Lever Style Drives Digital Transformation with Centric PLM®

Striving for Unison

“In the past, Lever Style used paperwork to transfer information between different departments. This resulted in materials being duplicated and we wasted a lot of time because different teams were doing the same thing.”

Robin Li, Account Manager at Lever Style explains that different departments had their own unique ways of working including how they created material codes and attributes, “The lack of consistency meant that it became very difficult to find the information you were actually looking for and it wasn’t always obvious what data was most up to date.” As part of the company’s digital transformation strategy, Lever Style implemented Centric Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to centralize processes, increase transparency and improve communication internally and with customers.

Since then, things at Lever Style are very different. All product- related information is centralized from the beginning, until the end when the final goods are produced. With Centric PLM in place, everyone is on the same platform and Lever Style is saving time through better communication. There is full data transparency, and everyone can find what they need in one central, easy to use hub.

Jimmy Zhang, IT Director at Lever Style, is leading the PLM project. He explains how Centric PLM has transformed life at Lever Style, “With Centric Software PLM, we are saving a lot of communication time. Normally different departments have their own processes to transfer information, but now they are all on the same platform. They have data transparency and can find what they need in Centric PLM. We can connect Centric PLM to our ERP and to our customer.”

How did Lever Style get to where they are now?

The Apparel Supply Partner for the Digital Age

Lever Style were established in 1956 and since then have developed an industry-leading product range, produced in a diverse array of facilities and countries. Lever Style can manage small order sizes and short lead times, they also support their clients with technical knowhow and product development capabilities built up over decades of working with the most discerning designers.

Currently, Lever Style has approximately 11 product categories but as they grow their business, they are expanding these categories so that one day they will be a supplier for all kinds of products.

Searching for the Perfect Product Environment

ddie Chan, CEO at Lever Style describes how having a centralized system was a crucial requirement for the company, “We focus very much on the product, so the product development history and all related information are critical success factors. If you don’t have a centralized system, if you don’t add structure to your organization, with time, you will lose all of this important information.”

For Lever Style, finding a solution that would power collaboration between departments and customers was essential for effective product development. Ensuring their customers receive products as quickly as possible is also important. Chan adds, “We believe Centric PLM will be the key to the puzzle to making the product environment perfect.”

Choosing Centric PLM

When evaluating PLM solutions on the market, Lever Style knew Centric PLM was one of the few solutions with a very high adoption rate. “We felt this was important as we work with lots of different customers, so we wanted to partner with a PLM that speaks the same language as they do,” says Zhang. He adds, “In the future we want to integrate Centric PLM with our customers for seamless communication, so this is one of the reasons we selected Centric PLM.”

Lever Style also knew the importance of selecting a cloud-based solution that could be accessed anytime, anywhere.

Consistency & Accuracy

After just one week, new users were using Centric PLM with ease. “The way Centric PLM works is very concise, clear and easy to understand,” says Li.

With Centric PLM in place, teams now have automatic rules to create the material code and how to list attributes.

Costing is no longer a time-consuming process that involves looking back through different folders; with Centric PLM it’s now a quick and easy process. “It improves our efficiency, which is also what our customer wants. They want the costing as early as possible,” says Li, “It also improves accuracy because we now have the material library. You just enter a number, then you can access the information you need.”

3D Future

The future for Lever Style is exciting as they use Centric PLM to support 3D sampling. “It’s a very important piece in the future world, where the way of working will be very different from now,” says Chan.