Where Is The Value In A Supply Chain Solution?

When a retail organization makes the investment into a software solution that impacts critical business units, return on investment is anticipated – and expected. One of the issues regarding the purchase of these solutions is that the probable business value is not as clear-cut as the economic buyers would like it to be. Although there are clear benefits, and some case studies have illustrated remarkable payback, the range of reported benefits is extremely wide and there is no generally agreed-upon model for predicting remuneration. Many technology and economic buyers mistakenly believe that numbers, and only numbers, determine return on investment.

To analyze the resulting statistics, we have to look at the benefits delivered by this type of technology. But first, we need to understand that conventional Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions don't traditionally have the range to cover the scope of the full product lifecycle by spanning supply chain execution tasks too. When combined with SCE tasks, ecVision's XpressCommerce becomes a Product Lifecycle Execution (or PLE) solution.

The scope for PLE includes everything from gathering early line plan requirements to building a collection plan through multiple stages of collaboration with the factories and vendors on product design, capacity and/or material reservations, development and costing. This is typically where the PLM functionality ends. SCE tasks pick up at the point when goods are ordered and "needle is put to cloth", then managing and tracking the production and executing the necessary shipping requirements through to receipt into the warehouse.