IMC Toys

IMC Toys is a benchmark company within the global toy industry. In the top 20 of the largest European companies in the sector and with more than 30 years of experience, IMC Toys decided, 20 years ago, to implement an 180–degree turnaround in its strategy from being a toy distributor to designing and manufacturing its own products. This radical change has led to an exponential growth, from the initial 50 workers to more than 160 employees that currently make up its workforce. The company has become a reference in the market thanks to its main values: creativity, quality and design. “The global toy market is huge and we have strong competition, mostly made up of companies larger than us,” said Joan Puig, head of product development at IMC Toys. “We have nevertheless been able to keep them at bay thanks to design innovation.”

Puig points out that their consumers, who buy their toys in department stores for their children aged 2 to 9, recognize IMC Toys’ attention to design, safety and functionality. “Design is one of the qualities that sets us apart from our competitors,” Puig said. “Proprietary designs are our strategic asset with products that are entirely created by our organization with many of them coming from our innovation department. Collaboration is essential, which is why it’s very important to improve the quality of our internal work processes,” Puig underlined.

IMC Toys, like the toy industry in general, sees digitalization as its main challenge for the future, “but we are not only incorporating digital technologies, we also are seeing how they can be combined with the traditional toy,” he said. “You have to find a balance between the traditional product and the digital one.”

The permanent need for design excellence and quality drives IMC Toys to improve continuously its internal processes. “Toys have to be built and put on the market in a very short period of time but under strict control,” Puig explained. “We cannot skip any steps during that control otherwise we risk losing sight of one of our most appreciated values and characteristics: quality. This is precisely the goal of innovation.” It has led the company to look for specific solutions to improve the control of the different phases of a project. “We need to know where we are and how we should proceed to make the right decisions and to determine what risks we are prepared to take.”

After studying existing solutions on the market, IMC Toys chose Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE® platform managed through its distributor ABGAM. “From the beginning, we didn’t want a bureaucratic system that made us go slower, we cannot afford that luxury,” Puig said. “We examined other options but they were much more rigid, so we decided on 3DEXPERIENCE. This solution enables us to be more flexible, agile and fast, which is fundamental in our sector.”

“We enjoy working with ABGAM for its flexibility and ability to adapt to our real needs,” Puig said. “ABGAM is a partner that accompanies and advises us. They have showed us how to use the platform and how far we can go with it.” Puig emphasized that beyond selling solutions, the binomial Dassault Systèmes and ABGAM teams helped IMC Toys to successfully implement them. “Whenever we have an issue, they are here to guide and help us.”

In addition to its headquarters in Barcelona, IMC Toys have an office in Hong Kong and another in China, which are closer to the manufacturing plants. More than 80 people including engineers, graphic designers, marketing managers or project managers interact daily. “3DEXPERIENCE will help us visualize the status of a project at all times and will allow us a more complete and quick access to all our information,” Puig said. “Until now, we used a folder system that dispersed our information leading to lose valuable time. Now, access to information will be faster, more reliable and safer for everyone.”

IMC Toys is already using the platform to improve its planning and the management of resources and tasks. “Although at present we have a very fast time to market, 3DEXPERIENCE will enable us to take on more projects with better control and less repetition of tasks in the near future,” Puig said. “However, where we really want to have an impact is on quality. Minimizing quality errors and avoiding loss of information will also prevent us from making wrong decisions and will help our products to reach the market without changes.”

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables IMC Toys teams to work in the same environment, guaranteeing everyone universal access to information. “In addition to having a faster and more visual communication between all our stakeholders, we will improve our coordination and reduce calls and videoconferences,” Puig said. “We will be able to introduce and consult information in a more effective way, which will help us gain in confidence and speed with each project. Above all, we can dedicate more time to tasks that have greater added value.”

Reduced investment costs, more visual objectives for all those involved in the production process and traceability of design changes and decisions are other improvements that stand out thanks to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. “We will be able to know where pain points stand in the production process and their magnitude as they occur,” Puig said.

IMC Toys particularly values the customized solution meeting their specific needs. It is an ad hoc application that integrates with the existing system to establish specifications. “This helps us make the system more accessible, and to track all changes, providing better real-time traceability for the entire team,” Puig said. “As a result, interactions between teams is smoother because there is more transparency.” Moreover, Puig points out that it will also help them have more control over their processes by helping to ensure that no phase is overlooked. “This means we can detect possible errors before reaching the end of the project, saving costs, increasing quality and wasting less time.”