GERBER SOFTWARE INTEGRATES CREATIVITY, TECHNOLOGY TO ENABLE FAST FASHION IN APPAREL PRODUCTION

FAST FASHION

“Fast fashion”—creating new fashion designs

and getting them produced and into the market

as quickly as possible—has become a hallmark

of many of the world’s most successful apparel

brands and retailers over the past 15 years,

presenting a boon to consumers and a challenge

to brands, retailers, and manufacturers.

Today, a designer visiting Rio de Janeiro or Milan

to discover the very latest street fashions and

design trends must rapidly develop these ideas

into tangible products and move them through

to production as quickly as possible to sell these

new lines into markets across the U.S., Europe,

Asia, and the rest of the world. Fast fashion has

delivered designer-look clothing to the masses,

offering consumers with modest budgets in

diverse markets access to fashions previously

produced only in limited runs for distribution in

major cities. Captivated by these affordably priced

runway styles, consumers are driving the demand

for more of the latest trends, at a low cost.

Fast fashion has abbreviated the typical product

lifecycle, compressing the traditional season-

oriented standard of six months from the design

of a garment to its manufacturing and distribution

into about one month, and sometimes to just a

couple of weeks. This requirement for continuous

INTEGRATED SYSTEM STREAMLINES

PRODUCTION, ACCELERATES TIME TO

MARKET, ENHANCES COLLABORATION

design and development cycles and quick

time-to-market has compounded the challenges

already facing garment designers and producers,

who are experiencing the cost pressures and

pains of a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Apparel industry observers have described the

game-changing impact of fast fashion, which

necessitates major changes in garment design

and production processes that will enable

manufacturers to more quickly and efficiently

translate concept to reality. In addition, this new

paradigm demands improved capability to look

ahead, to analyze design and cost specifications,

and to translate this data into accurate sales

forecasts. Technology solutions are being

developed to address these challenges, but

integrating new and existing systems can present

another set of issues, and manufacturers may

fail to maximize the potential of new software

because of incompatibility or the inability to

access relevant product line or supplier data.

To meet these industry-wide demands, Gerber Technology has developed an end-to-end, integrated software suite, including its YuniquePLM™ product lifecycle management software that enables the creation and seamless transfer of product data from design to development, sourcing and production. The cloud-based YuniquePLM system capitalizes on Internet connectivity, facilitating communication and collaboration by enabling global partners and vendors involved in apparel line development projects to access relevant data from any Internet-enabled device at any time.

Having a single, highly-accurate data set for each garment, which is referred to as “one version of the truth, from design to store shelf,” increases time-to-market, improves efficiency, and reduces potential errors at every step of the design and production process. Everyone involved, from designers, merchandisers, and pattern makers, to product buyers, production workers, and the logistics team, shares a single set of accurate data points for each and every product in the line, eliminating the need to translate from one program to another, or to re-key product specs from one critical stage to another.

3D VISUALIZATION WITHIN CAD PROCESS

HELPS REFINE NEW APPAREL DESIGNS

QUICKLY VIA VIRTUAL SAMPLING

Key to the speed and efficiency of the system is the new 3D visualization capability incorporated into Gerber’s AccuMark® 10.0 pattern design and marker making software. This 3D technology brings together the disparate digital and physical realms, helping the designer’s vision reach the market in the shortest time possible.

This design tool shortens the product development stage to a period of days, as opposed to weeks, by using digital technology to simulate a physical sample. Using Gerber software and applications, such as its YuSnap™ iPhone mobile app, integrated with the YuniquePLM system, a designer can capture any image—snapshots of trendsetters wearing cutting-edge fashions in any world city, an interesting garment found in a vintage clothing shop, or a visually interesting design or color scheme on a painting or photograph, and can send this image directly to your YuniquePLM system. Here, connected AccuMark users in the company’s product development department can test the visual appeal and viability of a design by producing and placing it on an on- screen avatar. The designer can see

COMPANIES WHO ARE WORKING QUICKLY

TO DEVELOP NEW DESIGNS MUST HAVE THE

TOOLS THEY NEED TO MANAGE THE SOURCING,

DEVELOPMENT, AND DAY-TO-DAY TASKS OF EVERY

PARTNER AND VENDOR IN THEIR SUPPLY CHAINS

where pattern corrections need to be made, providing guidance to the pattern department. The changes can then be quickly incorporate. This virtual visualization saves significant time and effort required to sew fabric prototypes, which often requires several iterations to achieve the desired result.

“Virtual sampling is the answer to reducing time and cost in development and sample making,” said

Mary McFadden, director of CAD product management with Gerber Technology. “Combined with our AccuMark 10.0 software, 3D technology makes it possible to reduce and even eliminate process steps and interactions among design, sample making, and merchandising teams to help designers optimize their time and speed up important feedback cycles.”

Decisions can be made on the potential marketability of a given product at the 3D/CAD stage, before incurring a substantial financial or time investment. This virtual product testing frees designers to try more creative ideas and reduce the number of iterations required to modify and develop product samples. “We’re creating and bringing together all the tools so customers can experiment faster,” said Bill Brewster, vice president and general manager, Yunique Solutions. Additionally, using the Supplier Relationship Management on Demand (srmOn) module of YuniquePLM, these capabilities allow designers to worktogether with their partners developing the CAD file by providing them withannotations on specific callouts for changes within the garment before the physical sample is produced.

If a design is selected for production, the 2D patterns within AccuMark are used to generate production markers and grading, and then a spread and cut plan is created.

According to Brewster, 3D modeling and visualization is “an important part of the story” for enabling apparel manufacturers to significantly reduce their time-to-market on new products by working more efficiently with partners and suppliers during the development process. “Companies who are working quickly to develop new designs must have the tools they need to manage the sourcing, development, and day-to-day tasks of every partner and vendor in their supply chains,” Brewster said.

YUNIQUEPLM CONNECTS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT TEAMS

From a product lifecycle management perspective, YuniquePLM’s overarching function is to connect creative teams with their supply chain to facilitate efficient, on-time production. That connectivity is enhanced by project collaborators’ access to the “single version of the truth”—the key specifications associated with each garment, at each step of the production process—accessible within YuniquePLM. Key features of YuniquePLM V6 are its line planning and calendar development tools and integration of cost factors early in the product development process. In addition, the YuniquePLM V6.1 release enables improved funcitonality in viewing and annotating 3D CAD files. Completing the full Gerber Technology garment production cycle are the company’s plotting and digitizing software, spreading equipment, and fabric cutting and data analytics modules.

Gerber Technology’s software system for the apparel production industry streamlines product lifecycle management from ideation to creation, relying on connectivity and global collaboration, with all elements contributing to what the company considers the ultimate goal: to get the right product out, at the right time, at the right price.

Based in Connecticut, Gerber Technology is a provider of hardware and software systems that automate and manage product design and manufacturing processes, serving customers across a range of industries, in 130 countries. The nearly 50-year-old company is owned by Vector Capital, a San Francisco-based, global private equity firm that specializes in the technology sector.

+1 860 871 8082USA: 1 800 826 3243www.gerbertechnology.com

GOAL OF APPAREL INDUSTRY

SOF T WARE: GET THE RIGHT

PRODUCT OUT, AT THE RIGHT

TIME, AT THE RIGHT PRICE