Brooks Sports is Built for Speed with PLM
Brooks Sports, Inc. (www.brooksrunning.com), a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and a large manufacturer and marketer of running footwear and apparel, is experiencing rapid growth across its product lines. To accommodate this, company leadership realized the need to redefine business processes and product development initiatives to deliver products to market faster.“Our footwear and apparel product teams were struggling with many challenges — chasing data, managing handoffs, version control for Excel spreadsheets,” says Gina Harris, director of Information Technology, Brooks Sports. “We needed to scale the business, enhance efficiency, provide a single version of the truth, and improve our speed to market.”
Thus, Brooks Sports started to search for a PLM solution that could support a product development reboot in 2011. A team comprised of an executive sponsor and representatives from footwear, apparel and IT spent close to six months solidifying requirements and searching for solutions that met their needs.
“We were strategic in our thinking, intent on selecting a PLM system that would meet our current needs and a strong vendor on whom we could rely to continue to invest and evolve the solution in future years,” says Harris. “There are a lot of contenders in the PLM market. The team was united in our search for a market leader, and willing to invest in a PLM solution with the specialized features required for our footwear and sports bra products.”
With a broad set of out-of-the-box capabilities that cover merchandising and line planning, product development, sourcing, costing, quality, compliance and supply chain, PTC Windchill FlexPLM (www.ptc.com) stood out as the best option for Brooks Sports.
“We chose PTC Windchill FlexPLM because it will give us visibility early in the development cycles and will enable us to share design, materials and costing information between ourselves and our suppliers to achieve our growth plans,” says David Bohan, president and chief operating officer, Brooks Sports.
Implementation kicked off in September 2012 with two planned phases — the first for footwear, the second for apparel. Footwear went live on schedule and on budget in May 2013. Apparel went live in December 2013. Along the way, Brooks Sports focused heavily on organizational change management to ensure successful adoption of the system, using internal support and ITC InfoTech (www.itcinfotech.com) for supplemental 24-hour support.
“Our going in position was to go as vanilla as possible by taking advantage of PTC’s out-of-the-box solution. We challenged our product teams to align their processes with FlexPLM wherever possible, and pushed back on requests for customizations because in our experience they are expensive and ultimately impede our ability to upgrade with ease. The footwear and apparel product teams did an exceptional job of brainstorming ways to adapt their processes to the solution,” says Harris.
A steering committee was also established to manage requests for enhancements, testing of new patches and new releases, and of most significance, to explore opportunities to take advantage of the rich features and functions the solution offers.
The footwear and apparel product teams are working together more closely than ever to standardize and harmonize processes given they are using the same PLM system. Having a single version of the truth makes it possible for product designers and developers to spend more time innovating and less time chasing data. Harris says that they will also begin tracking the return on investment though metrics like reduced operating expenses and improved agility.
“FlexPLM has not disappointed us. We are thrilled with our decision,” says Harris, who also notes that Brooks Sports is well on its way to its ultimate goal: improving the speed with which it can introduce new products to the market each season.
FAST FACTS
“Brooks Sports took great measures to ensure a successful implementation. While IT helped with project management and execution, this is first and foremost a business project with strong executive involvement and sponsorship.”
— Gina Harris, Director of Information Technology, Brooks Sports, Inc.
Market Dynamics
Within the fast-paced environment of today’s footwear and apparel industries, business leaders are increasingly looking to collapse design, development and sourcing activities in order to reduce cycle time, achieve cost objectives and improve the success rate of new products across various channels.
Company at a Glance
Founded in 1914, Brooks Sports, Inc. is committed to building great running gear with minimal impact on humanity and the earth. It continually strives to make better choices regarding design, fabrics, technologies and processes that help protect the planet without diminishing performance.
Change is Afoot
When spreadsheets and e-mail just couldn’t keep up with the company’s growth, Brooks Sports invested in a single PLM system that would streamline product development, materials management and sourcing requirements.