CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
19 August 2009
Company News
TradeStone Partners with ARTS to Set Retail PLM Standards
TradeStone Software, delivering Merchandise Lifecycle Management solutions that unify the design, sourcing and delivery of private label and branded goods, announced they have partnered with the Association of Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the technology standards division of the National Retail Federation. Together TradeStone and ARTS are working closely with leading retailers including Urban Outfitters, Lowe’s, Macy’s and Kohl’s as a Product Specification Committee to develop product standards for private label and branded goods.
TradeStone’s February PLM for Retail Standards Committee meeting involving retailers Guitar Center, Auchan, Pacific Sunwear and others has evolved into a retailer-led effort and collaboration with ARTS. The newly formed Product Specification Committee is working on enhancing the ARTS Item Schema and GS1 standards to develop XML schema representation for item specification focused on new product development. The Committee also aims to support accurate data capture for driving efficient product development cycles, communication with different parties involved (buyer, supplier, manufacturer, inspection/testing companies) and master data management.
“Urban Outfitters already uses ARTS standards for several of our internal systems, therefore this is a natural extension for us that will fit in well with the work we are doing with TradeStone’s Merchandise Lifecycle Management solutions,” said Mike Sparks, Director of Supply Chain Systems, Urban Outfitters.
Product Specification Committee meetings have already begun, initially focusing on Product Quality and Testing and Product Construction including Colors, Materials and Components. Future meetings will cover Labeling, Packaging and Handling, Merchandise Calendars and Merchandise Hierarchy.
“Our customers identified the opportunity to standardize product specifications related data for private label and new product development,” said Kamal Anand, CTO, TradeStone Software and Committee Co-Chair. “We reviewed the ARTS process for developing retail standards and their global implementation rate and decided it was best to develop these standards within ARTS. We look forward to working with them and with Lowe’s, Urban Outfitters, TJX and others on this exciting project.”
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