How a manufacturing giant utilizes Plmbr to expand and launch an in-house brand
Zenatives has a rich history, initially operating as a clothing manufacturer before transitioning to designing their in-house line. Specializing in athleisure wear for women, their focus is on crafting garments from sustainable, top-quality materials, ensuring an exceptional wearing experience for customers.
The core of Zenatives' product development, encompassing design, and sourcing, takes place in Turkey. Their website is headquartered in Athens, Greece, while warehousing and order fulfillment are managed from Germany. With imminent plans to launch in the UK, they are currently in the process of assembling their team and have intentions to expand into select regions in Asia.
We had the chance to interview three individuals from Zenatives.
Cigdem is a senior product designer with 16 years of experience in the ready-to-wear fashion sector, specializing in knitted clothing for leisure and activewear. At Zenatives, she focuses on seamless, sustainable, comfortable, and timeless sportswear. Serving as a senior designer for the past 1.5 years, she actively contributes to product research, photoshoots, and pricing.
Hilal is a product and graphic designer with eight years of industry experience and a graduate degree in fashion design. Her background as an aerial athlete and certified trainer makes working on activewear at Zenatives particularly appealing to her. Joining the team 1.5 years ago, Hilal focuses on trend research and collection creation.
Angelos is a project lead with a background in textile technology from England. With almost 44 years of experience in the apparel sector, he has worked globally with leading brands and retailers. Recently, he has been tasked with developing a B2C operation for a well-established group specializing in seamless technical garments. As the project lead, he played a key role in establishing a new brand in the activewear sector, starting with the launch in Europe. His focus is on implementing a disruptive business model and leveraging digital technologies to drive success.
In this case study, we delve into how the Zenatives team utilized Techpacker to effectively unite their team and drive successful scalability.
Getting easier access to the product data
Before adopting Techpacker, Cigdem, as the product lead, managed material lists using Excel or PDFs. She organized files into folders and tracked materials from there, often having to sift through numerous folders and spreadsheets to find what she needed.
After transitioning to Techpacker, accessing data became much simpler. Cigdem now organizes data within libraries, where each card includes a preview image, making all stored data visual and easily accessible. Additionally, she can add keywords to cards, facilitating quick searches using Techpacker’s global search feature.
For instance, if they need to find materials from the 2022 collections, Cigdem can simply enter the keyword "care label sportswear 2022" and locate the relevant cards. All design data is now readily available.
"With Techpacker, it's much easier to see products grouped by common keywords, allowing anyone with access to view models in a list format and download the data. This not only streamlines the process but also saves space on our computers and third-party storage apps that we used previously." - says Cigdem.
Tracking product development stages
Before Techpacker, Cigdem and her design team relied on manual methods to track their product development stages. They used spreadsheets or written lists to keep track of tasks, deadlines, and progress. Communication occurred through emails or in-person meetings, where updates were verbally shared or written down. Without centralized software, they have faced challenges in coordinating efforts, managing revisions, and ensuring everyone had access to the latest information.
With Techpacker's tech pack stages, Cigdem and her design team now can assign custom stages to their products, such as design, sampling, and production stages. This has significantly streamlined their workflow.
This clear visualization allows them to prioritize tasks effectively, allocate resources appropriately, and ensure that each product moves smoothly through the development pipeline. As a result, their work is more organized, deadlines are met more consistently, and overall productivity has increased.
Streamlining product design
Before Techpacker, Zenatives' designer Hilal stored her sketches in PDF format and occasionally used Excel as a backup tool. This approach inadvertently slowed down the design process for several reasons.
Firstly, working with PDFs and Excel files meant that accessing and updating sketches was cumbersome. Hilal had to open each file separately, locate the relevant sketch or information, and then make any necessary changes. This process was time-consuming and lacked fluidity, especially when dealing with multiple sketches or iterations.
Furthermore, relying on PDFs and Excel as backup tools introduced the risk of version control issues. If multiple versions of sketches were saved in different files or locations, it could lead to confusion about which version was the most up-to-date. This inconsistency could result in errors or discrepancies in the design process.
On Techpacker, Hilal can store her sketches directly within the product development space. This streamlined approach eliminates the need to search through multiple files or formats to access her designs, saving valuable time.
Moreover, Techpacker's annotation tool allows Hilal to enhance her sketches with comments and callouts directly within the platform. This means she can quickly add notes, highlight specific details, or communicate ideas with her team members without having to switch between different software or methods.
By having everything centralized in one platform and being able to annotate sketches seamlessly, Hilal can speed up the product design process significantly. She can iterate on designs more efficiently, collaborate with team members in real-time, and ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding design revisions and feedback.
Getting clarity in communicating updates to suppliers
Before adopting Techpacker, Hilal’s communication with clients relied on tech packs, but effectively conveying updates posed a challenge. Suppliers needed prompt notification of changes, yet the manual processes and lack of a centralized platform made this difficult.
Being manufacturers themselves, Zenatives primarily need to communicate with their suppliers regarding materials. The library feature in Techpacker has significantly simplified this communication process. Now, they can make necessary changes directly in the library and easily share them with their suppliers via email. Previously, they had to make these changes in a PDF format, which was very time-consuming.
"With Techpacker, we can do this most efficiently. As a manufacturing unit, there are multiple lab tests to be associated with a style. We have created cards in the library for each test; they can now easily choose among these cards and quickly generate a PDF doc and share it with suppliers. With Techpacker’s doc view, we can include or exclude anything we need and share this piece of data directly." - says Hilal.
Establishing a unified product development space for the international team
Zenatives, as a large team spanning multiple countries worldwide, faced the challenge of uniting its members, especially as they embarked on creating their own in-house line of activewear. Led by Angelos, the project lead, they recognized the necessity of a solution to overcome this obstacle. The lack of a connecting platform presented various difficulties: communication between team members became fragmented, transferring data between countries became cumbersome, and collaborating among dispersed members proved challenging.
Techpacker played a crucial role in overcoming these challenges by serving as a centralized platform for managing all data related to Zenatives' products, from concept to finished products. By integrating databases between multiple departments through a simple ERP solution, Techpacker facilitated seamless communication and collaboration across the organization.
Through various tuition sessions with Techpacker tutors and the creativity of the tech teams, Zenatives was able to maximize the potential of Techpacker, taking their operations to a new level. They viewed Techpacker not just as a design tool but as the foundation application driving their e-commerce operations.
Starting from designing products and collections, Zenatives utilized Techpacker to streamline processes such as sourcing, pricing, stock-keeping orders, fulfillment, content production, influencer engagement, and social media management. With Techpacker organizing and managing the data, everything within their e-commerce operations flowed more efficiently and effectively.
“In my perspective, I believe that no ERP system understands the product as thoroughly as Techpacker does. While ERPs primarily serve operational functions, Techpacker is dedicated to serving the product, its creators, and manufacturers. By fine-tuning Techpacker with the assistance of their tech teams, we're able to effectively manage the product lifecycle—from conception to sale or discontinuation. This approach is not only cost-effective but also highly efficient.” - says Angelos.
Easy and cost-effective onboarding
Zenatives began as a large manufacturer for other brands before they started developing their own activewear line. As a startup in fashion design, Zenatives faced several challenges due to financial constraints and limited resources. The inability to afford large Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) platforms posed a significant obstacle. These platforms often come with substantial costs associated with licensing fees, implementation, and maintenance, making them financially out of reach for a startup with limited funding.
Furthermore, Zenatives lacked the necessary resources to train and onboard a team of six people to effectively utilize such PLM platforms. Training and onboarding require time, expertise, and dedicated personnel, all of which can be costly and resource-intensive. Without the means to invest in comprehensive training programs, the startup would struggle to maximize the potential benefits of a PLM platform, hindering its ability to streamline product development processes and scale its operations efficiently.
“Techpacker played a crucial role in overcoming our challenges by providing exceptional support and guidance throughout the onboarding process. Their team demonstrated remarkable creativity in understanding and fulfilling our unique requests, despite our startup limitations. We felt heard and understood, as they tirelessly explored every avenue to meet our needs. We are immensely grateful for the outstanding onboarding experience they provided, which empowered us to navigate complex tasks and expectations with confidence” - says Angelos.
