Overview
Levi Strauss & Co. selected ArcherGrey to complete a significant technical upgrade to their FlexPLM system. They needed a more up to date version of their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system and one which would also provide improved integration performance, usability, and scalability. They needed support from a Project and Technical team that could provide expertise to manage and execute the implementation of an upgraded FlexPLM system which handles their seasonal go-to-market product setup and activation for global and regional processes.
Background
Celebrating 167 years, Levi Strauss & Co. is currently one of the world’s largest apparel and Jeanswear company, leading the omnichannel retail industry with a diverse international footprint. FlexPLM is a strategic system critical to product setup and activation and supports the brand’s product development and availability in 5 global regions.
The Challenge
A technical milestone and business inflection point
Delivering innovative products, on-time and on-budget is not an unusual business pressure for LS&Co. The challenge is consistently meeting these demands while maintaining and developing technology that allows the business to continue to evolve with minimal disruption to day to day business activities.
For LS&Co, a major technical upgrade to their FlexPLM system was necessary to build the foundation for future business enablement and advanced capabilities.
The risk of ownership of their outdated PLM system approached a suboptimal level for efficiently managing business resources. As a result, the team decided to pursue a path to upgrade FlexPLM.
“We really needed a partner that would come alongside us and help to facilitate our overall strategy. We knew that the complexities and risks involved required support from both a technical and project teams.” – Christopher Conrad | VP – Business Transformation and Global Supply Chain Technology
The Solution
Technical expertise meets strategic direction
Business Process Consulting, Technical Implementation
LS&Co. selected ArcherGrey to partner with them to lead a multi-phased PLM initiative to upgrade FlexPLM. ArcherGrey supported business performance through strategic planning, change management strategy, training, and knowledge transfer, as well as technical performance through a system upgrade, integrations, and application support.
The Results
Improved performance and scalable systems
One of challenges encountered during the project was the need to reduce the cutover duration necessary to complete the upgrade. An initial estimate for system downtime during this cutover was approximately 45 days. ArcherGrey was able to reduce system downtime to 6 business days through a technical analysis that found approximately 250 million unnecessary data records that could be isolated from the upgrade. The reduction of cutover time resulted in a more favorable outcome to sustain daily business activities.
“This complex platform upgrade with a high customized system has been one of the best project executions that I have seen.”
Other notable results:
- Improved user experience due to updated system functionality
- Positioning of the platform to ensure ability to capture future benefits from other updated technologies
- Reduced system security vulnerabilities
- 7% reduction in customizations – targeted additional 17% of customizations to be removed
“ArcherGrey was the right choice to lead this incredibly complex upgrade”
“Outstanding collaboration with all teams”
“Team, nice job finishing strong with a project that took months of planning, several months of execution, and risks and issues no project team could have anticipated. This complex platform upgrade with a high customized system has been one of the best project executions that I have seen.”