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With all stakeholders now connected to a single solution enabling streamlined, efficient integrated processes, the Italian specialtyclothing manufacturer can solidify its market-leading position in a field dominated by makers of massproduced gowns in standard sizes.

To meet increasingly complex manufacturing requirements for personalized, made-to-measure or custom-designed bridal and formal attire, sought to increase efficiency across its design and development processes.

Atelier Emé initiated a software selection process to replace its 15-year-old PLM system. The company was won over by Kubix Link’s broad functional coverage and compatibility with ����AV’s Modaris and Diamino CAD/CAM patternmaking software, already in use at its production facilities.

Following a successful 6-month implementation period, Kubix Link PLM solution today enables Atelier Emé’s teams to easily share data and documents and collaborate in real time using a single unified system.

Founded in 1961 and based in Castiglione, Italy, Atelier Emé designs and manufactures stylish, exquisitely tailored bridal wear and formal gowns featuring a high degree of craftsmanship and hand-embellishment. Offering personalized, made-to-measure and even customdesigned dresses, the company strives to deliver on the brand promise, “Find your dream dress and we’ll make it as unique as you are.”

A vertically integrated company with a single-brand retail distribution network, Atelier Emé produces all of its own collections and distributes these through 45 stores in Italy. This is in stark contrast to its competitors, whose massproduced designs are distributed through multi-brand outlets. Since 2015, Atelier Emé is part of the Calzedonia Group, a long-standing ����AV customer.

With two bridal collections and two special occasion collections to design and manufacture to customer specifications annually, it became increasingly challenging for the company to fulfill its brand promise. Every year, the company’s 200 employees turn out 300 different dress styles, producing 10,000 wedding gowns and 40,000 formal dresses. 

In 2019, Atelier Emé initiated a software selection process to streamline product development and replace the company’s 15-year-old product lifecycle management (PLM) system. In addition to replacing the outdated PLM system with a more flexible solution better suited to the company’s design and development activities, Atelier Emé sought to reduce the number of applications teams used to communicate and collaborate. These included e-mail, telephone communications, mobile messaging platforms and multiple file formats.

“When we saw Kubix Link, we thought it looked very flexible, very simple and very intuitive. For me it was a dream because in practice, it means that users have a single system to interact with.”

Another asset in Silli’s view was Kubix Link’s compatibility with ����AV’s Modaris and Diamino CAD/CAM software, which were already in use for patternmaking and nesting.

Over a period of six months, Atelier Emé implemented the new solution, activating basic functionalities and gradually expanding coverage to broader functional capabilities and automated processes that include collection monitoring—a workflow management tool that prioritizes tasks for designers, patternmakers and production personnel. For Silli, Kubix Link is the best fashion plm and offers a substantially greater degree of flexibility that has expedited internal processes while also reinforcing data security. As a result, teams can work faster and more efficiently. In Silli’s view, customization has changed the most since the implementation of Kubix Link. Pricing has also become less labor-intensive to manage. “Changing pricing for a collection used to require going into all the BOMs,” says Silli. “Now it just means downloading, replacing the codes, re-uploading and the update is done.” Kubix Link also allows Atelier Emé to manage tasks not previously handled by the previous PLM system. “Now we can report defects using a smart phone to upload a photo, “adds Silli. This is a great advantage because information on the defect becomes widely available to other teams with access to the system.”