CHICAGO — Casual Male Retail Group expects to slash by half the time it takes to develop merchandise and get it into stores once the retailer has fully deployed software that tracks activity every step of the way.
That’s a “conservative” estimate, according to Roger Mayerson, vice president of product development and global sourcing at the $421 million retailer. Product development time varies from line to line, he noted, but can take as long as eight months today.
Mayerson told WWD that Casual Male is installing product life cycle management and global sourcing software from New Generation Computing of Miami. News of the deal will be announced Tuesday during the American Apparel & Footwear Association’s Material World conference in Miami Beach.
A lack of “transparency in the supply chain” is the chief pain point the new software will address, said Mayerson.
“We really do not have the ability to know, on a day-to-day basis, what is the condition of our orders,” he said. “Just keeping track of the approvals is quite a process in itself.” The software monitors each step in the production process and consolidates communications for Casual Male and its vendors via the Internet.
Casual Male’s buyers, planners, logistics, sourcing and transportation staff will be able to tap into the system to track production progress and timetables relevant to their jobs. “Anyone can follow the dialogue train,” Mayerson said. The current system for monitoring projects is spreadsheet-based.
Installation of the integrated software, called e-SPS, began two weeks ago at Casual Male’s Canton, Mass., headquarters and should be completed by June. Mayerson said all vendors will be linked into the system by the end of the year.
Product life cycle management software is entering the apparel vernacular as more companies accelerate their speed-to-market initiatives. Fred Isenberg, vice president of sales at New Generation Computing, said the process of taking a product from design concept to store can involve 100 to 150 distinct steps and companies are looking to manage that process more efficiently.
“The challenge is dealing with speed, distance, complexity and sku [stockkeeping unit] proliferation,” he said. “Why is PLM becoming so important? Because you have one-third of the time to get more stuff done 10,000 miles away with more sku’s than ever.”