Towards PLM maturity assessment in the fashion industry

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a tool supporting product development, an efficient knowledge management system and also a strategic approach ensuring competitive advantage. The fashion industry shows several features that distances it from the traditional approach to PLM deployment. Five fashion companies have been involved in a case study in order to assess PLM maturity and to acknowledge common ground and differences with the cases reported in literature. Therefore, the aim of this research is to adopt the already validated PLM maturity model to evaluate empirically the PLM maturity of fashion companies, providing industry-specific considerations. This study strives to describe the characteristics of PLM in fashion companies, more and more interested to implement tools and strategies supporting and enhancing product development. Identifying PLM maturity and improvement areas may be insightful for academics, through literature fulfillment with further cases conducted in a particular business environment, different from the manufacturing industry. This study provides also cause for reflection for entrepreneurs who are trying to reach a full PLM implementation in their business, aligned to the best practices.