Centric PLM Forms the Backbone of ADEO's Product Offering Management

“Our main strategic challenges were to develop a transverse view of the product offering across all ADEO companies, as opposed to each brand selecting products independently. We needed to optimize and automate the process.”

Régis Lepoutre, Project Market Leader (kitchens, bathrooms, and storage) at ADEO Services, explains the reasons behind the choice of a new PLM for the world’s 3rd largest home improvement company. With international expansion in mind, ADEO wants to strengthen their development capacity via partnerships in order to build a platform where stakeholders can connect, eventually extending to a marketplace and knowledge forum for expertise and advice for home services.

When using Excel files became too unwieldy for ADEO Services to optimize the management of a complex product portfolio, the European DIY retailer chose Centric PLM™ to consolidate product information, improve collaboration among teams and maximize visibility for planning.

“Our partnership with Centric stems from a desire to harmonize information and a need to synchronize data,” says Angélique Ciekawy, ADEO PLM Project Manager for Business Leader Metrics.

Centric PLM facilitates work in project mode so that each user has the right reference points for the right project at the right time. Not only that, but product managers throughout ADEO’s Business Units use Centric PLM to build a wide product offer on an international scale.

A Multinational Company with a Hometown Retailer’s DNA

From the establishment of Leroy Merlin in the 1920s, to the construction of the platform for a positive habitat, ADEO has integrated a multitude of changes since founded and has helped shape major transformations in the retail sector to constantly meet its customers’ home-improvement needs.

With more than 1,000 points of sale worldwide, ADEO companies are globally recognized for the variety and accessibility of their offerings, making DIY home improvement available to everyone. With tens of thousands of products in its catalog, ADEO has been able to curate their assortments to the particular requirements of each country, working not only with major global industrial partners, but also with numerous local and regional suppliers to match products as close as possible to consumer wants.

A New PLM to Meet New Challenges

Managing 95,000 SKUs, 57,000 of which are active, across a far-reaching range of products (from structural materials to electrical, paint, kitchens, bathrooms and storage projects, as well as finishing materials, decoration and lighting), requires the use of a high-performance system that can optimize the product portfolio to this supply structure.

The company was looking for a tool to meet specific demands while allowing teams to co-develop products. Centric PLM quickly proved to be the perfect solution. “We chose Centric PLM because it allowed us to meet our needs in a more natural way, with an agile and adapted approach,” explains Guillaume Soulie, Digital Product Leader.

Centric and ADEO, an Enduring Collaboration

“The agility of Centric PLM is extremely important,” adds Angélique Ciekawy. “Our process is constantly evolving in line with the needs of our customers, and our PLM solution must adapt accordingly.”

Because of this evolving relationship, Centric Software’s R&D teams and ADEO partnered on functional innovations in Centric PLM, such as the addition of product-specific features to better manage technical data, which are now available to all Centric Software^® customers.

“We have two main types of interactions with the Centric teams,” says Soulie. “The integration team, who worked on the configuration and adaptation of the solution at ADEO, and the R&D team, with whom we have very constructive discussions about our needs.” Soulie continues,

Centric PLM provides better visibility into the status of a product. The planning aspect of Centric PLM makes it easy to monitor progress in a collaborative manner. In addition, the teams can now analyze and identify product portfolio performance using real-world data, and determine forecasts and order intent, saving a great deal of time.

Lepoutre explains, “We rely on Centric PLM to get through what we call our ‘3 moments of truth.’ There is the first moment when the BU commits to participating in the project, the second moment when the BU forecasts the initial purchase estimate per product, and finally, the third moment of truth when, after communicating the purchasing conditions obtained from our industrial partners, we commit to a purchase estimate. This is what we count on for reliable information among project team members and the industrial partners.”

Thanks to Centric PLM, the completeness of available data has greatly improved, attaining a level of over 90%. Previously, this performance indicator was simply unquantifiable. Another significant improvement is meeting time-to-market goals, which is also above 90%.

The main advantage of Centric PLM for the ADEO Services teams: true visibility and access to product information across the entire company.

Centric PLM Has More to Achieve

Between ADEO Services and Centric, the goal is simple: maintain a lasting partnership, within a paradigm of mutual benefit, by developing Centric PLM together. Another benefit according to Soulie, “Being able to interface our PLM with other tools. For example, our supply chain simulation tools are based on Centric PLM data.” But the wins don’t end there.

To drive even more efficiency, ADEO Services plans to integrate PLM with its other data tools—ERP and PIM—to provide product descriptions to various websites.

Lepoutre concludes, “ADEO strives to be as customer-centric as possible. While we are a large company, our success is due to our ability to respond to the needs of the local community. We will continue to adjust the portfolio for each business unit thanks to Centric PLM. It’s a great challenge and partnership we are building together.”