Premium active and streetwear brand, P.E Nation could see that its existing business processes were breaking under a rapidly growing customer base and strong sales. “Small business, rapid growth, increased SKU counts- we were increasing our ranging in different categories and all of a sudden we found ourselves with 10 different spreadsheets for information. We began to see pain points”, reveals Mark Rogers, Head of Operations at P.E Nation.
“Not having one source of truth or having a single location for information was challenging. There were times when we would have the wrong style number, or something wouldn’t get updated. The bigger the business gets, the slower spreadsheets move, and that leads to frustration as well.
The business knew it could greatly benefit from a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Rogers explains the decision to implement a new digital transformation tool, “To scale a business properly you need everything under one roof and PLM was the natural next step for us.”
P.E Nation selected Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
“We looked at a lot of PLM solutions, but we settled on Centric because simply, it made sense to us. The P.E Nation team are very creative in their approach to work so the link between Adobe Illustrator and PLM means the design team can create a style in Illustrator and send it straight through. The ability to have everything under one roof- tech packs, specs and costings makes things really straightforward.”
“The ease of the interface, the usability, the fact that we can generate reports out of it- it’s a one stop shop.”
P.E Nation worked directly with Centric Software’s Australian based teams to implement Centric PLM with great success and the company quickly reaped the benefits of working with one version of the truth.
“The beauty of Centric is that its cloud-based. You can use it even if you’re not coming into the office. The pandemic is a classic example, you know you’re in lockdown for 5 days, but it doesn’t stop you working, it doesn’t stop you moving forward.”
“The feedback I’ve had back from the team is really positive, some people have completed their work before the deadline. They can see how user friendly it is and how much faster they can get their work done.”
“In the next months I think we are going to see efficiencies, not only in creating styles but approving those styles too. Centric PLM will link to our sales tool, so as soon as a style is approved by sales, it’s pulled straight through into their system, which is phenomenal. No more mistakes, no more pulling things in incorrectly.”
“From a production perspective, with the link to our ERP system, we think that will probably save us 3-4 weeks of time in every collection, which is massive. It means essentially the team can focus back on product and that’s ultimately what we’re about at P.E Nation.”
The next phase of the PLM project is due to start soon. P.E Nation will integrate its suppliers with Centric PLM for maximum collaboration, to save time and ensure accuracy.
“That will be the next big efficiency for us. Rather than having to send an email, information will come straight from the system. You don’t have to open up a massive costing spreadsheet that takes half an hour to update because it’s so complicated.”
You can watch the full interview with P.E Nation in this exclusive Q&A Webinar Replay. Watch now
