yutori Inc., the Japanese direct to consumer (DTC) fashion start-up, has selected Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, cosmetics, food & beverage and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.
Founded in Tokyo in 2018, yutori Inc. operates a popular vintage fashion community and owns several direct-to-consumer brands, targeting young adults in their teens and twenties. In 2020, yutori announced a partnership with ZOZO Corporation, which operates Japan’s largest fashion shopping site, ZOZOTOWN, to collaborate on apparel manufacturing and inventory management.
yutori develops and sells many products in collaboration with suppliers and urgently needed to improve sourcing and procurement efficiency due to rapid business growth and expanding supplier numbers. In addition, to better prepare for its future IPO, yutori needed to strengthen internal controls and information management.
yutori was using tools such as e-mail, spreadsheets and instant messaging to communicate with suppliers for product planning, quotation requests, order placement and product delivery. However, as the amount and different types of data increased, the company decided a PLM system was essential to enable more efficient information sharing and improve the speed and control of sourcing.
After researching various solutions, yutori decided to implement based on Centric’s global track record in fashion, high configurability and ability to flexibly respond to future business expansion. In December 2021, yutori kicked off their PLM implementation.
yutori plans to use Centric’s product development, material management, procurement management, calendar management and workflow tools to accelerate the efficiency of information sharing with its suppliers.
Kazuma Senokuchi, board member and COO of yutori Inc., says, “We believe that Centric PLM is the best solution to achieve our goal of visualizing the real-time status of sourcing and sharing product plans with the team. Although we are still in the early stages of implementation, we are confident that the capability to track transaction records and communicate with suppliers will reduce risk by eliminating human error. We expect to integrate everything from product planning to procurement on the PLM system.”
“We are delighted that yutori, a fast-growing company in the Japanese fashion industry, has chosen Centric as their partner,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “We look forward to working closely with yutori throughout implementation and beyond to help them achieve their business expansion goals.”
