LOS GATOS, CA, Jan 4, 2016 – Centric Software product lifecycle management (PLM) technology will be adopted by Luthai Textile, one of China’s leading textile producers. The project is part of Luthai’s business transformation initiative geared towards both boosting its original design manufacturer (ODM) business as well as developing its own branded apparel.
Today about 80% of Luthai’s business is textile production. A fully vertically integrated company, Luthai manages an end-to-end supply chain from growing cotton fibers to producing finished fabric. The remaining 20% of Luthai’s business is ODM (Luthai designs, develops and produces apparel for other brands) and Luthai’s own branded apparel. While its ODM and branded output today hovers around 7 billion garments, Luthai intends to focus on growing in these segments.
Luthai has faced challenges in adapting to the needs of ODM and branded apparel activities. The more extensive development process – planning, design, product development and marketing – involved in ODM and brand production requires the company to seamlessly integrate people, processes and industry best practices.
“Our ongoing transformation is aimed at reinforcing our market-leading position and securing the strong influence Luthai has in the industry,” explains Dr. Sun Huade, deputy director of Luthai’s ERP Project Office.
“To this end, our goal was to integrate the advantages of our existing design and development platform while establishing a unique method of production whereby fabrics are treated as the main products and garments as the finished goods. We recognized that technology and a data-driven approach were the only way to achieve that transformation,” he surmises.
Luthai chose Centric Software to provide the technology foundation for its transformation with key product information being shared through the style, fabric and sample libraries of Centric 8 PLM.
Luthai will also use Centric 8 for the full spectrum of product design, development and management tasks – functionality that Dr. Sun and his team believe will help meet market and customer demands for the company’s ODM business.
“We maintained active discussions with Centric Software for some time, and our entire team came away impressed by the various functions and flexible configurations of Centric 8 PLM,” Dr. Sun said. “We are confident in the future of this partnership because of Centric Software’s huge number of success stories from around the world and its highly professional team.”
Dr. Sun points to Centric’s successful partnerships with other industry-leading brands as being central to his company’s decision to optimize operations and build a future for a growing segment of their business.
Chris Groves, president and CEO of Centric Software, noted that, “PLM can bring not only operational benefits for the company, managing mounting demand or replacing a legacy system, but also a transformational technology for strategic value.”
“Innovation is the key to the development of any enterprise,” Groves added. “Our technologies and proven industry best practices are built on experience gained from working with creative, forward-thinking companies like Luthai. We are excited to help this growth-oriented business with the next stage in its strategy.”
About Lutai Textile
Luthai Group is a textile and garment association with 12 subsidiaries and 11 affiliated companies, total assets of RMB 11.5 billion, and more than 30,000 employees. Luthai, a vertically integrated textile manufacturer and garment producer, also has a considerable ODM business as well as its own brands. The company is also involved in other industries like electricity and environmental protection.
For more information, visit http://www.lttc.com.cn.
About Centric Software, Inc.
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software builds technologies for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury and consumer goods. Its flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric Cloud packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion and Apparel PLM. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013 and 2015.
For more information, visit http://www.centricsoftware.com.