21 August 2008

If a brand concentrates religiously on creating and maintaining an efficient supply chain, on specialisation and on collaboration, there is no doubt that profit and success will soon follow

Steven Walton, chairman of the Zymmetry Group Dassault Systèmes (DS) and Zymmetry Group, a leading manufacturing and sourcing solutions provider for the apparel industry, have jointly released the Enovia Apparel Accelerator for Sourcing and Production (AASP).

The new product is designed to connect global sourcing production offices and external parties with brand and retail headquarters on one PLM platform.

“Over the past five years the apparel industry has experienced remarkable changes, generating challenges from intense competition to pricing pressures to season and line complexity to time-to-market,” said Joel Lemke, Enovia CEO. “As a result, apparel brands, retailers and suppliers need a system to streamline their communication and make sure everyone is on the same page, which ultimately benefits the overall business. We’re proud to partner with global apparel industry leader Wing-Tai’s Zymmetry Group to deliver the very first solution to address these demands by approaching product development and sourcing as a unified business process.”

The SQL Server-based Enovia AASP integrates sourcing within the design and development process, allowing companies to seamlessly manage collaboration with production offices and retailers. It supports sourcing, costing, and pre-production processes and offers visibility and process control for brand and retail global operations.

The new solution is designed to enable companies to improve gross margins by allowing more control over the cost analysis and negotiation with vendors, as well as enforcing more structured hand-offs between headquarters, buying offices, agents and vendors. It will also increase management control by providing visibility beyond product development activities into pre-production and production processes and assigning associated costs accordingly. Finally, it is designed to optimise merchandise opportunities and cost control through online Request for Quotes, enabling multiple quotations for supplier-provided options based on volume, delivery dates, trade terms and alternative componentry.

“Industry consolidation, the emergence of private equity, the high cost of failure, the reduction in operating margins and the substantial working capital required have all created demands that require the industry to force its way to a streamlined level of efficiency,” said Steven Walton, chairman of the Zymmetry Group. “If the garment industry, or a brand organise themselves and concentrate religiously on creating and maintaining an efficient supply chain, on specialisation and on collaboration, there is no doubt that profit and success will soon follow.”

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