Centric Software is proud to announce that the latest release of its flagship Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution, Centric 8 PLM version 7.3, is now available. Centric Software provides the most innovative enterprise solutions for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands, retailers and manufacturers across industries such as food and beverage, cosmetics and personal care as well as grocery and multicategory retail to successfully plan, design, develop, source, bring to market and sell products.
Centric PLMTM is an end-to-end product development solution that provides a real-time, actionable ‘single source of the truth’ hub for all product-related teams, information and processes. Centric PLM connects to other enterprise systems such as ERP, external compliance and formulation databases, PPM, PIM, DAM and solutions for complete product lifecycle visibility, control and optimization. Companies who use Centric PLM reduce time to market, accelerate innovation, smoothly orchestrate new product introductions (NPI) and ensure compliance.
The latest Centric PLM release embeds features tailored to companies producing formulated goods, such as food, beverage, cosmetics, personal care and household products. Centric v7.3 also debuts three new modules as well as makes enhancements to existing product inspection, project management and 3D features.
“CPG businesses are under pressure to create products that deliver an end-to-end consumer experience, from packaging to nutrition, aesthetics and ingredient traceability and sustainability,” says Ron Watson, VP of Product at Centric Software. “Centric PLM v7.3 gives CPG companies intuitive and efficient innovations to optimize product introductions, streamline changes across complex assortments, involve stakeholders, respect quality and compliance standards, and launch more successful products, faster. Project management, product packaging and quality assurance come to the fore to ultimately enrich the end consumer’s product experience.”
For companies that group together different types of products with different lifecycles for a common market launch or promotion face numerous complexities. Centric’s new Project feature orchestrates multiple types of products in a single project. New capabilities enable users to create an assorted product such as a gift basket that contains foods, beverages, soft and/or hard goods for a common launch. Parallel, over-arching visibility reduces risk, empowers better decision-making and brings products to market on time.
Additional new features to streamline the go-to-market of both formulated and non-formulated products include Food Label datasheets and supporting libraries to manage ingredients, nutrients, allergens and label claims. A new Packaging Proofing module empowers teams to iterate and approve packaging artwork and designs while also ensuring that label claims, ingredient lists and nutritional information are complete and accurate, reducing the risk of costly errors.
Wicked Foods, the US plant-based food brand, recently chose Centric PLM as the ideal digital transformation partner to manage their complex product lifecycle, including international ingredient and labeling requirements.
“Launching dozens of products in different countries simultaneously with unique ingredient and labeling requirements, different retailer timelines and central distribution models and numerous supply chain and compliance standards requires a world-class solution like Centric PLM,” says Paul White, COO at Wicked Foods.
Centric PLM has pioneered a 3D-agnostic integration strategy, enabling product and packaging designers to work in their native 3D design environment while connected to PLM. Invaluable for inner and outer packaging design, label design and placement and virtual prototyping for molded food, beauty or other products such as chocolates or accessories. Centric’s 3D capabilities are further enhanced in v7.3 with Rhino file type connectivity and the addition of Conversations in the 3D viewer for a collaborative 3D workflow.
New Engineering Change Management capabilities simplify the inevitable changes to products that will occur. The impact of a change is computed automatically and flagged, leaving users to focus on adapting strategy and execution as opposed to digging through files in a frenzy.
Rather than pulling data and images from PLM to create external presentations for stakeholders only for this information to soon be out of date, teams can now create presentations within Centric PLM with the new Product Presentation module.
“Market-driven, the innovations in this release of Centric PLM were developed hand-in-hand with our customer-partners to respond directly to the complex requirements of CPG companies,” says Chris Groves, President and CEO of Centric Software. “Centric PLM drives strategic and digital transformation initiatives enabling the delivery of optimal product experiences for consumers.”