Business need
Before rolling out YuniquePLM, dispersed teams maintained product information on a variety of locations. In this fast-paced fashion company, with hundreds of style/ color options, employee illnesses or turnover resulted in major obstacles of finding the information needed to keep processes accurate and on schedule.
Information was sometimes sent to factories via email; other times by FedEx. This led to product revisions getting overlooked, lost, or even disappearing into junk email. The all too familiar result was a difficult to control system that offered little management or supplier visibility into processes and calendars.
Like a growing number of fashion companies, Cutter & Buck saw PLM as a platform on which they could build a single location and source for all their product data. In contrast to many others that focus their PLM efforts mostly on the internal product development processes, Cutter & Buck saw in YuniquePLM the opportunity to quickly accomplish key business goals that went well beyond the typical PLM system deployment.
A big bang approach to global PLM implementation
From the onset, Cutter & Buck took an aggressive approach to implementing PLM. After a brief 120-day implementation period, the company went live with the system's core module for use by the design, technical design, merchandising, sourcing, customer service, sales administration, inventory management, marketing, and senior management teams.
Perhaps the biggest impact of the YuniquePLM implementation came just four months later in the form of a global deployment of the system's web-based supplier relationship management module.
Group training sessions were held in hotel conference rooms or agent offices across Asia to introduce YuniquePLM to regional groups, each combining multiple agents and vendors. While it was far from the traditional approach, putting competing vendors in the same room worked well as they experienced the dynamics of working together to achieve a better process.
In the end, all partner organizations were successfully onboarded in time for the new season. Not only did they comply, most embraced YuniquePLM as a tool that could provide benefits for both parties.
Factories and agents clearly benefit from the increased access and interaction that is made possible through YuniquePLM.
As a follow-up to the initial supply chain rollout, Cutter & Buck implemented a second phase implementation for new buying offices. This time, they used a simpler train-the-trainer approach.
Case highlights
The Client: Cutter & Buck, a leading manufacturer of upscale golf and sporting apparel.
The Challenge: Before implementing YuniquePLM, the company's design and development teams maintained product information in Excel spreadsheets, Adobe Illustrator drawings, CAD designs and personal email folders. The all-too-familiar result was a process that was difficult to manage and provided little visibility into internal and external processes and workflows.
The Solution: The original problems they faced of finding and accessing product information are a distant memory. Today, all product details and calendars are available to stakeholders across five continents.
The Benefits: By integrating YuniquePLM with their existing SAP enterprise software system, Cutter & Buck eliminated duplicate data entry and the resulting errors that come from maintaining multiple data sources. YuniquePLM became the company's single version of the truth for product information.
Key benefits
- YuniquePLM enables Cutter & Buck to collaborate and share information 24 hours a day, seven days a week with their factories and agents across five continents.
- With product information and calendars visible to all stakeholders, any issues that may affect product schedules are identified and addressed immediately.
- By integrating YuniquePLM with their existing SAP enterprise software system, Cutter & Buck eliminated duplicate data entry and the resulting errors that come from maintaining multiple data sources.
