How emerging technology can improve sustainability outcomes

Technology continues to be a top concern for fashion and apparel industry leaders, especially as legislation requiring stronger compliance mechanisms continues to come into effect.

Hayley Blatte, senior business consultant at Centric Software, talked to Lauren Parker, director of Fairchild Studio, about the importance of the role of technology in companies’ sustainability strategies.

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Centric is best known for its product lifecycle management (PLM) software and capabilities, which allow brands to track information about their products from start to finish – from ideation and development to final disposal.

“You have to be able to pivot very quickly. If PFA regulation is coming, you need technology to track and manage this information in your system. You need to be able to report it with one click; you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re looking for a needle in a haystack and you can’t find it simply because the technology doesn’t allow you to report it,” Blatte said.

Having a clear, centralized reporting and data storage system can also make it easier to track decision-relevant data needed to connect with suppliers – whether they are Tier 1 or Tier 4 – and with retailers and wholesalers once the finished product is ready. ready for sale.

“PLM is a data repository, but what we really want to do is enable you to pull data from many different places to ensure full traceability and make it available to your consumers,” Blatte told Parker.

Blatte said Centric customers seem particularly interested in tracking the bill of materials of their products, which allows them to learn about the fibers used in clothing material, how that material is used and more. By tracking this information in the PLM system, she found that it could reduce the time it takes to obtain additional information about products across the brand’s portfolio.

For example, if a planner needs information about how many SKUs are already using cotton from a particular farm or the color of a garment, they can access it quickly and easily, rather than digging through old emails, spreadsheets and documents. which may lead to human error.

“We all know we’re working on a lot of different seasons at the same time, and we don’t want that data to contradict each other because that will ultimately impact the cost of our products,” she said. “This can also lead to waste because you simply don’t have the data at your fingertips to have a good strategy to analyze and (use it) to create a better, more profitable product at the end of the day.”

PLM will only continue to be supported by rapid improvements in new technologies such as 3D rendering and artificial intelligence; Centric released a new AI-powered tool in September called Fashion Inspiration, connected directly to its PLM platform.

Blatte said artificial intelligence has many different applications in the fashion, apparel and retail industries – from accessing historical data and trends, to inventory analysis, to generating design ideas and more. Perhaps some of its most valuable capabilities lie in helping brands reduce their percentage of excess inventory.

“We could be the most sustainable brand on Earth.… We could be completely vertical by having the exact cotton plant that our cotton comes from. But ultimately, if you overproduce materials or products, where does it end up? Is this true durability? So it’s not just about materials, it’s about the whole business process and a detailed understanding of how much actually needs to be produced and where it’s going to go, and whether consumers will actually buy it,” Blatte said.

As brands consider how to make their products more circular, they can also benefit from the insights that AI systems can provide in decision-making and design processes. While persuading top leaders to buy unproven technology may prove difficult, Blatte said that if companies want to get real on the topic of sustainability — whether that’s working with suppliers to decarbonize factories or identifying more environmentally friendly materials — it could be of great importance.

“Technology is our friend. We really need to embrace this because this is what will drive a more profitable and sustainable brand,” she said.