Infor recently announced the latest version of Infor PLM Runtime, a comprehensive product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for the apparel and footwear manufacturing industries. With nearly 40 new features, the new version includes tools to help manufacturers enhance collaboration with suppliers and improve the efficiency and timeliness of new product development and introduction processes. Infor PLM Runtime enables apparel and footwear manufacturers to design, source and deliver innovative products.
Jane Thomson, MD of Softworx, an EOH company and distributor of Infor in Sub-Saharan Africa, says that in today's fashion industry, rapid style changes dictate that the lifecycle of seasonal product lines may only be a few weeks. This narrow window requires manufacturers to improve supplier collaboration as part of a more efficient supply chain.
"When changes occur throughout the supply chain, Infor PLM Runtime enables companies to adjust without disrupting their normal business processes, reducing the risk of not meeting customer requirements," Thomson explains. "In addition, a new self-service feature enables suppliers to access real-time information, simplifying communication across the entire supply chain and significantly reducing shipping costs and production time."
New features in Infor PLM Runtime include:
* Supplier delivery management, which ensures on-time and on-budget delivery of components from multiple vendors to the manufacturer.
* Cross-brand checking, which enables companies who design and produce multiple brands in the same manufacturing facility to ensure the consistency and integrity of each brand.
* More universal symbols for care labels, eliminating the need to translate care instructions for products sold globally.
* Sample order processing, which permits multiple bids to be sent to vendors and automatically converted to sales orders. This capability allows manufacturers to assess new brands and vendors without impacting the production process.
* Improved cost calculators allow manufacturers to model for multiple production and supplier scenarios and make trade-offs as necessary to minimise costs. With this enhancement, companies can identify and certify secondary and tertiary suppliers to source materials quickly and ensure accurate costing.
As more apparel and footwear manufacturers move their production overseas to cut costs, the ability to communicate across the enterprise becomes more of a challenge, says Rory Granros, director, industry and product marketing, process industries and PLM, Infor. "The new enhancements in Infor PLM Runtime enable manufacturers to effectively manage these globalisation challenges and control the flow of product data across their organisation, while improving communication with suppliers during the critical development phase."
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Infor delivers fully integrated enterprise solutions, as well as best-in-class standalone products that address the essential challenges its customers face in areas such as enterprise resource planning, supply chain planning and execution, customer and supplier relationship management, asset management, product lifecycle management, financial management, performance management and business intelligence. With more than 8,100 employees and offices in 100 countries, Infor provides enterprise solutions to more than 70,000 customers. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.
Softworx
Softworx is a successful South-African business applications company that prides itself in being able to deliver world-class products to its extensive customer base, which includes a number of Fortune 500 companies. In addition, Softworx supports clients in industries ranging from manufacturing, retail, distribution and financial to supporting various government entities. The company is dedicated to marketing, implementing and providing support for its range of complimentary software products to medium and large enterprises that require effective solutions to optimize their business processes. Softworx has positioned itself as a leading provider of business applications in South Africa specialising in end-to-end business solutions. The company prides itself in being able to deliver true value to its customers through the implementation of business solutions based on a powerful combination of leading edge products and consultancy. As a wholly owned subsidiary of EOH, Softworx has increased the number of services and products that can be offered to its customers from within the group.
EOH
EOH is a business and technology solutions provider creating lifelong partnerships by developing business and IT strategies, supplying and implementing solutions and managing enterprise-wide business systems and processes for medium to large clients.
EOH operates in the following three clusters of business units as a fully integrated business:
Technology - Through a number of subsidiary companies, EOH is able to sell, implement and support a range of world-class business applications including ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, Advanced Planning and Scheduling, e-Commerce and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).
Consulting - Concentrated under the EOH Consulting brand are business units offering services ranging from strategic and business process consulting, project services, change management, supply chain optimisation and education.
Outsourcing - EOH offers comprehensive maintenance and support of client's IT infrastructure and applications through the rendering of full IT Outsourcing, Application Hosting and Managed Services. In addition EOH offers full Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services.
EOH has a presence in all major centres in South Africa and operates in the rest of Africa.
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