Project Management in Fashion Industry
Shubham Anil Jain
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited
Bangalore, India
Email: shubhamajain125@gmail.com
Introduction:
The management system that includes performing in the complete project by the application of knowledge, skills, methods, experience, tools, and techniques to achieve the project objectives, aims and goals is called as project management. In a simple word, project management is just maintaining a system of correct planning, organizing, and managing tasks and resources to achieve a defined goal. As per as this is concerned, it is an important task in textile and apparel industry. It includes different phases such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, closing etc. If project management is to make further invasion into the business of fashion, then flexible approaches must be promoted and planning is still needed and extremely important.
Phases of Project Management in Fashion Industry:
A production oriented project in textile or apparel industry, have a lot of moving aspects. There are so many points to well manage and execute a successful project, starting from yarn or finished fabric to final textile product or garment. That’s why project management is necessary in textile and fashion industry. In project management in textile or fashion industry, there are broadly categorized five phases. These are as follow:
- Initiating,
- Planning,
- Executing,
- Monitoring & Controlling,
- Closing
1. Initiation:
The value and importance of the project as, well as its possibility should be identified and fixed in the initial step. Before any project approved or rejected the 2 major aspects: business case and feasibility study are studied and created to showcase the work to investor or stakeholders.
2. Planning:
When the project is approved in textile and apparel industry, then the next step is to gather and finalize a project team. A project team or leading team has to start with the planning part and how to manage the project. Consequently, it can accomplish its production aims within budget and on time. The project management plan basically includes what resources are needed, financing and materials. Some resources must have to provide by industry to the leading team. Such as:
- Written copy of scope statement,
- Define the specific and correct tasks,
- Determine the timeline of task or schedule,
- Calculate cost,
- Quality objective,
- Responsible staff,
- Frequency communications
3. Execution:
After the planning has been done by industry, it’s time to implement the project. This phase can be categorized in two aspects, one is Executing Plan and another is administration.
a) Executing the Plan:
This step deals with following the created plan, assign the tasks to the entire team members or garments floor level operator. It has to handle and monitor their growth like a project management tools,
b) Administrate:
Manage the proper contracts to secure the project.
4. Monitor and Control:
To make sure that, the project plan is being executed, all aspects of the project production must be monitored and observed periodically and adjusted as needed.
5. Closing:
All project management phases are needed to constantly being followed and report. It will be confusing to collect actionable data, track production progress and meet the project deadlines. When the objective and goal of the project management is fulfilled or unfulfilled only then the project can be closed or taken to completed stage.
Project Management Strategies in Fashion Industry:
1. Threat and Changes:
As it is seen that, changes are happening constantly in the business and all around the world, it’s very important to stay on top of the game at all times. That’s why textile and fashion companies have to identify all the possible risks or threats may be production failures, supply chain errors, etc. and be ready for sudden changes such as demand change, regulatory changes etc. Also, they should be strong enough to know that customers are much more conscious of the social impact of fashion’s chasing of producing clothes as fast as possible.
2. Planning:
In fashion industry, there are many types of projects. They can be either opening a shop (physical and/or online) to product launch, arranging a fashion show or entering a new field. For the success of it, each project requires a plan that will turn the vision into reality. One should have a full proof plan that factors in all the important steps to reach the goals. This is one of the important things, since the fashion industry is moving very fast, but that doesn’t mean that one can’t plan. Actually, it means one should pay more attention to planning, to make company to produce new fashion items as successfully as possible.
3. Flexibility:
It’s very important aspect that a fashion industry and its management are very agile and flexible in nature. This means that various processes, such as sales, customer management or supply chain management will be more efficient and smooth, i.e. lead to faster and greater turnover of products and sets a benchmark in the market. It also highlights the notion that project teams work and collaborate more smoothly. All this is eventually translated in increased reputation and improved status of company.
4. Teamwork:
Everyone knows the importance of teamwork, and fashion companies should know it better than most other businesses or industries. Any miscommunication or gap in understanding can have detrimental effects on the product. That’s why it’s important to have regular review discussion to take decisions and analyze processes. Every team member should aware about his roles and responsibilities. We can’t stress enough how crucial communication and collaboration are in the fashion industry. The final aim of producing a garment line as efficiently and quickly as possible can’t be reached unless everyone involved works together effectively, smoothly and have teamwork.
5. Stakeholder Management:
This refers to the knowledge of the market and customers, as well as companies ability to successfully manage with a number of stakeholders who have an impact on the company. The list is long and involves, among others, trade organizations, suppliers, sponsors, partners, buyers ad distributors. To grow the company and be successful, one has to establish a clear collaboration, which facilitates excellent communication with all of them.
Systems for Fashion & Apparel Project Management:
1. ClickUp:
It is honored by G2 as one of 2021’s 90 fastest-growing products, ClickUp has facilities to puts Gantt charts, email funnels, notepads, kanban boards, mind maps, sprints, and time trackers all under one user friendly, attractive, minimalist interface. While ClickUp’s list of fashion and apparel customers isn’t majorly displayed, it does offer an Apparel Design Management platform made for the creative operations teams to ideate. One can “Facilitate the apparel design process from idea to production all in one place!” says the website.
2. Monday.com
“No need to guess the future workload” study the website for Monday.com, one of the world’s foremost project management system. The feature of this is “Everyone in the team will know where things stand at any given time.” The platform is powerful, with more than 200 workflows and seemingly every collaboration imaginable. Yet it wins on design, with a purely customizable and has clean user interface. That aesthetic appeal to guide the user experience may be why, as Monday.com reports, from the survey it is estimated that, 84% of users feel happier when using the platform.
3. Workfront:
It is an Adobe’s project management platform, Workfront as the choice for the PC-over-Mac crowd—it deals with functionality, which it contains within a relatively fury interface that may not be intuitive for, or supported by, the creative class. So go ahead and enjoy the PMS’s seemingly unlimited ways to communicate, from project maps to templates to calendar views. For this one has to sift through menus in search of the function one is looking for.
4. ProofHub:
With a suite of collaboration tools, ProofHub offers a sturdy, end-to-end solution for handling creative projects from idea to deliverable, claiming to have: “all the tools the team needs put under one roof.” It has the capacity to streamline the projects by replacing “6-7 apps” the teams are currently using so be prepared for greater efficiency and in-context communication. Also, be sure to have a change management plan in place to navigate the transition affecting various creative operations teams and stakeholders as a result of that major change too.
Conclusion:
In today’s corporate world, it is found that expectations are very high and timelines are short, the role of a project manager has become more important than ever. The Project Management Institute (PMI) forecasted that by 2027, there will be almost 22 million new project management jobs globally because of increasing demand for the high-level facilitation of processes within organizations. For project managers, however, the practice is far more critical than simply working toward a project’s conclusion. Project management is a challenging career that requires a broad and deep understanding of a variety of complex methodologies.
References:
- 3 Top Project Management Methodologies You Should Know By Ashley DiFranza | March 23, 2020
- TOP 9 LIST: Project Management Systems for Fashion & Apparel, https://www.creativeoperations.com/blog/10-powerful-project-management-platforms-for-fashion-apparel-brands
- https://www.textileblog.com/project-management-in-textile-and-apparel-industry/
- Project Management Strategies For Succeeding In The Fashion Industry Written by Jennifer Hahn Masterson on January 21, 2020
- https://www.bartleby.com/essay/What-Are-The-Five-Basic-Functions-Of-P3QZZJ9LNLBWW
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Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
