In this advertorial, Centric Software reveals how R.M.Williams is shifting its product development process to stay ahead.
In today’s fast-changing fashion landscape, brands must adapt quickly to shifting consumer demands, seasonal trends and fierce competition. Traditional product development processes—hampered by siloed data, inefficient workflows and limited team visibility—often result in missed opportunities, delays and inconsistent product quality.
Craftsmanship Meets Innovation
For an established brand like R.M.Williams, renowned for its commitment to quality and craftsmanship, these common industry challenges presented opportunities to innovate and enhance its processes.
To streamline operations and scale globally, R.M.Williams partnered with Centric Software to adopt Centric Product Lifecycle Management (Centric PLM), a centralized platform to manage product-related information and stages from beginning to end.
With Centric PLM, R.M.Williams aims to enhance market responsiveness, unify product data into a single source of truth and optimize design and production processes. This strategic partnership aligns with the company’s broader vision of global growth and delivering products that resonate with its customers.
Technology Driving Expansion
Paul Grosmann, Chief Executive Officer at R.M. Williams, shares, “As we continue to scale globally, it’s important to streamline our processes and improve collaboration across teams. Centric PLM provides us with a robust platform to manage our product development efficiently, enabling us to drive further expansion into new markets and categories.”
The decision to select Centric PLM followed a rigorous evaluation process. Centric stood out for its user-friendly interface, innovative product roadmap and strong local implementation support, making it the ideal partner for R.M.Williams.
Driving Responsiveness and Agility
The adoption of Centric PLM is expected to deliver significant benefits across R.M.Williams’s global teams, including Design & Product, Merchandising, Supply Chain and Commercial. Additionally, Centric PLM will improve product data accuracy, reduce errors and shorten time to market. “Adopting Centric PLM is a natural fit for our commitment to innovation," says Rachel Allen, Chief Design & Product Officer. "We expect to be more agile and responsive to market changes while ensuring we maintain our high standards of quality and craftsmanship.”
From Data Silos to a Single Source of Truth
Modern PLM solutions such as Centric PLM are essential for consumer goods brands aiming to boost efficiency, speed up time to market and improve market responsiveness. By centralizing product data, PLM enhances collaboration across design, sourcing, and production teams, eliminating silos and enabling quicker decision-making.
Integrating supply chain data gives brands insight into material availability and lead times, enhancing coordination with suppliers. Workflow automation, like BOM updates and compliance tracking, saves time for strategic tasks, while real-time insights support data-driven decisions. With optimized collaboration, digitized sampling, and improved supply chain visibility, PLM solutions help brands launch products faster while ensuring quality and sustainability.
A Smarter Way to Stay Ahead in Retail
For Australian brands and retailers looking toward the future, it’s essential to align their own product development and retail strategies with evolving consumer expectations. Get more insights on this in Centric Software’s eBook, “The Right Aisle Strategy for Retail Success”, where you will learn how AI-driven technology can curate the right assortments for your customers by analyzing trends and consumer behaviour, optimizing inventory and pricing and more to stay competitive and grow in the fashion and apparel industry.