New Ground: New Industries Are Reaping Benefits from Project Management

  PM Network  

Project management has become a trend in the fashion industry, and educators are learning some new best practices. From small-scale farmers in Asia to community police officers in the United States, many non-traditional sectors are benefitting from adopting project management practices.

On trend: Fashion

Technological improvements have revolutionized the fashion industry, allowing employees to keep close tabs on every step of apparel production. This increased transparency creates a more efficient supply chain and helps to eliminate bottlenecks. The ability to track information through software systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), has led to the growing adoption of project management processes, says Ken Li, senior vice president of the apparel group at the clothing manufacturer Waitex in New York, New York, USA.

An industry built on instinct and a keen eye for trends has been somewhat reluctant to implement processes that focus on numbers and analytics. By using data to demonstrate the value of project management, though, even the most skeptical stakeholders are buying in.

“The upside to mass manufacturing is that huge volumes of pieces can be produced efficiently,” Mr. Li says. “The downside is if there’s a problem, the assembly line will get stuck—and you don’t notice until 100,000 pieces have been made.&…

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