CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
26 March 2012
Implementation Investments
Les Enphants Adopts Lectra Fashion PLM
Lectra announced the adoption of Lectra Fashion PLM at Les Enphants. Les Enphants is one of China's largest producers and distributors of apparel, sportswear, and other accessories for children, whose children's wear brands include Les Enphants, Disney baby, Barbie, Roberta di Camerino, Peter Rabbit, Absorba, and Claire Kids.
The recent evolution in Chinese consumer habits has resulted in considerable market growth for Les Enphants. While good for business, the increased demand put pressure on the company's product development process, especially in design.
Rising development costs meant refining product development and supply chain operations were as crucial for Les Enphants as reinforcing design. Given the company's potential for expansion in the Chinese market, they decided to equip themselves with a product life cycle management solution that would support their growth for the next three to five years. The goal is to reengineer the Les Enphants process with Les Enphants' long term development in mind.
"There are many PLM solutions on the market, but Lectra Fashion PLM integrates professional tools for fashion-specific roles. The Lectra team is very experienced in the entire design and development chain; this full level of support is exactly what we were looking for," says Lily Lin, Apparel Division Senior VP at Les Enphants.
Les Enphants implemented Lectra Fashion PLM to ensure continuous improvement in product quality and avoid redundant work in the development process. Easier communication has resulted in significant savings, as well as an accelerated production pace. Celine Yo from Les Enphants' Apparel Division feels that Lectra Fashion PLM brings order to a chaos of information. "We have significantly less repetitive work now that we can leverage thoroughly design resources, make changes we needed quickly, and communicate more accurately within and across teams," she says. "This has shortened the overall product planning cycle and made it much more efficient."
The fashion industry worldwide, and especially in China, is changing at a very fast pace. As the Chinese apparel scene is shifting rapidly from an export-focused market to a burgeoning domestic consumer base, it is critical to have both a solid process and rich technology in place.
"It is more important than ever to give teams flexibility and structure, and to fully capitalize on talent," emphasizes Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO. "Lectra Fashion PLM, with fully integrated fashion and textile design, puts creative teams at the heart of development, which ultimately means a more competitive, targeted product."
This competitive advantage is one of the main drivers behind the decision to work with Lectra.
"We sought Lectra out for their industry expertise and ability to infuse our development process with best-practices," says Lily Lin. "From big-picture process improvement to day-to-day operations, they were able to advise us on the best way to get things done."
About Les Enphants
Created in 1993, Shanghai Les Enphants counts around 4000 employees and 1,888 retail outlets in China, including department stores and own-brand stores, and records annual revenues of $228 million. Focused equally on design and marketing, the company manufactures and distributes children's apparel, sportswear, and other accessories under the proprietary brands Les Enphants, My Nuno and Nac Nac, as well as licensed brands including Disney, Barbie, Roberta di Camerino, Absorba, Claire.dk, Peter Rabbit, Pigeon, and Combi.
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