Product Lifecycle Management solutions enhance your competitiveness
As you begin the process of researching when and how to implement a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to tame the complexities of your product development process, review the following points but consider that the benefits of any process improvement do not begin until the new process and tools are in place.
Product Lifecycle Managment Systems are a competitive necessity for any company
Have you asked yourself: How many of your competitors already have Apparel, Footwear or Consumer Products PLM in place? The answer is hundreds of companies. In fact the innovators that have invested in creating the first custom PLM for the Apparel, Footwear and Consumer Products segments have had systems in place for years. This chart shows which companies implemented FlexPLM by year. You can see it is an impressive bunch and any company that implements a system today benefits from years of R&D and refinement that only improves the performance and decreases the cost of implementing one of these systems.
PLM Systems are a strategic imperative
Are you wondering: When is the best time to start a PLM project? Any time when your company has established a strategic imperative to improve time to market and become more responsive to changing market needs is a good time to start. Your company will need to set aside a budget to implement this strategic initiative. Once that is in place, there are great resources and products to implement a PLM system for your business.
The sooner you start your PLM implementation, the better off that next product cycle will be
Your business does not stop, so you may wonder: If you are in the middle of a product development cycle, do you have to wait a season to get started? Not at all, in fact there is a planning phase for any PLM implementation to ensure each product development and manufacturing process that is integral to your business is addressed. So long as there is a primary point of contact assigned to the project the planning phases can begin. What’s more, your team may start to use the PLM system to align with any selling season’s product development cycle.
You can decrease the risks associated with implementing a PLM system by working with an experienced services provider that has first-hand experience in the Apparel, Footwear and Consumer Products markets
You don’t have extra resources to do the work, leaving you to question: Do you have to do the PLM implementation yourself or are there service providers that can help? There are multiple services companies that provide skilled consultants that can implement any enterprise application. It is best, however to seek a provider that has deep domain experience in the Apparel, Footwear and Consumer Products markets and truly understands your business.
Use only the most mature PLM system with a long history in the Apparel, Footwear and Consumer Products markets to ensure your success
In order to determine the risk of implementing a PLM system you may consider: How mature are PLM systems for the Apparel, Footwear and Retail markets? PLM for this segment is very mature. The solutions have been available for more than 10 years as outlined in the chart above. The fact that there exists a specific PLM system for this market segment, FlexPLM by a major PLM vendor, demonstrates not only the PLM system maturity but also the commitment the PLM manufacturer has to these users. Furthermore, with so many large enterprises using FlexPLM, you can rest assured that this market segment will continue to garner priority investment and gain the guidance of large companies so that the product is further advanced each and every year to come.
