Iconic multicategory retailer celebrates ‘beacon’ PLM implementation, boosting collaboration, visibility and costing efficiencies
Centric Software is delighted to announce the release of a success story about its customer, Woolworths. Woolworths offers a unique blend of food, fashion, beauty, homeware and financial services. The first Woolworths store opened its doors to the public in Cape Town in October 1931 and Woolworths prides itself on being a values-driven organization that strives to go to market first with what matters. With a team of over 31,000 people in South Africa, over 43,000 people across the Group in the Southern Hemisphere, and a comprehensive product mix, it is an understatement to say their business model is complex. Prior to PLM, there were too many complexities in the way products would be attributed, coded and managed at Woolworths. Their large supplier base added additional layers of complexity and quality management was not standardized.
On top of this, the business was working in an outdated legacy Product Data Management (PDM) system, resulting in an overreliance on email and Excel, duplication of work and a lack of traceability and standardized business processes. Woolworths needed a digital transformation solution to streamline operations, modernize processes and stay competitive in the challenging retail landscape.
“The question of finding the right PLM is what took a bit of time… we had to make sure that we could find the right system to be able to cater to all of the complexities and nuances across our product mix,” shares Moira Alexander, Manager of Improvement Projects at Woolworths. “We’re a big ship, we don’t turn very quickly.”
Woolworths selected Centric PLM for a variety of reasons including Centric Software’s expertise in fashion and retail, impressive customer endorsements and high satisfaction rates as well as the opportunity for truly localized project support.
“From the beginning, we didn’t just put in a PLM system, we re-examined how we worked and identified gaps and opportunities, trying to understand how we could make the systems and the processes work better,” says Alexander.Woolworths has realized significant ROI since the rollout in terms of time saved, communication and collaboration, removing duplication of work, cost-efficiencies and increased visibility. The project was delivered on-time, under budget and with a larger scope that originally estimated.
Discover how PLM delivered transformational change at this iconic multi-category retailer by reading the full Woolworths Success Story! Read the full story here.
