NEWARK, NJ, Apr 1, 2024 – PLM Fleet, LLC is named a 2024 winner of the prestigious Top Workplaces USA award. This achievement underscores PLM’s dedication to fostering a people-first workplace culture and prioritizing the employee experience. The award is based solely on employee feedback.

PLM Fleet LLC wins the 2024 Top Workplaces Award

The Top Workplaces program, administered by Energage, has a 15-year history of surveying more than 20 million employees and recognizing the top organizations across 60 markets for regional Top Workplaces awards. Results are calculated by comparing the survey’s research-based statements, including 15 Culture Drivers that are proven to predict high performance against industry benchmarks. To qualify, organizations must have at least 150 employees. The Top Workplaces USA designation honors the nation’s greatest employers of choice. “We are immensely honored to receive the Top Workplaces award,” commented Keith Shipp, president and CEO of PLM Fleet. “This achievement reflects the talent and dedication of our employees. It is their commitment and pursuit of excellence that has propelled us to this national recognition.”

“Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.”

About PLM Fleet, LLC

PLM Fleet is the largest nationwide, technology-driven company dedicated to refrigerated trailer and EV Fleet Management, leasing and cold supply chain solutions. Located in the state-of-the-art fleet solutions center in Newark, NJ, PLM has the largest assortment of refrigerated trailers in the US.

Visit plmfleet.com for more information.

CAMPBELL, CA, Mar 26, 2024 – Centric Software, the product lifecycle management (PLM) market leader is pleased to announce that Berne Apparel, a leading workwear company has selected Centric PLM to drive efficiency. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Founded in 1915, Berne Apparel is privately held and based in Ossian, Indiana. The company produces durable, affordable workwear and outdoor clothing for men, women and children. Products include insulated outerwear, tops, bottoms and accessories, with expansion to new categories coming in the future. Berne Apparel’s products can be found at bernedirect.com, at farm & agriculture retailers, and through industrial distributors.

Amanda Campbell, product development manager at Berne Apparel, highlights the necessity for streamlined processes and a centralized repository for product information as the decision driver. She explains, “Our current systems include detailed internally developed programs housing specification data, coupled with Excel use and catalog references.” Campbell points out, “We are looking for increased efficiency to reduce repetitive tasks and manual data entry. We are also looking for a solution to provide real-time visibility to assortment development, material management, and sourcing in one place.”

A key factor that influenced Berne Apparel’s decision to choose Centric was the impressive range of well-known brands already using Centric Software. Campbell says, “I know there are companies that have switched over to Centric PLM from another system. That’s not an easy thing to do, so that gave Centric credit in my mind. I have experience in a handful of other PLM systems prior to my time at Berne, and was impressed with its ease of navigation and ability to configure as needed without hidden costs.”

Campbell explains some out-of-the-box benefits she sees with Centric PLM, “I know the system automation will make our workflows immediately more streamlined. I’m excited to link seasonal calendars to Centric, and fully utilize system generated reports to track development for real-time reporting. We will be using the AdobePLMC plug-in from initial launch, so designers can build products and artwork in-system as they create them, saving time.” She adds, “I like the familiar Excel-like feel of the interface. We have some teammates migrating to a PLM system for the first time.  Learning new systems and processes isn’t easy, and Centric has proven very intuitive as we’re on-boarding the greater team.  Its robust features are allowing us to establish repeatable, scalable processes to grow into the future.”

Berne Apparel will roll out Centric PLM in carefully planned phases across multiple key departments to ensure a smooth transition and optimal utilization. “The majority of our leadership team comes from an IT background, so high standards needed to be met before an outside system was seriously considered,” states Campbell. “Centric earned our trust as a partner in the exploration phase, and our trust has only grown during implementation as we’ve gotten to know their team. I’m looking forward to their continued guidance through best practices as we roll out internally, and as we onboard vendors in the future.”

President of Centric Software, Fabrice Canonge says, “We are thrilled that Berne Apparel, a growing heritage brand that has 100+ years of success behind them, has chosen to place their trust in Centric Software. We look forward to our association with Berne into their next century of business.”

About Berne Apparel

Berne Apparel has been in business for over 100 years, and since day one they have been committed to providing hard-working Americans with workwear that is made right, made to work, and made affordable.

Berne offers an extensive assortment of workwear for men, women and youth. Their products are known in the industry for their rugged quality and exceptional value. Their insulated items feature warmth options for every cold-weather situation, from arctic insulation to lightweight flannel lining. Their basics lines are year-round workwear staples —tough enough for grueling jobs and comfortable enough for all-day wear.

For more information, visit bernedirect.com.

About Centric Software

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a concept to customer solution experience for consumer goods such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.

Centric Software’s flagship solution Centric PLM brings cost savings and efficiency by optimizing product execution from ideation to development, sourcing and manufacture. Centric Planning is an innovative, cloud-native, augmented-intelligence solution delivering end-to-end planning capabilities to maximize retail and wholesale business performance. Centric Pricing & Inventory leverages AI to drive margin and revenue improvement by influencing demand via price and inventory optimization from pre-season to in-season to season completion. Centric Market Intelligence is an AI-driven, market insight platform for data-informed decision-making on competitor offers and pricing as well as consumer trends and buying behavior. Centric Visual Boards pivot actionable data in a visual-first orientation to ensure robust, consumer-right assortments and product offers.

Centric Software has the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition appears regularly in world-leading analyst reports and research.

Centric Software is a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions.

For more information, visit www.centricsoftware.com.

^{for Fashion Industry}

PARIS, France, Mar 22, 2024 – TextileGenesis, a Lectra Group company, announces the availability of version 2.0 of its SaaS platform providing the fashion ecosystem with totally reliable, secure and digitized traceability of all materials and garments. This new version offers innovative new features from risk management, traceability engine based on more than 300 real-world supply transformation steps, to unified platform with real time integration with more than 90% of major material certification standards.

To support the industry comply with increasingly stringent global transparency regulations and enhance the overall user experience for fashion brands and textile suppliers, TextileGenesis has introduced the following new features:

• A risk and compliance management module that automatically tracks and flags the global supply chain risks from publicly available databases (such as the UFLPA entity watch list). The system captures and flags the risks across the entire value chain from tiers 1 to 4.

• The traceability engine ensures that every transaction in the system reflects the real-world complexity with close to 300 supply chain transformation steps.

• Consolidation of all major material certification schemes on a single unified platform that allows third-party verification through certification bodies. The third-party sustainability certification schemes and independent verification are a key requirement for the newly enacted European law banning greenwashing to ensure that product sustainability claims are authentic and verifiable.

• Material-origin verification (for tier 4 and tier 5 suppliers) for all material value chains from recycled polyester, organic cotton, man-made cellulosic to responsible animal fibers.

• The new version offers standardized and automated data exchange with fashion brands and textile suppliers through API and SFTP protocol.

Overall, the platform users have a significantly enhanced user dashboard, intuitive interface, and additional data integrity checks to ensure a highly robust, reliable and scalable traceability platform. Currently, more than 8,000 supply chain roles from more than 70 countries are using the platform to enable their supply chains to become more traceable, for more than 800 million units.

About TextileGenesis

Founded in 2018, TextileGenesis, a Lectra company, provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enables fashion brands and sustainable textile manufacturers to ensure a reliable, secure and fully digital mapping of their textiles, from the fiber to the consumer, and thereby guarantee their authenticity and origins.

Its innovative traceability mechanism, which addresses both ends of the textile value chain, as well as its network of partners for material certification, and its technology platform guarantee the exchange and tracking of reliable and secure data throughout a material’s life cycle.

About Lectra

A major player in the fashion, automotive and furniture markets, Lectra contributes to the development of Industry 4.0 with boldness and passion, fully integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into its global strategy.

The Group offers industrial intelligence solutions – software, cutting equipment, data analysis solutions and associated services – that facilitate the digital transformation of the companies it serves. In doing so, Lectra helps its customers push boundaries and unlock their potential. The Group is proud to state that its 3,000 employees are driven by three core values: being open-minded thinkers, trusted partners and passionate innovators.

Founded in 1973, Lectra reported revenues of 478 million euros in 2023. The company is listed on Euronext, where it is included in the following indices: SBF 120, CAC Mid 60, CAC Mid&Small, CAC All Shares, CAC All-Tradable, CAC Technology, EN Tech Leaders and ENT PEA-PME 150.

For more information, visit lectra.com.

CAMPBELL, CA, Mar 18, 2024 – Centric Software, the product lifecycle management (PLM) market leader is pleased to announce that it has been awarded four accolades in the Just Style Excellence Awards 2024. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Centric recognized for excellence in innovation, product launches, R&D and M&A in Just Style’s 2024 awards

The Just Style Excellence Awards is an independent recognition program powered by the business intelligence of GlobalData.  Just Style’s team of researchers and journalists, assisted by the power of AI, analyze over 1 billion datasets during the year to recognize, endorse and rank top-tier companies across the globe. The awards represent one of the largest, most prestigious and widely known programs in the industry, and Just Style’s objective is to recognize forward-thinking, innovative companies that drive positive change.

Centric Software received four awards from Just Style in 2023, and has repeated the feat this year. Centric is a Category Award Winner for Innovation, Product Launches, Research & Development and M&A in the Just Style Excellence Awards 2024.

“We recognize Centric Software for their innovative AI-driven products and relentless pursuit of product evolution, coupled with acquisitions that align with the company’s strategic goals,” says Tina Ross, global awards manager at Just Style. “Centric’s innovations are driven by the insights of their Customer Advisory Board.”

In particular, Just Style notes that Centric Planning, an AI-powered retail analytics and planning solution, has been acknowledged for its user-friendly interface and AI/ML engine, which significantly enhances margins and improves sell-throughs.

“Centric’s substantial investments in R&D have yielded a suite of digital solutions, empowering consumer-centric planning and execution in addition to sustainability and compliance needs,” Ross continues. “The strategic acquisition of aifora, an AI-powered price and inventory optimization solution, aligns with the company’s vision of providing actionable insights for brands and retailers to thrive in a data-driven market.”

“We are delighted that Just Style appreciates how Centric has embraced AI innovations,” says Ron Watson, EVP, Products and CSO at Centric Software. “We included AI tools in Centric PLM as far back as 2018, and AI is now present across all of our solutions. AI has an important part to play in assisted decision-making, data analysis and the elimination of manual tasks so that teams can focus on value-added work. It’s a critical component of our innovation game plan, and Just Style’s awards validate that strategic focus.”

“We would like to thank Just Style for recognizing Centric’s commitment to excellence with these four awards,” says Chris Groves, CEO of Centric Software. “Centric has evolved and grown considerably in the past year with the acquisition of aifora and the launch of our seamless customer to replenishment solution experience. We celebrated a milestone of 800 customers in January, and continuously work with our customers to develop innovations and incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as AI into our solutions.”

About Centric Software

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software provides a concept to customer solution experience for consumer goods such as fashion, outdoor, luxury, multi-category retail, grocery, food & beverage, cosmetics & personal care and consumer electronics to plan, design, develop, source, buy, make, price, allocate, sell and replenish products.

Centric Software’s flagship solution Centric PLM brings cost savings and efficiency by optimizing product execution from ideation to development, sourcing and manufacture. Centric Planning is an innovative, cloud-native, augmented-intelligence solution delivering end-to-end planning capabilities to maximize retail and wholesale business performance. Centric Pricing & Inventory leverages AI to drive margin and revenue improvement by influencing demand via price and inventory optimization from pre-season to in-season to season completion. Centric Market Intelligence is an AI-driven, market insight platform for data-informed decision-making on competitor offers and pricing as well as consumer trends and buying behavior. Centric Visual Boards pivot actionable data in a visual-first orientation to ensure robust, consumer-right assortments and product offers.

Centric Software has the highest user adoption rate, customer satisfaction rate and fastest time to value in the industry. Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition appears regularly in world-leading analyst reports and research.

For more information, visit www.centricsoftware.com.

ANDOVER, MA, Mar 13, 2024 – Aras, a leader in product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions, announced that IMA Schelling Group has selected Aras Innovator to standardize its data management processes and establish a consistent digital infrastructure for further growth.

Thomas Hampel, head of mechanical development processing and technical support at IMA Schelling, appreciates not only the integration functionality of Aras Innovator, but also how quickly it could be implemented. “We initially implemented the solution at our locations in Germany and Austria, as well as in Poland and Slovakia, where parts of both design and production are located. The establishment of central data storage and the setup of the necessary infrastructure enables them to connect further plants and locations within a very short time, as the application is browser-based and activated via a rights and licensing concept.”

In total, 18 sales, service, and production companies and 70 sales partners worldwide are united under the IMA Schelling Group umbrella. Due to historical reasons, two different ERP systems are still in use, which now communicate with each other via Aras. “We can access the respective contents of the ERP systems from any location and coordinate them centrally. Since we always access the original file, there is no risk of creating incorrect or outdated copies. This guarantees process security,” added Hampel.

With the establishment of a unified database and the representation of the lifecycle workflow, the deployment initially focused on the areas of design and manufacturing, but then gradually expanded.

According to Oliver Pallerberg, head of technical systems at IMA Schelling, the benefits of the solution were quickly apparent and ready to be implemented. For example, the assembly department could use it to visualize individual components or even entire machines in 3D. “Purchasing also benefits from the uniform representation and part numbering, as this eliminates possible sources of error,” said Pallerberg. In the future, the possibilities of 3D visualization should also be increasingly used in the area of maintenance and service – and play a central role in localizing potential causes of malfunctions.

“To leverage the full potential and elevate the business to a new level, different IT ecosystems must be consistently integrated, and data silos completely opened,” said Roque Martin, CEO of Aras. “Since the merger of two original companies, IMA Schelling has experienced impressive growth. We are proud that our open and adaptable PLM solution is a part of this success story.”

About IMA Schelling

The IMA Schelling Group develops, designs, and produces machinery and systems for woodworking, plastics, and metalworking companies. Its customers include international furniture manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers, and discerning carpentry family businesses.  Based on its over 100 years of experience, the company develops innovative machining solutions for state-of-the-art networked production, tailored to individual customer requirements – all the way to fully automated batch size 1 systems. The portfolio is completed by individual strategies for value-oriented corporate development as well as consulting, software, and digitization products. IMA Schelling has a global network of 18 branches and 70 sales partners and operates four production sites in Germany, Austria, Poland, and Slovakia.

About Aras

Aras is a leading provider of product lifecycle management and digital thread solutions. Its technology enables the rapid delivery of flexible solutions built on a powerful digital thread backbone and a low-code development platform. Aras’ platform and product lifecycle management applications connect users in all disciplines and functions to critical product data and processes across the lifecycle and throughout the extended supply chain.

Visit www.aras.com to learn more.