September 13th, 2021

UPPAbaby Replaces Their Legacy PLM with Centric

A stroller and car seat company walks into greater efficiency

CAMPBELL, Calif., September 14, 2021 – UPPAbaby, a juvenile gear brand, selected Centric Software®’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric PLM™. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions to plan, design, develop, source, and sell products such as apparel, footwear, sporting goods, furniture, home décor, personal care, food & beverage, and luxury to achieve strategic and operational digital transformation goals.

Based in Massachusetts, USA, UPPAbaby was founded in 2006 by a husband-and-wife team with backgrounds in research and development, operations, marketing, and sales. UPPAbaby produces high-quality strollers and car seats. Known for their quality, innovative and functional designs, the company grew quickly to more than 100 employees and distribution in 53 countries worldwide. Safety, comfort, and ease of use are values that they build into everything they make.

Says Emily Paine Knickerbocker, senior materials manager at UPPAbaby, “We do a lot of testing on the components in our products. We were looking for a solution to better track that, in a way that all our project managers, the quality team, and our China team could access. Something besides a shared drive, which is basically what we were using.”

Faced with technical products that can have 500 – 1,000 components, their previous PLM wasn’t able to handle the complexity. Avery François, project manager at UPPAbaby, says they tried numerous ways to make their previous system work for them but failed. “It pretty much broke at our most basic need, which was to be able to put in components and parts to build a BOM. We had too much information for what the system was designed to do.”

After more research and careful consideration, UPPAbaby selected Centric PLM. Recognizing that their products were not easily pigeonholed into one category or another, they made sure the new PLM could accommodate. “Our product is in a unique middle ground. We do a lot with hard goods and soft goods in separate SKUs, but also in the same product. When Centric demoed the platform for the team and we saw the capability of what it could do, we were ready to move forward as a team,” says François. Being able to configure Centric PLM for what they needed and not having to customize it was also key.

UPPAbaby was pleased with the training their users received, who were then able to instruct their own teams, quickly getting to the point where everyone was ready. François says, “We were all in the system in our U.S. office within a few weeks of going live. And have been using it daily with no issues.” The most beneficial aspect of the platform is having everything in one place. “Before we had to go to our server, know which spreadsheet to find, possibly having to find two or three spreadsheets to get all the information we needed. And then sometimes we would have to go to someone else to get that information—where now all of it is in Centric.”

Tech reports are easily accessible, workflows are streamlined, and ensure that no steps are missed. They no longer need to update multiple spreadsheets without being sure which is the latest one. Knickerbocker adds another positive aspect to overall efficiency. “It’s helping us find opportunities for synergies, seeing which components we are developing separately, but don’t actually need to be. We are realizing that there are certain products where we could be using the exact same component in different SKUs, but we currently are not.”

Chris Groves, president, and CEO of Centric Software says, “We are delighted that UPPAbaby has chosen to partner with us. They are a modern, innovative company that puts out high-quality products for our most precious segment of the population. We are pleased to be strolling alongside as they boost their efficiency and set themselves up for future growth.”

Request a Demo

UPPAbaby (www.uppababy.com)

The UPPAbaby mission is to make the smartest strollers, car seats and juvenile gear available: intuitively designed, stylish and sleek, with the features and functions all parents want—plus innovations they never knew were possible. UPPAbaby is committed to providing a customer experience that is as exceptional as the company’s products. Founded in 2006, UPPAbaby is based in Massachusetts, USA with products available worldwide. For more information please visit www.uppababy.com.

Centric Software (www.centricsoftware.com)

From its headquarters in Silicon Valley, Centric Software^® provides a Product Concept to Replenishment Digital Transformation Platform for fashion, retail, footwear, luxury, outdoor and consumer goods including cosmetics and personal care and food and beverage. Centric’s flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platform, Centric PLM™, delivers enterprise-class merchandise planning, product development, sourcing, quality and product portfolio optimization innovations specifically for fast-moving consumer industries. Centric SMB focuses on core tools and industry best practices for emerging brands. Centric Visual Innovation Platform (CVIP) offers highly visual digital board experiences for collaboration and decision-making. Centric Software pioneered mobility, introducing the first mobile apps for PLM, and is widely known for connectivity to dozens of other enterprise systems including ERP, DAM, PIM, e-com, planning and more as well as creative tools such as Adobe^® Illustrator and a host of 3D CAD connectors. Centric’s innovations are 100% market-driven with the highest user adoption rate and fastest time to value in the industry. All Centric innovations shorten time to market, boost product innovation and reduce costs.

Centric Software is majority-owned by Dassault Systèmes (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), the world leader in 3D design software, 3D digital mock-up and PLM solutions.

Centric Software has received multiple industry awards and recognition, including being named by Red Herring to its Top 100 Global list in 2013, 2015 and 2016. Centric also received various excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021.

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