Comfort-focused lifestyle brand Tommy John has invested in a new Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to help manage expansion and future growth.
The company, which is known for its range of men’s and women’s underwear and apparel, has selected Centric PLM from Centric Software, with the implementation taking a little over seven months.
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Tommy John was founded in 2008 by Tom Patterson, a former medical device salesman. Frustrated by the discomfort of wearing traditional men’s underwear, socks and undershirts, he set out to redesign men’s base layers with a focus on fabric, fit and function.
Today, the company’s product offering includes women’s underwear and apparel, which are sold in over 1,000 points of wholesale distribution across the US, as well as online. The company currently has two stores, with several more planned for 2019 and beyond.
Stephanie Schulz, business analyst at Tommy John, explains that the company’s rapid growth and desire to expand into new products led it to invest in a new PLM solution.
“We’ve recently launched our women’s division, and we’re expanding into new categories such as lifestyle, loungewear and athleisure. Using our old combination ERP and PLM system, data had to be exported and managed offline in spreadsheets and emails, which caused issues with data consistency and visibility. It took our teams a long time to update tech packs and make changes on the fly. We needed a solution that could scale with us, matching our growing numbers of teams and products in development.”
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By GlobalDataSchulz adds the new software is “very flexible, and we need a system that supports our business processes rather than slowing us down.”
It also ensures that all users have visibility. “They’re all connected to one version of the truth within the system,” she explains. “It’s transforming the way we develop styles and create tech packs, as information that was previously offline is now instantly accessible. Mass functionality is very important, saving our teams time and allowing us to work together at a much faster pace.”
