Coats Digital has partnered with UK’s renowned fashion business school Manchester Fashion Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). The collaboration has been done based on a shared vision to support the ongoing digitalisation of the global fashion industry.
As per Coats Digital, it 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 partnership aims at supporting graduate employability by ensuring students have practical experience in solving real industry challenges with the latest digital tools and skills.
Jackie Rayner, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Fashion Institute, commented, “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 practices 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.”
Coats Digital’s VisionPLM is a 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.
Anita Mitchell, Digital Lead, Manchester Metropolitan University, added, “Manchester Fashion Institute is long regarded as a trailblazer 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.”
On the first day of the VisonPLM system rollout on 7th March 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.
Julie Tubby, Senior Director, Customer Operations, Coats Digital, commented, “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.”
