Our first day in Shanghai, China:
1) Tour Li & Fung Shanghai Office
It was a bit difficult to pull our bodies out of the cloud-like beds at the Renaissance Hotel Monday morning, but we were all excited to see Shanghai in daylight. Our coach bus, with our new guide Mac, took us outside of the city center to the Li & Fung Shanghai offices that morning.
We’d later find out that the offices we were in had a Google-like atmosphere complete with ping pong tables, glass ceilings, and spiral staircases, but we were first greeted by Pamela Chen who gave us a more in-depth perspective of Li & Fung and global retailing as a whole. While she touched many topics, I’d like to share a few things that I found most interesting.
Traditionally, we think of Asian countries like China producing product for American retailers and shipping it to the retailer's warehouse in the United States to be stored and eventually dispersed to stores. But, according to Pamela, US retailers are now toying with the idea of having their distribution center functions outsourced to Asia as well. That is, product will be divided and made store ready while in Asia and shipped directly to the stores.
There are some obvious downsides to this, such as longer lead times for product in-store, and the inability to order in small quantities. Though, I guess the cost savings of storing inventory in Asia makes it attractive for US retailers. We’ll see if that is the new trend in the coming years…
An interesting fact: the top 1% of richest people in China make an average of S5,000 USD a year.
Many of us on the trip are starting our careers soon, and, without giving too much away, I can safely tell you that we’ll be receiving salaries far in excess of this. It really was a culture shock to hear this. It makes me wonder, though, how Hong Kong – one of the most expensive cities in the world – is supported by this. There must be an extreme concentration of the very wealthy there.After her presentation we had a tour of the beautiful offices and a great, buffet-style lunch.
Many of us on the trip are starting our careers soon, and, without giving too much away, I can safely tell you that we’ll be receiving salaries far in excess of this. It really was a culture shock to hear this. It makes me wonder, though, how Hong Kong – one of the most expensive cities in the world – is supported by this. There must be an extreme concentration of the very wealthy there.After her presentation we had a tour of the beautiful offices and a great, buffet-style lunch.
2) Kohl's Factory Tour:
In the afternoon we visited Kohl's factory outside of Shanghai. It was an incredible experience, and we were able to see so many parts of the assembly line to make one garment! We watched the construction process from the beginning to end! On the bottom floor of the factory we saw men cut out layers of fabric using the patterns as a stencil. Those pattern pieces were then sent to be interfaced. 
Once the fabric was ready they went up stairs to begin their sewing process! Each worker sewed one pattern piece, and then the piece would move up the line.
At the end of the line there was a giant sign with the day's goal and the number already completed. It was fascinating to see all of the different processes to create and complete one garment! We were able to see how many hands really do work on one pair of Apt. 9 pants!
The factory was extremely clean and well lit. It was also huge! Kohl's mentioned that over 1,000 employees worked at this factory. While we were having our tour, the students were able to get a sense of the size of the factory, and their production. The assembly lines went on for hundreds of feet! You couldn't even see the end of a row of workers! The staff was chatting and seemed to be enjoying their work. They didn't mind all of us students either staring at their work. We were fascinated by the intricate processes for each garment.
Creating patterns, cutting, interfacing, making button holes, overlock stitching, surging, and sewing are just some of the techniques that go into creating a garment in the Kohl's factory. It is a lot of hard work!
The factory was extremely clean and well lit. It was also huge! Kohl's mentioned that over 1,000 employees worked at this factory. While we were having our tour, the students were able to get a sense of the size of the factory, and their production. The assembly lines went on for hundreds of feet! You couldn't even see the end of a row of workers! The staff was chatting and seemed to be enjoying their work. They didn't mind all of us students either staring at their work. We were fascinated by the intricate processes for each garment. 
Creating patterns, cutting, interfacing, making button holes, overlock stitching, surging, and sewing are just some of the techniques that go into creating a garment in the Kohl's factory. It is a lot of hard work! 3) Chinese Acrobat Show:
Tonight we all got the chance to see a Chinese Acrobat Show. It was so much fun to see and was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We got to see acrobats doing many different skills. Some of them were women balancing these hourglass shaped things on a piece of string- they would throw them up in the air and catch them- sometimes doing multiple back flips. We also got to see acrobats diving through hoops- sometimes even multiple hoops while doing flips and even while the hoops were spinning. There was a magician that did many tricks and “pulled” all sorts of things out of his sleeves. Overall the acrobat show was an amazing experience for everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment