Slowing Down to Accelerate Profit: How Centric PLM Supports the ‘Slow’ Trend

The ‘slow’ movement is not a new phenomenon. This trend has been around for decades, from ‘slow food’ offering the antidote to processed convenience food to ‘slow media’ that rejects the daily onslaught of social media and news.

Over the past few years, there has been a huge increase in media attention focusing on environmental issues caused by over-consumption. This has led to a dramatic cultural shift, leading customers to question the origins and impact of what they’re buying. The slow movement is the perfect framework for consumers to turn to when making informed buying decisions.

The trend can be split into four key pillars:

1. Environmentally and ethically sound products
2. Durability and value for money
3. High-quality materials and expertise
4. Personalization

But how do brands address the needs of these modern consumers? And what impact does the slow trend have on the way business should source, design and create products? Read on to discover the secret to slowness…

Centric Software’s Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution is the key to integrating the slow trend into your business model. The very nature of Centric PLM™ means that it can support the adoption of the slow movement at any level, whether your business is a niche eco brand that’s already gone all-in on the philosophy of slowness, or a large-scale corporation that wants to introduce a couple of slow collections and gauge the response.

Centric PLM centralizes all material and product-related data into an up-to-date single source of the truth that makes it easy for new materials and components to be introduced, tracked and managed, and empowers teams to focus on sourcing durable materials and innovating product designs that customers will love.

With Centric PLM acting as a digital backbone, brands can create an open dialogue with slow movement consumers, source durable materials more cost-effectively, get closer to the customer to offer services such as repairs and personalization and innovate products that are designed for a long service life. This maximizes potential for varying production processes; a slow process from some products can be running in parallel with traditional fast processes for others.

Integration of 3D design technology into the sampling process boosts sustainability, with fewer physical samples needing to be manufactured and shipped while also performing more design iterations and resulting in a better product.

Claudia Poli, SCM and Project Manager PLM-CPQ at luxury furniture company Visionnaire, reflects on how Centric PLM supports their interpretation of the ‘slow’ movement: “Centric PLM is very versatile, giving us the ability to start at different points in the product configuration process. This is particularly important for us as we offer finished catalog designs as well as products with varying degrees of customization, ranging from made-to-measure to highly bespoke pieces.”

Investing in a modern, mobile PLM solution that centralizes all product-related data from concept to retail and effectively connects internal and external teams can enable your brand to source better materials, innovate more long-lasting products, get closer to the consumer and exceed expectations when it comes to environmental and ethical obligations.