With customers such as Carrefour, Leclerc, Casino and Galeries Lafayette, it was vital for GilClaude to meticulously manage their product lifecycle – from creation to final inspection – as well as empower creativity, agility and efficiency in order to adapt to market needs.
Founded in 1958, GilClaude is strategically located in Marseille – where technical design and creation takes place – and works with owned factories in Egypt, enabling the group to respond rapidly to market challenges and focus on innovation.
“Historically, we are a small organization, but our goal has always been to adopt the most efficient tools possible. We implemented quality certification very early on, as well as an ERP and PDM system. Recently, it became evident to us that we needed to improve responsiveness in the different phases of product development and to speed up our processes,” explains Éric Ammar, CEO of GilClaude.
GilClaude also offer comprehensive end-to-end services, often acting as a style office for its clients’ marketing teams, so seamless collaboration and an impeccable workflow in both production and logistics was paramount.
“We wanted better interface connectivity with our platforms abroad, to be able to share technical production data more efficiently, to further automate our manufacturing chain and to better control production monitoring by directly connecting our workshops and offices with our internal monitoring tools. Our first objective with this project is to improve productivity and speed of execution.”
GilClaude is also counting on its partnership with Centric Software to work on an important area for the group, and one which is increasingly called upon; to improve the traceability of each component of its products to meet transparency requirements (in terms of environmental impact and also of social responsibility).
“We already had a good level of traceability on our materials in general, and we have always integrated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives into our approach. For example, we are mindful of choosing the closest locations when importing products. And now, there are tools that allow us to prove the effectiveness of our initiatives and offer us very clear traceability. Upgrading to modern tools like Centric PLM is an important way for us to prepare for the future.”
For GilClaude, the impact of COVID-19 – from disrupted processes and newly remote teams, to customers grappling with local lockdowns – triggered the decision to find a new solution that would meet its ambitious digital transformation goals.
“What made the difference was the maturity of Centric PLM, the particularly clean, simple and user-friendly interface, and the fact that the solution as a whole is much more advanced than elsewhere on the market,” explains brand founder, Gil Claude.
From Centric’s comprehensive product suite, the Final Inspection Module won over the group. GilClaude will utilize the module to facilitate the work of its quality inspectors, who are ever-present in the factories at the various stages of production, and who have to manage a large number of business-critical validations.
“For a small organization like ours, carrying out a potentially heavy digital transformation in terms of deployment is a big challenge. The level of support and quality of Centric’s technical team were important factors for us,” concludes Claude.
“We are pleased to collaborate with a company that is so committed to CSR and focused on innovation and the future of fashion,” said Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric.
