International fashion company improves collaboration and increases efficiency in the garment manufacturing process with Dassault Systèmes

 STUTTGART, Germany and VÉLIZY-VILLACOUBLAY, France - September 8, 2011 - Dassault Systèmes (3DS), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that s.Oliver has selected its Version 6 PLM solution as its global platform for design and development, to ensure the constant availability of all the up-to-date information required to create and manufacture new collections. s.Oliver is using ENOVIA Version 6 to streamline product line complexities, achieve lead-time reduction, and enhance global collaboration. The ENOVIA Apparel Accelerator for Design & Development provides deep, domain-specific apparel design and production capabilities to meet fashion industry needs.

“One of the hallmarks of the textile industry is its globally distributed development, manufacturing, and logistics processes. For a global company such as s.Oliver, integrated and open collaboration both within the company and with external partners and suppliers is a key competitive factor," said Henry Taubald, Managing Director Operations at s.Oliver, explaining the company's decision to choose Dassault Systèmes’ platform. “Core Version 6 technology and out-of-the box ENOVIA functionalities provide us with ideal support to manage the constantly growing complexity of what we do, and also enable us to respond rapidly and flexibly to new trends as well as to customer demands.”

Using Dassault Systèmes’ Version 6 solution, approximately 300 users in Germany and more than 550 worldwide have access to all the information relating to the company’s products – from the designer in Germany and the fabric supplier in India, to the production supervisor in Indonesia and the logistics administrator in Turkey, as well as the managers of the 183 s.Oliver stores throughout the world.

The individual process steps that each item of clothing passes through, are mapped transparently for all stakeholders. The pilot project began with one division and all agencies in Asia and Turkey using a new colour and material database. The remaining divisions gradually followed. During this process, more than 7,000 material references were migrated or created, structured and categorized separately by season. Eventually, all legacy product data management systems were completely replaced by ENOVIA Version 6.

By 2012, the company’s direct suppliers and third-party agencies will also be set to be connected to the Version 6 open platform.

“s.Oliver’s decision to choose our platform shows that, with our solutions, companies in the fashion industry are able to connect creativity with business domains such as purchasing, production and logistics,” said Monica Menghini, Vice President Consumer Goods, Packaged Goods & Retail Industries, Dassault Systèmes. “The integrated and open approach offered by Version 6 gives the company new opportunities to bring new products to market faster than the competition.”

About s.Oliver

s.Oliver was founded by company owner Bernd Freier in 1969, and is one of Europe's biggest fashion and lifestyle companies with an international workforce of 6470 people. s.Oliver products can be found in over 30 countries all over the world. The s.Oliver Group currently has 183 of its own stores, 312 stores with partners, and is represented in 2347 shops and 2642 sales areas.

About Dassault Systèmes

As a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, Dassault Systèmes brings value to more than 130,000 customers in 80 countries. A pioneer in the 3D software market since 1981, Dassault Systèmes applications provide a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance to recycling. The Dassault Systèmes portfolio consists of CATIA for designing the virtual product - DELMIA for virtual production - SIMULIA for virtual testing - ENOVIA for global collaborative lifecycle management, EXALEAD for search-based applications- SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design and 3DVIA for online 3D lifelike experiences. For more information, visit http://www.3ds.com.