This concluding article in this series takes a closer look at the Apparel PLM application developed by Lectra, a longtime French-based supplier of technology solutions to the apparel industry. Here are some additional features of their application.

Moving at the speed of fashion:

Add PLM to your Apparel ERP (Part 6 of 6)

Robust visualization boosts designer creativity, enabling them to explore many different possibilities and supports collaboration throughout the enterprise. By sharing the same version of the product and eliminating the need for each participant to re-enter data at every step, Lectra Apparel PLM mitigates data entry errors while accelerating development speed and reducing cost. Early, quick, and precise anticipated specifications shorten the sample validation process by reducing the number of required physical prototypes and ensuring that garment fit is respected throughout the development process.

Lectra Apparel PLM spans a company’s complete product lifecycle to provide continuous decision-making support throughout all apparel business processes. Lectra’s insider perspective on apparel industry needs has resulted in a global solution that supports management and control processes, as well as correlates the execution of apparel creation and development tasks. The Lectra Apparel PLM solution elements include:

Product Development. The Lectra Apparel PLM solution allows apparel companies to organize, manage, and share all data related to the development of products and collections. The application enables the management of iterative processes of sourcing—prototyping management, request for quote, and costing—and quality assurance. This can significantly reduce time to market and help manage costs at all stages of product development.

Line Planning. The Lectra Apparel PLM solution defines and organizes collections around the strategic and business objectives of the company. To assure product line relevance and coherence, the application simulates and evaluates the financial and commercial impact of choices as they affect multiple product lines.

Workflow Management. The Lectra Apparel PLM solution organizes and controls activities related to collections projects, synchronizing the work of all participants involved in the product development process and identifying bottlenecks and potential delays in real time. Efficient workflow management allows companies to improve responsiveness by prioritizing and defining critical actions. Efficient management dashboards provide executives with personalized performance indicators on all activities related to apparel lifecycle management.

Supports Retail Operations. Lectra’s comprehensive PLM solution delivers process control over workflow, sourcing, supply chain, and retail operations. Lectra’s software applications combine 3D virtual reality and Internet technologies for enabling constant collection renewal, stronger brand image, coordinated private label lines, and virtual merchandising. The ERP system provides deep process visibility enables managers to discern new trends, analyze line performance, identify competitive opportunities, to feed into line planning and continuously improve development and manufacturing processes.

A Proven Platform. The Lectra Apparel PLM solution is built on a proven platform that is a standards-based, Web-based and that supports global deployment and enables visibility, control, collaboration and decision support across the product lifecycle. It supports J2EE, Web Services and JDBC environments, as well as Oracle, SQL Server, or DB2 databases and is highly scalable, allowing companies to easily add capabilities at any time.

There are other apparel-specific PLM products on the market. But Lectra is sure to wind up on any apparel manufacturers short list.