NGC Software announced that Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits, a leading importer of quality children’s and women’s apparel, has gone live on NGC’s fashion PLM and Supply Chain Management (SCM) solution. Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits is a privately held New York-based company that supplies apparel to such leading retailers as Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Belks and Dress Barn.
Prior to NGC’s software, Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits relied on manual and repetitive processes that made workload control and collaboration a consistent struggle. “Processes were unique to individuals rather than departments or the organization,” said Austin Mallis, vice president of operations at Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits. “Workloads could not be managed, and we had no tools to understand where we stood on specific styles or orders."
"We needed a solution that allowed us to get the product developed and produced in the most timely and effective way. NGC has tremendous experience in the fashion industry and offers a broad range of tools for success, allowing us to stay ahead of the curve.”
Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits is realizing a number of key benefits, including:
Streamlined workflow and improved collaboration. NGC’s software presents a single, collaborative platform that helps Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits standardize all PLM and SCM processes. As an example, Mallis said, “Collaboration brought our Shanghai office and design team closer together, empowering them and allowing everyone to work and share information without a glitch."
Data can be shared seamlessly throughout the organization using NGC's exception management and global collaboration features, improving communication flow and productivity. NGC's solution has already reduced the volume of email and daily information requests by 40 percent—providing a dramatic improvement in overall efficiency.
Improved task management. NGC’s workflow calendars and exception management tools ensure accountability throughout the design/production process at Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits. “Users can easily stay on top of current, future and past due responsibilities,” Mallis said. “These are revolutionary tools at Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits. Prior to NGC, there was no way to manage individual tasks by factory, user or retailer. Now we can quickly manage information and focus on specific tasks.”
Increased speed to market. NGC's software is playing a central role in helping Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits continually reduce product development time and achieve faster speed to market. "PLM and Supply Chain Management are most effective when integrated in an end-to-end process. For us to be successful we needed software that took us from start to finish in the product lifecycle, and NGC allows us to do that,” Mallis said.
“NGC’s solutions are opening up conversations about the best way to check processes and make improvements,” Mallis concluded. “This lets us focus on our core apparel business and directs us to the most efficient development processes attainable by our team."
"Fashion Avenue Sweater knits has embraced new opportunities to streamline its operations with NGC's software, and Austin and his team have demonstrated tremendous leadership," said Mark Burstein, president of sales, marketing and R&D at NGC. "We're looking forward to continuing our strong working relationship with Fashion Avenue Sweater Knits."
