What is Fashion PLM
Frequently asked questions about fashion PLM
What is fashion PLM software?
PLM is an acronym for product lifecycle management. It is an eco-system whereby all process stakeholders are connected, allowing them to oversee all stages of the product lifecycle, from inception to final production stages.
PLM integrates people, data and processes and can go as far as early benchmarking stages, collection development, product development, and production and post sales, such as e-commerce distribution.
What are the benefits of PLM software for the fashion industry?
There are so many advantages to implementing PLM! Fashion PLM platforms break silos, by putting all process stakeholders on the same page and allowing them to work from the same source of data. By having a 360° view of your entire process, you can automate non-value-added tasks, and also identify and eliminate roadblocks, letting your team members focus on what’s most essential.
As a result, you get:
- cleaner and more efficient workflows,
- increased productivity,
- improved efficiency and collaboration,
- and hence reduced time to market
- and better quality control.
Why do you need fashion PLM software?
Fashion companies need to work faster and more efficiently due to shorter production cycles, due to the advent of the fast fashion business model.
In order to jump on trends faster and manage different collections, such as fast-track or NOOS (never-out-of-stock), teams need to work faster and better together, from design to production and sales.
By working from the same source of data, teams across the supply chain can gain agility, collaborate faster and better and respond faster to market changes. Process stakeholders can make better informed decisions based on sales and cost data, to create best-selling collections, while keeping their costs in check.
What is best PLM software for fashion industry?
The most comprehensive and fashion-specific PLM software on the market is Kubix Link. Kubix Link stands out because its IT capabilities are not only limited to PLM.
They can also include PIM, DAM and more. Kubix Link is an open and highly configurable cloud platform, with functionalities designed just to simplify the fashion design-to-online sales process.
This will shorten the onboarding period for industry professionals, and allow them to overcome fashion-specific challenges, instead of having to adapt their processes to a generic PLM system.
What is Kubix Link?
Kubix Link is an open and configurable fashion software that has PLM, PIM, and DAM capabilities.
It enables fashion companies to oversee their entire product lifecycle, allowing process stakeholders to share and communicate via a single source of product data. Kubix Link pushes traditional PLM boundaries as it is especially developed for the fashion industry, and also covers more processes than the usual.
Instead of being just limited to handling design-to-production stages, this fashion PLM software can also help companies manage their e-commerce channels as well.
What makes a PLM implementation project successful?
A PLM solution integrates people, data and processes. It is important that the system is flexible, so that it can be configured or customized to meet the company’s specific business needs.
For example, it will be more advisable for fashion companies to find a PLM solution that is specifically developed for them, so that process stakeholders will not need to adapt their data and processes to the solution.
Another important factor is the data migration process from legacy systems to the new system. The more open your PLM platform is, the better, so it can be integrated with other legacy systems to ensure a smoother migration process.
To speed up the onboarding process, companies should invest in a PLM solution that is intuitive and easy to use, and organize personalized training sessions. This will incite users to be more cooperative and allow IT teams to win the buy-in for their digital transformation strategy.
What are the main stages of the fashion product lifecycle?
The fashion product lifecycle often comprises these stages:
- ideation,
- benchmarking,
- design,
- collection planning,
- product development,
- production,
- e-commerce distribution
- and order delivery and management.
Kubix Link, one of the most comprehensive fashion PLM solutions on the market right now, can cover a majority of these stages.