We sat down with Backbone’s Sales Engineer and industry expert, Jong Park, to give a first-hand look into the complexities faced within product development and the significance of PLM.
Brief:
Jong has over 10 years of experience in product development and design, launching his career in merchandising at Zadig & Voltaire’s headquarters in Korea. He proceeded to design multiple labels at Ralph Lauren including Men’s Polo, RLX Golf, Purple & Black Label, and Rugby. In 2014, Park co-founded WHEELERS.V, a menswear brand based in New York City
What do you view as the leading issue in the product development process?
I’ve witnessed company after company face inconsistencies between development and factory information. With multiple colorways and trims per product, there are hundreds of elements contributing to this chaos. Designers are spending hours reading and reviewing their tech packs, but still discover little details slipping through the cracks. Combine the complex nature of apparel development with the multiple facets used to manage designs, and you’re bound to struggle from discrepancies with factories.
Why do you think so many apparel companies have difficulty with factory communication?
Throughout the various stages in the product development process, it is important that information is easily accessible from the first prototype to finished sample, this is not always what I see in the industry. Instead, the large volume of notes and comments are misconstrued in the flow from designer to manufacturer, leaving them with incorrect products and large production delays. This minimal level of understanding, requires additional time and extensive communication for factories to fully understand each request.
You mentioned production delays, what is both the cause and implication of this?
Tracking lead times for hundreds of materials and samples is a daunting task, especially when you take into account the timeline of each component and sample across an entire line. Many brands I have worked with do not have sufficient tracking measures in place. As a result, they receive incorrect samples and fall short on due dates.
Designers and product developers must maintain a level of awareness and organization in managing lead times, aiming towards accurate inventory management and timely delivery. The root cause of these overwhelming processes are the systems in use. Current systems in place operate by manually updating and managing lead times, proving to be imprecise, inefficient and time intensive.
How do these inconsistencies and delays have an impact on costing?
At the core of product development is cost management, this is one of the areas I’ve seen become convoluted in the process. Throughout development, costing is constantly changing from factory negotiations and design adjustments. With an evolving costing structure, it is challenging for companies to implement accurate reporting, while tracking component usage. While I’ve seen that Excel is a widely used platform for costing, it lacks features that automate and simplify these frequent modifications. Mismanagement is only one of the issues surrounding current processes, I see brands across the industry face large amounts of waste due to inadequate consumption histories. This issue boils down to a lack of automation, as the manual manipulation of data is leading to increased costs, disorganized line plans and ultimately missed margins.
How does PLM enhance this process?
Automation is key throughout the production process, a feature of PLM that I’ve seen shake industry initiatives. PLM is reshaping the way we think about product development, promoting effective collaboration internally along with external communication amongst suppliers and factories. An integrated PLM system, allows companies to eliminate the hours spent creating tech packs, and refocus their energy on other design aspects. With a unified vision, I’ve seen companies quickly reach reductions in development costs and time to market.
Why Backbone?
Backbone provides an endless amount of flexibility, extensive reporting capabilities and easy to access information. With room for customization, I am able to create unique product fields and specifications with the click of a button. This helps create cohesive communication with factories, getting to the root of necessary development information, anytime and anywhere you need it. Reporting and project management features allow designers to track important dates leading up to the final product development stage.
By gaining this level of visibility, I have recognized noticeable transitions in the accuracy between organizations, their suppliers and their factories. Lastly, Backbone makes it simple to create and store products, eliminating the need for searching through dozens of emails and files to find the correct design. Backbone’s innovative infrastructure has made the product design and development process seamless from concept to creation.
Want to learn more about Backbone PLM? Check out our website here.
