Supercharging PLM

By creating an integrated platform encompassing product lifecycle management (PLM) processes with sourcing activities and layering on integrated global calendar management and intelligent dashboards (for exception identification and performance management), retailers and brand managers plan to create a comprehensive architecture for new product development and launch (NPDL) that will become the means for orchestrating an ever-more-complex set of business processes rapidly and efficiently across a global network.

This is especially true for apparel and vertical retailers who realize that getting their data under control using product data management (PDM) is simply the first step in a journey. This provides a critical foundation where other critical processes will be connected to enable effective management of fast fashion's multiple seasons and trends.

Unlocking and sharing product designs and specifications among designers, executive management, brand management, merchants, corporate operations and the supply chain will lead to the desired goals of PLM.

The three primary benefits to using PLM, according to companies participating in the "Third Annual Apparel Research and Study Analysis" report are faster timeto market, lower product costs and improved design. Companies have overall satisfaction with the up-front part (design) of the NPDL process, but events after the product design need the most help from today's PLM technology.

Evolution of PDM
Getting control of data through product data management continues to be the first order of business for most companies when launching PLM initiatives. Over half of survey respondents began here, with 53 percent of companies indicating that PDM is in the current scope of their PLM initiatives.

PDM's role as the standard library of materials and components shared across planning and development teams continues to play a substantial role in improving the quality of the product created. It accomplishes this by providing up-to-date and accurate specifications while also lowering costs by increasing component re-use, allowing companies to negotiate better rates by driving up volume purchases.

Last year, only nine percent of companies indicated that line planning was within the current project scope. This year 35 percent of companies identified line planning as one of the early functions adopted. Line planning's many functions within PLM make it a cornerstone of increasingly sophisticated PLM business practices, acting as a process and cost visibility tool.

As retailers continue to expand their private label development businesses and brand companies add retailing arms, robust technology support for line planning processes linked to assortment functions will become increasingly important.

As companies orchestrate global and cross-enterprise activities, calendar management and dashboard capabilities also become increasingly important. Dash-boards offer a means to manage these processes and teams well, and achieve open and collaborative innovation and orchestration through an effective management layer.

The maturity of PLM
In fast-moving markets, the full power of PLM must be brought forth to respond quickly and efficiently to market trends and customer needs -- not simply product data management and collaborative design, but portfolio management (line planning), direct materials sourcing and customer needs management.

Globally located designers, procurement, suppliers and partners must be working off a single version of the truth as easily as if they worked in the same office. To achieve this, product data must be integrated with direct materials sourcing, multiple calendars across the globe must be linked together and market and customer demand signals need to be tied to the front end of innovation.

In short, integrating PLM  closely with the store and the shop floor will enable brand and apparel companies to truly be able to respond quickly to demand.

For a look at the complete PLM: Achieving Value Chain Orchestration, the 3rd Annual Apparel/AMR Research Study, visit www.apparelmag.com and click on the Reports tab.