from trend to design to sourcing to manufacturing to the customer.

The Apparel Accelerator comes complete with industry specific best practices for apparel design including predefined work processes, industry specific data models, reports, role-based user interfaces and document management capabilities. The Apparel Accelerator has been optimized based on ENOVIA’s track record of helping fashion product design companies solve the strategic challenges of increasing global competition, shrinking product lifecycles and reacting to ever-changing seasonal consumer demands.

Key Benefits of ENOVIA’s Apparel Accelerator for Design & Development

•Reduce and eliminate costly inefficiencies caused by managing product development information and processes via documents, spreadsheets, emails and other inconsistent and fragmented communication forms.

•Replace multiple and disconnected systems and isolated documents used to manage product, project, color, material, line plans, vendor and sourcing with a single, global, product lifecycle management system.

•Incorporate the expertise and knowledge in the supply chain early in the product development processes so sourcing agents, vendors, design partners and mills can positively impact decisions and performance related to manufacturing, material trends, costs, and quality decisions.

•Effectively allocate and manage resources across all functional teams by tracking seasonal line planning calendars, approvals and responsibilities in a single system that is integrated with all other aspects of product development.

•Quickly and dynamically react to shifts in seasonal requirements, industry trends and consumer tendencies by leveraging robust and flexible workflow and planning templates visible to all product/project team members.

Leading Brands benefit From ENOVIA PLM

Leading footwear and apparel brands and retailers including adidas, Crocs, Columbia Sportswear, Gap, Gucci, Guess, Michael Kors, New Balance, REI, and Under Armour use ENOVIA apparel PLM solutions to control their design-to-manufactureand business processes.

Visibility in Sourcing:
Discovering PLM’s Sweet Spot

With apparel brands, retailers and suppliers all seeing the need to accelerate the processes involved in bringing products to market, many are discovering that one of the most effective areas to focus on is creating stronger, more seamless links between product development and the actual sourcing of products — creating a marriage of the trend-sensitive creative side with the practical production side. PLM
solutions are proving to be important tools for building stronger bridges between these traditionally separate sets of processes. These solutions can play significant roles in creating integrated sourcing processes that include the needs of all key players in all geographies, encompassing planning, product development, production allocation and authorizations.

ENOVIA and Wing-Tai ‘s Zymmetry Group recently announced a partnership where the two companies will address the entire scope of the product delivery cycle from initial design through sourcing to retailing for the global footwear and apparel industry. The agreement positions the two companies as the first vendors to connect the entire supply chain by linking front and back end design and development processes from planning to sourcing, pre-production and production.

Joel Lemke, CEO, ENOVIA, Dassault Systèmes recently said
“ENOVIA’s agreement with Zymmetry directly addresses key apparel
industry trends and will enable business leaders to solve strategic
business challenges including increased outsourcing, social
responsibility, and brand protection.“
ENOVIA Apparel Industry Customer Experience

ENOVIA PLM User experiences:

REI Recreational Equipment Inc.

Putting Something Back

REI was started by a group of Seattle mountain climbers in the 1930’s and has grown to become a $1.3 billion outdoor gear retailer with 90 stores, its own gear, apparel and bicycle brands, and the internet’s largest outdoor store.

By using the ENOVIA MatrixOne Apparel Accelerator, REI has been able to re-engineer processes to make them more efficient, effective and faster to market. Kevin Myette, REI’s director of research added, “We had best practices, but not in the right order. Most processes happened sequentially rather than in parallel. Everyone was working hard but because we had no central source of reliable accurate data, everyone was ‘speaking different languages’. Now ENOVIA MatrixOne helps us to speak the same language.”

Guess?

Sexy and Organized

With more than 750 retail stores globally Guess is one of the world’s most widely recognized brands, producing innovative, stylish, fashion-forward apparel, accessories and lifestyle products for men, women, children and babies. Guess now relies on ENOVIA MatrixOne PLM solutions to manage its global
apparel development lifecycle. According to Guess’ CIO Mike Relich, PLM “is the glue that is going to hold us together globally.”

Quiksilver

Sitting on Top of the World

Surf and skate brand Quiksilver has a host of talented designers located in the US, Australia and France. Since implementing the ENOVIA solution, the company is able to collaborate on designs and trends in real-time and according to Chris Schreiber, the company’s VP of Technical Services, “If the information is available to be seen and accessed by us and our suppliers there is no limit to what can be achieved creatively. PLM allows us to leverage good local and good global information.”

Michael Kors

Ready to Wear PLM

The newest company to select ENOVIA PLM for apparel is Michael Kors, the the leading American fashion designer for luxury accessories and sportswear. “Over the last four years we have experienced explosive growth; we expect this trend to continue as we expand our retail presence and introduce new product lines. From a business perspective it was strategically important for us to find a PLM solution that could be implemented quickly, provide an open platform that could interact with other applications and ultimately scale to meet future demands,” said Gia Castrogiavanni, president, Women’s, Michael Kors.

ENOVIA PLM Taking Brands To A Strong Future

With new, emerging markets, a geographically dispersed workforce and supply chain and increased pressure to launch more lines for increasingly fragmented seasons, apparel companies have to find new ways to marry their need for creativity with an ability to think and act dynamically. One of the most critical decisions they will make is to decide which technology vendors they want partner with for long term success.

As the leading provider of PLM solutions in the apparel industry with a proven track record of success, ENOVIA understands the pressures that its clients face on a day to day basis. Whether it’s working with companies to design the garment or hang it on the rack, ENOVIA is committed to enabling collaborative business processes that will help its customers to manage new opportunities and drive profitability.

About ENOVIA

ENOVIA is the PLM brand of Paris-based of Dassault Systèmes, which has remained at the forefront of virtualisation technology since its inception. Combining three complementary product lines – VPLM, SmarTeam,and MatrixOne – ENOVIA provides the broadest and deepest coverage of PLM processes compared to any offering on the market today.

It delivers new levels of 3D digital collaboration in companies large and small, and allows companies to fully master the creation and lifecycle management of products whether they are complex or simple. They can also more easily manage the complexity of the business processes involved, and the distribution of information along the entire value chain.

For further information on ENOVIA PLM please Contact:

ENOVIA.com
3DS.com

For more information:
Visit: http://www.enovia.com
Contact: David Coates

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