Part 2: Bridge Those Design-to-Sourcing Gaps: Transform Your Fashion Supply Chain!

Efficient collaboration and seamless integration between fashion design and sourcing teams. It’s a great goal, but how to achieve it? CGS’ Connected ERP-PLM Series Part 2 discusses difficult disconnects and how technology can help with:

1. Sharing the most important information
2. Creating great products faster
3. Boosting business growth

Understanding Connected ERP-PLM

What functions and core features should you look for? What is integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)? Below are essential system capabilities. Data flows through a centralized hub, a central nervous system supporting your business and supply chains: one version of the truth, continuously updated, shared automatically.

Integrated ERP-PLM Capabilities
ERP	PLM
Modular design, configurable, mobile/remote access, web-based technology, scalable software architecture, industry-specific functionality
Process milestone tracking/management, key performance indicator (KPI) reporting/analysis
Real-time, on-demand information flow
Plan, manage, synchronize daily distribution and supply chain operations	Design and product development management
Order-to-cash management	Raw materials development
Predictive and actual costing	Purchasing
Credit management	Workflow tracking
Purchasing and receiving	Sample approval
Financial management	Product and color management
Production and import management	Global collaboration: in-house and external teams
EDI	Quality control and testing
Merchandise planning across channels and categories	Two-way Adobe® Illustrator Plug-in
Assortment planning/forecasting at cluster and store level, by style, to SKU level	Production costing
eCommerce integration	Compliance management, chain-of-custody, supply chain mapping (UFLPA, CPSIA, GCC, etc.)
Purchase orders	Product data management and technical specifications
Warehouse management/order fulfillment	Digital asset management: text, audio, video, tech pack and production files

Breaking Down Silos

When design and sourcing teams work in isolation, this poses challenges. The COVID pandemic forced fashion companies and their suppliers to find ways to communicate, even when they could not meet in person. Many adopted digital processes to keep plans, products and production moving. Yet despite digitalization progress, there are still blind spots, bottlenecks and manual processes slowing things down. For example, samples take weeks to ship from overseas. Too much time elapses when sourcing staff must mire through emails, texts, websites and different systems to:

• Confirm fabric/trim availability
• Cost out styles
• Assess and reserve capacity

In the timeline before these activities, weeks are devoted to merchandise planning, concept reviews, design and product development. In every case, it’s not necessarily the core activities that take so long but rather administrative, manual, repetitive tasks, or searching and asking for information and answers.

ERP-PLM integration opens opportunities to break down these silos and free teams to focus on tasks that directly add value, not waste their time and talents.

Streamlining Design Processes

Connecting ERP to PLM empowers designers with real-time access to sourcing data, such as supplier capabilities and available materials. This speeds design processes, decision making and workflow. Sourcing teams scouting the globe for partners and resources can log in from anywhere anytime to add details about materials, trim and suppliers, established relationships or new ones. Color and fabric test results can be updated in real time. All of this enables swifter style creation and approvals, plus automated generation of bills of materials (BOM) and technical specifications.

Efficient Sourcing and Supplier Management

ERP-PLM integration:

• Centralizes supplier data
• Automates sourcing processes
• Enables better supplier relationship management
• Contributes to cost savings
• Increases transparency

Suppliers can upload compliance documents and costing data directly into the ERP-PLM platform. Internal teams and vendors are able to track process milestones with helpful automated reminders and alerts along the way. No more relying on spreadsheets, emails, texts and calls. Updates to products, compliance requirements and workflow are managed digitally in a centralized, consistent manner.

Accelerating Time to Market

An integrated ERP and PLM system reduces time-consuming manual tasks:

1. Enabling faster sampling and prototyping
2. Facilitating quicker product approvals
3. Resulting in shorter product development cycles.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?

• Ransacking the sample room, mail room, design studio or fit dressing rooms for missing samples
• Waiting for reports to “know your numbers” for financial or assortment targets
• Pouring over supplier spreadsheets, each set up differently, straining to find details you really need, only to re-enter them in a different spreadsheet
• Calling, texting or emailing the factory to check on shipments
• Entering data for a “new” style when 95 percent of specs are carryovers from another season

Imagine if in each of these cases, you could find the answer or make updates easily on your phone, tablet or computer through a single access point. No more piecemeal supplier information, no more reinventing the wheel. Instead, more creativity, more on-trend products, more profits!

Enhanced Cost Control

How much does it cost? It’s where the rubber meets the road in fashion. Connected ERP-PLM supports accurate cost estimation, budget tracking and cost analysis throughout the design-to-sourcing journey. After all, fashion companies want to optimize spending and achieve greater profitability.

Unstructured design, development and sourcing processes make it difficult to reduce product costs. An integrated solution like CGS BlueCherry® helps these teams to harness their data, share the most relevant information and gain greater visibility into cost impacts of product decisions.

With raw material libraries and vendor scorecards updated in real time, designers and sourcing pros alike can make more efficient fabric, trim and supplier selections. Everyone is reading from the same cost sheet, so to speak; plus, dashboards give teams updates on budgets, forecasts, available-to-spend, open-to-buy and other KPIs.

Supply Chain Visibility and Risk Mitigation

Businesses are adapting to enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which requires chain-of-custody reporting and supply chain mapping. Other laws are in the works to govern fashion sustainability and social responsibility. ERP-PLM integration provides much-needed end-to-end visibility into the fashion supply chain, allowing for:

• Regulatory compliance
• Risk management
• Better demand forecasting
• Improved inventory management

For example, when a business has centralized supplier information stored in a consistent format, it makes it much faster and easier to create supply chain “digital twins,” data which can automatically populate supply chain maps and government-required track-and-trace documentation.

Beyond compliance, end-to-end ERP-PLM technology connects the dots between retailers, fashion brands, manufacturers and factories. This digital connectivity reduces risks for errors, misunderstandings, miscalculations, missed delivery windows and missed trends. For example, shop-floor control software on the factory floor feeds real-time updates to ERP regarding production status, quality inspections and productivity. If an issue is brewing, if an order is behind schedule or if there are quality problems, decision-makers have an opportunity to address setbacks early and to pivot to alternate action plans if necessary. They have tools supporting supply chain resiliency and agility.

Empowering Sustainable Practices

CGS’ 2022 Consumer & Sustainability Survey revealed that 79 percent of shoppers consider sustainability at least somewhat important in fashion purchasing decisions — a huge leap from 2020. Also, CGS’ annual Supply Chain Trends & Technology survey found that 84 percent of fashion executives consider sustainability/ESG initiatives to be a “very important” or “important” 2023 growth opportunity.

ERP-PLM integration supports sustainable sourcing decisions, traceability of materials and compliance with environmental regulations, fostering responsible and eco-friendly fashion production. For example, an ERP-PLM platform provides a central repository for:

• Supplier certification/documentation for Global Organic Textile Standards, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Cradle to Cradle, Global Recycle Standard, Bluesign, Certified B Corporation, FSC, BSCI, WRAP, LEED and other ESG programs
• Vendor scorecards, action plans and audit reports
• Supplier information for chain-of-custody mapping and track-and-trace transparency

In addition, connected ERP-PLM reduces wasted materials and fossil fuel-intensive transportation. With more processes performed digitally, there are fewer, if any, samples and sample shipments. Faster processes and responsive supply chains give teams more time to work with. Then they can create closer to the selling season, improving the odds their styles will match consumer demand. By not overproducing products that don’t sell, fashion businesses reduce energy/water consumption and other eco-system wear-and-tear. Fewer garments are bound for the incinerator or landfill.

Success Stories

So, how do these integrated ERP-PLM benefits play out in practice? Here are just a few examples of fashion and home goods companies reaping rewards from CGS BlueCherry® connected ERP and PLM:

• Leading home décor supplier Renwil is benefiting from new quality control processes, stronger production/shipment tracking and analysis of supply partner shared risks and opportunities. The Canada-based company has flexibility to offer low minimum order quantities and to easily modify or customize designs to fit retailer budgets and décor preferences. For the Signature Collection alone, Renwil manages 2,000+ SKUs of original artwork-inspired stock products available for shipment within 48 hours, maintaining a 95 percent in-stock service level.
• Luca Faloni, a provider of Italian artisanship and style, is leveraging end-to-end ERP and PLM to support and expand its aggressive global growth strategy. “Our dream since day one has been to provide everyone — regardless of geography — with superior Italian craftsmanship from local artisans, who take exceptional pride in everything from their fabrics to their style,” said Phillipe Mensh, CEO, Luca Faloni. “Your business is only as efficient as the systems you use to manage and support it.”
• A leading western wear brand, Kimes Ranch is using connected ERP-PLM to streamline processes, overcome operational complexity and improve strategic decision-making. “As a brand, we have made it a top priority to identify the finest materials and the right teams to create products that are undeniably the best fit and highest quality,” said Matt Kimes, founder and president, Kimes Ranch, which makes its popular jeans brand in the USA. Technology to digitize operations enables the family-run business to better manage operations and make products available to customers across channels. Its end-to-end supply chain technology provides the tools needed to grow the business.

Would you like to learn more about how your business can boost growth by bridging gaps between design and sourcing? Contact the CGS BlueCherry team today to discuss your company’s strategic priorities how we can partner together to help achieve them.

Check Out the CGS Connected ERP-PLM Series

• Part 1: of the Connected ERP-PLM Series
• Part 2: Bridge Those Design-to-Sourcing Gaps