In a perfect world, everything goes as planned. Then change happens. Change can be great, but when it comes to the pricing of the materials that make up your product, price changes can become not only a major headache to deal with, but can also completely derail an entire line and season.
It would be super great if you could anticipate a looming price change right from the start. Prepare. Adjust. But the reality is, these changes happen mid-season after product has been developed and BOMs (bill of material) have been created. Factories burn down, workers go on strike, material and wage costs suddenly spike, volatile stock markets happen, a shipping container sinks, and the list goes on.
You probably already know this all too well. Factors outside your control have your entire team scrambling last minute to change buttons, swap out materials and find new sourcing partners. Hopefully in the end, no one knew the difference. Sales samples got shipped, orders were placed, and your biggest customers received their products on time. Everyone happy, right? Sure…that is until the numbers were crunched and the bottom-line left everyone feeling duped.
So how do you deal with and manage the inevitable?
When you start dealing with a few thousand (even a few hundred) SKUs, finding and correcting all BOMs (bill of materials) related to a price change can amount to a massive amount of time spent by a person or team. And the task will only get harder, and exponentially the margin for error, greater, the more complex your line plan and SKU count.
Do you throw more people at it to make the updates? Go back through a mountain of paperwork to change the prices, and hope and pray it all works out?
When you consider the vast majority of brands must constantly deal with these kinds of price adjustments from shipping, sourcing, right down to the raw materials being used; you quickly realize that predicting change at any level of the production process, will leave even the most savvy finance folks pulling their hair out. Add to this, the stress of answering to the board about why margins and or deadlines were missed, and suddenly the benefits of investing in more technology seem to outweigh the costs.
Being able to change the price of an item on one BOM and have it intersect all other BOMs with the same item can be a game-changer for your organization. Everything from fabrics, to factory or vendor source. Even more important is the ability to break this down by season and select a scenario that states “from now on,” or that you want to make changes “for this particular time frame/season,” or “replace this item or price, with that.”
Managing these price changes becomes a pivotal component to the bottom line and a good PLM system can do all this for you. Imagine the time savings for your team. Keep them happy and let them focus on what they do best, instead of having to become data entry robots. Invest in technology that will streamline your production process. Increase morale, inject efficiencies and make yourself feel like a numbers ninja and a hero.
 About FAN PLM Software
 FAN PLM is operationally intelligent, cloud-based product lifecycle management software that will empower your whole tribe with the right tools to communicate effectively, and consistently and bring absolute transparency to your entire process of product development. Designed to increase communication & collaboration, FAN PLM brings you legit forecasting tools, functional & easy-to-use line-planning & presentation builders, Adobe plug-ins, and seamless integration with all your enterprise-wide software systems.
For more information about how to positively impact your bottom line, connect with us to schedule a demo.
