Custom PIM Development for Workwear Procurement Automation
Overview of Our Client
Our client is a major European railway operator managing tens of thousands of employees across passenger and freight operations. Each employee’s entitlement to workwear and protective gear depends on their role, department, and annual quota. Existing procurement tools were unable to centrally manage complex product data, size variations, and permissions, which resulted in lots of manual checks, errors, and mismatched orders.
Challenge
The client wanted a fully integrated solution in order to manage workwear and protective clothing with highly granular product variations:
- 30+ categories of uniforms and PPE (personal protective equipment).
- Dozens of sizes, colors, and subtypes.
- 500K items ordered yearly across 750+ product groups.
- About 5,000 suppliers and 1,500 contracts.
- Strict entitlement rules based on role, department, and annual quotas.
Main Goals
To help our clients overcome their challenges in managing complex workwear procurement, we set a number of goals:
- Automate enrichment of product data, sizes, colors, and compatibility rules.
- Unify 30+ categories of workwear into structured sets compatible with job roles and procurement workflow.
- Define the entitlement logic, ensuring only permitted items can be ordered for each employee based on role and quota.
- Integrate PIM with the procurement system, making it a single source of truth for all uniform and PPE data.
- Establish a governance model for product updates, approvals, and rollouts.
Project Overview
We created a tailor-made PIM solution for our client and embedded it right into his procurement system. The system consolidated all workwear product data, automated enrichment, enforced entitlement logic, and set up a fluid ordering process for 30+ categories of uniforms and protective gear. Moreover, the newly implemented system started to act as the primary source of information on all workwear items, harmonizing with procurement and HR departments. The entire project took 12 months.
- Region: Europe
- Industry: Transportation / Railway
- Timeline: 12 months
Solution
We developed a comprehensive, enterprise-ready PIM adapted specifically to workwear and protective equipment management. The PIM combined advanced product modeling, entitlement logic, multi-layer validation, and procurement integration, and was deployed in a containerized environment via Kubernetes and integrated with SSO for enterprise use.
PIM Core Features
- Centralized master data for all uniform items, including sizes, materials, certifications, and color variants.
- Ability to define uniform sets (e.g., “Train Driver Summer Set”), linking compatible items and mandatory accessories.
- Automated generation of variant combinations from incoming supplier catalogs.
- Eligibility checks based on role, department, and used quotas.
- Tracking of yearly allowances and blocking orders exceeding limits.
- Manual and automated product enrichment workflows.
User Workflow
- Product Enrichment: Suppliers delivered new uniform items. The PIM automatically generated size and color variants, validated the completeness of each item, assigned appropriate categories, and created compatible workwear sets.
- Role-Based Mapping: The system synced job codes (provided by SAP) and mapped them to eligible categories and sets.
- Quota Allocation: Each employee received a yearly quota, and the PIM tracked their ordered quantities, remaining budget, and any expiring allowances.
- Procurement Request: Employees selected items from role-compatible catalogs; the PIM enforced entitlement rules and blocked invalid orders.
- Approval & Sync: Approved items were pushed to the procurement system and further to warehousing and logistics.
Deployment & Roadmap
- The PIM was deployed in a containerized Kubernetes environment for streamlined rollout and enterprise-grade scalability.
- The initial release focused on core catalog management and procurement integration.
- Next phases include automated quota logic, advanced enrichment workflows, and upcoming AI-driven features such as predictive sizing, supplier self-service tools, and computer-vision-based image tagging.
Technology Stack
To support the scale, complexity, and integration needs of the client’s procurement ecosystem, we selected the following technology stack:
Backend
- Java
- Spring Boot
Frontend/UI
- React
Database
- PostgreSQL
Integration
- REST APIs
- Procurement Platform API
- SAP
Deployment
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions
Security
- SSO (Azure AD)
- role-based access
- audit logging
Results
Workwear ordering was made greatly faster, more transparent, and easier to govern at scale with the release of the new PIM-driven procurement flow. Manual validation almost all disappeared, entitlement rules were finally applied uniformly, and instead of being fragmented between systems, data across dozens of categories became consistent.
- 90% of manual work in checking workwear orders was eliminated.
- 100% compliance with entitlement rules.
- Procurement cycles became 40% shorter.
- Point-based budgeting replaced annual cash allocations, thus the misuse of funds was completely eliminated.
- Data was standardized for more than 30 categories and thousands of product variants.
- The time required for maintenance was halved due to the reduction of catalog governance that was centralized.
- There was a unified, intuitive procurement process for 30,000 employees
Related Cases
Core Team
- Project Manager: Managed stakeholder alignment and sprint delivery.
- Solution Architect: Created product models, entitlement engine, and integrations.
- 3 Full-Stack Developers: Implemented backend APIs, catalog logic, and procurement synchronization.
- Frontend Developer: Built the React UI for enrichment workflows, master and operational data editors, and widgets.
- QA Engineer: Ensured the correctness of the entitlement logic, data consistency, and procurement integration.