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What is a PLM software?
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software is a solution that simplifies the management of a product's lifecycle, from its conception, to its marketing and even its end of life. It provides users with a set of concepts, methods and functionalities aimed at optimizing the flow of data necessary for the development and evolution of a product. Geographically dispersed teams will be able to work together on the basis of reliable information. Thanks to the updates made and the digitization of information, PLM software provides better control of the changes undergone by the product throughout its life cycle.
What are the benefits of a PLM software?
A PLM solution offers many benefits. A modern and efficient management system has become essential for effective project management. If PLM solutions are more and more appreciated by people involved in the development of cosmetic products, it is because they allow them to describe their processes and their steps, with several objectives:
- Boost innovation
- Improve collaboration
- Provide reliable information (“a single source of truth”)
- Increase productivity
- Reduce costs
- Reduce risk
Why is a PLM software adapted to the development and management of cosmetic and perfume products?
The development of a cosmetic product mobilizes complementary expertises, generates a large amount of information and involves a significant number of steps to be performed along the development process. By bringing together all the necessary means to optimize the product life cycle and the collaboration between the various departments (Marketing, R&D, Packaging, etc.), PLM software is a management tool adapted to the development of cosmetic and perfume products, and meets the various challenges of the market:
- An increasingly competitive market
The cosmetics market is increasingly saturated (more than one new cosmetics brand created every day in the world). To remain competitive in this accelerating innovation race, cosmetics and perfume companies must respond to the need for speed and agility.
By using specialized PLM software, companies can innovate faster by capitalizing on decision support features and expert databases that are already integrated.
- An increasingly regulated market
Over the years, cosmetic regulations have become increasingly stringent. In addition, the disparities that exist between international regulations add an additional layer of complexity: from one country to another, cosmetic and perfume products are subject to different regulatory requirements in terms of ingredients, labeling, regulatory documents and marketing constraints.
Some specialized PLM software integrates regular monitoring of regulatory changes with regular database updates, offering considerable time savings and flexibility. Product compliance is maintained, avoiding, for example, a last-minute withdrawal of products in case of non-compliance.
- A need to improve collaboration between different stakeholders
The development of cosmetic and perfume products requires the synchronization of different stakeholders with complementary expertise (marketing, R&D, regulatory affairs, toxicology, packaging, or even external partners). This diversity of interlocutors makes communication, sharing and centralization of information complex, and can often be the cause of a slowdown in the development process (time-consuming follow-ups, verification and validation delays, information or documents that are difficult to find, etc.).
Thanks to their collaborative system, PLM software ensure that all teams have access to the right data at the right time, and is an effective solution for strengthening inter-departmental collaboration, reducing development time and accelerating product time-to-market.
How to choose your cosmetic PLM software?
Before starting on the functional requirements, you must define your general needs in terms of software. A global review of the objectives is essential to ensure that the software publishers are provided with an initial specification and to better filter the different companies to meet.
- General usage objectives, generic or specialized PLM software?
Before choosing a software, you should define your general usage goals. These general objectives allow you to pre-select PLMs that can meet your company's needs and avoid having too many PLMs that risk losing sight of general interest.
The first thing to decide is whether the software need is specific to the sector expertise (cosmetic, regulatory, etc). There are several types of PLM on the market: commonly named "generic" PLM and "specialized" PLM. Both categories have their advantages and can meet the needs of different categories of users.
To help you define your objectives, here are a few questions to ask yourself before starting:
- Will the software enable the centralization of all the company's data (including all teams)?
- Will the software save time on the work of the teams?
- Will the software improve collaboration between teams?
- Will the software provide expertise not available within the company?
- Is the company ready to take on a software that is entirely customizable?
- What is the budget allocated to the software?
- Has the software publisher provided solutions to facilitate the recovery of existing data?
- Does the software allow permanent access (either on the premises or remotely)?
All of these questions help define the company's main needs and to choose between a generic PLM software or a specialized PLM software.
- Number of users, collaboration and data volume
In addition to the general objectives, it is necessary to establish the list of teams and collaborators who will need access to the software. This point is essential to communicate to the software publishers before the functional presentations, first of all to ensure that the number of users is manageable by the tool, but also to control your budget.
The volume of data must also be defined (volume of objects to be integrated). Depending on the volume of data, the use of the software may have to be configured by the editor to ensure that the ergonomics and the speed of execution will not be impacted.
- Replacement of existing software
An inventory of the company's software allows to see more clearly the potential replacement of software. The use of a PLM can allow a company to gather all the data and functionalities and avoid the use of multiple software. Depending on the functionality available in PLM, it may be necessary to replace or keep some software tools.
Establishing the replacement and retention list is necessary at the very beginning of the project. It also allows the company to discuss with the software users the potential needs for interfacing and data recovery.
What are the advantages of the COSMETIC Factory PLM software?
- A specialized software adapted to cosmetics and perfumes
As the result of a combination of scientific, regulatory and technological expertise, COSMETIC Factory is a modular PLM software that can be scaled for both large international groups and indie brands in the cosmetics and perfume industry, providing expert support throughout the product life cycle (from marketing brief to worldwide market launch).
For 10 years, COSMETIC Factory has been evolving with the requirements of the cosmetic industry, the feedback of the users but also the cosmetic department of EcoMundo which ensures outsourced missions for actors of the sector: creation of PIF, label verification, quanti/quali, regulatory check by country etc. As users of the COSMETIC Factory PLM, our experts are able to postpone adequate evolutions.
- A software that embeds the greatest cosmetic and regulatory expertise
COSMETIC Factory is characterized by its wide functional coverage (validation and regulatory monitoring, formulation, toxicology, document management, pre-industrialization, etc.) but also by its expert modules, some of which are based on AI (MoS calculations, classification calculations, international compliance, etc.). All of this is linked to the most important databases (substances, INCI ingredients, raw materials, regulations, etc.) available on the global market, integrated and maintained in the software for the users.
- Collaborative software that dramatically reduces time to market
The solution is designed to significantly accelerate the product lifecycle, from idea to international market launch, while maintaining the highest level of expertise. The integrated collaborative system allows all internal and external stakeholders of a project to communicate and exchange information without wasting time, without duplication, by reducing almost all exchanges by email. For the company, it is also a way to secure its data in a centralized tool and to perpetuate the transmission to the teams according to the changes of staff.
- Data recovery made easy by EcoMundo
Whether you are already using a cosmetic software or you are working with Excel files, EcoMundo experts integrate easily and quickly all your data into COSMETIC Factory software thanks to their technical know-how (based on a large knowledge history of use cases and specific cases). The data transfer can be entirely entrusted to EcoMundo, or partially assisted by EcoMundo, depending on your preferences.
Want to know more? Download our infographic on the 10 reasons to adopt the COSMETIC Factory PLM >> Download the infographic
What is a PLM software?
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software is a solution that simplifies the management of a product's lifecycle, from its conception, to its marketing and even its end of life. It provides users with a set of concepts, methods and functionalities aimed at optimizing the flow of data necessary for the development and evolution of a product. Geographically dispersed teams will be able to work together on the basis of reliable information. Thanks to the updates made and the digitization of information, PLM software provides better control of the changes undergone by the product throughout its life cycle.
What are the benefits of a PLM software?
A PLM solution offers many benefits. A modern and efficient management system has become essential for effective project management. If PLM solutions are more and more appreciated by people involved in the development of cosmetic products, it is because they allow them to describe their processes and their steps, with several objectives:
- Boost innovation
- Improve collaboration
- Provide reliable information (“a single source of truth”)
- Increase productivity
- Reduce costs
- Reduce risk
Why is a PLM software adapted to the development and management of cosmetic and perfume products?
The development of a cosmetic product mobilizes complementary expertises, generates a large amount of information and involves a significant number of steps to be performed along the development process. By bringing together all the necessary means to optimize the product life cycle and the collaboration between the various departments (Marketing, R&D, Packaging, etc.), PLM software is a management tool adapted to the development of cosmetic and perfume products, and meets the various challenges of the market:
- An increasingly competitive market
The cosmetics market is increasingly saturated (more than one new cosmetics brand created every day in the world). To remain competitive in this accelerating innovation race, cosmetics and perfume companies must respond to the need for speed and agility.
By using specialized PLM software, companies can innovate faster by capitalizing on decision support features and expert databases that are already integrated.
- An increasingly regulated market
Over the years, cosmetic regulations have become increasingly stringent. In addition, the disparities that exist between international regulations add an additional layer of complexity: from one country to another, cosmetic and perfume products are subject to different regulatory requirements in terms of ingredients, labeling, regulatory documents and marketing constraints.
Some specialized PLM software integrates regular monitoring of regulatory changes with regular database updates, offering considerable time savings and flexibility. Product compliance is maintained, avoiding, for example, a last-minute withdrawal of products in case of non-compliance.
- A need to improve collaboration between different stakeholders
The development of cosmetic and perfume products requires the synchronization of different stakeholders with complementary expertise (marketing, R&D, regulatory affairs, toxicology, packaging, or even external partners). This diversity of interlocutors makes communication, sharing and centralization of information complex, and can often be the cause of a slowdown in the development process (time-consuming follow-ups, verification and validation delays, information or documents that are difficult to find, etc.).
Thanks to their collaborative system, PLM software ensure that all teams have access to the right data at the right time, and is an effective solution for strengthening inter-departmental collaboration, reducing development time and accelerating product time-to-market.
How to choose your cosmetic PLM software?
Before starting on the functional requirements, you must define your general needs in terms of software. A global review of the objectives is essential to ensure that the software publishers are provided with an initial specification and to better filter the different companies to meet.
- General usage objectives, generic or specialized PLM software?
Before choosing a software, you should define your general usage goals. These general objectives allow you to pre-select PLMs that can meet your company's needs and avoid having too many PLMs that risk losing sight of general interest.
The first thing to decide is whether the software need is specific to the sector expertise (cosmetic, regulatory, etc). There are several types of PLM on the market: commonly named "generic" PLM and "specialized" PLM. Both categories have their advantages and can meet the needs of different categories of users.
To help you define your objectives, here are a few questions to ask yourself before starting:
- Will the software enable the centralization of all the company's data (including all teams)?
- Will the software save time on the work of the teams?
- Will the software improve collaboration between teams?
- Will the software provide expertise not available within the company?
- Is the company ready to take on a software that is entirely customizable?
- What is the budget allocated to the software?
- Has the software publisher provided solutions to facilitate the recovery of existing data?
- Does the software allow permanent access (either on the premises or remotely)?
All of these questions help define the company's main needs and to choose between a generic PLM software or a specialized PLM software.
- Number of users, collaboration and data volume
In addition to the general objectives, it is necessary to establish the list of teams and collaborators who will need access to the software. This point is essential to communicate to the software publishers before the functional presentations, first of all to ensure that the number of users is manageable by the tool, but also to control your budget.
The volume of data must also be defined (volume of objects to be integrated). Depending on the volume of data, the use of the software may have to be configured by the editor to ensure that the ergonomics and the speed of execution will not be impacted.
- Replacement of existing software
An inventory of the company's software allows to see more clearly the potential replacement of software. The use of a PLM can allow a company to gather all the data and functionalities and avoid the use of multiple software. Depending on the functionality available in PLM, it may be necessary to replace or keep some software tools.
Establishing the replacement and retention list is necessary at the very beginning of the project. It also allows the company to discuss with the software users the potential needs for interfacing and data recovery.
What are the advantages of the COSMETIC Factory PLM software?
- A specialized software adapted to cosmetics and perfumes
As the result of a combination of scientific, regulatory and technological expertise, COSMETIC Factory is a modular PLM software that can be scaled for both large international groups and indie brands in the cosmetics and perfume industry, providing expert support throughout the product life cycle (from marketing brief to worldwide market launch).
For 10 years, COSMETIC Factory has been evolving with the requirements of the cosmetic industry, the feedback of the users but also the cosmetic department of EcoMundo which ensures outsourced missions for actors of the sector: creation of PIF, label verification, quanti/quali, regulatory check by country etc. As users of the COSMETIC Factory PLM, our experts are able to postpone adequate evolutions.
- A software that embeds the greatest cosmetic and regulatory expertise
COSMETIC Factory is characterized by its wide functional coverage (validation and regulatory monitoring, formulation, toxicology, document management, pre-industrialization, etc.) but also by its expert modules, some of which are based on AI (MoS calculations, classification calculations, international compliance, etc.). All of this is linked to the most important databases (substances, INCI ingredients, raw materials, regulations, etc.) available on the global market, integrated and maintained in the software for the users.
- Collaborative software that dramatically reduces time to market
The solution is designed to significantly accelerate the product lifecycle, from idea to international market launch, while maintaining the highest level of expertise. The integrated collaborative system allows all internal and external stakeholders of a project to communicate and exchange information without wasting time, without duplication, by reducing almost all exchanges by email. For the company, it is also a way to secure its data in a centralized tool and to perpetuate the transmission to the teams according to the changes of staff.
- Data recovery made easy by EcoMundo
Whether you are already using a cosmetic software or you are working with Excel files, EcoMundo experts integrate easily and quickly all your data into COSMETIC Factory software thanks to their technical know-how (based on a large knowledge history of use cases and specific cases). The data transfer can be entirely entrusted to EcoMundo, or partially assisted by EcoMundo, depending on your preferences.
Want to know more? Download our infographic on the 10 reasons to adopt the COSMETIC Factory PLM >> Download the infographic
