Phillips-Van Heusen Corp Sets the Standard for Efficiency in the Apparel Industry

PVH Corp., one of the world’s largest apparel companies, owning brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, pursues ambitious goals for best practices, optimized processes, sustainability, and continual innovation. Eurelle Hao, Senior Project Manager and Project Management Office Lead for PVH Supply, plays a key role in facilitating the projects that help the apparel industry leader accomplish these goals.

Hao leads project management for two of the company’s divisions: Calvin Klein Apparel North America and The Underwear Group, which includes underwear and intimate apparel brands CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR, TOMMY HILFIGER, Olga, Warner’s, and True&Co. When she first joined PVH, streamlining project management processes was one of her top priorities. 

Hao did research to enhance and expedite adoption of the Smartsheet platform to help pull projects together, using templates to design and execute on projects to improve direct communications across continents and time zones.

"One Version of the Truth"

“Prior to Smartsheet, our project management was lacking a common collaborative work management tool,” Hao says. “Everything was done manually, with a lot of different tools, so that meant a lot of different touch points. People would go to three or four different places for information, and you were unsure if it was accurate or up to date.”

“If you’re working on a huge cross-functional team, you never want to have to search; you should know where everything’s going to be housed and that you can all work in it at the same time. Smartsheet allows us to have one version of the truth.”

Today, several PVH Supply teams drive their project management on Smartsheet: tracking, methodology, team communications, and project execution. From the proposal of an idea to final executive reports, everything flows through Smartsheet templates and forms that the PMO team has established. Smartsheet gives these businesses a platform for many critical tasks that unite their Supply projects and initiatives:

• Production development calendars and reporting: PVH’s journey began with calendars. When The Underwear Group needed a new product calendar tool, Smartsheet was proposed for a trial. Its successful implementation led to wider adoption and scale-out across The Underwear Group and eventually Calvin Klein Apparel North America.
• Project Management Office (PMO) infrastructure and governance: The PMO’s Education Center encompasses a project execution workflow, customizable project templates, web-based forms for proposing new projects, an automated review and approval process, and archiving and assessment of completed projects.
• Education and onboarding for team members: Smartsheet gives PVH Supply teams a central place to find best practices, historic information, data, and process guidance, making it easy for new talent to get up to speed quickly.
• Reporting to senior management through dashboards: The interactive dashboards provide transparency for leadership, from the big picture to the smallest detail. If senior leadership is reviewing the execution of functional strategies, or progress on new vendor models, they can click through dashboards for the information they need to be informed or make key decisions, without having multiple meetings and spending time looking for answers.

“The usual challenge many projects experience is that leaders are not given the right visibility,” Hao says. “Smartsheet allows project teams to be accountable for providing visibility for our leaders, so that leaders will have the right knowledge and can make key decisions as needed.”

Collaboration on a Global Scale

It’s also easier to communicate through Smartsheet, not just for The Underwear Group and Calvin Klein Apparel North America leadership, but for internal teams and strategic vendor partners all over the world. The PVH Supply teams span continents and time zones, which can lead to delays and confusion if communication lines are not clear and direct. Smartsheet makes it easy to share information and data directly through the project sheets.

“On the PMO team and even cross-functionally — not just with Supply but Sales, Operations, Merchandising, Design — Smartsheet helps us to communicate better and work in a more innovative way together,” Hao says. “The platform allows everything to be collaborative, seamlessly and globally. We have offices in Hong Kong, in Africa, in Sri Lanka, in India; they’re all connected and plugged into Smartsheet.”

With clear lines of communication and a central source for up-to-date information, Smartsheet enables Supply teams to work in a more agile manner. They even use Smartsheet to drive meetings through agendas and reports, working in real time from a clear view of current project status, issues, and next steps.

“In the past, teams might have had one meeting that lasted an hour to an hour and a half, every week or twice a week, for just one or two projects,” Hao says. “With Smartsheet we’ve been able to do more because everything is done in one way. It’s customized to the needs of the project, and you don't spend a lot of time doing manual work. It’s been a lot more efficient.”

Faster Turnarounds Benefit Customers

With more efficient project management and communication, The Underwear Group and Calvin Klein North America Apparel Supply teams are able to drive more projects. This benefits the bottom line as more customer-focused initiatives get completed, and opens up opportunities for talent to take on new responsibilities that help them develop current and new skillsets. With an easy-to-use template and process flow, Smartsheet is a toolkit for cross-functional teams to conceive and develop innovative ideas.

Ultimately, the value that Smartsheet brings to The Underwear Group and Calvin Klein Apparel North America in PVH is measured in the customer’s experience. Whether it’s improving a new process design, improving the sustainability of materials for a line of intimate apparel, or reducing the time it takes to deliver products to retailers, Smartsheet provides a platform for continually optimizing practices and raising standards of performance.

“Everything that we do is about making sure we have top-of-the-line quality products for the consumer, and any project that we run always has to align with our organizational goals,” Hao says.

“With Smartsheet, we’re getting that executed faster, in a more efficient manner. In a sense, it’s behind-the-scenes work — but it’s really not, because it's allowed us to drive toward and achieve our goals faster. This leads to a more positive impact on the end consumer, as well as for our internal teams.”

For more information about this story, please see our case study.