PTC FlexPLM delivers a single PLM platform to Brown Shoe

23 Mar '09

3 min read

PTC, the Product Development Company, announced that Brown Shoe Company Inc, a footwear company with worldwide operations, has taken steps to improve collaboration and enhance visibility within its global product development process by implementing as its technology tool the PTC Footwear and Apparel solution FlexPLM. This move is Brown Shoe's first step in the implementation of its previously announced enterprise-wide information technology initiatives.

FlexPLM delivers a single Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform to Brown Shoe, and is expected to enable the company to gain early visibility into its product development processes, improve collaboration, effectively manage costs and reduce development times. Brown Shoe is a $2.3 billion global footwear company that inspires people to look and feel good every day, with a compelling portfolio of loved and trusted brands.

The company operates the more than 1,100 store Famous Footwear chain, offering more than 80 brands for the whole family, and markets leading footwear brands including Naturalizer, Franco Sarto, LifeStride, Dr. Scholl's, Via Spiga, Etienne Aigner and Carlos by Carlos Santana for adults, as well as Buster Brown children's footwear.

Based on PTC's Windchill technology, FlexPLM is an intuitive, Web-based solution that streamlines communication, tracks milestones, pre-empts performance bottlenecks, and provides instant visibility throughout the product development value chain. Highly scalable and fully configurable, FlexPLM enables global product teams to work more efficiently and productively.

More than 18 months ago, Brown Shoe's product development team across the U.S. and China began an analysis of the company's systems and how its global supply chain could become even more streamlined, efficient and disciplined, while also cutting costs. The company sought a PLM solution that was created specifically to serve the needs of the footwear industry.

Following an extensive review, Brown Shoe selected and implemented FlexPLM because it supports footwear industry best practices, offers global access to a centralized library with version control, provides the ability to manage, streamline and reduce product development cycles and enables Brown Shoe to easily connect and communicate with its global suppliers and factory partners.

Brown Shoe utilizes FlexPLM to connect the development of its line calendar, the structure of line planning/sample planning, and the management of product specifications in one system that is accessible to everyone involved in the process. It offers the company critical visibility for planning and budgeting, and enables product developers to focus on creating great footwear for consumers.

“Ultimately, we expect FlexPLM to enable Brown Shoe to be an even better partner to retailers, factories and suppliers, while introducing trend-right footwear into the marketplace. This solution is designed to create a more cohesive product development process, which is important to managing our business well. It is still up to our teams to put in the work, but we expect FlexPLM to make it easier for product teams to speed up the development process, obtain visibility at every step and streamline one system for planning,” said Brown Shoe's Senior Vice President-Product and Sourcing Dan Friedman.

"PLM is one of the fastest growing areas of technology investment in the footwear and apparel industry because of its ability to deliver product development efficiencies,” said Kathleen Mitford, vice president, vertical market strategy, PTC. “Brown Shoe understands the value of PLM because it offers process standardization that can maximize collaboration across the business. We are happy to work with Brown Shoe and offer our expertise to help them achieve their strategic objectives.”

Parametric Technology Corporation

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