PLM software centralizes product data and workflows so retailers, suppliers, and manufacturers can collaborate instead of trading PDFs and spreadsheets. Tom Neville and Joseph Cinziano explain how it cuts production costs, speeds time-to-market, and improves quality by reducing communication errors.
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What is PLM software? Let's get clear on what exactly PLM software is and why it's important. Product Lifecycle Management software is designed to streamline the ongoing development of new and existing products. It does this by integrating product data, workflows, and systems on a central platform. The centralization of product data enables product collaboration between key stakeholders. Most PLM software is designed to aid in internal collaboration only. But the best PLM systems enable collaboration between both internal and external stakeholders. PLM systems are a central hub for retailers to share product information and purchase orders with suppliers, manufacturers, and merchandisers. This is a significant upgrade over the industry-wide practice of passing product data around in PDFs and spreadsheets over email. This outdated mode of product collaboration is prone to error, and these errors can can quickly add up to significant delays and decreases in product quality. Delays are hugely problematic for retailers who need to capitalize on new trends to stay relevant. Tom Neville, President and COO of iconic fashion brand Robert Comstock, said, "The condensed fashion trend cycles of late create a lot of chaos, but luckily fashion PLM software has emerged as a key differentiator to help forward-thinking brands share, modify, and collaborate on products in real time." While Tom Neville sees PLM software as a differentiator for forward-thinking brands, Joseph Cinziano, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics, takes things a step further.
Product lifecycle management software for retailers, both large and small, is no longer a nice thing to have. It's absolutely necessary if you want to compete, remain relevant, and create an exceptional experience for your customers.
So what exactly can businesses expect if they decide to adopt a PLM system? We've narrowed it down to 3 key benefits that PLM adopters are seeing across the board.
1.
Lower production costs. Communication errors kill efficiency and tend to have cascading effects. When you replace the process of emailing PDFs and spreadsheets with a centralized PLM hub, these errors disappear. 2. Faster time to market. Managing your production workflows on a cloud-enabled platform converts chaos into assembly line efficiency. That efficiency slashes production time.
3.
Greater product quality. As your team and stakeholders become fluent in the PLM collaboration process, it becomes easy to keep everybody aligned. This alignment makes it possible to focus on quality instead of on putting out fires. It's for these reasons that PLM software is quickly becoming a necessary addition to the retail product tool belt. If you want a more detailed and complete breakdown of product lifecycle management and software, Please download our complete guide to product lifecycle management.
