PLBuyer: Lifecycle Events

Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from Private Label Buyer, presented here for discussion.

U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer recently adopted a new product lifecycle management (PLM) process supported by a new collaboration and data management solution to help it quickly embrace emerging consumer trends and bring a wide range of products to market quickly.

A more top-down approach to product development replaced a traditional, category-level management strategy, whereby each category develops its own priorities and launch schedules and runs as an independent group. M&S can now launch hundreds of products across all of its locations in a single day. And the new products all address an important customer demand, such as organic goods, lower sodium, or a holiday celebration such as Mother’s Day.

As part of its program to support a “big-bang” approach, M&S now stages its massive launches 12 times a year. One day each month, all new products must be ready to shelf, promote and scan. According to Fiona Moore, head of product development and packaging for M&S, there’s simply no room for error as the complete development schedule is tightly managed to align with the definitive launch date.

Ms. Moore also introduced a highly collaborative system to smooth out any rough edges as the company rolls out hundreds of new products a month. Key to the PLM redesign, Ms. Moore adopted a “stage-gate” development process that includes more structured workflows, requirements, decision points and activities as products move through the development and introduction process.

To support this structured flow, Ms. Moore centralized all product information and made it more searchable and accessible. Previously, data was stored on individual PCs, in disparate applications, such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. This structure makes data hard to find, inconsistent to use and difficult to reconcile.

The new system provides a common platform so Ms. Moore can tightly integrate the team with its supplier network. All parties can now manage and work on projects more collaboratively. M&S views its suppliers and service providers as teammates. Everyone is integral to the process. Thus, it was important to offer these partners, such as package designers, visibility into the system and the ability to enter data, manage projects and share issues.

All combined, the new, more collaborative process and system helped to reduce the complexities of working with more products and projects simultaneously.

“With the new system in place, we can manage more new products in development,” she said. “In a given year, we might launch 1,000 entirely new products, which represents more than 20 percent of our product portfolio. This is remarkable when you consider we are a retailer and do not manufacture anything ourselves. We rely heavily on supplier cooperation and collaboration – possibly to a greater extent then any other retailer.”

Discussion Questions: What do you think of the PLM opportunity for retailers? What areas will it help? How will it affect suppliers? What hurdles still exist to its further adoption and better execution?

• Lifecycle Events – Private Label Buyer