Wolf Lingerie, corsetry specialist based in Alsace, France, has added Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Final Inspection module to further enrich their PLM solution capabilities.

Founded in Strasbourg in 1947, the Wolf Lingerie group develops and distributes a portfolio of complementary lingerie brands with strong and assertive identities: Sans Complexe, Girls in Paris, Billet Doux and Jardin Secret. Originally focused solely on corsetry and private label production, the Group now also offers its own brands and is diversifying its offering. Notably, Sans Complexe, the group’s flagship brand, has been expanded to include swimwear, cotton underwear, shapewear, sports, maternity and more. To manufacture these new styles, Wolf Lingerie has opted for a focused strategy working with expert partners in different fields. In 2016 Wolf Lingerie successfully deployed Centric PLM, Centric’s innovative PLM solution, to consolidate all technical data into a common repository and facilitate collaboration between teams in France and Asia.

Jean-François Mialon, CEO of Wolf Lingerie:

“The adoption of Centric PLM was a huge step forward for our group. Today all of our brands use Centric PLM. We have seen an improvement in our processes and in communication between the development teams in France and those responsible for production in Asia, a sharp reduction in lead times and errors and, above all, increased reliability and better control of information relating to products and suppliers.”

Solution to improve product quality

For the past year and a half, Wolf Lingerie has committed to diversifying its supplier sourcing.

Jean-François Mialon: “Dozens of materials and component suppliers and nearly 25 partner factories in Southeast Asia and Europe participate in the manufacturing of our products. To maintain our reputation for quality with our customers and consumers, we must carry out more checks and redouble our vigilance regarding the origin and quality of materials, adherence to manufacturing standards, and legal and regulatory compliance at production sites. This challenge is all the more ambitious since the lingerie sector is subject to a high level of complexity: on average, a bra is made up of 25 different pieces and calls for sophisticated nomenclature. Today, our quality control process is based on paper documents and Excel or Word files, which are potentially prone to errors and longer lead times as data is communicated with delays. It is difficult and costly to anticipate and correct problems prior to production under these conditions.

• With the Centric PLM Final Inspection module, our goal is to be able to access all inspection data digitally in real time, saving time and money.

• We can thus define evaluation criteria and acceptable quality levels for each product, check the compliance of criteria such as size, material, quality and finish in real time, access all the data and update it continually.

• Sending the consolidated feedback to product and production teams will strengthen our approach to continuous improvement of our products, ultimately benefiting the group’s competitiveness.”

Wolf Lingerie has also just completed the rollout of Centric Software’s Quality Management PLM module, which tracks all stages of material testing and accessory compliance control. “This module was essential for the group as part of its CSR approach and for monitoring the Oeko-Tex specifications which were chosen as the quality standard for the Sans Complexe brand.”

Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software:

“We are delighted that Wolf Lingerie continues to partner with Centric. This lingerie brand has fully diversified its supply model and needed a tool capable of managing quality control with extreme precision, in real time. With the Centric PLM Final Inspection module, Wolf Lingerie ensures control of product quality throughout its entire supply, design and manufacturing chain.”