Product Life Cycle Management Software is a way for you to keep track of everything related to your products, from inception through sale and even beyond. You can use our software to manage multiple products simultaneously and create an interactive timeline that allows you to see the various stages each product goes through.
In this post, we reveiw the aspects of Product Life Cycle Management Software, plm software fashion, What is PLM PDM software, and Is ERP a PLM software?
Product Life Cycle Management Software
Product Life Cycle Management is a way for you to keep track of everything related to your products.
What is Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?
Product lifecycle management, or PLM, refers to the collection of tools and processes used to facilitate the creation and development of a product. It’s essentially a way for companies to keep track of everything related to their products—the design work, the manufacturing process, and even customer service issues that arise after they’ve sold something.
PLM is not just about the product itself; it also touches on human factors like team collaboration and quality assurance. This means that it can be helpful for any organization that involves people in its production cycle—whether you’re operating an independent clothing label or making vehicles in Detroit.
Is PLM the same as Product Information Management (PIM)?
PIM is a subset of PLM. PIM stands for “Product information management,” and it’s focused on managing information about products. You can use PIM to store product data, but you can also use it to manage internal processes. PLM is broader than just PIM: it can be used to manage information about the entire life cycle of your products, including their design and development processes, as well as how they’re made and sold to customers.
Why Your Business Needs a PLM Solution
- Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) software is a set of tools that can help you manage the entire product life cycle.
- PLM also helps you track product development and manufacturing, manage product data, manage product information, manage product marketing and sales, manage service and support for products as well as warranty claims processing.
Benefits of PLM Software
A product life cycle management (PLM) system helps you to manage the entire lifecycle of your products. This includes their design, production, marketing and distribution.
PLM software can help you to save time and money by:
- Managing the product portfolio and ensuring that it is compliant with regulations
- Ensuring that your products are designed for market and meet customer requirements
Best Practices for PLM Implementation
The more successful you are in implementing PLM, the more your business will benefit. Here are some tips for getting started:
- Make sure to have comprehensive training and education available for your team so that they understand how to use it correctly.
- Clearly define roles and responsibilities so everyone is on the same page. It can be helpful if you create a simple flow chart that shows how data flows through your system, which also makes it easy for new employees to understand what their job entails.
- Set up a pilot project to test out your system before rolling it out company-wide. This will show you where there might be problems or bugs with their software or hardware setup, as well as give you an idea of how long it takes employees to complete certain tasks using the new system compared with old processes (if these were documented beforehand). This gives valuable feedback about whether or not this new tool is worth investing in long term!
Wrapping Up
The product life cycle is the continuous process of a product or service’s journey from conception to obsolescence. PLM software helps you manage this journey by providing a single source of truth for all your company’s data, processes and resources related to developing products.
PLM software tracks information about a product through each stage of its lifecycle (introduction, growth, maturity and decline) so that you can make informed decisions about what comes next in its evolution.
Product Life Cycle Management is a way for you to keep track of everything related to your products.
Product life cycle management (PLM) is a way for you to keep track of everything related to your products. PLM software helps you manage the entire product lifecycle from conception to retirement. PLM software manages the data associated with the product lifecycle, and it allows users to collaborate across departments and geographic locations.
plm software fashion
Discover how fashion, apparel and footwear teams orchestrate successful and optimized go-to-market with Centric PLM and Retail Planning
Centric solutions help fashion brands and retailers fuel business growth, power product development, speed time to market, control costs and drive sustainability. SC Fashion cut sampling times by 25% with Centric PLM.
Centric solutions empower DTC brands and retailers to deliver innovative products customers want, fast. Pivot, personalize and speed time to market. tentree increased categories by 33% with Centric PLM.
Centric PLM for manufacturers overhauls pre-production and sampling, reducing operational costs by up to 33%. Drive savings with more productivity, faster cycle times, fewer samples and accurate costing.
Centric solutions empower iconic luxury companies to drive creativity and boost the bottom line without compromising craftsmanship and quality. Nina Ricci cut time to market by 15 days with Centric PLM.
Centric solutions enable fashion footwear companies to create consumer-responsive collections faster and more cost-effectively. Capa de Ozono now launches twice as many collections with Centric PLM.
Centric PLM helps denim companies to promote transparency, innovation and sustainability while creating complex collections of owned, licensed and private label products with diverse styles, materials/finishes and size ranges. Silver Jeans cut sample lead times by 25% with Centric PLM.
Lingerie and swimwear require a unique combination of style, technical fit and precise execution. Centric’s digital solutions enable brands to balance detail, time and cost while responding to consumer demands.
Our digital solutions speed the creation of jewelry and accessories from ready-to-wear or costume pieces to original, high-quality pieces. Accurately manage complex assortments, costs, compliance and resource planning in one place.
Centric’s digital solutions for eyewear companies drive innovation, increase product variety and speed time to market. Respond to consumer demand fast without compromising precision and quality.
Centric solutions enable leather goods companies to focus on quality and precision, forecast accurately, source efficiently and speed time to market. Delvaux enters styles 5x faster with Centric PLM.
The fashion business is complex. Streamline collaboration with Centric’s product concept to consumer solutions.
12,500+ fashion, apparel & footwear brands use Centric to boost productivity, innovation and growth
“Our selection team included a wide range of users across different departments and every single one of them selected Centric as their preferred solution.”
“The powerful capabilities of Centric PLM and the professional abilities of the Centric team are impressive.
“Despite apprehension about user uptake of a new IT system especially with designers, teams embraced Centric PLM which helps them better collaborate, improve functionality and maximize efficiency.”
“With Centric’s mobile apps, our designers can capture and share inspiration immediately with the whole team. This is very helpful for fast fashion companies like UR, which rely on speed and instant communication.”
“Centric PLM centralizes all information, from the moment it’s entered, which allows me to locate size tables from previous seasons and just copy and paste if the product is being renewed – no need to rewrite everything. It really is a huge time saver.”
Centric PLM
Cloud-based SaaS PLM with built-in industry best practices. Highly configurable and modular with mobile apps and market-leading digital boards.
Centric Retail Planning
Available as a standalone solution or integrated with PLM. Six powerful modules orchestrate end-to-end go-to-market planning and product execution to manage assortments, maximize product margins and improve sell-through.
Enterprise Connectivity
Easily integrates with platforms such as ERP, e-commerce, PIM, DAM, quality management software, 2D & 3D design software and more. Leverage PLM data throughout the business to boost efficiency.
Centric PLM 3D Connect
Connect major 3D CAD solutions like Browzwear, Optitex, SOLIDWORKS & CLO with PLM. Ideate faster, reduce physical samples, streamline sample reviews & push photo-realistic products to e-commerce.
Adobe® Illustrator Connect
Empower design & product development teams to focus on creating original products. Sketch, seamlessly access materials, colors & styles from PLM and start building BOMs within Adobe® Illustrator.
Centric PLM Mobile Apps
Capture inspiration, analyze competition, field-test products, control quality, audit factories & more on the go. Intuitive, social PLM-connected apps optimize UX, save time & encourage collaboration.
Agile Deployment℠
Quickly see tangible benefits with the fastest ROI in the industry. Implement in months or even weeks, minimize total cost of ownership, simplify data migrations and even deploy remotely.
Centric VIP
Digital workspaces to transform collaborative decision-making. Concept Board drives innovation, Merchandising Board hones assortment planning software & Buying Boards optimize assortment presentation & sales.
Centric SMB
SaaS cloud-based PLM solution for emerging enterprises. Expand retail and international presence, better manage product development and easily move to Centric PLM as your business evolves.
What is PLM PDM software
Many people think PLM and PDM are the same thing, but that is not at all the case. To help you understand which solution is right for your needs, here’s a look at some of the key differences and why they matter.
Definitions
PLM means “product lifecycle management,” and it manages every aspect of the product from the design phase, through its production and sales arcs, its service requirements and all the way to its ultimate retirement. It provides a tool and a common repository to unite business processes and other software systems, people, data and company policies, and is the information backbone for a company and its entire extended supply chain.
PLM manages every aspect of the product from inception all the way to disposal.
PDM stands for product data management, and a PDM tool typically does just that: manage data. It is primarily responsible for version control and technical specifications, ensuring that engineers and other stakeholders are using the right versions and specifications.
PDM manages all of the data associated with a product.
Almost every accepted definition of the two solutions defines PDM as a subset of PLM, so if you buy a standalone PDM system, you may be shortchanging the company on necessary or desirable functionality.
Purpose
PDM is an engineering tool, while PLM is an enterprise system, equivalent in value to the company’s ERP, CRM or MES.
PLM touches on each of these enterprise solutions and works best when integrated and acting as the master for shared data. In simple terms, PLM is a strategic business approach that aims to maximize product profitability at every stage by providing a structured framework for innovation, product introduction and product end-of-life planning.
PDM was created to manage engineering data, primarily data from CAD, and managed revisions and changes. While it can be used to manage the design release process, in the real world, there are so many design release processes that occur outside PDM capabilities that standalone PDM is simply another input to a larger, more comprehensive process.
PDM is an engineering tool while PLM is a comprehensive enterprise management system.
Organizational Usage
We’ve already established that PDM is an engineering tool, while PLM is useful for every stakeholder in the extended enterprise. In fact, PLM can be shared and used by manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, tooling, prototyping, service and support personnel. By looking deeper into the stages of a product lifecycle, we can see the truth in this statement.
This Is the Design Process on PLM:
Advantages of PLM
Clearly, PLM is a more comprehensive solution.
We find that many organizations enjoy the extra functionality that PLM provides their organization once they understand how they would deploy it.
Advantages of PDM
As a more limited solution, PDM has the advantages of simplicity.
How to Choose PDM vs PLM
If you have questions about whether you need a PLM or PDM solution, you should talk to an expert about the advantages of each choice in your specific situation. 3HTi has a full team of PLM and PDM experts on staff, and we sell and support most of the major software applications in the space. Contact us today to learn how you can benefit from an investment in PLM.
Is ERP a PLM software
As a Senior Technical Architect and Project Manager with Sunrise, Mason Whitaker works closely with consumer brands and retailers organizations to ensure smooth Dynamics 365 implementations. Mason has experience working with global organizations in several industries, from e-commerce based mountain bike retail to high-end textiles and fashion.
The Need for Both Systems
Consumer brands and discrete manufacturers often need both PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software.
Since these consumer goods companies are designing and sourcing or manufacturing products, they require both solutions to handle their business operations.
And when shopping for a new ERP system, some companies hope to find them combined together in a single, all-in-one solution…but should you?
Here’s what we are going to dive into:
PLM vs ERP | Combining PLM and ERP | Boundaries between ERP and PLM | PLM and ERP Frequently Asked Questions | PLM Integration Framework
PLM vs ERP
Let’s start with a few definitions.
PLM: Flexible software that is used to manage the design process, configure and track design milestones, and facilitate team collaboration to plan and design new products to introduce to market.
ERP: Fully integrated financial and supply chain systems which handle high volumes of transactional, structured data, supporting the day-to-day business processes of sourcing and selling those products once introduced to market.
In the real world, the systems must pass product information back and forth…which can be done as an integration between two standalone systems or by adding PLM functionality to an ERP.
And while it is attractive to combine the two systems into a single solution, with a joint backend database, our recommendation may surprise you.
Should PLM and ERP be combined?
By trying to combine the two worlds into one product, companies often see a loss of features in either the PLM or the ERP. Attempts to combine the flexibility of PLM with the structure of ERP often fail — sacrificing unique characteristics of each that made them work in the hopes of finding a single solution.
Therefore, we recommend keeping PLM and ERP separate as a best practice.. In terms of application architecture, these two software solutions are complete opposites.
By allowing the two systems to operate separately from each other, both can function at their best to deliver the results you wanted from your investment in the first place. Product data for design, and product data for manufacture and sales transaction are very different.
The real need is for appropriate integration points so the two separate applications can pass product information back and forth, like attributes, variants, etc.
Where do you draw the boundaries between ERP and PLM?
Here are four general rules of thumb as you consider your product offerings across all channels and global regions.
If this sounds like a lot to consider when planning your PLM and ERP integration, or if you’re considering Microsoft Dynamics 365 for your ERP, then good news! We’ve already created a framework for you.
Frequently asked PLM and ERP questions
Create it in your PLM and push that product data to your ERP.
If you are going to drop a color, extend a color across seasons, or introduce a new color, you should make those changes in your PLM first and then push the data to your ERP.
No, these rules of thumb don’t necessarily require that all product data like assortments, hierarchies, attributes, etc., need to be maintained in one system.
No, as a similar case to above. An intelligent integration design will keep a single system as the master application, while letting other third-party systems append additional data elements, such as attributes, as needed.
PLM Integration Framework for Microsoft Dynamics 365
Because thinking through intelligent PLM integration frameworks is complicated…and because we’ve done it a lot, we include this as part of our industry solution, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
In fact, most of our customers require a best-of-breed PLM system to manage the design of new products, and that’s why we include a PLM integration framework as part of our Sunrise 365® Supply Chain extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365. It has everything you might need to configure, manage, and process the integration with your preferred PLM software – and has been built to be customized and extended to meet the needs of any implementation.
It utilizes a set of message entities to send and receive data to and from any third-party PLM system of your choice. The integration framework includes a set of out of the box entities for reference and product master data, and the solution can also be extended by creating additional entities or extending existing entities for your unique requirements (for example, add message entities for Bills of Materials).
In case you weren’t familiar, our supply chain solution extends Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations with a ton of advanced functionality that any consumer brand, apparel, footwear, or fashion company would need to make it a perfect fit. The PLM Integration framework is just one tiny piece of it, but you should also note, it also includes integration frameworks for your 3PLs and eCommerce platform too!