Project Description
Development of a retail private label management organization from the ground up including brand management, product development, and strategy.
The Client
A $2+ billion nationally recognized multi-channel retailer of softlines and hardlines with a loyal customer base.
The Challenge
The product development organization was faced with an increase in demand from merchandising, limited in-house specification expertise and rising product quality issues.
The executive team wanted to design a process that would improve current performance and enable rapid growth of the private label business. The design needed to consider a limited pool of expert resources in the product field.
The Parker Avery Solution
The Parker Avery Group designed product development pipeline, specification, sourcing, quality assurance, and measurement processes.
As part of the solution, Parker Avery also defined an improved process timeline, revised merchandising responsibilities to ensure alignment with product development roles, and deployed a stage/gate process model that required minimal systems. Through this project, Parker Avery revised the organization roles, defined processes, and trained the end users on their new roles and responsibilities.
The following processes were designed:
- Product prioritization
- Product definition and costing
- Sourcing and design
- Qualification and testing
- Manufacturing management
- Product launch