Since its launch in 2009, UK fashion brand Missguided has been able to leverage the internet to grow its business to over £200 million in sales, releasing up to 1,000 new products per week, staffed by some 650 employees.
In 2019, Interbrand released its Top Global Brands rankings and revealed that:
- Louis Vuitton had the highest luxury brand value at $32.2 billion.
- Gucci had the highest brand growth among leading luxury brand brands at 23 percent.
Fashion is a cutthroat business with wild swings. Steering a fashion, retail, outdoor, luxury, consumer goods, or footwear business through rapid trends or permanent collections can be beyond challenging. All the big fashion brand started small and built their success on robust, efficient design and processes within their products as well as their business.
The biggest fashion companies have systems to match
Product lifecycle management (PLM) follows a product from conception right through to manufacturing and eventually disposal. Managing each stage efficiently, then all resources must be maximized.
The fashion retailer Joules delivered lower Christmas sales figures due to a merchandise shortage. Traffic to its website during the Christmas period rose by 8 percent, but sales fell by 4.5 percent due to what it called a “self-inflicted problem.” Their supply chain failed them and they couldn’t meet customer demand. This is a nightmare scenario for a fashion company.
Building a system that minimizes waste and increases productivity can yield returns from just savings. The fashion industry has always struggled with the issue of waste in the form of deadstock, returns, leftover material, and product cancellations. The fashion industry throws away $120 billion worth of fabrics every year.
What is PLM software?
Product lifecycle management software for apparel and fashion brings together data processing, people, business processes, and systems into a single platform. PLM software is a comprehensive technology: it helps designers design a product, operations to build information around it, everyone to analyze it, and even allow every relevant stakeholder to work on it. It is an internet-based platform that enables all collaborators to touch a product from beginning to end.
PLM software encapsulates fundamental tools, namely CAD (Computer-Aided Design), CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing), and PDM (Product Data Management). It then takes them further by adding human talent along with business management. It isn’t just a software, it is a strategy.
How PLM Software powers the fashion world
Globalization and internet penetration have created a new fast fashion industry that relies on an efficient supply chain to keep short design-to-delivery lead times. Fashion company Missguided revealed that it uses a tiered supply strategy. Staple products take approximately a year to produce while it has facilities in China and Bangladesh that can deliver hot new products in four weeks and two weeks, respectively. Its sales strategy is to use the trendy, short delivery products to draw traffic towards its higher-margin staple products.
Some of the critical attributes of a PLM software are:
- Design and process documents management
- Creation and management of bill of material records.
- Identifies regulatory compliance requirements for materials used
- ● Enables collaboration of multi-discipline teams on tasks and workflow with an approval process.
- Security controls such as multi-user secured access
- Data export for downstream ERP systems.
Stay on trend with PLM Software
Fashion trends, competition, and the consumer’s desire for instant access has made PLM software vital for any fashion industry player. The software enables the business to be more efficient and cost-effective in a rapidly changing world.