PLM IN FASHION INDUSTRY

PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) in fashion industry is akin to embryonic development. Fashion industry lifecycle is even comprehensive as it begins with planning and covers all the other stages including ideation, design and sampling, production and distribution. The story does not end here as the process of disposal of the leftovers or the reuse of the finished products is still there. Basically, the MLP is all about running with the products at all stages and blending the creativity with tech-based productivity. The more efficient the PLM is, the more vibrant and smarter the business is, particularly the fashion business.

HOW HAS PLM IDEA BEEN THEORIZED

The fashion industry after the inception of the fast fashion has to run with the time as it has to make faster production to meet the challenging market competition and cater for the trendy consumers and fulfil the requirement arises out of seasonality. The fashion industrial businesses have to track every stage from conceptualization to the final production and delivery to the outlets with utter keenness to ensure speedy and smarter production and salability. The incubatory nature of the fashion production prompted the idea of life stages of the fashion products that emerged in 1930s. It was a worker of an ad agency who coined the term and ideated the 5-stage fashion product life cycle including concept, production, zenith, surfeit and lastly fade away.

WHY IS PLM NECESSARY FOR FASHION INDUSTRY?

The PLM is the basic requirement of fashion outlets as it ensures collaboration, efficiency, innovation and creativity by offering millisecond data and flawless integration of different sections and stakeholders. It is necessary for the fashion industry that its different departments and stakeholders work in unison ensuring complete and seamless harmony for efficient and smart production to develop something out of nothing for the complete sustainability of the fashion brands and for having robust presence in the world of fashion that is transient in nature, fluid in composition and susceptible in disposition. The robust, efficient, integrated and dynamic PLM ensures to track all the stages of the production line for timely decisions, speedy trouble-shooting, smart production and ahead-of-time delivery ensuring faster salability. Moreover, the PLM has the ability to sense the saturation point well before time and helps in foreseeing the decline phase of the products. These aspects are equally significant for the fashion brands to poise themselves for the approaching changes and making them all set to make room for the new products by emptying the rakes.

WHICH ARE PLM STAGES?       

The successful management system hinges on the implementation of the tracking and monitoring at all levels of production as the fashion industry is composed of fragmented parts and the PLM ensures working of all these sections in a collaborated and harmonized structure. The journey of the product begins with the conceptualization and passes through four other stages to take its final shape and all is done to meet market demand keeping in view products’ creative and aesthetic value. The stages can be discussed as under;

PLANNING

The PLM system allows the product manager to anticipate the zenith and saturation and decline phases and the system indicates that the new concept and design should be conceived as per demands of the buyers, market-based research and analytical survey of the trends. The designers and product manager put their heads down to visualize new products keeping in view the brand priority and demand of the consumers. The planning stage involves the following phases;

1. Research of market and consumer behavior
2. Evaluation of the trends
3. Budget allocation
4. Assigning responsibilities
5. Practical timeline

CONCEPTUALIZATION

The concept stage is all about creativity and aesthetics as the fashion designers visualize the design keeping in view the trends in vogue, consumer psychology and market dynamics. This phase is based on collaboration as the designer, product manager, trend forecaster and merchandizer work together to create the design aligning with aesthetics, innovation and market practices. Once the idea is finalized, the brands get engaged with vendors and manufacturers to bring them on board about the concept, deadline, material and pricing. This phase involves;       

1. Brainstorming
2. Mood boards
3. Story boards
4. Primary sketches
5. Design outline

DESIGNING AND SAMPLING

The designing and sampling stage embodies the concepts and ideas as the designers prepare the detailed sketches, patterns and samples and this stage allows different teams to examine the product’s fitness, fabric quality and color combinations and design feasibility. The samples are revised, improved and adjusted as per the feedback from the internal and external teams. The brands work in collaboration with the manufacturers at this stage to ensure quality, value, design adherence and timeline.

At this stage, the brands require technical document based on comprehensive specifications including measurements, fabrics and outline for the manufacturers to produce as per the concept of the designer.  The Bill of Material (BoM) is designed to make a list of materials and trimming to make a production as well as costs and supply chain are determined. This phase involves;

1. Design with minute details
2. Tech-based sketches
3. Patterns
4. Prototypes

 PRODUCTION

Following the design and sample comes the production phase that requires acquisition of materials, selection of manufacturers and determination of the timeframe. The PLM at this stage enables the brands to collaborate with the vendors and manufacturers for the smooth and seamless functioning of the production process fulfilling the quality criteria and keeping the work on the set schedule. At this stage, quality control assurance is another critical juncture. Once the quality control is ensured by all means and standards, the mass production of the apparel begins. This phase is characterized by;

1. Sourcing of material
2. Production cost
3. Process schedule
4. Quality assurance

DISTRIBUTION   

The distribution of the finished product is another crucial phase and PLM helps in developing an integrated and smart logistic mechanism and planning including transportation and shipping of the products to retailers or to the customers in case of Direct-to-Consumers (DTC) fashion outlets. The efficient logistic mechanism is necessary for timely delivery of the products in the market and in saleable condition.  

Inventory oversight and sale foreseeing are the two crucial factors of the distribution phase as smart PLM enables the brands to sense the consumer demand, market trend and sale priority so that all the requirements are met by aligning the production as per the requirement. These factors enable the brands to avoid overproduction and underproduction as both can affect the profitability of the brands. The inventory monitoring and production plan are the aspects which can optimize the production viability and help in fulfilling the market demand. The distribution phase involves’

1. Quantity
2. Logistic
3. Inventory management

DISPOSAL

Efficient disposal of the leftovers is another crucial phase of the PLM because emptying the rakes in retailing outlets and in the warehouse is necessary to make room for the new products. The PLM enables the brands to foresee the decline and fade away phases before time and the timely disposal becomes necessary. The fashion brands adopt different methods for the smart disposal of the leftover products such as;

DISCOUNT SALE: At the end of season, on Black Friday, Christmas or any other occasion, the brands offer the fashion products on discounted price attracting larger number of customers. These discount sales enable the brands to sell their products at fast pace making room for the new products.

DONATIONS: The brands usually give the clothes left even after the discount sales in donation to the charity platforms which distribute them to the needy or the leftovers are transported to the third world countries.

INCINERATION OR LANDFILL:  The brands dispose of the leftover by incineration or these are thrown in the landfill sites.

 HOW DOES PLM BENEFIT FASHION INDUSTRY?

The fashion industry has to cope with two main challenges – keeping itself ahead of time and bracing for the rapid changes that come with the change in trends, consumer behavior and market dynamics. In this scenario, the PLM enables the fashion brands to keep on staying ahead of time and ensure profitability by cutting down on cost and make the most of the product salability.  

COST MANAGEMENT: The cost management is very crucial in ensuring profitability of the fashion brands as the smart and vibrant PLM ensures the acquisition of material on affordable price and in quantity that is required as over acquisition can increase the cost and reduce the profit.

PRODUCT QUALITY: The product quality can also be ensured with the help of the PLM as it allows the brands to monitor the product at every stage. It also helps the brands in integrating the feedback from the internal team and external stakeholders and provides an opportunity to make changes as per the feedback. The PLM also ensures quality control mechanism at the production stage.

TIMELY DELIVERY: The PLM allows the internal and external teams to work with utter level of collaboration. The PLM also monitors all the stages of production and ensures that time should not wasted and timeline should be met so that the products can be delivered to the market ahead of the competitors.

 WHAT IS PLM SOFTWARE?

The PLM idea is not new in the fashion industry as before the advent of computerized solutions and computer-based industrialization, the product lifecycle used to be tracked manually as almost all the functions were done under one roof. But that business model offered a restricted scope as blending of ideas and innovation had no room. With the advent of fast fashion synchronized with the computing, the computer solution like computer-aided design (CAD) were introduced but this software lacked integration and collaboration. Afterwards Product Data Management (PDM) was developed but it was also CAD-based solution and was enlarged to manage Bill of Material (BoM) and was restricted to product development only. With the advent of modern era of fashion industry and its expansions beyond the barriers, fast and smart production, market competition, changing consumer behavior, ever-evolving trends and rapid transitions, the more efficient, smart, collaborative and harmonized software was required and, in this regard, PLM was developed which offered seamless tracking and monitoring facility from the planning to the final stage of the product. The PLM dashboard offers real time scenario of the lifecycle of the product.

• CONCLUSION

 The globalization, fast-track production, transition in trends, changes in the consumers’ priorities, cut-throat competition, meeting the demand of the market and cater to the requirements of the seasonality are the factors which prompt the fashion industry to act more smartly, efficiently and collaboratively to ensure stay in the long race of timely production ensuring salability and profitability. The fashion industry has to blend the ideas and the production with utmost skill, high-level of expertise and flawless collaboration as many people contribute their inputs to bring about something that becomes a fashion trend and consumers priority. In this scenario, a well-integrated and well-coordinated system like PLM is essential allowing the brands to keep them ahead of time.

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