Industry Summary Articles

TXT Retail, an Aptos Company, announced today that the European online retailer and mail order specialist Atlas for Men has successfully implemented the TXTPLM (product lifecycle management) solution to support all phases of product creation, development and costing.

With TXTPLM, Atlas for Men is streamlining processes and communication for all stakeholders involved in the creation and management of collections, resulting in shorter product lifecycle processes and faster time to market.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Paris, Atlas for Men provides outdoor clothing and accessories at very attractive prices. The company, which is rapidly growing its multichannel presence through catalogues, mail, web, mobile and TV campaigns, operates in 10 European countries — including France, Belgium, Germany and Russia — serving over 3.5 million customers.

"This rollout has already generated benefits, including the speeding up of the design process, accurate technical product descriptions and improved communication," said Marie Malespine, Purchasing and Supply Chain Performance Manager at Atlas for Men. "Everybody is very satisfied with the system; it is intuitive and user-friendly, making us faster and more effective in a fast-moving business sector."

"From parkas, jumpers and trousers to shoes, underwear, back-packs and accessories, we offer everything for an outdoor lifestyle," Malespine added. "With 17 collections per year, one every three weeks, our pace of innovation is extremely fast. TXTPLM covers all of our needs, and we particularly value its ability to provide each user, specifically our designers and purchasers, with a familiar working environment, thanks to the embedded Excel connector and its integration with Adobe Illustrator."

After each style meeting, Atlas for Men enters new style information in TXTPLM, centralizing all designs, product specifications and costing information within the system. Tech-packs are shared with suppliers and, following the negotiation process, samples are received and validated for production.

"Suppliers say the tech-packs are now extremely clear, which minimizes reworking and sampling iterations, and has positive impacts in terms of process efficiency and time to market," said Malespine. "Adopting TXTPLM has helped us rationalize the process and the information to be included in tech-packs. Being more efficient in regard to processes and communication means that we can make decisions later in the process and thus be extremely responsive to demand and market changes."

For its TXTPLM implementation, Atlas for Men leveraged the TXT AgileFit deployment methodology, which allowed the project to be delivered within a tight timeframe. During the next project phase, Atlas for Men will be connecting approximately 15 key global suppliers to the system. It will also focus on the Line Planning process by extending the use of TXTPLM to forecasting and marketing departments.

"Atlas for Men has a clear vision of PLM and the benefits that an extended approach connecting creativity, development, suppliers and planners can bring in terms of efficiency and speed in such a dynamic and growing multichannel business," said Noel Goggin, Aptos CEO and culture leader. "We are proud to work with such a talented team and pleased with the results achieved so far."

To view the original press release, please click here.

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