New Product Development Process at Maxim Label and Packaging

New Product Development Process at

Maxim Label & Packaging (BD) Private Limited

Maxim Group was established in Taiwan in 1973. Maxim Label & Packaging Pvt. Ltd. is a concern of Maxim Group which has been operating globally. Maxim is a nominated company for fixed buyer in RMG sector. It is one of the leading suppliers in Bangladesh. The principal activity of Maxim is export trading of garments accessories. This report is basically based on the new product development process at Maxim Group Ltd.

As Maxim is a nominated company, after receiving order from buyer the duty comes to the floor of Sales and before going production they do almost everything to make the business smooth. Then sample making, product development, planning, booking of every single material for samples and getting approval are all the key responsibilities of Sales. Sales will have to work closely with a Buyer to ensure the product that’s bought will enable them to achieve the sales plan. It’s often explained as getting the right buyer, in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities at the right price. The work process of sales begins at getting order from buyer and end with shipment of that order.

About MAXIM LABEL & PACKAGING (BD) PVT.LTD.

Maxim Group was established in Taiwan in 1973. What started off as a small company in Taiwan has now become a company with more than 4000 employees worldwide? MAXIM LABEL & PACKAGING (BD) PVT.LTD. is a concern of Maxim Group. Maxim located at Mirpur-1, Dhaka, you can say It’s our liaison office in Bangladesh. We are nominated company for fixed buyer in RMG sector. It is one of largest leading garments accessories supplier, managing the supply chain for retailers and brands worldwide. Its headquarter situated in China, Taiwan. Most of the order comes from UK, Russia & USA Office to MAXIM LABEL & PACKAGING (BD) PVT.LTD.

Business Description

MAXIM LABEL & PACKAGING (BD) PVT.LTD., the Group’s principal activity is supply of garments accessories (hang tag, woven label, price tag, wicker cord, barcode sticker, toggle, twill tab, button etc. Operations are carried out in UK, United States of America, Central Europe, Canada, Middle East, Africa, Russia and South Africa.

Maxim Group has a globally diversified client base consisting of leading global supplier and brands.

Current Buyer of MAXIM

• Primark
• O’STIN
• NEWLOOK
• TCP
• NEXT
• Adler
• Regatta
• Levi Strauss & Co.
• Mister-Lady
• Gymboree
• Nike

List of Products

• Hang tag,
• Woven label,
• Price tag,
• Wicker cord,
• Barcode sticker,
• Toggle,
• Twill tab,
• Care Label
• Zipper Puller
• Leather label

Sales Department

Under Sales department, Maxim is having many divisions like SC-01, SC-02 to SC-03. Every division works with different buyer.

For example CS-01 has basically been working with Lisa (Newlook), Jay (O’stin), Stainly (Primark), Target and Briefly Stated for their ladies wear and Men’s essentials orders. Mostly these orders are received from directly Buyer as we are selected supplier. Our factory has been audited by the Buyer and Garments Compliance team both. Primark, O’stin, TCP, Adler, Regatta, Mister-Lady, Gymboree, Nike etc are our Buyer and they provide instruction to garments to collect accessories from us. Because Buyer believe in Maxim quality and service. Maxim is working with this Buyer since a long time successfully.

Sales departments of Maxim receive technical sheets which include:

Design sheet: (Style No. Season, Buyer Name, Knit or Woven Fabric, Primary & Secondary

Fabric, Fabric Construction, Fiber Composition, Trims like Button what will be the Color & linage)

Sketch: (Garment flat Sketch, Label Embroidery position)

Style Comments: (If customer have any commends)

Graded Measurement: (Graded Measurement, Tolerance.)

Technical sheets Maxim send to another department for development and costing a (Factories are compliance by Buyer & Central Team approved.)

Then this costing sends to Buyer and negotiates costing & Delivery date with factory. Maxim make placement memorandum to factory.

Product Development Department

Maxim is having a large product development team which seems lines of garments factory. The PD is basically responsible for FOP (First of Promo) and buying sample. They do an initial costing for making garments. As per buyer’s requirement PD gets instruction from Sales team to develop any sort of sample with design, print or embroidery if required. Furthermore PD is also responsible to come up with new design sample for buyer’s selection.

Compliance Department

Work process of Compliance department involved with ensuring factory compliance issues that needs to be reported to Maxim’s buyer. Day by day buyers are getting more conscious of compliance as well as security issues of the factories. Basically the work process of compliance teams begins at receiving requisition of factory from particular merchandising division with Preaudit questionnaire and Technical Pass audit report. Audits are normally scheduled in coordination with the factory management. Audit usually starts from opening meeting, then factory site tour to check health and safety standards, employee interview, factory documentation & payment system review, identify noncompliance issues & conducting closing meetings to discuss overall findings. In addition garments have no power to discard us only Buyer can take decision if anything finds contrast in our words and work. Till now Buyer has found nothing difference in our work since Maxim believes that Buyer success is our commitment.

I.T Department

The IT department of Maxim Play a vital role since all tasks is run by technology. Without it team it become very difficult for daily work. The IT Division of Maxim has been certified in ISO 9001:2000 quality management system. IT department is looking after all the matters related to IT. Solving problems for other personnel’s who are always working in computer online. They are supporting them with any kind of problem related to IT. If they are unable to help them then they contact with the Shanghai IT department.

Shipping and Commercial Department

Shipping department look after the goods shipped for vendor. They make sure about all the necessary papers submitted are legal. The place where the goods are shipped is correct and on time those are monitored by shipping team. Furthermore they communicate with Freight Forwarder to hand over the goods. Shipping team also concern about the post shipment documentation formalities. Commercial department submit all the necessary papers for LC acceptance to factory and after receiving LC acceptance than submit document to Bank for maturity date for final process. Thus Maxim receives his payment from his Vendor. Sometimes Buyer gives us payment on the behalf of garments.

Human Resource Development & Management

Human Resource Development and Management team has been playing an outstanding role in Maxim. They have been recruited number of experienced and efficient work force so that now Maxim holds a strong position among the apparel suppliers across the world. Though in the case of recruitment a Manager or GM has a vital role, HR take important role in this process. Apart from recruitment HR team involves in different activities such as Compensation Policy, Pay roll,

Employee benefit policy, organizing training for employees for different purpose and so many things. Beside this HR team is concerned about legal affairs.

Finance & Accounts Department

The finance department of Maxim takes responsibility for organizing the financial and accounting affairs including the preparation and presentation of appropriate accounts, and the provision of financial information for managers. The main areas covered by the financial department include keeping records of the purchases and sales made by a business as well as capital spending. Beside these Financial statements need to be produced at given time intervals, for example at the end of each financial year. Trial balances are extracted from the ledger entries to create a Balance Sheet showing the assets and liabilities of a business at the year end. In addition, records of purchases and sales are totaled up to create a Profit and Loss (P&L) account.

Furthermore its responsibility is to provide management financial information to enable them to make better decisions. The wages section of the finance department is responsible for calculating the wages and salaries of employees and organizing the collection of income tax and national insurance for the Inland Revenue. The finance department is also responsible for the technical details of how a business raises finance e.g. through loans, and the repayment of interest on that finance. In addition it will supervise the payment of dividends to shareholders.

Administration

One Personnel is looking after all the matters of admin and other activities of human resource. Like

• All the matters of expenditure from office
• Arranging furniture in office if needed
• Taking care of the bills
• Making all the arrangement when Buyer comes
• Taking care of official programs if any
• Looking problem and make solution of every department.
• Other issues when make complexity.

Sales Elaboration

In Maxim, Sale concept comes from the word merchandise. Merchandise means commodities or goods to be bought and sold. Like that sales activity is promoting the goods to potential buyer with a purpose of sell.

A Sale has to make a plan and developing a strategy to enable a company to sell a range of products that delivers sales and profit targets. A Sale will work closely with a Buyer to ensure the product that’s bought will enable them to achieve his objective.

It’s often explained as getting the right Sales, in the right place, at the right time, in the right quantities at the right price.

• Right Sales – Styles, brands, colors, sizes etc
• Right Place – Which store, depending on their budget and location
• Right Time – Having Sales in stores at the right time in the season i.e. ready for Christmas or ‘Back to School’
• Right Quantities – Enough for the stores to make their budgets but not have to markdown stock at the end of the season
• The Right Price – Those that will attract customers in spite of competition yet generate a reasonable return on investment for the retailer i.e. profit

The objective of the Sales management team is to get the correct balance between the expectations of the Buyer and the objectives of the company’s financial strategy.

A Sales role involves the following processes:

• Raising purchase orders to match range plan from buyers
• Developing detailed spreadsheets for the buyers
• Negotiating cost prices with buyers
• Approving pre-production samples
• Monitoring pre-production/production
• Organizing shipping documents
• Analyzing past sales figures/trends to anticipate future product needs.
• Relaying the sales plan to the buyer who, in turn, can decide on what products, styles, colors etc. to purchase and from which suppliers, at what price.
• Taking responsibility for promotion, display, sales forecast and stock levels
• Once the products are all distributed and put on sale, the Sales have to monitor next Season order.

The Sales is instrumental in all commercial decisions such as how much money should be spent, how many material and in what quantity, involvement in setting selling prices to regulate profit and decisions on when the stocks should be delivered into the business.

Actually a Sale is responsible for almost everything-from order analysis to shipment and finally payment realization. Sales means to arrange all the required raw materials and to make the goods ready to sell them to customers. Work, work and work – all day long. Handling 40/45 orders/styles at a time. This job needs to chase buyer for comments/approval, chase production team to maintain delivery schedule and finally chase garments or Buying House for payment through LC or cash. To a new Sales is nothing but hard work done with managers.

Maxim seeks Time & Action (T/A) from Garments

• Vendor Receive order Date
• PI issue and sign back Date
• Production leads Time Date (Depend on accessories)
• Delivery Date
• If any problem in goods then re-production Date
• Final Payment Date

Vendor Collaboration

Maxim has been working with lot of vendors (factories) which are located in Gazipur, Narayanganj, Mymenshing, Dhaka and Chittagong. Basically a vendor selection is done through several processes. Every vendor is required to meet compliance as well as health and safety issue. In the vendor selection process first of all the individual vendors/factories needs to propose Buyer to be selected. If “Buyer” team assume that factory can meet compliance issue along with capacity range then they asks Maxim central compliance team for audit. After getting offer from factory compliance team visits vendor for auditing, if this audit pass then only the factory can get order from Maxim. But if it fails then they are asked to ensure CAPS (Corrective Action Plans) by Compliance team.

In order to get order from Newlook, Primark, O’stin, TCP, Adler, Regatta, Mister-Lady, Gymboree, Nike etc the supplier need to be audited by the buyer’s side also. In this case the buyer’s audit takes place after auditing by Maxim itself.

Job Responsibilities

Sales are responsible for ensuring that products appear in the right store at the appropriate time and in the correct quantities. This involves working closely with the buying teams to accurately forecast trends, plan stock levels and monitor performance. Sales play a key role within organizations, as profitability can be affected by how successfully they undertake their work.

They also oversee delivery and distribution of stock and deal with vendors.

In my organization, I have to worked several things which involve a direct correspondence with merchandisers, buyers and other departments in Maxim. As an employee of organization I had to look after various issues and solve them for smooth operation. Basically we work as a team in

Sales department and every team consists in many members according to account need. We all follow our supervisor instruction. Major Job responsibilities are given below: At first I have to receive order from Vendor online pass order to production department Sends PI to vendor and waiting for PI sign back as final confirmation As soon as I get confirmation go for bulk production

• In this mean time I have to knock vendor for LC open
• After lead time we deliver goods to vendor
• Then submit LC document to garments for acceptance
• After that we submit document in Bank
• Finally, as per vendor & Bank confirmation we receive payment in our Bank account.
• I always have to update everything in our system (Maxim server)
• Our OOS system is so latest where my Head office can find my performance of every month within 1 second. Just 1click
• I have to work always with online in Maxim Server
• Moreover when Buyer send us sample, I have to develop it
• For this I always have to connect with other department for smooth operation
• If vendor ask any query I have solve it.
• Sometimes urgent basis I have to do production and deliver it to vendor for their meet shipment day

Many vendor face this situation for having not proper knowledge is always cooperate them for keep good business relation.

In addition few of my job responsibilities are involved in Range Building and Planning, Inventory Management, Supplier Management and Health & Safety. These are given below Develop and agree plans in partnership with the Buyer that achieve sales and profit targets and implement the agreed departmental strategy In conjunction with the Buyer, agree a framework with Divisional Management within which a balanced, commercial and profitable range is built

• Identifying production and difficulties and dealing with any problems or delays as raised by Buyer and vendors
• Plan availability schedule for new and continuity product
• Manage the development of new stock packages
• Ensuring commitment is managed in line with Divisional needs
• Monitor and manage the availability of stock by ensuring planned launch and replenishment dates are met and sales and stock are potential through production planning
• Build and maintain effective working relationships with vendors

Monitor and maintain compliance at all time with health and safety requirements has become a key responsibility of Sales. After “Rana Plaza” accident buyers are now too aware of compliance issue. In my organization compliance department is careful about this, they always arrange seminar and take effective step. My organization compliance department is committed for ensuing healthy and safety of Maxim employee.

Fabrics and Garments knowledge:

The basic knowledge that a apparel sales needs to know is about fabrics, garments and accessories or trims. These things are very crucial to know before dealing anything with the buyers or vendors. During my job in Maxim, I came to know the verity of fabrics and its elements and the type of fabrics require for a garments style. Beside this now it’s also clear that what types of label, sticker as well as trims need for trimming a garments in order to branding itself.

Communication with buyer, supplier and vendors:

To build up a strong business relationship, sound communication is very essential now days as the garments sector have become too competitive. I regularly communicate with them so that my core knowledge of garments product and accessories increased a lot.

Beside this I got an extensive knowledge in replying mail with required information in short time. My inter personnel skills has developed which is one of the positive aspect during my job in Maxim. Communicate with inter-office employees through group activities create a value to my profile and increased my skills as well.

Time and Action Planning:

 Alike other manufacturing oriented trading business, garments accessories trading needs a strong and sound action plan otherwise the final buyer or the final vendor has to incur a big loss. Considering this issue I had to be aware every time so that the work process runs smoothly.

Buying Process:

A buyer can have frequent meetings with the supplier to discuss the development of the range of garments accessories. Buyers also interact often with the merchandising, design, quality control, and fabric technology departments. Some buyers meet regularly to update each other about price ranges as well as to receive or give advice. Buyers will often travel together so that they can advise one another on ranges and to coordinate ranges. In that case I achieved gather some knowledge that how to approach as a buyer to a merchandiser.

Negotiation:

The Role of the Sales states that one part of a merchandiser’s job is to negotiate prices and details of delivery with the garments. Since this is an important aspect of a sales job, some suppliers provide their executive with negotiation training courses. When I met with the vendor, the merchandiser of the fabrics and accessories manufacturer submits a “cost price” for a garment.

Then I needed to calculate the price that the garment will need to be sold for in order to reach the retailer’s mark-up price. The markup price is the difference between the selling price and the manufacturer’s cost price.

Building Strong Sourcing Network:

The most important attribute that a sales need is strong sourcing power. Several times I experience few cases that in order to get the order, I needed to sourcing fabrics and trims in cheapest price but quality should be good. If sales have limited number of contact for sourcing, this may lead him to lose the order. As an employee, my superior given me that access to communicate with supplier in this respect and advised me to do sourcing in cheapest price. This sort of advised help me to explore new supplier for a single product range.

Interaction with Internal Departments:

As I was an employee of Sales department I had to interact frequently with other departments within the company to get advice. Mostly I need to communicate with factory, Shipping and Commercial departments regularly. I came to know different things on fabrics and garments testing along with its importance. Beside this, interaction with shipping and commercial teams flourished my knowledge of shipping documentation and L/C opening issues.

Forecasting:

A sound and strong forecasting results smart work of sales. During my job, I closely learnt how to forecast the demand of final buyer such as O’sin and Newlook. Basically it varies season to season. But recently there have been a negative impact on their demand after “Rana Plaza” incident. Considering buyers demand we had to book the space at factories so that we did not face any further problem in order to manufacturing the garments accessories.

Sample Development:

Sample develop is another important factor of sales. To meet the buyer’s date following Critical path I had to give a plan to my sample coordinator and vendor. Through the process of giving plan I got to know the importance of time plan and how to expedite all process so that my buyer can never raise voice against our work. The knowledge I gather during my job in Maxim was just a booming for my external knowledge apart from my academic life. Besides the above learning, I also got to know other issues as following:

• Increase skills in sales and customer service by assisting my superior in completing new product development and deliver goods.
• Gain experience with re-ordering items, completing invoices and picking price points which helps the process and paperwork when re-ordering
• Identify stocking system of buyer, this is actually we understand from time schedule of taking shipment from factory.
• Assess proper business relations with vendors through participate during vendor tour

Contribution

As a student of Business Administration I have lot of things to contribute to sales job though I do not have enough knowledge of textiles and technical aspects of garments. I can remember the first day when I joined Maxim as an Executive; everything was very unfamiliar to me. I was scared to see the different sector which is not related to Marketing and HRM. But the basic knowledge that I gained during my academic life has helped a lot for analytical calculation and communication process. Few days after my joining I got to learn so many new things from my superior and colleagues. I tried my level best to give the maximum output so that things get easy as early as possible. From the very beginning I tried to understand the basic knowledge of fabrics, accessories and garments which are initial things to move into sales job. There are several things in merchandising job where I contributed directly and indirectly as an employee. I was given that much freedom from my on sight supervisor so that I came to know many new and quite unfamiliar things. If I list down my contribution, many things will come up and these are

Trims and Fabrics booking: Need to place booking as per garment styling when an order gets confirmed.

Production Planning: Have to plan with Vendors (factories) and Buyer that when they will move to final shipment and by when raw material will be in house

Submission Coordination: Have to submit fabrics, trims or accessories, samples on time and need to circulate approval with buyer’s comments when once submissions get approved.

Corresponding with different department in Maxim Dhaka, UK, China and Hong Kong office: As a job responsibility I have to communicate with different department of Maxim Dhaka office such as Product development, Testing Lab, Shipping and Commercial. Apart from Bangladesh office I need to follow up of payment status. Furthermore I help to give information when UK office asks in any issue.

Observation & Recommendation

Sale is such a profession where there are so many things one has to absorb to continue the profession. Though I did not have opportunity to work at any Banking, Telecom, Consumer goods or other organization related to Marketing or HRM, job in garments trading office as well as RMG industry is bit difficult rather than other job. There are number of things what I observed in this profession during my work at Maxim. Some criterions Sales should have are as follow:

• Basic idea of fabrics, garment and accessories
• Strong supply chain management
• Having strong network of sourcing
• Sound product knowledge for negotiation with both buyer and supplier
• Critical reasoning
• Strong knowledge in pricing & purchasing
• Ability to understand buyer’s requirement
• T&A oriented work
• Ability to operate ERP
• Knowledge on compliance and ethical practice

Sales job is a set of responsibility. During my work one thing I observed is time and action plan. As it is directly involved in international trade, sales have to complete all task within time line. Beside this there is no specific wok time of this challenging job. Sales needs to work after regular office time most of the time. Apart from, all the process needs to be followed up intensively so that any delayed does not take place. If there is a single work gets delayed, the whole process has to face a negative impact. As a result the goods may need to be aired or canceled by the buyer. Hence the whole sales process is much sensitive and equal prioritized. Furthermore this job is much challenging rather other that I’ve seen. Sales have to take immense work pressure under any situation. If patience is left the result will not be given a positive outcome. Now days the number of garments supplier like Maxim has increased rather the number of retailer and buyer. As a result this trading has been very challenging these days. Hence the challenge to a sales as well as suppliers has increased dramatically. In order to meet buyer’s demand and deliver the right things which they require become very important and top prioritized issue to compete with other suppliers like Li & Fung, Cherry Field, Shahi Exports etc. Throughout my job I got to realize several things those need to be improved. As this job is very challenging so the employee needs to be compensated what he or she deserves. Moreover the areas should be improved are given below:

• Training and Development: Training is one of most compulsory tools to develop an efficient work force. Maxim has not arranged enough training session for sales to develop professional skill, ethical practice, communication skill, and ability of operating ERP.
• Sourcing network: Even though Maxim has a strong sourcing network, still it has so many things to develop this area. Especially I have been facing a problem in placing order at factories due to compliance issue. In this case sales though have small part in sourcing vendor but compliance team should have many things to do.
• Supply chain management: Supply chain management is an important part to have of being a good sale. To follow up all process sales has to maintain CP (Critical Path regularly) but they still need sort of access through which this chain can be developed.
• Job security: Sales job is not secured enough at Maxim in compare to other reputed trading office. Though employee turnover varies sales division to division upon profit.

Recruitment policy could have been more selective and effective here. Apart from above points now days compliance has become a burning issue. Maxim has come up with lot of measures for compliance which should be maintained among its vendors and suppliers issue but it needs to be implemented fruitfully. And as a part of job Sales should aware of compliance and need to know its importance to being ethical at doing business.

Conclusion

In conclusion I can say that this internship report is really essential for every student of business studies to get idea about textile industry. By completing this report I have got overall idea of RMG sector and these may be helpful to know about the technical and management knowledge of garments industry also these sector related organizations. This is a huge sector and yet to discover the whole.

I want to thanks my supervisor Mr. Shamim E. Haque for giving me great opportunity of learning by giving me the topic. By preparing this report, I have gathered a lot of knowledge about the garments industry and actually this is a very important task in apparels and garment industries. I try my best to make this project enriched with lots of apparel related documents and I am quite satisfied. Maxim group is really a good experience for me because every person of there so much helpful and give me the proper methods of practical learning. Finally I can say that by the knowledge from this report which will help me in my professional life to take challenge in this industry.