Aéropostale® Inc., a mall-based specialty retailer of casual apparel for young women and men, has implemented Gerber Technology’s YuniquePLM™ software to optimize and increase collaboration between its headquarters and global suppliers. By implementing YuniquePLM, Aéropostale’s designers, sourcing team and vendors speak a much more consistent language.
With retail and manufacturing operations in many different locations, clear communication is absolutely essential for success. Gillian Maser, senior product manager for Corporate Initiatives at Aéropostale, said, “Because YuniquePLM is an organized, structured system, it allows us to be consistent with how we’re communicating.” She continued, “All of the information is in one location within the tech packs we’re passing to vendors, so our production partners know where to look for certain types of data. It’s always going to be in the same place.”
YuniquePLM is also helping designers at Aéropostale realize operational efficiencies by pre-positioning fabric needs within YuniquePLM across its headquarters and supplier network. Vendors may begin locating fabric options, eliminating the need for designers to recreate fabric specifications. Jessica McDermott, design director of Men’s Knits at Aéropostale, said, “The information we are sharing with production can be pulled as a report with a higher level of accuracy, while contributing to design’s final tech pack completion. It’s in a system so we’re one step closer to the final result, which is a tech pack, and we’re streamlining our workload rather than adding duplicative work.”
Version 5.1 of YuniquePLM further enhances the work of designers with integrated functionality with Adobe® Illustrator®, the industry standard. “We are delighted to provide Aéropostale with our powerful and flexible solution that will help them maximize efficiency and increase effective collaboration,” said Bill Brewster, vice president of Global Sales and Marketing for Yunique Solutions. “We continuously strive to make lives easier across organizations, from top level leaders to sourcing and design. With V5, we have further enhanced our industry-leading user experience with things like deep integration with Adobe, a suite of mobile apps and drag and drop functionality.”
