PLM Technology - adding value to operations efficiency

In the growth of the organised retailing in India, all the major brands, manufacturers and retailers are evolving in a competitive environment where speed, quality and price are the main criteria. In choosing an industrial partner, in the same way as in building client loyalty, players in the fashion retail industry must be flexible, quick-reacting and productive. Time and distance can no longer be obstacles to collaboration when creating a collection. To concentrate their energy on issues of brand image, renewal and costs optimization, fashion industrialists need to be able to have complete confidence in the solutions they choose.

Fashion brands, retailers, and manufacturers dealing with the pressures of a competitive environment and the high expectations of end consumers are increasingly turning to PLM applications. High-technology PLM solutions can be used to transform the biggest challenges of a trend-driven industry into sustainable competitive advantages.

The solution aims to enable the brands and the retailers to overcome their business challenges and face today’s testing economic conditions with confidence. PLM, as a technology solution is the most comprehensive and high-performance solution available for the brands and retailers. This state-of-the-art software solution is highly incredible for process optimization which contributes to overall growth and profitability.

The integration of business applications and collections and process management software enables action to be taken in key areas that lead to improved performance: capacity for innovation, brand identity, frequency and time to market, quality assurance, control of development costs for products and materials, management and synchronization of multiple processes, and decision-making about collection content.

Driven by retail, fueled by innovation
Consumers want it all. Whether it is apparel, footwear, or accessories, consumers expect a fresh selection of innovative styles with good quality and attractive prices - every four to six weeks.

To meet these incompatible demands, fashion brands and retailers collaborate with designers, manufacturers, and suppliers located around the world, which introduces complicated logistics, complex communication and unpredictable costs into an already difficult business scenario.

To cope, most of the brands and retailers now deliver up to ten collections a year, in limited quantities, to stay as close as possible to seasonal trends while minimizing the effect of sourcing cost fluctuations and avoiding markdowns, close-outs, and out-of stock situations. They also are beginning to seek consumer feedback, trying to discern new tastes and trends even earlier. Yet simply cutting costs or speeding up processes only worsen the existing stress on traditional fashion design, planning, marketing, product development, sourcing and manufacturing processes. The processes themselves must be changed to meet today’s critical business needs.

Brands and retailers particularly in fashion must be able to integrate business and financial planning processes with collaborative design and development processes - across all product categories that is across parallel development cycles, cultural and geographic boundaries which cannot be overcome simply by making things faster.

This is why PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is becoming a fact of life for successful brands/retailers in fashion. However, while PLM promises to deliver substantial improvements, only PLM solutions built on actual fashion industry best practices and process knowledge can really deliver. In the pages that follow, you will learn what to look for in a fashion-based PLM implementation.

The PLM implementations

• Supply chain synchronization

A successful PLM solution creates a value chain where information and transactions are exchanged seamlessly - as if all members of the extended value chain were one entity. It should integrate design, planning, development, manufacturing, marketing, and retail activities into a unified process flow and support parallel integration across product development and sourcing.

• On-line global collaboration

All members of the supply chain must be able to see, create, and share true-to-life, virtual representations of all the products at any phase of the product lifecycle. Today, cultural barriers and a wide range of skill levels result in miscommunication and a high level of rework, – which increases the risk of missing delivery windows. All individuals and all departments must be able to access the latest relevant product information online and visually communicate with other individuals to minimize the risk of error and misunderstanding.

Fashion PLM: The fundamental difference
Traditional business and creative processes are no longer able to deliver the quantum leaps forward in flexibility and productivity that fashion companies need now.

The Fashion PLM solution supports the iterative creative and business processes of fashion design, development, marketing, and retailing. By enabling all participants in the product lifecycle to collaborate using virtual products and materials, the Fashion PLM allows multiple simulations of true-to-life products and fashion line plans. Virtualization reduces the need for physical samples while inspiring creativity and facilitating quicker business decisions in a multicultural environment.

The industry leading solution enables latest fashion design applications, as well as its dynamic storyboarding, pattern design, 3D virtual prototyping and other applications, provide the most comprehensive, integrated solution available for fashion. With the Fashion PLM, brands and retailers seamlessly manage and execute all activities in concurrent design, line planning, development and engineering, sourcing and retail marketing processes.

Supporting retail operations
The comprehensive PLM solution delivers process control over workflow, sourcing, supply chain, and retail operations. The specific software applications combine 3D virtual reality and internet technologies for enabling constant collection renewal, stronger brand image, coordinated private label lines, and virtual merchandising. For the first time, deep process visibility enables managers to discern new trends, analyze line performance, identify competitive opportunities, to feed into line planning and continuously improve development and manufacturing processes.

Now more than ever, fashion companies are under enormous pressure to deliver unique, eye-catching designs at reasonable prices, reduce their time-to-market, and renew collections more frequently. As a result, designers are under growing pressure to remain highly creative but with a faster turnover. Designers must have at their disposal tools which allow them to visualize the interplay of colors, surface design, and structure when designing fabrics. They also need to be able to draw on the expertise of others when developing collections in order to produce ranges that are technically feasible and cost-effective. Team collaboration early in the process allows designers to create a more three cohesive collections that responds better to the market’s demands and will therefore lead to better sell-through. While, in normal times, this is extremely important for brands, it becomes imperative in economic conditions such as those we are currently experiencing. Companies need to slim down their operations and see a return on every dollar invested, even for creative activities such as design.

FitNet - The heart of the mass customization process
FitNet – one of the evolved and specialised versions of PLM technology - the concept of mass customization is much more than a simple marketing concept or a way of organizing production. It is a business model specifically suited to the needs of consumers, as well as, what has proved to be a powerful method of projecting a brand image.

FitNet is a way for businesses to provide their customers with new customized services and to increase efficiency even more. It forms part of the global solutions concept from point-of-sale to the cut piece.

FitNet offers an extensive choice of styles and fabrics, in multiple combinations. The customer chooses a style that perfectly matches his or her requirements and tastes. The order is taken and directly input into the system while in the store and then sent via the internet to the production site so that the style and its components are adapted to the customer's measurements and selections, and the pieces for cutting can be produced automatically.

The FitNet server is a highly flexible tool that allows each company to create its own collection presentation material.

With FitNet, customers at the point-of-sale can view the available materials for their particular style onscreen. They can then create combinations of materials, colors and prints to design the style of their choice.

WebMTM - Made-to-measure
As a professional of the made-to-measure segment, providing the best fit and the right style in the shortest time is a major challenge for fashion brands and retailers. WebMTM – again a version of PLM solution is an automated made-to-measure software helps one manages the entire process from garment design to production using individual customer measurements.

Customized WebMTM made-to-measure solution facilitates the process with simple catalog browsing and order taking via the internet, fast order processing through automated pattern design and marker making tasks and rapid production through state-of-the-art technology for quick delivery.

With WebMTM, garment deliveries can be achieved in shorter timeframes, fostering customer satisfaction and future business.

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