10 October, 2017

Safariland Group Adopts Centric Software PLM

CAMPBELL, Calif., October 10, 2017 – The Safariland Group (“Safariland”), a leading global provider of safety and survivability products designed for the public safety, military, professional and outdoor markets, has selected Centric Software to provide its Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to fashion, retail, footwear, outdoor, luxury and consumer goods companies to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Founded in 1964, Safariland has grown through assimilating many protective product brands to become The Safariland Group of today. They are a global influencer, providing innovative and high-quality products all bound by the mission of “Together, We Save Lives”. Thirty-plus leading brands including Safariland® Armor, Mustang Survival®, Med-Eng®, VIEVU®, Bianchi®, Break Free® and KleenBore® reflect this rich heritage and serve the ever-changing needs of customers worldwide.

Walter M. Wilhelm, vice president of product integration at Safariland, explains that Safariland’s extensive scope of brands, markets, products and materials, and its continued growth through assimilation are the types of challenges that necessitate a consolidated product and process management system.

“Until this year, a few of our smaller brands had their own PLM systems, but we mainly operated using a mix of Excel, ERP, Illustrator and Word – all the usual suspects,” he says. “We need efficiencies, and we need to centralize data. In order to maintain our quality, share innovations, collaborate across brands and acquire materials as a group, we needed to have a centralized PLM system.”

“I knew Centric from my days at Black Diamond and knew it to be easy to configure and implement. Now at Safariland and tasked with selecting a PLM system, I looked at the broad scope of our products, the different markets we serve, and parameters of our products. I immediately recognized the early benefits that Centric brought to the table.”

“As manufacturers of products that need to meet certain standards of protection, we don’t have long lists of raw materials suppliers to work with, but it’s critical that engineering changes to a product are communicated throughout the structure, reaching design, procurement, and manufacturing. With Centric PLM, engineering changes and comments, as well as factory reviews and quality checks will be captured in real time, ensuring efficiencies are gained and complications are mitigated at the earliest stages,” says Wilhelm. “One of the most exciting aspects of implementing Centric will be the ability to share materials and data across related brands.”

“Centric is known as the leader in PLM innovation, constantly looking at how the system is used in the real world and how to evolve it,” Wilhelm says. “The entire Centric team has been very receptive, attentive and responsive throughout our implementation. We have seen our feedback developed into features in the system. I can confidently say this is a quality product that is leading the industry and supporting its users.”

“We are very happy to welcome The Safariland Group on board as our latest customer,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “Safariland is a unique company, producing a variety of life-saving products that must meet the highest standard of quality. We are honored that Safariland has confidence in our system to support the production of innovative products that people depend on in the front lines of law enforcement and military activity all over the world.”

Safariland (www.safariland.com)

The Safariland Group is a leading global provider of a broad range of safety and survivability products designed for the public safety, military, professional and outdoor markets. The Safariland Group offers a number of recognized brand names in these markets including Safariland^®, Med-Eng^®, Safariland Armor, VIEVU^®, Mustang Survival^®, Bianchi^®, Break Free^®, Protech^® Tactical, Defense Technology^®, Hatch^®, Monadnock^®, Identicator^® and NIK^®. The Safariland Group’s mission, “Together, We Save Lives”, is inherent in the lifesaving and protective products it delivers. The Safariland Group is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The Safariland Group is a trade name of Safariland, LLC.

Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in trend capitals around the world, Centric Software provides a Digital Transformation Platform for the most prestigious names in fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (VIP) is a visual, fully digital collection of boards for touch-based devices like iPad, iPhone and large-scale, touch-screen televisions. Centric VIP transforms decision making and automates execution to truly collapse time to market and distance to trend. Centric’s flagship product lifecycle management (PLM) platform, Centric 8, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, business planning, quality, and collection management functionality tailored for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB packages extended PLM including innovative technology and key industry learnings tailored for small businesses.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards, including the Frost & Sullivan Global Product Differentiation Excellence Award in Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM in 2016 and Frost & Sullivan’s Global Retail, Fashion, and Apparel PLM Product Differentiation Excellence Award in 2012. Red Herring named Centric to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

Centric is a registered trademark of Centric Software. All other brands and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.