CREATING TRANSPARENCY
BETWEEN STYLES AND SUPPLIERS:A SUCCESS STORY FROM MUSTANG GROUP© Centric Software 2016. All rights reserved.

GERMAN JEANS PIONEERMUSTANG Group, headquartered in Germany with suppliers in Asia and North Africa, is a leading jeans brands in Europe.
Founded in 1932, MUSTANG launched the first women’s jeans and the first corduroy jeans in Europe. Besides the main product, MUSTANG
Jeans, the MUSTANG Group is also the licensee for the brands Bogner Jeans and Sansibar Denim.

AMBITIOUS COMPANY GROWTH GOALS“We are and always have been pioneers—not just in the fieldof denim, but also with regards to innovation and cuttingedge
technology,” says Dietmar Axt, CEO of MUSTANG Group. “Thischaracteristic is part of our long-standing, proven company
philosophy.”This visionary company was ready to forge new territory withambitious growth goals. But in order to succeed, MUSTANG
knew it needed a better system to support product range
expansion, streamline its product development process,increase productivity, and improve collaboration among internaland external teams.

“Centric 8 enables us to havean overview of all trimsand materials in the actual
collection at an early stage,
which allows our buyers toachieve better pricing from thesuppliers“SEEING DOUBLE
Results+ 20% decrease in questions from suppliers after initialtech pack distribution+ Faster sample development, clearer sample feedback,quicker availability of sample pricing information+ Eliminated data entry duplication

MUSTANG was using a PDM system in addition to Excel, Adobe, Wordand more to track information about its collections, says Dr. Julia Dubowy,
director of operations at MUSTANG Group. The disadvantage of this becameparticularly evident during meetings in which buying, sales and design staff
would review the actual collection to finalize styles and pricing.
“Once decisions were reached, everyone went back to their individualsystems to re-enter all the data that was agreed upon in the meeting,” says
Dubowy. “We were hampered by redundant data, an unnecessarily high data
maintenance workload, and a greater chance of errors.”+ Reduced product information search time byapproximately 30%+ Lowered time spent searching for most recent trims
by about 40%+ Improved integration with agent Omnibrand, resulting
in about 30% time savings+ Cut questions from suppliers afterinitial tech pack
distribution by 30%+ Shortened development by four days with the helpof templates, standardized data pools and theintegration of Adobe Illustrator
CREATING TRANSPARENCY BETWEEN STYLES AND SUPPLIERS: A SUCCESS STORY FROM MUSTANG GROUP© Centric Software 2016. All rights reserved.

Challenges

MATERIALS MADNESS+ Duplicate data entry; using
numerous tools/programs
throughout productdevelopment hamperedvisibility and decisionmaking

Running reports to understand the actual materials in a collection
was difficult since most of the needed information was in a file that
couldn’t easily be accessed by team members, adds Dubowy. “It wasalso challenging to analyze the actual development of a style. How
many iterations were needed, or which styles were dropped and whenthat decision was made?”+ Cumbersome
communication between
company and its agent

Trims and materials are extremely important in the jeans industry,
but MUSTANG’s design community had poor visibility into all of thematerials available. Additionally, buyers were often in the dark about
which trims and materials were being planned for a collection, making
price negotiations more difficult.

+ Inability for buyers to easily
determine which trims/
materials were planned,
making negotiation moredifficult and costly

WHY PLM? WHY CENTRIC?
MUSTANG needed the ‘single version of the truth’ about its productsthat a PLM solution could provide. Dubowy was part of the PLM
selection group and explains why Centric was selected. “Centric offered
an innovative, state-of-theart solution with a web-based architecture,excellent mobile technology and deep industry expertise among itsteam.”
MUSTANG implemented Centric PLM software for apparel in a fast 15
weeks throughout its women’s wear and men’s wear product groups.
Dubowy says the implementation with Omnibrand, MUSTANG’ssourcing partner, was a relatively seamless—yet extremely beneficial—step, involving two weekend trips to Asia to gather requirements,
configure the system, and train the Omnibrand team for roll-out. Also,
MUSTANG implemented Centric’s patent-pending Collection Book for
iPad App, which directly links a collection of styles from the Centric
PLM solution to users in sales through an interactive mobile device.

SUPPLIER SYNCHRONIZATIONWith Centric 8, MUSTANG has vastly improved the speed and transparencyof its work with Omnibrand and suppliers. Here’s how it works.
MUSTANG finalizes style information, assigns the style to Omnibrand andgenerates a tech pack, all in Centric 8. Omnibrand then accesses the tech packin Centric 8, assigns a supplier to the style, and sends the tech pack—together
with a sample request—to the supplier.
When the supplier sends the sample back, Omnibrand conducts the initial fittingand enters its results—as well as the supplier pricing information—into Centric
8. Omnibrand forwards one sample to MUSTANG, and the company conducts
its own fitting then reviews the initial results. All relevant comments about thestyle are tracked and shared in Centric 8, allowing for an efficient and effective
collaboration between MUSTANG and Omnibrand.
“This new way of doing business ensures we have complete transparency with
our supplier base, which is very important in terms of compliance and supplierscorecarding,” explains Dubowy. With Centric 8 MUSTANG has eliminated dataentry duplication with Omnibrand in addition to the flood of printed commentsthat accompanied each sample.
Additionally, MUSTANG is no longer slowed while awaiting pricing data for
multiple styles, which would then have to be re-entered into their local system.
Omnibrand enters the information directly in Centric 8, bringing more speedand cohesion to MUSTANG’s development.
“The ability to achieve greater alignment between the company’s productdevelopment and buying teams in Germany and our agent in Asia allows us tomove forward confidently to meet our growth goals,” concludes Dubowy.
© Centric Software 2016. All rights reserved.

PIONEERS WHO PROGRESS WITH PLM
Today, MUSTANG’s product development processes are morestreamlined and efficient across the board. One person is responsible
for the physical and digital materials database in Centric 8, which isthen leveraged by design, technical product development and buying.
“Centric 8 enables us to have an overview of all trims and materials
in the actual collection at an early stage, which allows our buyers toachieve better pricing from the suppliers,” says Dubowy.
MUSTANG now works directly in Centric 8 during review meetings,entering all relevant data in real-time as the decisions about thecollection are made. “It’s a great benefit that we do not have to deal
with administrative tasks before and after meetings. Instead, we canfocus on the real work of MUSTANG, and everyone involved knows
instantly what was decided,” says Dubowy.
With Centric 8 MUSTANG is able to effectively analyze and reportagainst all data maintained in the system. The flexible reporting
structure of Centric 8 allows MUSTANG to create both standard and adhoc reports. Dubowy notes, “This gives us the insight and transparency
into our collection, which is then the basis for informed decision-making
that allows us to steer our business to success.”

ABOUT MUSTANG JEANSMUSTANG, based in Germany, is one of the leading jeans brands inEurope. Founded in 1932, MUSTANG launched the first women’s jeans
and the first corduroy jeans in Europe. Besides the main product
MUSTANG Jeans, the MUSTANG Group is also licensee for the brands
Bogner Jeans and Sansibar Denim.

ABOUT CENTRIC SOFTWARE
From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals
around the world, Centric Software builds technologies for the mostprestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor andconsumer goods. Its flagship product lifecycle management (PLM)
platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning,product development, sourcing, business planning, quality andcollection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer
industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovativetechnology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.
Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including theFrost & 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.

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Phone: 1 408 574 7802 | Fax: 1 408 884 8551
© Centric Software 2016. All rights reserved.