Automating product development, from collection to product page.
Briefs, tech packs, samples, costs, approvals, product pages: the product department circulates the same information between the studio, purchasing, suppliers and sales. Every move from one file to another is re-keying, and a source of errors.
Who does what in the department.
One team, distinct roles. Those with their own page are linked.
- Product manager range, pricing, calendar
- Product development studio, formulation, engineering
- Quality and compliance tests, standards, controls
- Regulatory affairs dossiers, claims, labelling
The relays : Purchasing, suppliers and contract manufacturers, marketing and sales, who wait for the product page to sell.
What the department receives, and what it passes on.
Dotted flows are those where information is most often re-keyed by hand.
It receives
- Brief and collection planmanagement, merchandising
- Supplier prices and lead timespurchasing, suppliers
- Sample and test feedbackstudio, laboratory, factory
- Quality and regulatory requirementsquality, standards
- Past seasons’ salessales, reporting
It passes on
- Tech packs and bills of materialsto suppliers and production
- Cost pricesto finance and pricing
- Product pagesto marketing and e-commerce
- Order requirementsto purchasing and supply chain
- Compliance dossiersto quality and the authorities
flow that worksflow often re-keyed
What gets automated.
Not an isolated task, but the circuits that run through the department every month.
An up-to-date collection plan
One source, one status per reference, visible to the studio, purchasing and management, with no spreadsheet to consolidate.
Tech packs and bills of materials
Generated from the PLM, versioned, sent to the right supplier in the right format.
The cost price
Recalculated with every change of material, supplier or quantity, with the planned margin alongside.
Samples and approvals
An approval circuit, automatic reminders, a table of delays per supplier.
The product page for sales
Attributes, composition and descriptions prepared from the tech pack, drafted by AI then reviewed.
Collection reporting
Progress, delays and planned margins for management, up to date with no intermediate file.
What stays human
- Design and collection choices.
- Trade-offs between cost, quality and lead time.
- Approving samples and the relationship with suppliers.
The same principles, different rules.
- Fashion and luxury
Seasonal collections, many material and colour variants, workshops and contract manufacturers to coordinate: the historical ground of PLM.
- Retail
A range built with suppliers and own brands: product pages, purchase prices, landed costs and attributes to make reliable before going on sale.
- Cosmetics and beauty
Formulation, regulatory dossiers, claims, packaging: product development cannot be separated from compliance.
- B2B distribution and wholesale
Thousands of references from supplier catalogues: attributes, prices and pages to standardise before selling them.
- Construction and property
Engineering office, quantity surveys and specifications: the same logic, around plans, work packages and variants.
- Industry
Bills of materials, routings, engineering changes: product development lives around drawings and items.
- Pharma and healthcare
Development, registration dossiers, controlled changes: every change leaves a trace and goes through approval.
PLM at the centre, connected to the rest.
When a PLM exists, it remains the department’s tool. Automation connects it to purchasing, the ERP, the e-commerce site and reporting, and handles what it does not do. When there is none, a custom tool can play that role, sized to the team.
- PLM
- Materials library
- ERP
- Supplier files
- PIM and e-commerce site
- Reporting tool (BI)
What leadership teams ask.
- How do you automate product development?
- By making the PLM, or a custom tool, the single source for each reference, then automating what comes out of it: tech packs to suppliers, costs to finance, product pages to sales.
- Do you need a PLM to automate collection development?
- Not always. An off-the-shelf PLM suits processes close to its standards; otherwise a lighter custom tool can be enough. The diagnostic compares both on your real circuits.
- How do you automate tech packs?
- By generating them from the reference data (materials, measurements, bill of materials) rather than filling them in by hand, with a version for every change and direct sending to the supplier.
- How do you calculate a product’s cost price automatically?
- By linking the bill of materials to supplier prices, landed costs and quantities: cost and margin are recalculated with every change, with no intermediate spreadsheet.
- How do you connect the PLM to the ERP and the e-commerce site?
- Through automatic exchanges: an approved reference creates the item in the ERP and prepares the site’s product page. Each piece of information is entered once.
- Can AI write product pages?
- Yes, from the tech pack and the brand’s rules, with a human review before publishing. It is one of the department’s quickest wins.
- How do you track a collection’s progress in real time?
- With a dashboard fed by the PLM and supplier exchanges: status of each reference, delays, planned margins, with no file to consolidate.
- How long does it take to implement a PLM?
- It depends on the number of references, the tools in place and the approval circuits; the diagnostic puts a figure on it. Projects usually start on a narrow scope, one line or one season, before extending.
Describe what’s holding your teams back.
A first conversation to qualify your need. Then a scoped diagnostic: the scope, the solution, the estimate.
Discuss your projectReply within 48 business hours.