Business need
Across its brands, the company’s design teams were using different methods to manage the product development process, including legacy PDM systems, Excel spreadsheets and email. Users were also working on multiple brands simultaneously, using a different set of libraries for each, which led to duplication of data and, oftentimes, confusion among teams. The company wanted to consolidate processes and leverage common libraries across its brands.
FOL’s vision was to find a software solution that would enable product development to create, control and communicate data across its entire corporate landscape in a consistent and efficient manner. They were looking for an experienced partner who could provide best practices and the domain expertise to meet their technology needs.
Fruit of the Loom (FOL) already had a long-standing relationship with Gerber as several of its product development teams were using Gerber’s webPDM product data management system. But, other factors also influenced FOL’s decision to adopt YuniquePLM, including, enthusiastic feedback from industry leaders already working with YuniquePLM, Gerber’s willingness to configure YuniquePLM to meet FOL’s precise needs, and the system’s ability to integrate with Gerber’s AccuMark pattern design, grading and marker making software in use at FOL.
Since FOL develops its own fabrics, the PLM system they chose needed to capture this level of detail. This led to extensive two-way communication during the configuration and implementation process to ensure FOL’s exact requirements would be managed in the YuniquePLM environment.
During the implementation, FOL migrated a significant amount of historical data including all of their point of measure (POM) libraries and many of their raw material libraries. The actual styles were not migrated as is because the company wanted to first verify that the information was accurate. Several employees at FOL were responsible for backfilling style information and validating data before it was migrated to YuniquePLM. FOL’s color and material request process is unique so Gerber also customized the system to accommodate it.
With the implementation of YuniquePLM, FOL is in the process of significantly improving collaboration and communication while providing a scalable platform for growth. Also, since YuniquePLM will be integrated with the company’s existing ERP and other enterprise wide systems, it will be able to deliver powerful business intelligence to guide decision making.
Case highlights
The Client: Fruit of the Loom (FOL), a leading international, vertically-integrated, multi-brand company.
Brief about client business: Fruit of the Loom is owned by Berkshire Hathaway Corp., controlled by legendary investor Warren Buffett. It is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and marketers of men’s, boys’, women’s and girls’ underwear, printable T-shirts and fleece for the activewear industry, casualwear and childrenswear. The company sells its products under a number of underwear, intimates, sportswear and sporting goods brands.
The Solution: FOL decided to implement YuniquePLM across all its brands, beginning with Fruit of the Loom and then Vanity Fair Brands, Spalding and Russell
The Benefits: FOL is well on the way to significantly improving collaboration and communication among product development teams for its many brands and ensuring a scalable platform for growth.
Key benefits
- YuniquePLM became the product development teams’ single version of the truth across all brands.
- With easy integration to the AccuMark pattern design, grading and marker making system, data could now be shared between the two systems.
- FOL, with the help of Gerber’s Project Team, is in the process of implementing powerful dashboards that will increase transparency in the product development process.
- With YuniquePLM, FOL had a scalable system that could grow with the business.
