Infor Brings Environmental Impact Data Capturing Capabilities to Its PLM Platform
A new partnership is bringing product lifecycle management (PLM) together with critical environmental data, giving brands a means of tracking production and enabling traceability across their supply chains.
Industry cloud firm Infor is combining its PLM platform with Made2Flow’s technology, which analyzes and validates sustainability data for the fashion industry. According to the partners, the new interface will synthesize environmental insights and provide full visibility and transparency across Tier 1 through Tier 4 of the supply chain.
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The collaboration responds to the growing need for environmental impact measurement and compliance, with new regulations taking effect across Europe, like the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules and Digital Product Passport, which mandate that companies share specific sustainability data with consumers. Impact calculations and data flow will be automated through the interface, capturing up-to-the-minute insights from yarn spinners, mills and producers, and that visibility is essential to understanding the environmental impact of any given garment. Each rung in the supply chain must be mapped to accurately gauge carbon emissions, water usage and other ecological indicators. The centralized platform allows all stakeholders to access relevant information efficiently and based on their needs, the partners said.
“With more than 1,000 fashion customers globally, all of whom are at different stages of their sustainability journeys, we are delighted to have created this interface with Made2Flow to help supercharge the potential of what is possible,” Infor industry and solution strategy director for the fashion industry Helene Behrenfeldt said. “Now, in addition to being able to expedite design and development time by up to 50 percent, we can offer a capability that allows fashion companies to perform environmental impact measurements across their supply chains, and identify areas that can be adjusted to reduce carbon footprints with real-time recommendations.”
Tal Shogol, CEO of Made2Flow, said the company’s technology was developed “to overcome data gaps and validate data to finally be able to measure the impact of entire collections continuously in a credible manner.” Data is managed and normalized through a Bill of Processes (BOP) engine, which allows brands and all of their suppliers to better understand their “impact hotspots,” he added.
“Developing regulations force fashion brands to use impact measurement not only as a consumer-facing solution but also for internal purposes to control impact reduction activities in real time,” the executive said. Through the partnership with Infor, “brands will be able to accurately measure their sustainability efforts and drive to faster impact reduction as an intuitive working tool and increase their sustainability ROI,” he explained.
