Consumables

agron, inc. Implements PTC FlexPLM to Increase Information Reuse and Improve Operational Efficiency

Wednesday 28. May 2008 - PTC Retail, Footwear and Apparel Solution Delivers Broad PLM Capabilities for Line Planning, Graphics Management and Catalog Creation

PTC (Nasdaq: PMTC), The Product Development Company, today announced that agron, inc., the accessory licensee for adidas America, is using PTC’s Retail, Footwear and Apparel PLM solution to manage its accessory product lines from design concept through product development and catalog creation. Using PTC’s FlexPLM, agron is able to improve access to product information across its multiple business groups in order to increase information reuse and improve operational efficiency.
agron’s legacy system had multiple distributed databases that resulted in data inconsistencies and inefficiencies. To improve overall accuracy and product development efficiencies, agron opted for a consolidation strategy that would control and manage all the information used by its product teams, catalog creation teams and ERP system in a single system to drive improved product development and marketing activities. Additionally, the desired solution would be rich with out-of-the-box capabilities and not require extensive configuration to achieve the desired results.
Within 16 weeks of the purchase of the PTC software, agron began using FlexPLM as its scalable, web-based PLM platform that was accessible by various departments and business groups to manage agron’s entire accessory product development process, beginning with line planning and ending with providing product data and imagery for its product catalogs. In addition to using FlexPLM to manage the graphics placed in its catalogs, agron is also taking advantage of FlexPLM’s line planning capability to support line plan viewing and to be the gathering place for all its contributors in a line development effort. The agron accessory products are represented within line sheets and have detailed information that includes images, fabrics and development status. Ultimately, the new system from PTC enables agron to streamline product development and reduce the time to create and publish product catalogs.
“Once we concluded that our current system could not support our growth, our executive management empowered a team to research PLM options and make a recommendation,” said Jeff Goldman, project manager, agron, inc. “We chose FlexPLM from PTC because it met our needs with the least amount of customization and because it is also extremely flexible and can scale to meet our future PLM needs.”
Reducing the time from concept to consumer is a strategic imperative of many organizations in the retail, footwear and apparel industries. FlexPLM delivers an intuitive set of automated capabilities in a unified user environment to streamline communication, track milestones, pre-empt performance bottlenecks and provide instant visibility of all product development steps. It enables organizations like agron to accelerate product development by allowing internal and external participants to work together in a collaborative environment.
“agron’s PLM strategy covers every stage of the product lifecycle, including line planning, materials management and product catalog production, which is why they needed a powerful PLM solution that could be implemented quickly and capable of supporting all these various requirements,” said Kathleen Mitford, vice president, vertical market strategy for retail, footwear and apparel, PTC. “FlexPLM was developed to deliver to organizations like agron a true enterprise-level solution that addresses the need for effective collaborative product lifecycle management.”