PARIS, Jan. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions for industries using soft materials -- textiles, leather, industrial fabrics and composites -- has announced that Lectra Fashion PLM V2R2, its product lifecycle management solution designed specifically for the fashion industries, has just been awarded certification of the Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC). Lectra Fashion PLM is the only solution to have achieved TEC certification in the fashion and fashion products and accessories distribution sectors.
Despite constant pressure to innovate and improve quality while maintaining profitability, some fashion companies remain reluctant to embrace product lifecycle management. The vast majority, however, are convinced it would streamline their organization and processes and improve productivity.
In addition to evaluating the solution in detail -- 1400 criteria were reviewed -- the TEC certification report helps clarify the benefits of PLM and reassure companies about their investment decisions, while demystifying the processes and stages involved in setting up and maintaining PLM.
"The certification report written by TEC for Lectra Fashion PLM is an excellent decision-making aid and confirms the solution's relevance for meeting the specific needs of companies in the fashion industry," said Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. "The report provides a key to understanding PLM that will enable fashion companies to explore it without trepidation and to save time and gain confidence in identifying the ideal partner to support them in their project."
TEC: Internationally recognized certification tools and methods
Founded in 1993, TEC helps organizations evaluate and select software solutions tailored to their needs by providing decision-makers with the tools, studies, and expert help required to make the best choice. TEC is the leading online technology research company, with 1.6 million registered members and more than 3.5 million monthly online visitors.
TEC offers, among other things, decision support software (DSS) enabling stakeholders to objectively identify the software solutions best suited to their operational, technical, and performance optimization requirements. The evaluation method developed by TEC determines the ability of solutions to meet the needs and priorities identified by companies and ultimately allows decision-makers to reduce the risks involved in selecting corporate IT solutions. TEC has the necessary legitimacy for evaluating PLM solutions, particularly those aimed at the fashion industries.
Lectra Fashion PLM: TEC certification results
After a two-month certification process, TEC determined that Lectra Fashion PLM proved to be a solution specially designed for and suited to managing product lifecycles, facilitating the collaboration necessary to companies in the fashion industry. Other more generalized PLM publishers and suppliers of transaction-based ERP solutions have tried to address the fashion market with products and systems developed for other sectors, like the automotive and aerospace industries. Lectra, however, has a remarkably firm grasp of the commercial context unique to fashion companies. This means they can deliver ideal responses to fashion-specific concerns based on extensive experience with the processes of designing, developing, and producing products specific to this sector.
TEC confirms that Lectra is a PLM market leader in offering full collaborative solutions combining technology with services that are tailored to the needs of companies in the fashion industry. Lectra Fashion PLM stands out for its ability to integrate both cross-company collection management processes (planning, supplier management, etc.) and sector-specific applications for design, pattern-making, prototyping, and marker-making. It addresses these tasks at a level far superior to the average PLM market players. According to the TEC Focus Indicator, Lectra Fashion PLM is categorized as dominant for manufacturing process management, product quality and compliance, visual merchandising, design and product developments, and core PLM functionality for fashion/retail industries.
"Users of Lectra Fashion PLM have the advantage of also being able to use Lectra's other sector-specific solutions such as Kaledo®, Modaris®, and Optiplan®, which are now integrated with it. Although Lectra Fashion PLM also interfaces with other design applications and enterprise software, the synergy between its own PLM solution and its other CAD-CAM applications is unparalleled," said TEC PLM analyst Kurt Chen.
Lectra Fashion PLM: Five strengths highlighted by TEC’s certification report
The TEC certification awarded to Lectra Fashion PLM highlights five particular strengths. These are excellent entry points to help fashion companies understand and embark with confidence on a PLM project.
A PLM system conceived and designed exclusively for the fashion industries
The sector-specific processes of the fashion industry are fairly unique. The terminology, concept of collections, large number of products, and frequent collection turnover are features particular to fashion, requiring tailored expertise and know-how. Lectra Fashion PLM is ergonomically designed to provide everyone inside and outside the company with quicker, easier, and more intuitive integration into the working environment, regardless of profile—product managers, designers, pattern makers, suppliers, subcontractors—or geographical location. Lectra’s more than 35 years’ experience working with the world’s largest fashion houses guarantees the highest standard of reference data and integrated sector-specific processes based on market best practices.
Facilitated, controlled deployment
Through its web-based architecture and Easy Start implementation method, which integrates sector-specific processes and best practices, companies can deploy Lectra Fashion PLM rapidly, maximizing their return on investment. The solution is particularly flexible and can grow with their needs, accelerating change management in the design environment and enabling users to be up and running more quickly.
Every PLM project is backed by the expertise of Lectra's consultants, ensuring implementation is as smooth, successful, and controlled as possible, regardless of company size or business models.
Better planning and schedule management
For fashion companies, better planning and schedule management facilitates the organization and monitoring of collection development processes, while taking changing trends into account and maintaining a consistent brand image and signature.
Line planning is the cornerstone of collection management. It guarantees the profitability of a collection early on in the product development process by providing better visibility and greater reactivity to potential challenges. Integrating targets, profit margins, budgets, and prices makes it easier to evaluate sales potential. Schedule management gives managers an overview of collection progress so that any difficulties or costly delays can be anticipated and resolved. This real-time overall view of the collection plan, which combines time metrics with financial metrics, ensures more effective and proactive decision-making.
Tailored and integrated management of the design and development processes
Lectra Fashion PLM incorporates fashion industry process-specific know-how (design, pattern-making, prototyping, and marker-making) enabling companies to address the entire product development cycle from the initial design stage. The working environment and ergonomics offered by Lectra Fashion PLM are particularly well-suited to designers and pattern makers. This is due to the integration of its sector-specific design and pattern-making solutions, which helps guarantee the quality and consistency of product data throughout the collection development process.
Intelligent and exhaustive production process management
Lectra also ensures that the production process interfaces seamlessly with its PLM solution. All the data necessary for production is available and accessible company-wide, facilitating optimization of costs and production times. Its wide range of production process management tools (material savings management, cutting order planning) can simulate various production scenarios and identify the most suitable of these.
A fully interfaced value chain promotes excellent flexibility and responsiveness to last-minute changes in styles and trends, essential to brands for maintaining their competitive advantage.
For more information about Lectra Fashion PLM, please visit:
http://www.lectra.com/zh-cn/fashion_plm/index.html
Link to access TEC’s certification report:
About Technology Evaluation Centers
Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) helps private-and public-sector organizations choose the best enterprise software solutions for their unique business needs -- quickly, impartially, and cost-effectively. TEC’s online Evaluation Centers, containing IT research and extensive knowledge bases that catalog vendors' support for thousands of enterprise software features and functions, are the leading resource for IT decision makers around the world. By combining that information with a proven methodology, unique Web-based software selection platforms, and years of software selection expertise, TEC delivers an unmatched range of online software evaluation and selection services that bridge the gap between enterprise decision makers and the vendor/value-added reseller (VAR) community.
For more information, please visit www.technologyevaluation.com.
About Lectra
Lectra is the world leader in integrated technology solutions that automate, streamline and accelerate product design, development and manufacturing processes for industries using soft materials. Lectra develops the most advanced specialized software and cutting systems and provides associated services to a broad array of markets including fashion (apparel, accessories, footwear), automotive (car seats and interiors, airbags), furniture, as well as a wide variety of other market sectors, such as the aeronautical and marine industries, wind power and personal protective equipment. Lectra serves 23,000 customers in more than 100 countries with 1,400 employees and $214 million in 2009 revenues. The company is listed on NYSE Euronext.
For more information, please visit www.lectra.com
® Kaledo, Modaris, and Optiplan are registered trademarks of Lectra.
