Organization and Record Keeping
Case study – A merchandiser’s workday at XYZ Export House, a reputed apparel exporter to major brands and retailers in US and Europe.
Samir is a sincere hard working merchandiser associate at XYZ Export House. He is handling approximately 35 styles each season in men’s woven bottoms division. At a given point of time Samir has to work on three season’s work simultaneously. For one season he is engaged in doing prototype development, costing negotiations etc. For the second season he is doing the pre-production follow up like lab dip approvals, fit and PP sample approvals etc. For the third season Samir is making sure that the styles that have gone into production are shipping on time and there are no major surprises for the US team, like short shipments, colour mismatch approved standard in bulk etc. There is a lot of inflow of information from various sources – buyer, vendors, colleagues…and sometimes the information overload just overwhelms!
On a typical work day, Samir starts by reading his emails, and there are so many of them, then there are so many packages to open and take action on. Just yesterday when Samir decided to clear some workspace and file away or put away stuff, he was called in by boss to discuss some urgent issue. He left the pile of lab dips on his desk. By the time he returned, seven more packages had arrived on his desk from buyers and suppliers, still unopened. Before he could get round to sorting them out, He had to prepare the email to send to his boss on the urgent issue that he just discussed. By the time he finished the email, it was lunch time. More paper came in post lunch, more samples, more patterns, more packages… it’s endless and ongoing.
Exasperated Samir just dumped everything to sort out later and get some real work done. But unfortunately, he ended up getting engrossed in reading some more emails lying unopened in his inbox, which arrived while he was away. He did not end up doing any real work. This happens to the ‘best’ of us in the industry. There is a way to deal with this issue. Go to the next tab to find out.
After this training session Samir will learn –
- How to create simple and effective systems to manage all that incoming paper work, samples, patterns and so on and so forth.
- How to control clutter and stay more organized?
- How to enhance productivity by getting back the time lost in looking for things.
- How to get over the tedium of filing and record keeping with minimum effort and maximum effectiveness.
- How to organize the ‘bits’ in his life, yes we are talking about the digital information on his computer – emails, inbox, desktop etc. and be able to retrieve info quickly when he needs it.
Cost of Organization
An interactive discussion on what it can cost to stay disorganized at workplace.
Clutter buster
Participants will identify the problem areas which allow clutter to creep into their work lives and work out simple and effective solutions to conquer the clutter.
Inspiration Japan “the 5 S mindset’
Participants will do practical exercises that create ‘aha’ moments to understand how the Japanese 5S system can be applied to their lives – both work and personal and restore a sense of peace and control.
Records and their Relevance
An open house discussion on why records are important to maintain in apparel industry. How long records should be kept? When do the records lose relevance and should get discarded? Avoid the ‘I may need it someday syndrome’. Apply the ‘paper measles’ check and many more cool tools and tricks.
The disorganization disaster
A role play and case study exercise to enable the participants to bring home the point of how dangerous can be the consequences of not being organized at work in the apparel world. An interactive discussion will follow to do case analysis and come up with action points to beat the problem.
Let’s become a Bit Literate
A talk on how computer literacy is different from bit literacy in the digital age of information overload. Participants will be given effective and simple tips on organizing everything digital bit by bit, emails, inbox, desktop etc.