Managing product design lifecycles with a materials library
Creating the next great product depends on having the right materials — like ingredients and formulations for food and cosmetics companies, or fabrics for apparel manufacturers — and a design team that knows how to use them.
Working with materials libraries in a typical large company requires using a range of specialized file types and applications. Teams working to scan and test materials send information on to downstream teams working in different, disconnected silos.
Large consumer goods companies share several frustrations as a result of low-visibility and juggling multiple applications:
- At one major cosmetics manufacturer, product design faced frequent delays from designers who referenced materials and ingredients that were no longer available. With little visibility into changes to the materials library, designers were also largely unaware of new materials and ingredients that could be added to their creative palette.
- At an accessories and footwear company, textures and material test data couldn’t easily be seen next to information about suppliers, availability and colors, leading to time-consuming manual information gathering.
- At an apparel company, designers had to send a request to the materials team prior to using material in a design. Designers could only approve a design after a swatch was ordered, then tiled to a larger square. Result: a longer design process that disincentivized experimentation.
The future of materials libraries
Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform offers unlimited flexibility for syncing and developing different types of content in materials libraries. From 2D images to 3D renderings and texture scans, teams can view content that is usually stored and viewed separately.
Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform also supports cataloging, using and modifying compound files — for instance, a materials reference object containing a 3D rendering, image files and examples of the material being used in previous designs could be created. These compound files can easily be shared with colleagues or external vendors to display materials in context.
With full information on current and historic materials used in design (especially when connected to downstream processes to understand sales performance), manufacturers can guide strategic R&D into new materials or formulations based on complete, connected information.
Forward-looking manufacturers also need a scalable, sustainable approach to maximizing productivity downstream when materials libraries are used by designers.
Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform empowers this approach by creating a digital design environment where designers have full visibility to updated materials information from every internal or external location where it exists, all in the context of their design tools.
Where can Hyland’s Nuxeo Platform take you?
The future of materials libraries is digital, available, easy to modify and with full visibility into all your disconnected systems.
A digital asset management (DAM) system allows teams to drive more efficiency in the way they organize, share and manage digital content daily during each product lifecycle process.