PARIS — January 18, 2012 — Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to
industries using soft materials — textiles, leather, industrial fabrics and composite materials —
is pleased to announce the renewal of its global partnership with Walter Wilhelm Associates (WWA)
for a three year period.
“Our customers in the fashion world are increasingly aware of the strategic importance PLM
plays and the immediate benefits a fashion and apparel-specific solution can bring to their
development process. It is also critically important to find a partner who grasps the subtleties of
this industry. With close to forty years of expertise and countless technology implementation
projects between us, Lectra and WWA both understand the economic realities and challenges unique to
fashion companies. Lectra’s strength — and the strength of our partnership with Walter Wilhelm
Associates — lies in an exhaustive knowledge of the tasks essential to apparel development, from
design through product development and production,” explains Daniel Harari, Lectra CEO.
Initiated in February 2009, this partnership and its renewal signify how well aligned the
Lectra and WWA teams are. In an increasingly mature market focused on achieving greater
profitability and reducing time to market, Lectra and WWA have been able to successfully complete a
range of PLM initiatives, thanks to their combined expertise in fashion.
Lectra Fashion PLM is the only fashion-specific PLM solution on the market. It combines
management tools such as flexible workflow and sourcing functions, tailored to the needs of the
fashion sector, with applications and features specific to job roles found in the fashion industry,
such as textile and fashion design and product development. The arrival of this break-through
technology in today’s economy presents an opportunity for apparel companies to look at how they do
business, re-assess their priorities and, quite simply, improve how they make what they sell.
“Deploying PLM in an unstable economic context demands quick implementation — often in no
more than six months. At every stage of collection development, fashion companies want immediate
proof of hard and soft ROI, regardless of whether project implementation is complete. This agile
way of working requires knowledgeable process analysis based on industry standards and best
practices, which Lectra Fashion PLM incorporates. Thanks to their respective industry experience,
Lectra and WWA experts master this methodology,” explains Walter Wilhelm, founder and CEO of Walter
Wilhelm Associates.
Posted on January 24, 2012
Source: Lectra
