Integrated PLM and ERP Enables a Data Backbone for Collaboration with Supply Chain Partners

The fashion and footwear supply chain has evolved over the decades. It has been shaped by trade opportunities and technologies driving significant advancements in transaction processing and pipeline visibility. The pandemic’s global disruptions have greatly accelerated how brands invest in and adopt technologies to enable visibility and success from source to sewing to storefront. And increased consumer interest in sustainability and “Made in America” manufacturing is shaping how we produce, purchase and pass on our products. What has not changed was our consideration of what a supply chain should be and how it should function. We have learned valuable lessons; now it’s time to put them into action.

Today’s digital supply chain must be oriented to consider the consumer—not process and cost optimization—as the driver of all activities.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is where it all begins. Product design may be at the heart of PLM, but it is hardly the only consideration. The design process is where designers interpret consumer cues and trends to develop what they hope will be the newest and most desirable products. This is not a one-and-done event. Developing a comprehensive assortment requires consideration of a series of interrelated activities. Every design decision is imbued with tactical issues, such as technical construction, material availability, manufacturing capacity, transportation, duties and tariffs, to name but a few.

For a period of time, the quest for supply chain efficiency was driven by workflow and the interface between best-of-breed solutions, which sufficed to serve as the underpinning of early collaborative efforts. Quickly, data requirements became broader and data types proliferated, inhibiting early attempts at collaboration within the supply chain. As competitive pressures drove the need for cycle time reductions, agile market responses and new channels, the antiquated strategy of ad-hoc interface linkages proved unwieldy and expensive.

Collaboration is iterative by nature. Workflow tools facilitates simple linear activity, whereas process automation manages multi-step, rules-based, iterative processing. This accommodates complex processes needing time-sensitive points of review and approvals. The process and behaviors inherent in cutting-edge programs, such as seasonless design, sustainable fashion and visual line planning , require the support of capabilities like robust process management and an integrated solution with a single data set.

The product management process demands that all the tactical issues be completed before a product can be truly considered market ready. The artificial construct of the calendar creates a sense of urgency to sell products long before all the product details have been put to bed. This lack of completeness of data generates risk of design misfires, costs overruns and manufacturing delays, all of which affects timely delivery, product sell-through and, ultimately, product margin.

It is the data flow between PLM and ERP that determines how effectively the overall supply chain operates.

For all but a few innovative brands and retailers, PLM is relegated to be an island of its own. This bias inhibits a linkage between transactional data in ERP and what is required from PLM. The result is the missed opportunity of including enriched and timely consumer preference data into the design process.

Recognizing this, many brands and retailers have employed a simple workflow and a best-of-breed interfacing strategy. While this is a positive step, on its own it is insufficient to support cutting-edge retail practices, such as sustainable fashion, seasonless design and visual line planning . Information-hungry practices require the visibility, understanding and control supported by a truly integrated solution that offers a single version of the truth across the extended enterprise.

For more information on post-pandemic trends that will continue in the long term, as well as how the right PLM platform can prepare  you for success, download our brand-new eBook: “The Seven Priorities for Post-Pandemic Success… and How PLM Can Support Them All.”