Opening Up New Horizons with 3DEXPERIENCE

With the elimination of quota and increasingly saturated markets, companies in the apparel, footwear and other fashion good segments are focusing on brand integrity and differentiation to remain competitive and gain market share. A major initiative in today's competitive environment is for companies to work closer than ever with their vendors and partners. Aligning market and product plans with vendors enables companies to enforce product positioning and messaging, leverage additional perspective and ensure shared values and commitments in the value chain.

To support these goals new tools and solutions are required for collaboration, visibility and control. The solution from Dassault Systèmes (DS) for Vendor Management encompasses a broad set of requirements for vendor and partner management. Robust processes for on-boarding and vendor development coupled with a strong partner profiling feature allow product managers to effectively manage their production resources.

The vendor profile enables detailed manufacturing definitions to support sourcing and placement decisions, monitor vendor relationships, while measuring business volume, terms and performance. Relationship owners can specify locations and named contacts for production, billing and shipping. Payment and shipping terms can be captured and utilized for downstream order processing transactions. Material types and product categories are profiled along with production capabilities to ensure effective sourcing strategies. With DS solution, relationships are established for clear communication and ownership between sourcing, production offices and agents.

Corporate policies and procedures can be established for on-boarding, developing and approving new partners. Vendor metrics and score-carding can be synchronized across the brands to provide clear usage and performance goals to all teams. This single source of data and process is often integrated into the larger brand eco-system to optimally support CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), COC (Code of Conduct) and sustainability policies.