Pantaloon Layout Sample.qxd
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Pantaloon Layout Sample.qxd
Customer Success Story Case Study: Chattawak Implements Gerber Technology’s PLM Suite – webPDM™ and webView™ Chattawak, a division of Chomarat Group, has experienced considerable growth in the women’s wear apparel market. With 120 retail stores located in 90 cities throughout France, Chattawak has recently expanded their footprint to other European countries, beginning with Belgium. In order to optimize teamwork and after an extensive requirements review made by a third party consultant, Chattawak decided to replace their non apparel-oriented PDM system by one dedicated to the fashion industry – web PDM, a component of Gerber’s PLM Suite. Gerber Technology’s longstanding expertise in the product data management marketplace became the critical criteria in Chattawak’s decision making process. The primary challenge Chattawak faced was to effectively manage business processes across their three main locations: Paris, Le Cheylard and Tunisia. Chattawak’s specific concerns included collaboration, duplication, synchronization and avoiding the risk of errors caused by lack of real-time data. Gerber Technology’s webPDM software was installed at the Le Cheylard location, where all Chattawak IT infra- structures are located. Implementing a centralized system allows all teams to work with the same data using the same tools and processes. “With this web-based technology, it has allowed us to expedite the deployment of information and provide real-time responses, even from remote sites”, commented Patrick Champalle, group IT Director. In order to avoid duplicate data input, an interface was developed between webPDM and their home-grown ERP system – Zephyr. Existing material, trim, size and color data are now integrated into webPDM. All material and product information are keyed into this single application, thereby reducing the risk of errors and increasing productivity. Due to a lack of internal resources and experience, Chattawak contracted senior level Gerber Technology consultants to create an advanced configuration to meet their business process requirements. After deployment and initial user training, administration and development capabilities were transferred to the Chattawak team. Their IT group is now equipped with the tools and knowledge to adapt the software to their company evolution and any future business requirements. Throughout the implementation process, both the Chattawak and Gerber teams communicated extensively to fine-tune the configuration in response to user feedback. “Like any implementation process, we went through many reiterations until we received full satisfaction from our internal customers. This flow of communication allowed us to discover needs which were not initially identified during the requirements gathering phase. Thanks to the Gerber consultant’s high level of expertise, we were able to successfully implement webPDM in a timely manner – more efficient than an independent project management group,” remarked Kader Zahzah, Accounting manager and webPDM project manager. View, a workflow, calendaring, and task management component of Gerber’s PLM Suite, was also implemented with webPDM. Milestones that once resided solely in emails and a myriad of Excel spreadsheets are now organized, visible and expanded through the use of web View. Chattawak was able to create customized webView Dashboards to meet their specific needs enabling managers to supervise product development and team performances in real time. web Today, Chattawak works in a fully collaborative mode within a unique product data management system. The obsolete Word and Excel files have disappeared and internal business rules have been significantly clarified. A principle rule now used requires information owners to directly input all data into the application. It saves time, simplifies organization and avoids information loss that occurred frequently when instructions were only verbally communicated during a fitting session. An immediate and visible benefit is that information is now more reliable. For example, Chattawak experienced price differences between the values printed on price labels versus the values stored within the retail IT system. Products arriving extremely late were the cause of these price modifications. Due to the webPDM/ERP interface, the new system will trigger the order of price labels when a certain development stage is reached, and in a later stage the application will block any price modification…all thanks to webPDM’s advanced permission capabilities. “As for ‘Time to Market’ reduction, it is too early to measure these effects, but it is clear that work method optimization, realtime supervision and information reliability increases can only have positive effects,” states Stéphane Chomarat, Chattawak CEO. “Team productivity is rising, which will permit us to develop more styles before each new season and keep up with our clients’ demands.” © 2009 Gerber Technology. All rights reserved. webPDM and webView are trademarks of Gerber Technology.
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