Taking a product line from concept to production is a complex process that requires both efficient and effective collaboration and execution. Throughout the product development and sourcing processes, retailers are facing significant challenges; Incorporating input and feedback from different perspectives, collaborating with a multitude of internal and external parties, infusing concepts in a timely manner, understanding the dependencies of sub-processes, and managing data at many different levels. We understand your need to get the right product at the right profitability to market quickly and efficiently – and we have a track record of helping companies achieve that goal.

Product Development Process

Improving speed-to-market, decreasing development costs, and increasing product quality is core to what we do. We help our clients design and implement the right business processes to achieve these goals by:
Aligning business strategy, organizational structure, and technology while developing effective change and learning programs to support the transition
Developing effective calendar management practices

  • Aligning metrics and incentives to drive the right behaviors
  • Eliminating redundancy and non value-add tasks
  • Developing reports to identify material consolidation opportunities
  • Reducing sample cost and the number of samples required
  • Identifying opportunities for “season-less development” (e.g., materials management) to enable faster cycle times
  • Refining the process for vendor collaboration and collaboration with sourcing offices
  • Improving production planning timing and effectiveness
  • Consolidating and simplifying material and product testing and QA

PLM System Strategy & Implementation

PLM implementations can be the start of transformational change, and require the right balance of org, process, and tools.  We understand that a PLM implementation is more than merely a technical installation.  Delivering a best-in-class PLM system starts with having well defined goals that are directly tied to the business strategy.  We help our clients by developing a compelling vision of PLM and strive to deliver tangible benefits in several key areas. What differentiates Blueprint from our competitors is our ability to take our clients vision and implement it into a high performing and sustainable solution that goes far beyond simply managing the configuration and coding the system.

  • Faster Time-to-Market
  • Reduction of Cycle Time
  • Greater Design Efficiency
  • Lowered Product Development Cost
  • Better Reporting & Analytics
  • Improved Product Quality
  • Enhanced Supplier Collaboration
  • Standards and Regulatory Compliance

Collaborative Consumer Development

The retail industry has evolved from a “push” model–where the retailer / brand pushes their products to the consumer–to a “pull” model–where the customer is intimately involved in the product development process.  Being able to incorporate the end customer in the product development process is vital to win in today’s competitive marketplace – but the strategies to achieve this goal need to be tailored specifically to your business and your customer.  Blueprint Retail’s collaborative consumer methodology helps our clients benchmark industry best practices, identify the appropriate collaboration levers to pull, and implement processes and technologies to make customer collaboration a reality.  Strategies can include incorporating social media campaigns / feedback, having key customers test samples, data mining for consumer spend patterns, leveraging the customer for input into design and assorting processes – but all require a comprehensive strategy and technology to ensure success.  As the industry continues to evolve, we help strike the balance of pushing a concise brand message while still involving your customer to help steer the brand in the right direction.