Speeding up fashion product development with PLM software
With an increase in product volumes, it is getting more and more difficult to control deadlines and processes. It is becoming harder to pinpoint where time and money are being wasted the most and which areas to optimize. Introducing a PLM software solution to a fashion company will give all included teams one point of reference to consult, while managing materials, costs, product development progress, and launches. Seeing all important information in one place will definitely lead to speeding up fashion product development with PLM software. If you contact our Frontech Solutions EU and schedule a consultation, we will explain exactly how can a customized software in PLM for apparel and footwear improve your everyday business operations.
What does PLM software bring you?
In order to optimize your day-to-day business operations, you need a comprehensive software solution. It will help you discover which are the areas for improvement and what potentials and opportunities you have at your disposal. The customized Frontech Solutions EU PLM software can make the decision-making process a lot less complexed and much easier. The system will help you maximize resources and timelines in a way to make your company more productive in every possible way.
PLM software solutions help you collect, process and report information in automated ways. The consistency and transparency of data shared among different teams will help you get a wider scope of information and understand them better internally. The communication with suppliers and other interested parties will become steady and easy with the right tools at your disposal.
Using PLM software for the fashion industry will help your company:
- revision history,
- gain control over who uses which information,
- improve data reliability, and
- maintain integration with other departments and systems.
Do you want to boost the agility of the product development process and continue to provide a high volume of quality products to the customers? In that case, you need to understand that business processes, design, engineering, analysis, software development, and all other company units need a viable model to support product development. So, if your executives make sure to invest in the implementation of the PLM software they will be able to speed up the fashion product development.
The key to future innovation in business is product development with faster workflow
The time for using Excel spreadsheets has passed. When you run a large business, having all spreadsheets in front of you really isn’t enough anymore. Without a comprehensive look at all relevant data at all times, the possibility of making a mistake is high. Even being late to make the right decision can set your business back a few bucks and give your competition the necessary leverage to surpass you. Getting the custom-made PLM software solution for your business, whether you are running a fashion brand or use PLM solutions for the plant facility, will consolidate the everyday operations. It will make information transparent and easy to get and speed up the workflow.
It is not enough to simply develop and produce new footwear and apparel items. You need to do it in an agile way so that the final customer gets them in time. And before your competition. Without the efficient production managing process, the creation of new products can encounter common problems such as delays or budgeting. However, if you manage to beat the competition in terms of both time to market and quality of products, you will ensure your company’s spot at the top. By synchronizing the design, planning and development process, you will get the chance to reach that goal.
The phases of the product lifecycle
In order to understand how to speed up fashion product development with PLM software, you should first determine the phases of the fashion product lifecycle. They are pretty complex, each one on its own. And each stage requires a unique set of strategic planning and coordination.
Every product, whether it belongs to the fashion industry or the energy service and supply industry, must go from conception to retirement. Of course, these paths differ from one industry to another, as well as the timelines. But, one thing is for sure – all products will go through these stages. However, the fashion industry is the area where the stages last a lot shorter than product lifecycles stages in some other industries. And that is why it’s crucial to accelerate fashion product development with PLM software and not miss your opportunity on the market.
Introduction stage
There is a long way between an idea and realization, and it all begins with this stage. The R&D sector is doing the necessary researches and market analysis so that they can perform competitive analysis. After the design and testing are finished, executives and product teams determine the features and functionality and set financial and technical milestones.
This is the phase where they evaluate if the production is according to the specification or more development cycles are necessary. Ensuring the quality of the products and going through this stage is time-consuming and expensive, but very much inevitable. That is why implementing a PLM software solution can make a difference in improving information flow, better planning and decreasing costs and time to market.
What are the options after the initial stage?
After the introduction stage, there are three more stages: scale, maturity, and scale down. In the second stage, the product is generating revenue on the market. Depending on the success of the sales process, executives make the decision of whether to scale it or not. PLM software is the tool they use to gather and process information. And ultimately generate reportings and forecasts. This is, of course, much easier to do with a customized digital solution that automates and systematize the administrative processes. The saved time can be reallocated in focusing on innovations and product development.
The same allocated resources can be used in the next stage. In the maturity stage, innovative companies find a way to gain a competitive advantage in the market. The ultimate goal is to increase the market share, so with the help of digital solutions, they try to speed up fashion product development with PLM software and progress.
In the last stage, when the declining sales and product saturation hit, companies decide to scale down. They have to reconsider the production volume and try to invest as little as possible in new launches. The centralized product lifecycle management software helps them gather and process the data from buyers and different points of sale, which guide them in the right direction for making a good and timely decision.
Final thoughts
Basically, automatized processes allow companies to create products faster and adapt product offerings to different markets. All while eliminating delays in the development stage. Frontech Solutions EU can apply flexible PLM software solutions to fit the exact needs of your company’s phase. Contact our representatives and schedule a consultation to demonstrate how we can help you speed up fashion product development with PLM software. Optimize your business operations, reduce time to market for new items and improve communication among departments in order to make better and faster decisions.