A true Indian new age fashion icon
Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd is one of the fastest growing fashion & lifestyle companies in India, offering products ranging from affordable to luxurious clothing for men, women and children, with a loyal customer base of ~22 million. Some of its popular in-house brands are, Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and through partnerships with international brands,it has brought global brands like Forever 21, Ted Baker, Simon Carter, Ralph Lauren etc, to the Indian consumer.
ABFRL has the biggest fashion network comprising of 11,000 points of sale, with 2500 exclusive ABFRL brands and 8000+ multi brand outlets and department stores across the country.The Collective, is a unique storewhich offers premium global brands and innovative customer experience in8 major cities in India. Pantaloons is one of the most loved large format fashion retailers in India, present in 155 cities and towns and Planet Fashion, India’s largest fully integrated multi-branded apparel outlet chain, retails both in-house and other brands.
ABRFLis a pioneer of the latest fashion and fabrics,and also believes in investing in technology to get a competitive advantage over other brands.
A large, growing company looking for ‘Market Changing Digital Transformation’
ABRFL, with its numerous brands, teams seated at various locations and wide-spread footprint across the country, wanted to change the rules of the game and extend its domination by transforming its go to market. The key element of this was to introduce more frequent collections and also bring in the ability to rapidly react to changes in market trends.
The current physical product development and launch processes hindered its ability to undertake this transformation. Some of the challenges in the designing and product development departmentwith traditional physical sampling methods are:-
- Large amount of money, time and resources spent on physical samples.
- Lack of visibility on sample status.
- Poor collaboration between departments.
- Longer time to market, sometimes missing the season deadlines.
- Inability to introduce more frequent collections in the market.
As a key step in this change, the company took a bold decision to switch from 2D to 3D samples. However, it was not that simple. There was a need for end to end workflow and process management and a platform to streamline data flow and processes between multiple solutions from design to retail.
ABRFL partners with Simbus
ABRFL chose Simbus to streamlinethe processes and provide the integration required to achieve thisimportant digital feat for the company.
The project objectives were:
- Detailed end to end as-is and to-be process mapping highlighting the process activities, timelines and responsibilities
- Detailed IT integration architecture
- Recommending modifications required in other solutions
A 3Dvision comes to life
Simbus managed the complete digital workflow of 3D samples from fabric sketch to cataloguing, using PLM solution to orchestrate the entire process. This complex project involved multiple integrations with 2D CAD software (for fabric design) and also with the 3D sampling tool.
The PLM is the orchestrator of this complex process ensuring that the inputs for the 3D design was delivered from the 2D CAD and the output of the 3D CAD was processed and augmented with additional product and material meta data. The process culminated in the finished 3D model with product meta data being pushed to the eCom platform for order taking.
The project leveraged the inbuilt libraries in the PLM along with the lifecycle management and the workflow abilities of the PLM.
Key features and benefits delivered
- Connecting data touch-points across multiple solutions
- Automation of processes to ensure seamless process flow
- Seamless flow of authentic data/images across solutions
- Reduction in time spent by removing dependency on users for information
- Offering a single version of truth across solutions
With the digital integrated workflow system built by Simbus for its product development, ABFRL has become much more agile in its designing and product development processes, saving time and money and leading to more opportunities for creativity and collaboration.
The key business outcomes that resulted from the digital journey are: –
- Streamlined processes leading to quicker launch of products
- Ability to launch more frequent collections and also quickly react to changes in market trends
- Reduction in sampling costs
- Single source of information and tighter control and process governance
“Simbus has helped us in streamlining and automating the product lifecycle management, by seamlessly integrating various tools used to design fabrics & apparel with customer facing solutions for partners and consumers.”
– Praveen Shrikhande, Chief Digital Officer, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd.
About Simbus Technologies
Simbus Technologies Pvt Ltd consults, implements and supportsits customers by delivering innovative solutions that streamline every stage of business from concept to shelf.
Its proven delivery model and engagement approach has enabled it to establish itself as a credible partner of choice for leading companies in the fashion, consumer goods and retail industries.Simbus’ decades of domain expertise and strong technology skills enable it to deliver solutions in the areas of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), 3D Apparel Design, Merchandise Planning, BI and Analytics to help clients stay ahead in a dynamic and ever-evolving retail and fashion industry.
