PLM stands for Product Lifecycle Management and refers to a real-time collaborative environment that supports product design, development, and disposal. It provides a single centralized repository for design information and revisions. PLM brings tighter control over products and processes. Key financial impacts include late changes, poor program management, incorrect requirements, cost overruns, and lack of component reuse. PLM maturity is linked to profitability. SoftShoeStyle is a PLM solution that can help footwear companies manage challenges like rapid fashion changes, high SKU counts, demanding customer requirements, and duplication of information through features like line folders, design planning, style specification, sample management, financial tracking, and collaboration tools.

3. PLM stands for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

5. Provides a single “version of the truth” with a repository of design revision and design to disposal historical information

7. Financial Impact: Summary Source Industry experts including Aberdeen, PRTM Management, CIMdata

9. Higher SKU Count

11. Staying on top of new products

12. Information accuracy and timeliness

13. Document & image control

14. Management visibility into progress and financial viability

15. Collaboration with remote staff or independent designers

17. Failure to deliver on time

18. Failure to deliver the right productConclusion

19. Financial Impact: Link between PLM Process Maturity & Profitability PLM Benchmarking StudyPRTM Management Consultants Source

21.  Features Line Folders: Create them any way you wish whether it is collection, season, year or by customer, season, year. A built-in Line Calendar keeps your development on time. With SoftShoeStyle, you get a more focused look at a particular season in the calendar year. It will be highlighted by a “theme” with a model plan lined up against it. The product creation or design theme will be used as a filter to focus your efforts. Conclusion

22.  Features Design/Product Plans: Capture marketing details, trends, storyboards, colors, initial construction details and financial objectives. Plan allows you to hone in on a specific opportunity, trend, consumer, region, potentials sales and your target price points. Conclusion

23.  Features Style: Spec out the Style and capture style IDs, components, materials, color ways, callouts, suppliers, measurement type and any notes you wish to add about a component. A number of Libraries are available for quick selection. SoftShoeStyle gives you the ability to create and revise Style specs eliminating the need to manipulate spreadsheets. There is complete version control ensuring the latest version is online. There is also an Audit Log to see what user changed what and when. Conclusion

24.  Features Style: Depending on your business, you can capture visuals of anything from sketches to illustrator files of the Style, patterns, fabrics, labels, logos and other new/important visuals. These visuals are part of the Style tech pack, which is critical to getting you accurate samples and making informed decisions. Conclusion

25.  Features Sample Management: Generate requests (proto, confirm, rework, sales) and/or orders into an email to your supplier, then track receipt and distribution on-line. No more status emails back and forth. Visibility is complete. Depending on your business, you can capture visuals of anything from sketches to illustrator files of the Style, fabrics and other new/critical specific components. Color and materials details are also captured, which is critical to getting you accurate samples and making informed decisions. Conclusion

26.  Features Financial Worksheet: Input costs and price points, then SoftShoeStyle auto-calculates margin and against plan. Revise it at any time. Margin erosion will naturally occur unless you actively manage your markup percentages even before an order. Competitive price pressures: vendor price increases; and unanticipated component modifications or shifts in sales mix will lower margins. Conclusion

27.  Features Blog: Style-level thread lets you create a communicate at the style-level, with attachments rather than in various e-mails. Calendar & Events: Line Calendars are updated when milestone events are updated at the Style-level. SoftShoeStyle Blog captures notes, instructions and attachments for any Style. Calendars and event planning and tracking tools are essential to ensuring complete collaboration and on-time development of your footwear. Conclusion

30. Headwear

32. Heads Up!