Apparel Magazine and TC2 are hosting the 4th Annual Tech Conference on November 10, 2005 at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Pre-registration is required but attendance is free. There will be 25+ seminars regarding PLM, product development, advances in fit and color management, textiles, and sourcing. The full list is here.
It may be that much of this is beyond your needs (I won’t be there either). In fact, I didn’t know what “PLM” was other than a nifty new acronym so I looked it up and found it listed under “Building Your PLM Solution on True Enterprise PDM” which after translation means product lifecycle management using product data management; sponsored by a software company naturally. Hmmm. I feel more competent nurturing people not products but to each their own. Thus proceeds the current state of affairs in mainstream apparel industry education and consequently, dwindling attendance at industry get-togethers. It wasn’t always like this and we used to have fun too.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has come to the footwear and apparel (F/A) industry in a big way, but what does that mean to the f/a company trying to make sense of what PLM is and getting the most from what PLM seems to offer? This presentation by the creator of the product FlexPLMâ„¢ explains the business and technological realities of PLM in the f/a industry and what needs to address when building your PLM foundation as a product provider. The entire PLM process is very different in the f/a industry than it is in traditional discreet manufacturing industries where PLM has achieved widespread acceptance. As a result, approaching a PLM solution creates an entirely unique set of challenges. Full-featured, enterprise Product Data Management (PDM) technology and best practices are the keys to properly laying a firm foundation for PLM in the f/a industry. This presentation will explore methods of aligning your organization, business and product development processes and overall technology infrastructure to best leverage this very specific kind of PDM to take full advantage of the PLM technology and business process breakthrough and bring your products’ concept-to-consumer process into the 21st century.