Monoprix (factory inspection): retail adopts Gallery

Monoprix: Retail adoption of Gallery

The leading French city-centre retail company trusts Lectra's Gallery.

In just over 70 years, Monoprix has established itself as a leader in city centre retail, pioneering the concept of the urban market, where fashion and quality are available to everyone, which is why millions of people visit every day. The brand is jointly owned by the Casino and Galeries Lafayette groups, each holding a 50% stake. Monoprix can be found in almost all the major French city centres, with more than 230 stores and employing 18,000 people. In 2002, it generated sales of 3.7 billion euros, of which 2/3 came from food sales and 13% from textile sales.

Gallery, Key to Organization

Its purchasing department plays a key role in the process, price and quantity setting of various products. The ordering department is responsible for the design of specific clothing products. It also manages the design of textile production lines, which were previously achieved through traditional outsourcing, but can now achieve the same quality at a lower cost, or get higher quality at the same cost. It must prepare specifications from information provided by buyers, select order-taking manufacturers who can manufacture products at the required price, place orders, and track deliveries.

In order to improve the way it achieves growth in its sector, Monoprix decided to equip itself with a solution that would allow it to manage the product development cycle. From all the possibilities investigated, including the in-house development of a solution, Gallery was chosen, a software that optimizes data management and utilization, defining the processes to be carried out for development. Lectra's solution was chosen due to its expertise, "and because Gallery is so flexible that it can be adapted and interfaced with Monoprix's internal applications," explains IT Project Manager Bernard Wirtz. Installation and setup were easy. Thanks to the unconditional transfer of technical knowledge, Monporix took over the software from Lectra's IT engineers and consultants within a month.
It has proven to be of great interest (in terms of process fluidity, real-time data flow, etc.) to combine Gallery and Monoprix's internally developed applications to manage supply and inventory.

Save time and improve reliability

The Ordering Department manages more than 1,000 textiles per year and deals with around 20 order-taking companies. One of the main challenges is cost-price relevance and efficiency, as the Ordering Department must quickly estimate and generate accurate price analyses for product buyers to make the final decision. "With the information from Gallery, decision-making is easier and prices are more accurate than before," explains Danielle Dodelier, Ordering/Quality Manager. The Ordering Department can now present clearer and more transparent information. "The information is more reliable for quality reporting and ensures that suppliers receive consistent information," confirms Caroline Delorme, Organizational Project Manager during the Gallery implementation. Gallery is considered a high-quality tool for growth due to its three advantages: standardization, time savings, and reliability.