Coats Digital has announced a new partnership with Manchester Fashion Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), based on a shared vision to support the ongoing digitalisation of the global fashion industry. Coats Digital has worked closely with the MMU Senior Lecturing Team to customise VisionPLM specifically for use in an educational environment.

The solution enables students to learn how to use critical fashion planning and product lifecycle management software to provide real-world, industry simulated project briefs. The ultimate objective is to support graduate employability by ensuring students have practical experience of solving real industry challenges with the very latest digital tools and skills.

Coats Digital has partnered with Manchester Fashion Institute to provide students with real-world experience in using critical fashion planning and product lifecycle management software. The partnership aims to support graduate employability by equipping students with practical experience in solving industry challenges using the latest digital tools.

Manchester Metropolitan University’s Manchester Fashion Institute is one of the largest Fashion Schools in the UK and a top modern university for research quality. Ranked second for the power of its research in the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF 2020), the institute has an impressive portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate fashion courses developed with international industry partners and informed by world-class research. The institute offers the latest cutting-edge digital technologies to collectively support the ongoing digitalisation of the fashion industry through the development of responsible future-proofed graduates, ready to champion inclusive and sustainable practices, Coats Digital said in a press release.

“Our partnership with Coats Digital will enable us to prepare our graduates for an industry that is rapidly being powered by technology and driven to deliver more sustainable practice across all areas of business. As a provider of innovative, digitally focused education, we are truly excited to be working with Coats Digital’s industry experts who have worked tirelessly to engineer a fully tailored solution focused on our students’ digital skills development,” Jackie Rayner, senior lecturer, Manchester Fashion Institute, said. 

Coats Digital’s VisionPLM is a powerful digital platform that is used to improve the way that products are managed from concept to delivery. The solution is supporting today’s fashion businesses to develop sustainable and socially responsible and socially compliant products faster, at the right price and quality whilst eliminating waste, loss of revenue and reputation associated with incomplete, inaccurate, or missing information.

Configured to reflect industry best practices, VisionPLM offers core product lifecycle management and extended sourcing functionality, creating ‘one version of the truth’ – from design, material and product development (including tech packs), to sampling, approvals, costing, vendor capacity management, order allocation and purchase order status updates.

“Manchester Fashion Institute is long regarded as a trail blazer with regards to its adoption of digital fashion technologies. Our continued success has been based on strong collaboration with international fashion brands and leading technology providers which play a vital role in helping us develop the rapidly changing workforce requirements of an increasingly digitised global fashion supply chain. This latest collaboration with Coats Digital further strengthens the Manchester Fashion Institute’s goal to support the Fashion Industry by preparing a steady stream of future-proofed fashion professionals that are ready for the real world where product lifecycle management is a de-facto strategic tool for the industry’s digital transformation,” Anita Mitchell, digital lead, Manchester Metropolitan University, added.

On the first day of the VisonPLM system roll out on March 7, 2023, first and second-year BA Fashion Buying and Merchandising students were the first to start learning about the comprehensive benefits of a robust PLM to identify, measure and adapt the buying, product development and supply chain processes, whilst supporting sustainable practice across the entire fashion value-chain at the same time. Students will be engaging further with the newly integrated software in collaboration with a number of key fashion brands to develop and communicate sustainable and socially compliant fashion products that meet the efficiencies demanded by effective sustainable fashion practice.

“The future of the fashion industry is increasingly being driven by technology. Students entering the industry need to understand how the rapid digitisation of the fashion supply chain is changing the way that apparel is being manufactured and how true sustainable practices can be embedded into the production process from the very start of the design process. Coats Digital is committed to delivering robust solutions that can be easily integrated into an educational framework, so that next generation fashion graduates have the tools they need to successfully navigate the complex real world of global fashion. We are truly delighted to have secured a long-term partnership with such an innovative, forward-thinking fashion school and we look forward to integrating further advanced solutions in the near future to help students fully understand how best working practices, sustainability and fair wages are all going to play an increasingly important role in their future careers,” Julie Tubby, senior director, customer operations, Coats Digital, said. 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)