CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
17 October 2005
Implementation Investments
Woolworths to Improve Speed to Market on Clothing Lines and Strengthen Supply Chain With Geac QuestPLM Solution
Woolworths, the Cape Town, South Africa-based retail group, has invested US$750,000 with Geac ® in order to roll out Geac's QuestPLM (product lifecycle management) solution across its entire clothing offering. This is expected to increase the speed to market of clothing and footwear products that will be available throughout Woolworths' 200+ stores throughout South Africa and approximately 50+ franchise stores in other parts of Africa and the Middle East. This will be the second phase of Woolworths' QuestPLM deployment; the software already is yielding benefits to Woolworth's womenswear department.
The solution from Geac RunTime, a division of Geac that specializes in IT solutions for the apparel and footwear industry, is designed to ensure that confirmed new products are automatically transferred into Woolworths' sales and inventory system. Previously this had to be done manually, often delaying the launch of new collections.
Woolworths will also work with Geac to integrate Quest PLM with Woolworths' pending implementation of the Retek RMS stock management system and Woolworths' existing Knowledge Management systems to enable Woolworths to improve workflow and streamline the product development lifecycle.
The QuestPLM solution will replace the previously manual product specification to suppliers, as well as enabling the measurement and tracking of key milestones in the product development critical path. The improvements to Woolworths' supply chain will mean shorter lead times, with improved availability of clothing, footwear and accessories products.
The Woolworths brand retains a great deal of international premium pedigree. Based on the department store model, Woolworths, in addition to a food and homeware range offers a full range of clothing, from lingerie and womenswear to footwear, menswear and childswear. The Geac PLM solution is expected to help Woolworths improve availability of these clothing and footwear ranges as well as streamline quality management processes.
With 10 suppliers already linked into QuestPLM, Woolworths also is reviewing the roll out of the solution to impose common standards throughout its supply chain.
Gerard Roux, Head of IT for Woolworths explains these changes to the supply chain are expected to have a significant impact upon Woolworths' operations: "One of the key benefits of QuestPLM is that it has enabled us to start measuring steps in the critical path within our supply chain. Our historically manual product development processes have brought with them some inherent delays that QuestPLM's automation can remove. As we implement the QuestPLM system we are enabling our buying teams to adopt a more standard, more manageable process with measurable results. QuestPLM enables transparency and sharing of product information in a standard way, improving things for us and our suppliers, most of whom are local and share a long relationship with Woolworths."
"Our customers trust us to offer them great value. Offering innovative products of exceptional quality at a good price is our key value differentiator within the clothing market. To ensure that we exceed our customer's expectations, our buyers and clothing technologists are closely involved in the specification and development process for our products. Our use of QuestPLM means that these processes are now a quicker and more effective part of our supply chain helping us to offer more relevant, more innovative product to our customers."
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