5 Steps to Build Your Best Tech Pack

Tech packs differ by industry and product but their importance in the production process remains constant. They encompass all the necessary documents and detailed instructions—such as BOMs, product briefs, artwork specs, datasheets, and even Adobe Illustrator® and CAD files—that manufacturers need to bring a product to life. Managing these elements manually through spreadsheets and emails can be chaotic and time-consuming.

Centric PLM™ transforms this process by allowing teams to collaborate in real-time, reducing bottlenecks and fostering innovation. With automation features, Centric PLM minimizes tedious manual tasks and significantly shortens production timelines. What traditionally takes weeks can now be completed with a click, streamlining your tech pack creation and driving your product development forward.

Creating tech packs becomes effortless with powerful templates. These templates integrate all the necessary product elements into one cohesive system, ensuring consistency and efficiency across your team. By carefully planning and setting up these templates, you can standardize processes and save countless hours of manual work.

With Centric PLM, you can reuse these standardized templates for different styles, accelerating the entire product development process. The system automatically pulls in all your assets, from BOMs to artwork specs, allowing you to focus on innovation rather than repetitive tasks. 

Creative Director | Jaanuu

Tech packs vary from customer to customer and from one product to another. But regardless of customer or product, tech packs are crucial to the production process. The term tech pack refers to the collection of documents and detailed instructions such as a Bill of Materials (BOM), product briefs, artwork specs, datasheets and even Adobe Illustrator and CAD files needed by manufacturers to build your product. Manually pulling all these materials together and managing revisions through spreadsheets and email creates an organizational nightmare for teams. Plus, this manual process can take weeks to complete.

PLM platforms like Centric PLM provide amazing efficiencies. First, they enable multiple teams to work simultaneously and in parallel, reducing bottlenecks and creating new opportunities for collaboration by utilizing a single source of truth. Then, PLM platforms employ automation to reduce tedious manual task work. Finally, modern PLM platforms have impressive features for creating a robust tech pack. What traditionally takes weeks to pull together can be done at the click of a button.

BOMs can get complex, but custom views make it easier to manage that data. These views let you control who sees what, so internal teams can review cost information without worrying about sensitive data being seen by clients or vendors. You can even create spreadsheet-style reports that roll up all the necessary details for a quick cost analysis.

The best part? You can create and switch between different views with just a few clicks. All the elements of your tech pack are right there in one unified platform, making it simple to dive into the details or get a high-level overview whenever you need it. It’s all about giving you the tools to manage your product data effortlessly. 

Finally, Centric PLM includes plugins that make connections to other software tools in the product lifecycle ecosystem. This connection creates a seamless platform experience. For instance, a connection with software such as Adobe brings all your art files into your tech pack. Plugins save countless hours for the design team as Centric PLM automatically pulls in and builds BOMs with drag-and-drop simplicity.

By automatically building a canvas with all your colorways and sketches, your design team saves thousands of hours of manual work. 

Whether you’re a fashion company, a footwear manufacturer, or any consumer goods company juggling spreadsheet and email-based tech packs, your teams will love Centric PLM. Our award-winning PLM solution empowers your design and product teams, shaving off weeks of tedious manual work.

Your product teams can easily create and import all necessary BOMs, develop custom templates and views to efficiently manage the tech pack process. Best of all, your teams will find more time to focus on strategy and improve time to market for your customers.

Discover Centric Software’s AI-powered innovative cloud-based PLM to transform your manual tech pack processes and streamline your operations to boost productivity across your entire product team.

Vice President of E-commerce and Merchandise Management| Uniek Inc