Research Of Branded Apparel Collaborative Design Based On Product Platform

In the context of Chinese textile and apparel industry revitalization, innovation and technology reformation, building Chinese independent brand system, improving the branded fashion enterprise R&D capabilities by IT integration has become essential for the apparel industry competition. Based on the211Ministry of Education key disciplines construction project "Modern Apparel Advanced Technology and Art Creation", the paper studied the method of extracting the common design elements from the branded apparel product, the architecture and technology of the branded apparel product platform, and the method of branded apparel collaborative design. The main content of the dissertation is presented as following:1. The business process of the branded apparel collaborative design is discussed. The paper analysis the organizational structure and function of collaborative design team by the investigation of28domestic branded apparel enterprises. The branded apparel collaborative design team is composed of internal product planning department, product design department, technical department, external ODM design teams, and commercial design companies. Team members complete the seasonal branded apparel product design and development by collaboration. By modeling the branded apparel collaborative design process with BPMN, the process is composed of five stages:investigation and preparation, product plan, product design, technical development, sample making, evaluation and order. According to the lack of the conceptual collaborative system, inefficient collaboration, frequent confliction, the lack of progress monitoring, uncontrollability of outsourcing, serious waste of resources, and easy to form the information silos in the collaborative design process, the collaborative product platform and collaborative design system is urgently to be built.2. The theory of the branded apparel product family has been studied. Branded apparel product family is a serial of apparel products which are closely related by the common design elements and positioned on the same market segment. The branded apparel common design elements are the same or similar design elements in branded apparel product collection, and are specified into product gene elements and fashion trend elements. Based on product gene theory of industrial design, Product Gene Element (PGE) is proposed for carrying the genetic information of brand culture and market in branded apparel product, which represents the key successful factors of the past branded apparel market. Fashion Trend Element (FTE) is the design elements which would be widely accepted by the target consumers in the certain time and area in future, which represents the potential future market demand. Branded apparel product family is the whole collection of all products since the birth of the brand, which can be specified into seasonal product family, collection product family, category product family and single item product family, etc. Modularization of the branded apparel product family takes important role in effectively organizing the design resources, clearly focusing the design target and position, and implementing the product R&D process.3. The system theory of the branded apparel product platform and its strategy are discussed. The paper defines the branded apparel product platform as the collection of the common design elements for the general branded apparel product family and the working environment of branded apparel R&D by integrating brand core competencies with the internal and external enterprise resources. The flexible module in the branded apparel product platform can be divided into fashion look, style, color, material, pattern, and technique modules. Each type of module can be divided into product gene sub-module and fashion trend sub-module with hierarchical characteristics. The architecture of category apparel product platform consists of various types of flexible modules and hierarchy of sub-modules. The architecture of branded apparel product platform consists of a variety of category apparel product platforms. Branded apparel product platform strategy can be specified into exclusive strategy, horizontal expansion strategy, vertical expansion strategy and beachhead strategy. Branded apparel companies can rapidly form the product family for derivative segmented markets, to achieve rich variety of products, optimization of cost, and maximization of profit, by implementing product platform strategy.4. A collaborative design method in the product platform is proposed for branded apparel product family. To clarify and unify the direction of product design, the paper suggests setting the conceptual prototype in the product platform. The model of reforming business process and position in branded apparel collaborative design is proposed by BPMN. After the conceptual elements in product platform are standardly classified and expressed, the product conceptual prototype data is extracted by the method of Fashion Product Gene Extract (FPGE) for product gene elements, and the method of Fashion Trend Element Extract (FTEE) for fashion trend elements. Forming all kinds of apparel conceptual prototype by classified qualitative all types of product gene elements and fashion trend elements, the branded apparel conceptual prototype can be rapidly assembled. Through classifying and defining product gene elements and fashion trend elements, the prototype of apparel conceptual design is composed, so as to implement the rapid assembling of branded apparel conceptual prototype. Collaborative design team members got the design task from the modular hierarchy of conceptual prototype in the platform. Through the preventive, corrective and interactive controlled extensive design, the consistency of the design concept is guaranteed, in order to improve design efficiency.5. The DHU-FlexPLM prototype supporting branded apparel collaborative design is implemented. The system adopts B/S architecture and contains the following core functional modules:apparel conceptual prototype design, modular tool integrated with design software, product line planning and management, development calendar planning, color management, material management, etc. The process of branded apparel collaborative design in DHU-FlexPLM contains three stages:implementing the product conceptual prototype by configuring the product conceptual parameters for placeholders in PLM, designing fashion style based on assembled prototype in Adobe Illustrator, assessing design scheme in PLM, so as to realize the branded apparel design based on product platform. The framework and method proposed in the paper are verified by the examination of collaborative design process of suit product.The innovation of this dissertation is as the following four areas:1. A common design element theory is proposed for the branded apparel design. Based on the design element theory and branded apparel design regulation, the branded apparel common design elements are the same or similar design elements in branded apparel product collection and can be specified into product gene elements and fashion trend elements. Branded apparel product family can be formed by the branded apparel common design elements. 2. A theory of flexible modularized hierarchy of branded apparel products is proposed. The flexible module is composed of the combinable apparel product elements based on the concept of design resource, without standardized ports or parameterized setting. According to the branded apparel common design theory, the apparel module is divided into fashion look, style, color, material, pattern and technique modules from product composition perspective. Every type of module can be divided into product gene sub-module and fashion trend sub-module from the driven perspective of fashion design and development. In order to meet the requirement of branded apparel modular assembly design in the product platform, the standardized hierarchical of the various types of product modules is proposed.3. The architecture is presented for category apparel product platform and branded apparel product platform. According to branded apparel product flexible modular architecture, the architecture of category apparel product platform consists of a variety of modules. Branded apparel product platform consists of several category apparel product platforms. The branded apparel product family can be rapidly designed by implementing and assembling the cross-platform module in different category product platforms.4. A collaborative design method based on conceptual prototype is proposed for branded apparel product family. Based on the design elements are standardly classified and expressed in the product platform, the product conceptual prototype data is extracted by the method of Fashion Product Gene Extract (FPGE) for product gene elements, and the method of Fashion Trend Element Extract (FTEE) for fashion trend elements. The rapid assembling of branded apparel conceptual prototype can be implemented through classifying and defining product gene elements and fashion trend elements, the implement.