Providing implementation facilitation tools and instruments has become a common practice for many enterprise resource planning (ERP) software vendors. I recently wrote about Oracle’s experience in this matter, and I saw the news about Infor today.

Infor has been offering a range of industry-specific predefined configurations of its software packages for some time, and now it’s the turn of the fashion industry. As the vendor announced, Infor Implementation Accelerator is available for the garment and footware designers, manufacturers, and distributors. It is described as a “set of preconfigured industry solutions based on the latest version of the Infor application suites that deliver leading industry practices and business processes.” Read the rest of this entry »

Canali, word-famous Italian men’s clothing brand, has selected Microsoft Dynamics AX for its US operations. Business in North America must be going quite well, as the company has decided to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software application that would serve the entire region.

All Canali’s factories are in Italy (and the fact that it has not moved its manufacturing operations to lower-wage countries is worth some respect). Since Canali does not conduct any manufacturing in the US, the software selection case was limited to coordination of distribution channels and retail and wholesale operations. Read the rest of this entry »

Cabela’s, the world’s largest direct marketer of hunting, fishing, camping, and related outdoor merchandise, has chosen PTC Windchill FlexPLM software, PTC’s product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for retail. The company will be using PTC’s PLM solutions to manage the entire life cycle of its apparel products from conception, through design, technical design, sourcing, and manufacturing, to commercialization. Read the rest of this entry »

“I can name more fashion PLM solutions than PLM solutions.” This was what I told my colleagues last year when I was working on the creation of a product lifecycle management (PLM) evaluation model geared specifically to the fashion industry. Of course, this was intended as a joke—a fashion PLM solution is still a PLM solution! But, here is the first fashion PLM solution to receive TEC certification. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently had the opportunity to meet with Centric Software and get to know more about Centric 8 Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Sourcing Solutions for the fashion industry. Among the interesting topics discussed, a recently launched product called Collection Book for Fashion iPad app was most impressive. In my view, this iPad app is a great product, as it takes advantage of the user interface (UI) feature of the iPad. However, even more important is the mechanism behind this popular mobile device—the enhanced connectivity between fashion designers and customers who purchase products from fashion manufacturers for wholesale or retail purposes. Read the rest of this entry »

This year, product lifecycle management (PLM) vendors have put many interesting initiatives on display to PLM buyers. These initiatives include the possibility of generating more synergies between enterprise search and PLM, more intuitive decision support in design and engineering, connectivity between direct modeling and history-based modeling in computer-aided design (CAD), social product development in the cloud, etc.

Although most of these initiatives need more time before we can really testify to their value—i.e., the execution of these visions is the challenge that vendors are facing—I believe the PLM industry is shifting from functionality-driven to vision-driven. Read the rest of this entry »

A few months ago, when Siemens PLM Software unveiled its High Definition Product Lifecycle Management (HD-PLM) technology, designers and product developers in aerospace, automotive, and other similar industries were probably excited about this new offering as they saw the opportunity to enhance their decision making.

I was also excited, and saw HD-PLM as a sign that PLM vendors were starting to pay more attention to the user experience (as discussed in a previous blog post). The topic I’d like to discuss in this post is this: Will HD-PLM be beneficial to the fashion industry? After all, the fashion industry seems very different from industries requiring heavy engineering work. Read the rest of this entry »

Product lifecycle management (PLM) systems are too complicated, too expensive, and take too long to implement. That’s what I said last month in a blog post. However, more and more companies find that adopting PLM is an unavoidable route to take regardless how many obstacles ahead. Can companies find ways to adopt PLM more easily and faster? After listening to Lectra’s introduction to its Easy Start PLM implementation approach, I think I’ve found some answers. Read the rest of this entry »

Following the general opening session presented by keynote speaker Peter Burrows, CIO Emeritus, Head of Enterprise Architecture, adidas Group, the media and analyst discussion session with Burrows allowed me to learn more details about adidas’ FlexPLM implementation.

In addition, I also had a 1:1 interview with Kathleen Mitford, VP, Product and Marketing Strategy focusing on the consumer products, retail, footwear, and apparel industries, to learn FlexPLM’s achievements and product roadmap of FlexPLM.

After all that, I have to give my personal Day Two keyword to “FlexPLM.” As to my keyword for Day One, I believe it was “strategy,” as I indicated in my previous blog post. Read the rest of this entry »

“Sometimes, I feel frustrated at work—there is a constant conflict between my department and others and it never stops.” – A product developer at a fashion company

During the process of building the request for proposal (RFP) template for fashion product lifecycle management (PLM), I spent some time talking with some relatively large fashion goods manufacturers and retailers to gain a better understanding of how the fashion business runs. As I learned more, I realized that the conflict between the two major driving forces (pushing and pulling) behind fashion products is causing frustration, unachievable sales targets, and missed sales opportunities. Let me explain these two forces briefly. Read the rest of this entry »

Within the product lifecycle management (PLM) arena, there is a category of solutions with a very specific industry focus: fashion and retail PLM solutions. For example, Lectra calls its solution Fashion PLM; at PTC, its FlexPLM solution is created for retail, footwear, and apparel; TradeStone Software names  its solution Merchandise Lifecycle Management (MLM)  (instead of PLM) and focuses on helping retailers to design and develop private label merchandise. No matter how vendors describe their solutions, it seems certain that now PLM manages not only “trees” but also “grass.” Read the rest of this entry »

PLM Boot Camp ’09 is coming in one week. As one of the committee members for this event, I’m delighted to provide three tips to those who are planning to attend this two-day virtual conference.

Tip #1: Prepare to See a “Different” PLM

PLM Boot Camp ’09 is obviously focused on product lifecycle management (PLM). However, it also has vertical foci: the fashion and consumer products industries. If a couple of years ago I had been told there would be such an event, I wouldn’t have believed there would be a large enough audience. However, things are changing significantly in these specific PLM fields. In the fashion sector alone, there are over 40 software solutions that serve specific PLM needs from this vertical. Although the methodology of PLM stays the same, when it comes to applying PLM in the fashion and consumer products industries, the business cases, adoption strategies, and functionality priorities are likely to be different than in industries such as aerospace and automotive. Read the rest of this entry »