A Case Study for E-Spec’s Convert It!, Tag-It!, and Image Importer for YuniquePLM
Client Description
http://www.cutterbuck.com/ Cutter & Buck, Inc. was founded in 1989, in Seattle, Washington, with an eye towards making premium sportswear and outerwear in styles with distinctive details, quality craftsmanship, and the finest fabrics. We embrace our regional heritage with a brand identity that embodies Genuine Spirit of the Pacific Northwest. Staying true to our proud tradition of creating high-quality performance sportswear for over 20 years, we have evolved from a niche-specialty brand to a global lifestyle brand, with a large selection of modern classic apparel and accessories for people who naturally thrive between an urban and outdoor lifestyle.
Business Problem
Cutter & Buck offers many color ways of a particular style. For them, they will have all the various color ways of a style contained in a single Adobe Illustrator file. Designers prefer to keep this single file with each color way on a separate layer for the sake easy access and speed of future editing purposes. The problem with working this way was that the files needed to be separated as individual files by color way for their PLM system as well as for use in their customer catalogs.
E-Spec Solution
By implementing E-Spec’s Convert-It!, Tag-It!, and Image Importer for YuniquePLM, a process that used to take hours is now performed in minutes. With these tools, the Designers simply save the AI files normally using Tag-It! to identify the image with basic style information. On save each color way within the file is saved behind the scenes as a separate AI and JPG file that are fed into the YuniquePLM database and linked to the appropriate style record. Additional copies of the individual color way AI files are also delivered to the Art department where they are color corrected for print and placed into an InDesign document for catalog creation. “Our Designers absolutely love it”, said Dean Dunlop, Network/Storage Systems Administrator. “ E-Spec is one of the best companies that I deal with”, he said when asked about our customer service.
Technologies Used
E-Spec Convert It!
E-Spec Tag-It! for Illustrator
E-Spec Image Importer for Gerber YuniquePLM
Business Benefits
-Huge time savings reducing a process that took hours down to one that takes only minutes
-Fewer mistakes with file changes as edits automatically update in PLM and the catalog
-Designers are happy to spend more time in creative tools and less time on data entry
