Product Technologist, Childrenswear
John Lewis Hong Kong Limited
- Company Industries：Wholesale / Retail
Job Information
- Post Date：2020-04-04
- Career Level：Middle
- Location：Not Specified
- Yr(s) of Exp：3 years
- Qualification：Degree
- Salary：Salary provided
- Employment Type：Full Time, Permanent
- Job Function：Quality Assurance, Control & Testing / ISO
Job Description
As a Product Technologist, Childrenswear, you will be accountable for the technical management of Childrenswear products, taking responsibility for delivering John Lewis & Waitrose own label products to the agreed technical standard for safety, legality and quality.
You will work to achieve defined targets, supporting the delivery of commercial goals whilst ensuring compliance to brand policies. You will also manage a portfolio of factories to ensure the delivery of consistent product quality
Main role responsibilities
Supplier and Factory Capability
- Assess and screen new factory proposals to ensure that they can meet John Lewis and Waitrose brand standards
- Build and maintain good working relationships with suppliers and all internal stakeholders
- Manage a portfolio of factories to ensure the delivery of consistent product quality
- As and when required, conduct in-line inspections, end of line and AQL at supplier/ factory locations
- Onboarding of new suppliers (Technical section only)
- Following red seal approval in UK, conduct pre-production meetings with supplier
- Review and check accuracy of pack copy information for packaging, assembly instructions and care labels from suppliers
- Investigate with supplier any product issues, complaints, withdrawals, recalls, returns, ratings & reviews, PQI (Waitrose) etc. Ensure delivery of root cause and proposed corrective actions
Quality Assurance
- Technical management of own product area
- Ensure John Lewis and Waitrose technical processes, policies and requirements are communicated and understood by the supply base
- Screen product briefs received from the UK and check for appropriate technical information. Translate and communicate to suppliers where required
- Carry out an initial risk assessment of products (where applicable) to ensure safety, legality and quality. Drive product engineering discussions with suppliers, including use of preferred component suppliers and management
Product Samples
- Pre-screen all development samples (from concept samples to red seals), ensuring John Lewis and Waitrose requirements are met before sending to UK teams
- All sample stages - Provide any technical commentary/ suggestion for product improvements to UK teams. Translate and communicate to suppliers, any technical comments from UK team
Data Upload, Analysis and Reporting
- Ability to read and approve product test certificates / technical folder and upload onto appropriate database e.g. SGS database / wrspec system
- Investigate and provide solutions for any product issues, complaints etc.
- Drive improvements in supplier performance, using quality metric data
- When required, assess capabilities; set and monitor quality controls and compliance procedures within current and new factories
- Horizon scanning of regulations, standards and innovations
- Check specifications are completed accurately on wrspec system (for Waitrose) with all required attachments
- Approve final AQL pre-shipment inspection reports and give the approval to ship bulk
Skills and experience
Essential
- Good level of spoken and written English, Cantonese and Mandarin
- IT literate (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Google Applications)
- Existing contacts within the region
- +4 years technical experience in a relevant industry
- Knowledge of factory quality and production systems
- Knowledge of pattern cutting, garment construction and fabric testing
- Experience of working with Childrenswear products
Desirable
- A relevant degree (or equivalent qualification).
- Management of critical paths
- Retail, manufacturing and product development experience
- Experience of Branded and Own-brand products
- Experience in the total product life cycle
- Experience in sustainability
- Understanding of fabric properties, fabric qualities, finish and washes
We support agile working practices across the John Lewis Partnership. If you are looking for flexible working options please discuss this at your interview, as each role will have a differing level of flexibility.
For more details of how our Partners currently work flexibly click here.
Interested parties please click the "APPLY" button to submit your application with full resume including current and expected salary.
Company Info
The John Lewis Partnership is a visionary and successful way of doing business, boldly putting the happiness of Partners at the centre of everything it does. It's the embodiment of an ideal,
the outcome of nearly a century of endeavour to create a different sort of company, owned by Partners dedicated to serving customers with flair and fairness.
All 83,000 permanent staff are Partners who own 51 John Lewis shops across the UK (37 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal
2), 348 Waitrose supermarkets (www.waitrose.com), an online and catalogue business, johnlewis.com (www.johnlewis.com), a production unit and a farm. The business has annual gross sales of over £11.5bn. Partners share in the benefits and profits of a business
that puts them first.
When our founder, John Spedan Lewis, set up the Partnership, he was careful to create a governance system, set out in our Constitution, that would be both commercial allowing us to
move quickly to stay ahead in a competitive industry, and democratic giving every Partner a voice in the business they co-own. His combination of commercial acumen and corporate conscience, so ahead of its time, is what makes us what we are today.
John Lewis began trading in 1864 on London's Oxford Street, and has grown to become the largest omni-channel retailer in the UK. 'Never
Knowingly Undersold' has been our unique promise to our customers for over 75 years, on quality, service and value. You can trust that we will always stock the best quality products, responsibly sourced. We work hard with all our suppliers to ensure they
pay full attention to the well-being of their employees, their communities and the environment in which they're based. This includes using sustainable materials and methods wherever possible, and trading ethically at all times. Our staff (Partners) are highly
trained to offer helpful, impartial advice on all products and we provide an excellent after-sales and a great choice of expert services from delivery to installation. We set highly competitive prices for all our products; If we find a national high street
competitor offering a better nationwide price for the same individual product, sold with the same service conditions, we'll lower our price to match in all our shops and on our website, including when a competitor is having a sale.
Our John Lewis full-line department stores each typically stock more than 350,000 lines. At JL Oxford Street and Bluewater there’s also a John Lewis Foodhall from Waitrose while Southampton
and Watford offer a little Waitrose under one roof. An at home branch is approximately a third of the size of a typical full line department store and sells home and electrical and home technology assortments.
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