gartner's new report, plm for apparel 2013: preparing for the next wave of value

AN Apparel RESEARCH STUDY & ANALYSIS

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PLM strategies are maturing. Early benefitsfrom cost savings have been achieved andcontinue to be supported, and now apparel

companies are increasingly viewing PLM as providing a critical platform for the

next round of competitive evolution.

BY JANET SULESKI AND LUCIE DRAPER, GARTNER

FOR APPAREL 2013:

http://www.desl.net

The investment level in PLM technology by apparel companies contin-ued to trend upward through 2012 and into 2013 as retailers and

manufacturers implemented PLM technology purchased after revivingand updating plans that had been shelved during the worst of the reces-sion. In making these investments, apparel companies sought to stan-dardize product design and development processes, cut lead time out oftheir supply chains, and enable the rapid capture and sharing of inspira-tions and trends data to speed product innovation. Retailers and manu-facturers also began to ask PLM to take a bigger role as a process to reactto end-to-end supply chain data and play a key role in orchestratedresponses to the information. This need has helped set the next stage ofPLM development, as an essential part of a well-coordinated, systemati-cally integrated and segmented new product commercialization andlaunch platform. Before making this next leap, apparel companies arepausing spending on new software and consolidating the gains they’vemade from PLM investments to date.

Seventy-four apparel brand manufacturers, wholesalers and retailersparticipated in our eighth annual Apparel magazine/ Gartner survey onPLM initiatives and investments for the upcoming 12 months. The portionof survey respondents with plans to make further investments in PLMtechnology dropped from 67 percent in 2012 to 63 percent in 2013. Amongcompanies planning to make future investments, the portion expecting toinvest $500,000 or more jumped from 21 percent to 31 percent. The time-lines for investments have stretched further into the future, with 46 per-cent of survey respondents indicating that they will make the bulk of theirfuture PLM technology investments 12 or more months in the future,compared to 42 percent in 2012. More significantly, the portion expectingto make the bulk of their future investments more than 18 months fromnow increased from 9 percent to 16 percent, a relative jump of 77 percent.

As in previous years, faster time to market remains the No. 1 benefitmost apparel and fashion companies hope to achieve from their invest-ments in PLM strategies. A new answer option — standardization of PLMprocesses — came in second. Standardization of business processes setsthe stage for many benefits not specifically named, such as faster design,increased staff productivity, expanded material re-use and better visibilityto cost savings opportunities. The portion of companies naming lowerproduct costs as their No. 1 hoped-for benefit from implementing a PLMstrategy continued to drop, with just 12 percent of survey respondentsnaming it as their top hoped-for benefit, down from 24 percent in 2012.

The shift in priority demonstrates the growing maturity of PLM strate-gies. Early benefits from cost savings have been achieved and continue tobe supported, and now apparel companies are increasingly viewing PLMas providing a critical platform for the next round of competitive evolution.

PLM: Setting the Stage for the Next Wave of Benefits

Consumer-centricity has been an evolving strategy in the retail andfashion worlds for more than 10 years, with companies approaching thechallenge from multiple angles: loyalty programs and personalization,cross- and omnichannel retailing, supply chain planning and execution,PLM, assortment optimization and store operations improvements.Ultimately, the goal is to draw companies’ ability to sense, shape andrespond to consumers closer to the time that the demand signal is ana-lyzed, the trend detected, or the purchase decision made. However, a

12 PLM for Apparel 2013: Preparing for the Next Wave of Value

Apparel magazine and Gartner’s eighthannual survey of the apparel industry’s adoptionand use of PLM technology shows the industrycontinuing to make significant investments inproduct design and development technology.Beginning in 2011, we’ve observed steadyinvestment strategies on behalf of many apparelcompanies as they moved from first- or second-generation PLM applications to newer, morecomprehensive platforms.

Many companies are now adding targetedfunctionality PLM implementations, leaving thefabric of the core functions alone… for now.Thenext wave of developments in PLM technologyis already on the horizon, and work has begunto re-invent the silhouette of PLM activities forthe next technology season.

The survey was conducted in March 2013with the goal of seeking out the latest on PLMinvestments, future spending plans andstrategic objectives being set by process andtechnology leaders in apparel, footwear,accessories and home fashions. We offer oursincere thanks to the 74 companies thatparticipated and shared information about theirPLM plans and initiatives; without theirparticipation, this study would not be possible.

This year, 46 percent of survey respondentswere manufacturers; 39 percent were vertically-integrated companies that design and sellapparel and other products directly toconsumers through their own retail channels;and 15 percent were retailers that sell brandedapparel merchandise or a blend of branded andprivate-label merchandise. Of the 67 companiesthat indicated an annual revenue range, 21percent had annual sales of more than $5billion; 28 percent had annual sales of $1 billionto $5 billion; 34 percent had sales revenues of$100 million to $1 billion; and 17 percent hadsales revenues of $100 million or less.

As the apparel industry prepares for the nextwave of PLM process and technologyinnovation, this report is meant to be a usefulbenchmarking and research tool to help guidethe way. It provides a way for companies to viewtheir PLM investments to date and how theymeasure up to their peers, and to measureplanned initiatives against the industry as awhole. We welcome suggestions and feedbackregarding desired data for next year’s survey.

Apparel Research Study & Analysis

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Gartner study from late 2011 indicated that, across industries,50 percent of new product launches by companies failed toachieve one or more of the key metrics set for the products,most often unit sales, dollar sales or profit margin. Top reasonsfor failure are near and dear to product lifecycle managementactivities — product cost issues, being late to market, or expe-riencing inventory shortages, be they from raw materials sup-pliers upstream or consumer-perceived shortages when thedesired product is not on the rack or shelf.

The groundwork laid in apparel companies’ PLM initiativesover the past 10 years will help in tackling the challenge ofincreasing the success rate of new product commercializationand launch activities. As part of the larger effort apparel com-panies have made to use IT to scale efficiencies, enable innova-tion and make consumer-centricity possible, PLM can play acrucial role in creating fresh and innovative products and deliv-ering them to market in a timely and profitable manner. It’s notjust a technology problem; re-making the commercializationprocess requires close coordination of product development,supply chain, and sales, merchandising and store operationsteams. Closer alignment of new product introduction process-es with sales and operations planning acts as the governing

mechanism of this emerging best practice. PLM strategies andtechnologies are now beginning to play a crucial role as bothan input to the commercialization process, to give a pipelineview earlier to downstream operations, and as an essential toolto enable rapid, accurate responses to adjustments being madeby commercialization teams using ever more powerful busi-ness analytics. Next, we assess where PLM investments aretoday, what the emerging demands are that are being placedon PLM, and how the apparel industry plans to invest in PLMgoing forward.

2013 Snapshot and EvolutionOn the Path to Operational Excellence

The results from this year’s survey provide a solid indicationthat many apparel companies have put in place the core PLMcapabilities needed to drive operational excellence. Keeping inmind that apparel companies with more than $5 billion inannual revenue formed a larger portion of survey participantsthis year than last year (21 percent vs. 10 percent), the 2013 datashow that more than half of survey participants have function-ality for product data management (PDM) and bills of material(BOM) management, costing, line planning, collaborative



Bill of Materials/PDM

Materials Management

Costing

Line Planning

Collaborative Design/CAD File Sharing

Product PortfolioManagement

Merchandise Planning/Management

DMS/Supplier Collaboration

Workflow/Critical PathManagement

Business intelligence(BI)/Analytics

Calendar/Exec. Dashboard

Product Ideation

Sustainability, social or consumersafety compliance tracking

Virtual Product Prototyping/modeling

Figure 1: PLM Efforts and Adoption Status, 2013 Please indicate which of the following PLM functions your PLM technology effort encompasses

today and which functions your organization plans to add in the next 18 months

<Currently Use <Planning to Implement in next 18 months <Not Using nor Planning to in next 18 months

80% 12% 8%

72% 18% 10%

62% 30% 8%

61% 18% 22%

59% 24% 18%

51% 24% 25%

49% 29% 22%

45% 39% 16%

42% 40% 18%

39% 27% 33%

35% 43% 22%

31% 27% 41%

27% 29% 43%

22% 20% 59%

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design and CAD sharing, and product portfolio management inplace (see Figure 1). These capabilities are essential to central-izing product data, standardizing PLM processes, and provid-ing opportunities for cost savings. As noted last year, the visi-bility to product data, BOMs, and line plans, and the gover-nance mechanism provided by product portfolio managementare playing an increasingly important role in apparel compa-nies’ sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes. Thelinkage between S&OP processes and product design anddevelopment activities enables better alignment of new productcommercialization and launch activities, a pain point that manyapparel companies are seeking to address.

To put these applications in place, apparel retailers in par-ticular have spent substantial amounts of money. Among thisyear’s survey participants, 68 percent reported spending$500,000 or more to date on PLM technology products andservices. Among manufacturers responding to the survey, 32percent reported spending more than $500,000 (see Figure 2).As a result of this spending pattern, it has evolved that appareland fashion retailers and vertically-integrated retailers havesurpassed manufacturers in terms of influence on PLM soft-ware development, something Gartner has addressed in otherresearch.

Investments in PLM strategies and technologies have yield-ed results. The No. 1 hoped-for benefit from PLM investmentsin all eight years our study has been conducted is faster time-to-market, and this has panned out in two forms: shorter prod-uct development times and improved time-to-market. Apparelmanufacturers have seen and measured fewer bottom-lineimprovements generated by PLM investments across the boardthan have retailers. Manufacturers were most likely to citereduced product development time as a benefit achieved (seeFigure 3). As investments in PLM strategies and software bymanufacturers have to date remained low when compared to

retailers, it may be that more investment is needed before PLMyields larger more sustained business benefits. However, man-ufacturers’current level of influence on PLM software develop-ment roadmaps is overshadowed by retailers’ influence, whichmay mean achieving additional benefits from PLM will be aslow process. Survey respondents that are currently imple-menting PLM applications overwhelmingly expect to keepthose applications in place indefinitely once implemented.

Near-Term Plans are Modest

The operational benefits achieved to date, along with thefoundation supplied by PLM-enabled access to consistent dataand shared views of one version of the truth as a product movesthrough development and into the supply chain, provide thespringboard for the next level of PLM maturity. Referring backto Figure 1, survey respondents indicated that the next wave ofPLM excellence will be supported by work they plan to do oncalendaring and executive dashboards, workflow and criticalpath management, and direct materials sourcing and suppliercollaboration. With this work underway, apparel companiesappear to be scaling back on major PLM investments for thecoming year and focusing on selectively adding new capabili-ties. As noted last year, apparel companies were not and are notprepared to open their IT wallets for just any new PLM technol-ogy, but are blending selective improvements with businessprocess change and the acquisition of PLM talent to aid in thenext wave of improvements.

The Apparel and Gartner 2013 Top Technology Trends survey(conducted in October 2012) showed that 41 percent of compa-nies expected to increase IT budgets in 2013, down slightlyfrom 45 percent in 2011. Notably, among companies planningto increase their IT budgets, the level of planned growthjumped to an average of 4.1 percent, up from expected increas-



Figure 2: Spending on PLM technology to Date, by Market Segment What financial investment have you made on PLM technology products and services to date?

11% 18% 16% 3%4% 11% 14% 36%4% 4%<<$10,000

<$10,000 - <$500,000

<$50,000 - <$100,000

<$100,000 - <$250,000

<$250,000 - <$500,000

<$500,000 - <$1 million

<$1 million - <$2.5 million

<$2.5 million or more

2013 Retailers

6% 16% 3%19% 16% 16% 16%9%

2012 Retailers

23% 14%9% 5% 18%32%

2013 Manufacturers & Others

8% 12% 4%32% 16% 20%8%

2012 Manufacturers & Others

http://www.assyst-intl.com



Reduced product development time

Improved time to market

Reduced total lead time

Improved overall margin

Reduced inventory

Other

We have either not seen or not measured any improvements

Don’t know

37%41%

31%

27%35%

17%

27%32%

21%

24%35%

10%

8%12%

3%

13%12%

14%

22%18%

27%

16%12%

21%

Figure 3: Bottom Line Improvements Experienced Through PLM to Date, by Market SegmentHow, if at all, has PLM improved your bottom line? <Total <Retailer <Manufacturer & other

es of 3 percent in 2011 and 2.1 percent in 2010. Remarkably, themean rate of growth expected among this group in 2012 was 12percent. This growing gap indicates that apparel and fashioncompanies that came through the recession and made essentialbusiness investments throughout and immediately afterwardsare preparing to accelerate their investments to consolidatetheir advantages over competitors and put even greater dis-tance between their companies and the also-rans.

Slightly fewer survey respondents indicated plans for futurePLM technology investments, and among those planning tomake future investments, the portion planning investments of$1 million or more dropped to 21 percent in 2013 versus 27 per-cent in 2012. In an indication that more apparel companies arepausing in their PLM implementations, 73 percent indicatedthat they plan to make the bulk of their PLM technology invest-ments in the next 18 months, down from 81 percent a year ago.Currently, 27 percent expect the bulk of future PLM technologyspending to happen more than 18 months from now.

Slower than hoped-for return on investment (ROI) fromPLM software implemented to date may be one reason compa-nies are slowing their spending on PLM technology for now.Rolling out PLM applications, unhooking legacy applications,changing business processes as part of holistic PLM initiatives,and training staff create an enormously complex change man-agement environment for apparel companies. It is not uncom-mon to see companies leave longer-than-expected periods of

% of revenue budgeted for IT:Mean 5% 4.8% 4.5%

% change in IT budget among those increasing:Mean 10% 8% 12%

Figure 4: IT Budget as Share of Revenue andBudget Directions for Next Fiscal Year

Q. What is your company’s IT budget as a percent of revenue in 2012?

Q. Is your company’s IT budget for the next fiscal year increasing,decreasing or remaining the same? By what percent?

<Decrease <No change <Increase

2012

6%

54%

41%

2010

11%

52%

37%

2011

10%

44%

45%

Growth: 4.1%Growth: 2.1% Growth: 3.0%

*includes both capital and operational costs for hardware, networking,telecommunications, software maintenance/licenses/infrastructure, third partyIT services, and internal head count.

http://www.PTC.com/go/plmretail

time between implementation phases in order to conductprocess audits, design new metrics, and engage multiple stake-holder communities to get the most benefit from already-imple-mented applications and carefully design the work to be done inthe next phase based on lessons learned from prior phases.

The benefits apparel companies hope to achieve and theones they do achieve are not perfectly aligned, and companieslooking to build a business case for future PLM investmentsshould take note. More companies hope to achieve faster time-to-market than actually have achieved it post-implementation,and more companies experience greater standardization ofprocesses and the benefits that accrue from that than hadexpected to. More companies ranked “better designs”as one oftheir top three benefits achieved than ranked it as one of thetop three benefits they expected to achieve. Far more compa-nies achieved other benefits, such as improved profit marginsor lower supply chain inventories (leading to lower supplychain risk) than expected to.

Apparel companies are integrating PLM processes to anexpanding array of other processes to improve visibility into the

new product pipeline, enable earlier input into design anddevelopment, and take into account constraints that, withenough lead time, can be raised and jointly addressed by devel-opment, sourcing, supply chain, merchandising and store oper-ations teams. PLM applications have traditionally focused onproduct design and development activities, and are now beingasked to stretch to support more fully integrated enterprise-level activities.

To deliver on this expanding set of expectations, apparelcompanies have a long wish list of capabilities they would liketo see their PLM technology providers add to or enhance intheir applications (see Figure 8). Because of several new addedcategories, this year’s numbers are not directly comparable tothose in our 2012 study. Complete capabilities to support cost-ing, for example, may require functionality for manufacturingprocess design for apparel manufacturers and for vertically-integrated retailers. Gartner defines manufacturing processdesign as an integrated approach to product and constructionprocess design, materials requirements, and related operationsincluding pattern making, grading and marker development.



2011

2013

Figure 5: Anticipated Investments in PLM TechnologyDo you plan to make further investments in PLM technology?

Approximately how much more do you expect to invest in PLM technology?

12% 19% 69%

16% 21% 63%

31% 17% 3% 31%

18%

17%

26%3% 18% 21%13%

201214% 19% 67% 19%29%6% 17% 27%2%

<<$10,000 <$10,000 - <$100,000 <$101,000 - <$500,000

<$501,000 - <$1 million <$1 million or more <Don’t know

<No <Don’t Know <Yes

Plan to invest further How much more(Among those who plan to make further investments in PLM technology)

2011

2013

Figure 6: Timeline for Future InvestmentsDo you plan to make further investments in PLM technology?

When do you plan on making the bulk of these additional investments?

12% 19% 69%

16% 21% 63%

7% 38% 45% 7%

16%

3%

11% 32% 11%30%

201214% 19% 67% 9%11% 38% 11%32%

<In the next 6 months <In the next 6 – 12 months

<In the next 12 - 18 months <More than 18 months from now <Don’t know


Plan to invest further When making the bulk of those investments?(Among those who plan to make further investments in PLM technology)

http://www.ngcsoftware.com/xplm



Figure 7: Primary Benefits of PLM Strategy, 2013Q. What are the primary benefits you would hope to achieve through the implementation of a PLM strategy and related technology?

Q. What are the primary benefits you have achieved through your use of a PLM strategy and related technology?

<Ranked 1st <Ranked 2nd <Ranked 3rd

Hope to achieve Have achieved

Costing

Workflow/Critical PathManagement

BI/Analytics

Calendar/Executive Dashboard

Bill of Materials/Product Data Management

Line Planning

Materials Management

Sustainability, social or consumer safety compliance

Direct Materials Sourcing/Supplier Collaboration

Virtual Product Prototyping/Modeling


Collaborative Design/CAD File Sharing

Product Portfolio Management

Product Ideation

Other

Figure 8: Interest in Added/Enhanced Capabilities, 2013What capabilities would you most like to see PLM technology providers add to

or enhance within their applications in the coming year?

<Ranked 1st <Ranked 2nd <Ranked 3rd

18% 12% 8%

18% 6% 8%

10% 6% 14%

10% 6% 12%

12% 6% 8%

6% 12% 8%

2% 18% 6%

4% 6% 12%

6% 10% 4%

4% 6% 2%

6% 6%

2% 2% 4%

2%

8%

4% 6%

Faster time to market

Standardization of process

Lower product costs

Improved product quality/fewer defects

Improved quality assurance &comliance testing

Fewer markdowns

Better design

Other

38% 27% 23%

35% 19%12%

12% 27% 15%

23% 8%

8% 8% 12%

4% 6%

4%4%

12%

4%

Faster time to market

Lower product costs

Improved product quality/fewer defects

Better design

Improved quality assurance &compliance testing

Fewer markdowns

Other

32% 8% 13%

11% 13%26%

5% 16% 16%

5% 18%

13% 13%

3%3%

11% 8% 5%

5%

http://www.ronlynn.com



Workflow and critical path management are essential forautomating and helping to scale the increasing amounts of inter-connectivity required between PLM and other business process-es. Business intelligence, calendaring and PDM and BOM man-agement are other areas where, due to the variation of needsacross the retail, vertically-integrated retail, and manufacturingmarket segments and the unique variations among companies ineach of these segments, technology users frequently express dis-appointment with their packaged PLM applications.

What’s become clear is that while apparel companies con-tinue to work on creating links that are designed to help themmake better decisions faster about how to respond to changingconditions in the supply chain, they are also looking beyondthis level of capability to the next round of process and technol-ogy improvements that will help them reach long-standingenterprise goals of end-to-end operations visibility, improvednew product launch success, and greater consumer-centricity.

Figure 10: Activities or Investments Planned for PLM Technology Software and Services

Over the next 18 months, which of the following activities or investments are you planning for your PLM technology software and services?

<2013 <2012 <2011

20% 15%20% 20% 25%61%15% 24%

Retailers

17% 28%6% 33% 17%66%17% 17%

Manufacturers & Others

Figure 9: Anticipated Future Investment in PLM Technology, by Market SegmentDo you plan to make further investments in PLM technology?

Approximately how much more do you expect to invest in PLM technology?

<<$10,000 <$10,000 - <$100,000 <$100,000 - <$500,000

<$500,000 - <$1 million <$1 million or more <Don’t know


Plan to invest further How much more(Among those who plan to make further investments in PLM technology)

33% 33%34%

28%

37%34%

37%

33%

29%

13%

33%

29%

6% 6%

30%

22%

13%

Upgradingexisting

technology

Enhancing existing installed

technology byadding customized

capabilities

Roll outadditional

software modulesto existing

deployment

Replacingexisting

technology

Newimplementation

**Buildingadditional

interfaces to otherapplications

*No activitiesor investments

planned

Multiple responses allowed* Not offered as an answer choice in 2012 Organizations that had not yet implemented PLM were disqualified this year ** New answer choice for 2013 (New implementation not an option)

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Achieving the Larger Vision, One Module andIntegration At a Time

Retailers and manufacturers shepherd PLM strategies throughperiods of intense change and periods of relative calm. But thecalm is a still a very active calm. Beginning in 2012, PLM changeswung from the dramatic to the pragmatic, and the apparelindustry will continue to stay focused on the pragmatic over thenext 12 months as the stage is set for a larger transformation.

Among retailers responding to the survey this year, 45 per-cent plan to invest more than $500,000 in PLM technology, justslightly down from 47 percent in 2012. The largest drop came

from retailers with plans to invest $1 million or more, with 20percent stating they plan to do so vs. 29 percent in 2012 (seeFigure 9). Among manufacturers, 17 percent state that theyhave plans to invest $1 million or more in PLM technology, upsharply from the 5 percent that indicated plans to do so in lastyear’s survey, but still less than the 20 percent of retailers thatplan to spend $1 million or more. These technology invest-ments span an array of activities, as indicated in Figure 10. Inkeeping with the finding that apparel companies are pausingafter making large PLM investments in recent years, the num-ber of companies expecting to replace existing PLM technolo-



BI/Analytics

Sourcing


Calendar & Event Management

Logistics

Sustainability, social or consumer safety compliance tracking

Distribution

Costing

Color Management

Procurement

Sales Order-Taking

ERP

Product Portfolio Management

46%59%

33%

35%27%

42%

3o%27%

33%

26%27%

25%

24%23%

25%

24%23%

25%

22%14%

29%

22%32%

13%

20%18%

21%

20%18%

21%

20%14%

25%

17%23%

13%

13%9%

17%

Figure 11: Desired Application Integration with PLM, by Market Segment, 2013To what applications would you like your PLM applications to integrate to in the future?

(for those applications not currently integrated)

<Total <Retailers <Manufacturers & Others


gy fell sharply from 33 percent in 2012 to 13 percent in 2013,and the number of survey respondents having no PLM activi-ties or investments planned increased from 13 percent to 22percent (see Figure 10).

With an eye toward the bigger picture, apparel companiesare also driving integration between PLM and other applica-tions. Thirty percent of survey respondents indicated that thiswill be part of the work they undertake in 2013 and into early2014. Among manufacturers, the top integration priorities aresourcing, merchandise planning and management, distributionand sales order-taking. Among retailers, the top integration pri-orities are business intelligence, costing, sourcing and mer-chandise planning and management (see Figure 11).

Many of these integrations and additional module rolloutsare taking place to address specific process or technology painpoints or make process-to-process links, and not necessarily aspart of a larger, systematic strategy vision. Whether companieshave crystallized the thought or not, they are building the foun-dation for addressing the end-to-end process of new productdesign commercialization, a larger process linking productdesign development, merchandising/marketing/sales, and sup-ply chain (where Gartner increasingly sees best-in-class com-panies placing store operations activities related to on-shelfavailability). This framework uses S&OP as the governingmechanism when applied to manufacturers, and embraces theretail version of S&OP, called merchandise, inventory and oper-ations execution (MIOE) when it is applied to retailers or verti-cally-integrated retailers.

An outcome of this aligned way of looking at commercializ-ing apparel is a better sense of the tradeoffs that apparel compa-nies make between product development, merchandise andsales planning, and supply chain activities. Each of these areasmay operate efficiently, but underperform when the whole pic-ture is considered. Apparel companies will not abandon theimplementations of sometimes siloed or highly-specialized tech-nologies to make their operations more efficient. However, effi-ciency alone is no longer enough to achieve competitive advan-tage and to serve global, connected, cross-channel and fickleshoppers, and ultimately to deliver targeted sales, profit marginand market impact to apparel and fashion companies. A newgeneration of PLM strategies and investments will be needed tobuild out the capabilities that PLM will need to support in thiscomplex, yet increasingly necessary, operating environment.

This year may appear to the casual industry observer to be atime when apparel and fashion companies pull back on PLMinitiatives just to absorb the changes already made and enjoythe benefits already achieved from previous investments. To thePLM industry participant, however, 2013 and the first half of2014 will continue to be remarkably busy. The addition of newmodules to existing platforms and the integration of PLMapplications to an expanding array of other applications willmake it possible for apparel companies to take advantage of thenext round of supply chain evolution, one focused on makingnew products not only better-designed, but also substantiallymore successful when commercialized and more profitable fortheir creators. n

PLM for Apparel 2013: Preparing for the Next Wave of Value 27

Figure 12: The Collaborative Apparel Product Commercialization Framework

• Ideation/concept development• Product design and specifications

- Item master data- Formulas- Tech packs- 3D Models- Bills of material

• Product performance measurement- Physical performance- Customer acceptance

• Research and development- Lab work- New-to-the-world concepts

• Launch strategy• Demand profile and forecast

- Qty. by period for MIOE planning- Projected demand variability

• Product cost/profitability analysis• Inventory strategy

- Initial pipeline fill- Post launch replenishment- Ongoing inventory targets

• Deployment strategy- Regionally pooled- Locally deployed

Merchandising and Marketing, Sales

Design/DevelopmentSupply Chain, incl. Store and

Cross-Channel Operations• Sourcing readiness- Sources/availability/fit- Risks/limitations- Costs

• Store and Cross-Channel Execution- Phase out of old products- Capacity for receiving, getting inventory on

to the store floor- Compliance to planograms- Role of store in cross-channel order fulfillment,

returns policies- Store associate, customer feedback on product

New Product Commercialization


Copyright© 2013 by Edgell Communications Inc.All rights reserved.

Janet Suleski, Research Director,Supply Chain & Apparel, Gartner

Janet Suleski brings more than 16 yearsof experience working with retailers,manufacturers, and software vendors toher role at Gartner, and is a founding

member of the retail supply chain advisory practice.Janet is primarily responsible for researching, analyzingand writing about the best practices, technologies, andtrends in key retail and apparel business processes,including product lifecycle management, lead time/cycletime reduction, and new product introduction.

Prior to her current role at Gartner, Janet’s research andanalysis focused on fresh item management, point-of-sale, price optimization and customer loyalty softwareand business processes. She has also covered inventoryoptimization, strategic sourcing and procurement,collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment(CPFR), supplier collaboration and supply chain eventmanagement.

Lucie Draper, Senior Researcher,Research Data & Analytics, Gartner

Lucie Draper brings more than 20 yearsof deep domain expertise to her role assenior researcher at Gartner. She is

responsible for conducting quantitative market research,which includes designing questionnaires and samples,conducting field interviews and surveys, and performingstatistical analysis of research data and reports.

Lucie works closely with Gartner clients on customprimary research-based engagements that help thoseclients with their product and marketing strategies. Shehas written extensively about trends in IT adoption andIT budgets and worked with clients such as SAP,IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and EMC. Her research has beenquoted and published in many business and technologypublications.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT GARTNER INC.

Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading IT and supplychain research and advisory company. We deliver thetechnology and supply chain–related insight necessary for ourclients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs andsenior IT and supply chain leaders in corporations andgovernment agencies, to business leaders in high-tech andtelecom enterprises and professional services firms, totechnology investors, we are the indispensable partner to60,000 clients in 10,000 distinct organizations. Through theresources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs,Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, we work with everyclient within the context of their individual role, to help themmove their key initiatives forward. Founded in 1979, Gartner isheadquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has4,000 associates, including 1,200 research analysts andconsultants serving clients in 80 countries.

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Apparel magazine has been the industry’s leading publicationfor more than 50 years. It offers technology and businessinsight from concept to consumer, providing competitive,actionable information to executives representing the world’smost successful apparel brands, retailers and manufacturers.Apparel’s targeted content addresses Retail Intelligence,Supply Chain, Sourcing & Logistics, Concept-to-Spec andFiber-to-Fabric. An Edgell Communications publication,Apparel also produces Apparel’s Sourcing Summit, theApparel Executive Forum, Apparel’s Business & TechnologyLeadership Conference, Apparel’s Tech Conference West,numerous web seminars, research supplements andnewsletters and apparelmag.com.

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