Fashion and apparel

Frequently asked questions

• What is PLM for fashion and apparel?

  

  PLM stands for Product Lifecycle Management and is the foundation technology that links all people associated with making products such as merchandising, planning, design, technical design, product development, materials development, samples, fit reviews, product testing, product quality, sourcing, manufacturing, retail presentation and more.

  Recomended reading: The Future of Fashion is Here with PLM

• Why use PLM for fashion and apparel?

  

  Using PLM speeds time to market, improves efficiency, reduces waste and product costs, improves product innovation and design, improves product quality supplier collaboration and more. It is an enterprise solution meaning that its job is to connect people and give them a place to collaborate, share, give approvals, track changes, etc. Using it reduces the need for emails, spreadsheets, multiple types of document storage etc.

  Learn more about PLM with our webinar replays

• Who uses PLM?

  

  In short, anyone involved in product merchandising, design, development, manufacture or selling. Designers, merchandisers, product teams, management, IT, finance and execs. PLM today is used by companies of all sizes, ranging from 5 to 10,000 users.

  Discover the benefits of PLM for different users
  

• What is Centric Retail Planning?

  

  Centric Retail Planning is a standalone, six-module solution that can also be combined with Centric PLM for end-to-end go-to-market orchestration and execution. Centric Retail Planning enables retail and wholesale teams to optimize financial, merchandise and in-season planning to improve sell-through and maximize margins.

• How do Centric PLM and Centric Retail Planning work together?

  

  Together, these solutions drive digital transformation and enable businesses to become agile, flexible and market-responsive. Use Retail Planning to define financial goals and develop collections and product assortment plans and structure, then develop and source products into your selling strategy using PLM.

• Are PLM and Retail Planning hard to implement?

  

  No. Implementing PLM and/or Retail Planning is a company-wide project that involves many people, so coordination and communication are key. Having an experienced Fashion PLM/Retail Planning project manager who understands best practices for your particular company and product types, along with Agile Deployment cuts implementation time significantly.

  What is Agile Deployment?

• Is PLM the same as PDM?

  

  No. PDM or Product Data Management is a technology whose scope is more or less tech packs only. Any modern company today needs a solution with a larger scope that also includes planning, merchandising, product assortment allocation/development, product quality, sourcing and e-commerce/retail. This is what PLM software covers, in addition to spec packs.

  Learn more about technology basics with our Technology Soup Whitepaper
  

• Does PLM manage product specifications?

  

  Yes! It manages product specifications, material libraries, supplier quotes and a whole lot more!

  Cruise through this PLM4All blog to understand more

• Do designers use PLM?

  

  Yes! While designers can be very specific about the tools they use and especially user interface, they do use PLM! Especially when PLM is embedded in tools designers know well like Adobe^TM Illustrator. In fact, they don’t even know they are working in PLM, the interface is so good!

  Learn how designers stay connected

• Where did PLM come from?

  

  Many moons ago, PLM was created to help large groups of people create very, very large objects that required a ton of specifications, parts, details and changes like cars, airplanes and trains. This was a good idea! And as technology got better and better, PLM could do more and more and finally, a PLM specifically for fashion was born – Centric! Fashion and other fast moving consumer goods also require large groups of people and a lot of information but we don’t have the time (years) that those other industries have.

  PLM just for fashion was created and…..

• What’s the difference between PLM and ERP?

  

  Good question! So good in fact, that we wrote a nice white paper on the topic! The short answer is that PLM is where products are ideated and born, and ERP is where they are tracked once they are produced.

  Check out more differences

• What are PLM-connected digital boards?

  

  Digital boards are a new technology that was first brought to market by Centric in 2017 and is pretty awesome. Digital boards bring many ideas to life that would normally be found only on paper or buried in piles of soulless spreadsheets. Digital boards eliminate foam core boards, post-its, stickers and other bits of paper as well as manual spreadsheets and other documents and bring them to life on large touch screens, web browsers, ipads and other mobile devices via a sublime, easy to use interface. They bring joy!

  Understand more about digital boards
  

• Why use a fashion-specific PLM?

  

  Excellent inquiry! Fashion is a very unique business requiring a heady combination of very rapid new product introductions with a short time to trend, complex range of SKUs (size/color combinations), sophisticated sourcing strategies and overlapping calendars. The complexity of the fashion industry is unique and so are the ways of working and best practices, depending on what products are offered and how they are made and sold. You need a solution specific to this market or you will constantly feel like your technology doesn’t fit.