The Industry 4.0-friendly solution was praised by the independent source of free advice for the RFA and CPG industries for providing an “outstanding user experience” delivered in a full-feature, modular structure adaptable to businesses large and small, and available at an attractive price point.

Available in three starter configurations developed to target specific fashion industry processes—Design to Source, Develop to Source and Develop to Manufacture—Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0 embodies Lectra’s mission to empower fashion companies navigate the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0.

Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0 scored above the industry average in 32 of the 44 functional areas that WhichPLM outlined and assessed. The platform has been judged as a cornerstone solution that connects processes, systems and supply chains. Drawing on lessons from machine learning, the solution equips users with tools enabling them to work more efficiently and accelerate the product development process.

Mark Harrop, the CEO and Founder of WhichPLM: “Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0 represents, in WhichPLM’s opinion, the culmination of a multi-decade journey to connect brands and retailers with their supply chains, and to build a comprehensive, end-to-end suite of integrated solutions that can be adapted and configured for almost any business model".

The WhichPLM Supplier Evaluation is an annual across-the-board assessment of PLM solutions currently on the market. Experts review the solutions based on criteria such as supplier competencies and industry knowledge, roadmap and development, executive vision and customer feedback. In the words of WhichPLM, Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0, which earned an above-industry-average of 3.75 stars out of five, “is well-priced, fully-featured, has an outstanding user experience that is consistent across all modules, and is sold and supported by a business that understands the future of fashion intimately.”

Highly applauded

Lectra was highly applauded for its ongoing research and development to improve the user experience year in and year out. “To be absolutely clear, we consider this to be the best possible way to approach modern UX and UI design,” adds Mark Harrop. Lectra Fashion PLM 4.0 was awarded higher scores than competitors in ten other areas including Adobe Illustrator integration, 3D-design tools, BOM management, libraries, costing with advanced material yields, and graphical user interface. In terms of configurability, credit was given to Lectra for developing Lectra Easy Tools, which allow both implementers and end users to manage standard data blocks, add new ones, export configurations and more, making the onboarding process much faster and easier.

Thanks to an active customer feedback loop, Lectra has also made the solution’s user interface more accessible and intuitive. These changes include a homepage that automatically adjusts to user behavior, consistent search functionality, clear integrations between modules and solutions, new style overview and product detail pages, and a new “add to cart” function that allows users to organize their workloads.

“We are very proud of our score, as this study was carried out by reputable experts with over 30+ years of experience in fashion PDM & PLM. By focusing on the user experience, we have given the power to our customers, who have been the driving force behind all these improvements. As a result, we have managed to develop a product that best suits their business needs on a case-to-case basis. Our score reflects that and we will continue working in that direction,” Céline Choussy Bedouet, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Lectra.