Carhartt Enlists PLM Solution
Workwear brand Carhartt has selected Centric Software to provide a product lifecycle management solution.
In recent years, 128-year-old Carhartt has experienced rapid growth that led to increased complexity in its global operations, which caused the company to look for an effective PLM solution, according to Deb Ferraro, vice president of product development.
"Like most of our competitors, our manufacturing mix has grown to include overseas production.The key difference between Carhartt and many other manufacturers in our category is that we have always manufactured here in the U.S.," Ferraro explained. "Prior to Centric, we had a product data management system that was outdated, and it couldn't provide us with what we needed. Like many other brands, our main challenge is to get to market sooner."
"We needed better information to help us make decisions about what should be in our lines," Ferraro continued. "Our old system helped with our product specifications, but we didn't have one location with all the information about each product. Our fabric specs were housed in one place, our garment specs were housed in another place, and the line plan architecture was stored elsewhere. We needed a single source for the truth."
After considering offerings from several other vendors, Carhartt selected Centric. As Ferraro explains, "We looked at other software solutions, and some catered more to production, others more to retailers. Centric supports brands similar to ours, which was an important factor. The user-friendliness, intuitiveness of the software, and the fact that the user community has an influence on new areas of development was crucial in our decision-making process."
"We look forward to moving closer to market with better data to guide us on the season. We don't just want to reduce the time it takes to get to market, we want to eliminate multiple entries of the same information. We really expect that this will help us monitor our quality, not only in development, but also in production."
Carhartt was founded by Hamilton Carhartt in 1889 to make durable and safe clothing for railway workers. More than 128 years later, the brand remains family-owned. Growth in recent years has included the launch of a women's workwear line in 2007.