Gerber Technology Celebrates 40th Year in Apparel Industry
11 March 2008 - 12:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Market Leader Continues Legacy of Leadership in Providing Product
Lifecycle Management Hardware and Software Solutions; Technology
Allows Customers to Sustain Edge in an Increasingly Competitive
Industry TOLLAND, Conn., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Gerber
Technology, the world leading supplier of automated CAD/CAM and PLM
solutions for the apparel and flexible materials industry, is
celebrating its 40th year in the apparel industry. The company was
founded as Gerber Garment Technology in 1968, and today is known as
Gerber Technology. The company boasts an impressive history of
innovation and a broad base of customers that are setting the
standard for performance in fashion and apparel. Gerber Technology
has consistently delivered solutions that enable their customers to
stay ahead of the curve, meet and exceed industry demand, and
manage market forces such as: Reducing time to market for new
products, reducing product costs to improve margin, and managing
the increasingly complex logistics of a global supply chain. The
company highlights emerging market issues that continue to fuel
these overall challenges, leaving organizations to examine their
business processes spanning market research, concept, line
development design and planning, sourcing, production, quality
assurance, transportation and distribution/warehousing. "We are
extremely pleased with the solutions we've pioneered over the
course of 40 years, from introducing production automation and
computer aided design, to product lifecycle management for the
fashion industry," said Bill Brewster, Vice President Global
Marketing and Product Management, Gerber Technology. "Now, as we
enter the first year of our fifth decade, we will be delivering new
solutions over the course of the next 12 months that will continue
to set the agenda for companies that operate within the 'concept to
retail' value chain." Gerber Technology Customers Well Prepared to
Address Market Dynamics Gerber Technology customers have been
implementing the basic building blocks of Fashion Lifecycle
Management (FLM) -- Gerber Technology's product lifecycle
management solution for the apparel industry -- since the mid
1990's. WebPDM(TM), is the conceptual predecessor of Gerber's
Fashion Lifecycle Management Suite which launched in 2006. Gerber's
FLM Suite provides global, real-time visibility and control
throughout the product development and lifecycle management
processes from planning to sourcing. FLM combines the power of
WebPDM, the industry's leading product data management solution,
with a robust, scaleable enterprise-wide workflow engine and
collaboration tools. FLM integrates three essential layers: Design,
Product Data Management and Information Collaboration. Each layer
comprises powerful tool sets that provide modular functionality.
"With the year-in, year-out continuation of market forces,
companies involved in the apparel industry need to ensure their
solutions will address these issues," Brewster added. "Analysts
currently project investment in software and hardware solutions to
remain conservative. We believe the best investment for addressing
these issues today and into the future is a fully functional
Fashion Lifecycle Management (FLM) solution. The first step is
understanding your own landscape and evaluating what you have, and
what you need. The second step is understanding exactly how your
solution can help prepare your company to address the oncoming
challenges." At its last Software User's Conference, Gerber
Technology customers participated in a variety of Q&A sessions
led by its team of experts. Various tracks focused on burning
industry issues, understanding the industry landscape and where
things are headed. Users also participated in product focused
sessions with titles such as: "What is FLM?" "How do I get started
in PLM?" and another one focusing on the uncertainty surrounding
PLM. Customers were also able to address specific concerns as they
looked for ways to protect and extend their investments. Many of
the sessions at the conference provided a foreshadowing of issues
to be encountered in 2008. Session tracks included 3-D Prototyping,
CAD Automation, FLM Implementation, and Supply Chain Management.
Gerber software solutions are used by more organizations in the
apparel industry than any other provider. A sampling of customers
using Gerber Technology solutions include: Abercombie & Fitch,
adidas, American Eagle, Carrefour, Gap, Haggar, Levi's, Li &
Fung Limited, Mervyns, Otto, PacSun, Perry Ellis and Polo. Gerber
Outlines Market Forces For 2008, Gerber Technology has outlined the
following themes that companies in the apparel industry should be
aware of: -- Expansion of material types will require solutions to
deliver increasing breadth. As with every year, the use of new
materials in fashion continues to expand the requirements of
hardware and software solutions. In 2008, current trends impacting
manufacturers include the increased use of leather, high
performance fabrics for sports apparel, quilted materials and
over-worked fabrics with various types of surface effects.
Solutions will need to address the unique characteristics of these
materials such as weight, stretch, softness/rigidity, and shrinkage
of these materials. -- PLM's ability to meet the demands of
"role-based" solutions will increase. As the amount of outsourcing
continues to expand "upstream," PLM solutions will need to deliver
increasingly Web-based collaborative solutions that encompass every
important decision maker and supplier in the "concept to retail"
value chain including merchandisers, planners, designers, technical
designers, vendors/partners, sourcing/production and logistics
personnel. -- Design schools will increasingly incorporate PLM
solutions into their curriculums. With the expectation that
designers become increasingly tech savvy and more aware of market
forces driving the ability to deliver new lines in an efficient
manner, leading design schools increasingly will incorporate
training in PLM solutions. -- Fast Fashion will drive increased use
of virtual prototyping and integrated real-time collaborative
solutions. With the industry accepting the reality of 6-8 fashion
seasons where clothing lines look to bring new offerings into
stores every two months, the pressure to reduce costs and speed
delivery of new lines will drive increased adoption of 3-D virtual
prototyping which enables global collaboration between
merchandising, design, development, production, distribution and
retail. Additionally, in order to speed the collaboration process,
every provider will see pressure to implement integrated solutions
beyond their own infrastructure to include partners and suppliers.
-- As market dynamics change and traditional low cost based
countries are pressured to reduce costs, PLM solutions are more
important than ever. As countries like China have embraced the need
to improve worker conditions and evolve their labor practices,
these new laws and the expansion of resourcing geographies from
China to include other Asia- Pac countries will make it difficult
to determine the optimum outsourcing policies. Traditional
outsourcing may not lead to the "automatic" margin improvement many
companies expect, thereby increasing the need for production
automation regardless of geography. Finally, new areas such as
Vietnam are emerging as alternative long- term outsourcing options.
-- PLM vendors will be expected to "bridge the digital divide"
between brand owners/retailers and their vendors. With the
expansion of the supply chain to less developed countries, who may
not be as technically advanced as North America, Europe and Japan,
but are expected to work with the same PLM system, it will be
pertinent for companies to provide localized versions of their
product, local training and support. To assist customers and
partners, Gerber Technology offers Gerber Professional Services.
Gerber's professional business consultants provide an end-to-end
solution tailored to each customer's current and future processes.
These industry experts provide consulting, development,
implementation, educational and training services to ensure
complete customer satisfaction. The Professional Services team of
experts aid customers in reducing implementation time, and
recurring processing time and cost. About Gerber Technology Gerber
Technology (http://www.gerbertechnology.com/), a business unit of
$512 million corporation Gerber Scientific, Inc., develops and
manufactures the world's leading brands of integrated software and
hardware automation systems for the sewn products and flexible
materials industries. These systems automate and significantly
improve the efficiency of information management, product design
and development, pre-production, and production processes. The
company offers specialized solutions to a variety of end-user
markets including apparel, transportation interiors, furniture,
composites and industrial fabrics. Gerber Technology's world
headquarters are located in Tolland, Connecticut, U.S.A. with
regional offices, agents and distributors in 117 countries 16
technology centers, serving a total of over 15,000 customers. The
company engineers and manufactures its products in various
locations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Established in
1968, Gerber Technology is one of four businesses of Gerber
Scientific, Inc. (http://www.gerberscientific.com/) of South
Windsor, Connecticut, U.S.A., a corporation listed on the New York
Stock Exchange under the "GRB" symbol. DATASOURCE: Gerber
Technology CONTACT: Cynthia Mahlstedt of Gerber Technology,
+1-860-871-5008, Web site: http://www.gerbertechnology.com/
http://www.gerberscientific.com/
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