French manufacturer Aubade selects Centric Software PLM

Aubade is the French manufacturer, distributor and retailer of high-end women’s lingerie and ready-to-wear apparel. The company will implement the Calendar Management, Cost Scenario, Materials Management, Product Specification and Product Sourcing modules of the Centric 8 PLM software for retail, apparel, footwear, luxury and consumer goods companies.

Users will include product managers, designers, and members of product development, industrialization, quality control, research and development, and technical development staff around the world.

Rapid growth, two operational models

Until recently, Aubade handled all product design, development and manufacturing, while selling only through channels. Now, the business is expanding rapidly into the retail sector, according to Annie Bureau, Aubade’s operations director, and already operates more than 55 stores. This expansion created a need to accelerate product development, and that led the company to select Centric 8 PLM, says Bureau.

To date, Aubade has relied on spreadsheets to manage product development. “As Aubade continues to open new retail outlets and increase the number of collections each year, it is more important than ever to implement a system to help assure reliability and accuracy,” says Bureau. “The Centric PLM software is the way to accomplish this.”

Aubade will use the Centric PLM suite to accommodate two separate operational models. For its lingerie products, Aubade directly handles product design, development and manufacturing. For day and night ready-to-wear apparel lines, Aubade outsources the manufacturing.

By working with “one version of the truth” about each product, Bureau explains, staff can better track development progress, improve data reliability and increase productivity across all product lines, all departments and all locations. With Centric 8 PLM’s ability to integrate with Aubade’s ERP system, Aubade can avoid data duplication.