Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc

Dịch vụ viết thuê đề tài – KB Zalo/Tele 0917.193.864 – luanvantrust.com
Kham thảo miễn phí – Kết bạn Zalo/Tele mình 0917.193.864
UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
NGUYEN THI ANH THU
THE INEFFECTIVE OPERATING
PROCEDURE AT MORE UK IN HO
CHI MINH CITY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY
International School of Business
------------------------------
NGUYEN THI ANH THU
THE INEFFECTIVE OPERATING
PROCEDURE AT MORE UK IN HO
CHI MINH CITY
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Phan Thi Minh Thu

SUPERVISOR’S REPORT ON THE FINAL THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER of BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Final thesis title: The Ineffective Operating Procedure at More UK in Ho Chi Minh
City.
Student name: Nguyễn Thị Anh Thư
Supervisor name: Dr. Phan Thị Minh Thư
1. General comments:
∙ Remarks on the student’s attitude:
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
∙ Remarks on the assignment’s academic quality:
.......................................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................
2. Overall assessment:
□ Meet requirement for submitting;
□ Not meet requirement for submitting.
3. Other remarks:
- Did the student follow the report schedule?
□ Yes □ No □ Other.......................................................................
- The Turnitin plagiarism percentage:
❧✶❧
Supervisor’s signature

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER I: INDUSTRIAL OVERVIEW AND COMPANY BACKGROUND ................. 4
1.1 Industrial Overview ...................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Company Background .................................................................................................. 6
CHAPTER II: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION .......................................................................... 6
2.1 Problem finding process ............................................................................................... 6
2.2 Company’s Symptoms .................................................................................................. 7
2.3 Problem Identification .................................................................................................. 9
2.3.1 Problem mess ........................................................................................................... 9
2.3.2 Potential Problem.................................................................................................. 14
2.3.2.1 Ineffective partnership management ............................................................. 14
2.3.2.2 Ineffective operating procedure ..................................................................... 15
2.3.2.3 Unclear organizational structure ................................................................... 16
2.3.3Identify the central potential problem ................................................................ 19
2.3.3.1 Central problem definition ............................................................................. 19
2.3.3.3Justify the importance of central problem ..................................................... 21
2.3.3.3.1 Potential Consequences ............................................................................. 21
2.3.3.3.2The problem importance in MORE UK .................................................... 22
CHAPTER III: ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS ..................................................................... 23
3.1 Cause validation .......................................................................................................... 23

3.1.1 Affiliative leadership style......................................................................................23
3.1.2 Lacking of job description......................................................................................24
3.1.3 Lacking of training.................................................................................................25
3.1.4 Poor planning and scheduling...............................................................................26
3.1.5 Language and Culture Barriers ............................................................................26
3.2 Proposed solutions....................................................................................................... 27
3.2.1 Solution 1: Writing job descriptions......................................................................29
3.2.2 Solution 2: Creating an official integrated process planning and scheduling....29
3.2.3 Solution 3: On-the-Job Training...........................................................................33
3.2.4 Solution 4: Diversity training ................................................................................34
3.3 Alternative sets of solutions........................................................................................ 34
3.4 Action plan................................................................................................................... 37
3.4.1 Objective..................................................................................................................37
3.4.2 Timeline and Cost...................................................................................................37
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................44
Reference .....................................................................................................................................45
Appendix......................................................................................................................................47
Appendix 1: The survey questions were contributed for choosing sets of solution .......... 47
Appendix 2: Interview............................................................................................................ 48
Appendix 3: Related template which using in MORE UK operating procedure ............. 56

LIST OF FIGURE
Figure 1: Value chain of Vietnam’s textile and apparel industry……………………………5
Figure 2: Initial Cause – Effect Map…………………………………………………………..13
Figure 3: Updated Cause – Effect Map……………………………………………………….18
Figure 4: Solution Map…………………………………………………………………………..28
Figure 5: Sets of solution ……………………………………………………………………….35
Figure 6: The process of fabric development and importing process …………………….40
Figure 7: The process of developing neck ring trims and importing trim ………………..40
Figure 8: The actual hangover date and the docket hangover date……………………….41
LIST OF TABLE
Table 1: The amount of orders which transferred to supplementary factory………………7
Table 2: The CMT Price in VC factory and supplementary factory………………………...8
Table 3: The transferring expense to supplementary factories………………………...........9
Table 4: Proposed solution assigns the tasks for employee in Solution 2.1……………... 31
Table 5: Proposed solution assigns the tasks for employee in Solution 2.2……………... 32
Table 6: Survey result ……………………………………………………………………………36
Table 7: Timeline and estimated cost for Solution 1 ………………………………………..38
Table 8: Timeline for a bulk fabric ……………………………………………………………39
Table 9: Timeline for a bulk trim ………………………………………………………………40
Table 10: Timeline and estimated cost for Solution 3……………………………………… 42

DEFINITION OF TERMS
1. Merchandiser is a person who is the bridge between the industry and the buyer.
Merchandiser have to look after every job like buying the raw material which is
required to finish the product, making the garment, finishing the garment,
documentation, finally shipping.
2. Pattern maker is a person who take responsible for taking fashion designers
ideas and creating a workable pattern that will ultimately become an article of
clothing
3. Trims: The raw materials used in sewing room other than fabric, which materials
are directly attached to the fabric to make a garment are called trims. For example:
Threads, buttons, lining, Interlining, zippers, labels, etc.
4. Docket is the production orders to the factory. The docket is the order to your
factory that tells them exactly: What style to make, how many garments and
the size breakdown. What the hangover date is.
5. PP sample (Pre-production sample) is essentially an example of what will be
produced during the manufacturing process. The PP samples are garments that are
produced in the facility that is planning to manufacture the bulk order.
6. Lead time is the latency between the initiation and execution of a process. For
example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of bulk of
button from a manufacturer may be from 10 days to 15 days
7. Hangover date is the delivery date of garment.

Executive Summary
The purpose of this paper is to point out the problem that exists in the operation of
MORE UK in Ho Chi Minh City and the author have proposed alternative solutions
to solve problems that help to manage the company become more effective
In Chapter I, the author introduces MORE UK as well as the general situation of the
garment industry in Vietnam. According to the company size, MORE UK is a rep
office which specializing in processing women's clothing and export to countries such
as England, Australia, America, Korea, .. as well as describe company products and
company structure
In Chapter II, the author analyzes the problem that MORE UK is facing. From problem
finding mess, the author presents the symptoms of the company that is MORE UK
looking for supplementary factories with better production capacity and clearer
production plans to take over orders because the main factory can not continue to handle
orders because of many problems between related parties such as: Customers changing
order detail information, low capacity of factory for production, Insufficient dealing
FOB price between MORE UK and factory, Lacking of person who charge in controlling
sample room and Lacking of merchandiser's role clarity internally MORE UK.
Therefore, MORE UK noticed that with the VC production capacity will not complete
the progress to export garments in time, hence, the Chief Rep make decision to find
supplementary factories which leads to pay higher CMT price and other costs as
transferring cost and importing cost
By the interview method, the authors proposed some potential problems leads to the
company symptom are Ineffective partnership management, Ineffective operating
procedure and unclear organizational structure, the central problem is ineffective
operating procedure. However, to justify the existence of problem, the author
analyzed the main problem in ineffective operation management, which led to issues
related to Ineffective partnership management, Ineffective operating procedure and
unclear organizational structure. These problems are linked together, however, the
central problem leading to the symptom is ineffective operating procedure officially.
The authors also show the importance of central problems by pointing out the potential
consequences which are increasing cost management, affecting firm performance and
1

customer satisfaction, which is unavoidable if the situation is not resolved. At the same
time, the author had pointed the level of important of these potential consequences when
this problem occurs at MORE UK to justify the importance of this central problem.
In Chapter III, the author is continuing to analysis the cause validation to find out what
causes of core problem of MORE UK is the presence of unexpected supplementary
factories. By interview and related theories, the author identified the potential causes of
the problem are Affiliative leadership style, Lacking of job description, Lacking of
training, Poor planning and scheduling and Language and Culture Barriers. Because the
cause “Affiliative leadership style” is an objective cause, the author did not build a
solution for this cause but focused on solving the remaining causes. By doing survey
and analysis, the author choose the set of solution is the combination of Writing job
description, Each employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible to follow up
one or two customer in whole process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting
the goods and On- the- job training to develop action plan to solve problem of MORE
UK is ineffective operating procedure
The above is a executive summary of the thesis to give the reader a preliminary view
of the content of the paper. There is the full thesis "The ineffective operating procedure
at MORE UK in HO CHI MINH CITY" from the author.
2

Introduction
In recent years, in the tendency of world integration, Vietnam has succeeded and
developed the products in the country and has exported many kinds of goods such as
petrolium, textiles and garments, agricultural products, footwear, software, etc. to the
world and brings great value for this country. One of the main exporting goods is
garments.
MORE UK is a garment manufacturing company headquartered in Leeds, UK with the
main line of clothing for women, which is the intermediary company between the
factory, supplier and customer. The main purpose of this thesis is to explore the causes of
appearance of unexpected supplementary factories at MORE UK since the beginning of
2017. It leads to the increasing of related expenses, for instance, CMT price, transferring
expenses or garment quality. The methodology is the combination between validated
data and theories which collected through in-depth interview and company survey to
explore the causes of problem. The finding of the study revealed that ineffective
operating procedure is the main problem why it occuring the unexpected supplementary
factories and leads to the thing is that MORE UK have to pay higher CMT price for
factory. From the analysis, the author point out the central problem is the ineffective
operating procedure in MORE UK from receiving purchasing order from customer to
ship the garment back to customer is not effective. The causes led to it happens are from
are Affiliative leadership style, Lacking of job description, Lacking of training, Poor
planning and scheduling, Language and Culture Barriers. To solve the problems, the
author proposed the set of solution Writing job description, Each employee in the
merchandiser team will take responsible to follow up one or two customer in whole
process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods and On- the- job
training to help MORE UK can decrease the expenses which happens if the situation
continues.
3

CHAPTER I: INDUSTRIAL OVERVIEW AND COMPANY
BACKGROUND 1.1 Industrial Overview
The garment industry is a craft industry in Vietnam and it has a long history. The
garment industry has experienced with rapid growth over the past years. This industry
is supplying clothes for the society, creating jobs for a large resource, and bringing a
large source of foreign currency from exporting and contributing a source of revenue to
the state budget.
Following the report of Textile and Garment industry, this industry is one of Vietnam's
key exporting sectors over the years. The total export of garment industry has always
been the leading exporters of Vietnam, behind petrolium. In 2013, Vietnamese garment
textile products are exported to more than 180 countries and territories with exporting
turnover of USD 17.9 billion, taking 10.5% of GDP in the whole country.
According to VITAS statistics in 2014, the percentage of exporting garment by CMT is
still around 85%, FOB is only 13% and only 2% is exported by ODM.
- CMT (Cut- Make - Trim). This is the simplest method of textile export and
bringing the lowest added value. By cooperating in this method, the buyer
provides the whole of the input to the production company including trims,
transportation, design and specific requirements; Manufacturers only make
cutting, sewing and finishing products. The company have exported by CMT only
need to be able to produce and have a basic understanding of the design to
implement product samples. Finished products will be collected and distributed
by buyers.
- OEM/FOB (Original Equipment Manufacturing/ Free on Board). This is “buying
raw materials, selling products”. For FOB orders, companies are responsible for
importing raw materials and producing orders. When producing this method,
company will actively add input materials to produce products. Accordingly, there
are two forms of FOB: FOB level 1 - purchasing of materials from the supplier
specified by the customer and FOB level 2 - the company takes responsible for
finding materials
- ODM (Original Design Manufacturing) This method is including the designing
stage and the production process from purchasing fabric, trims, cutting, sewing,
4

finishing, packing and transportation. Design capabilities represented a higher
level of knowledge of the vendor, thus, it brings a much higher added value to the
product. ODM businesses create designs, complete products and sell them to
buyers/customers who often the owners of major brands around the world.
Due to its strong potential production with abundant labor resources, low labor cost and it
is prioritized to develope by government, Vietnam garment industry has attracted a large
amount of foreign investment and facilitating production, contributing to improving
product value. According to statistics by the General Department of Customs, in the first
11 months of 2017, Vietnam garment industry exports reached $28.84 billion, an increase
of 11% over the same period of 2016. This is a relatively high growth rate compared to
5.2% growth in the same period of 2016. In 2017, foreign investment in garment
increased by 10% mainly from US, EU, Japan, Korea. China, Russia, Hong Kong,
Thailand,... This contributes significantly to balance the trade balance of the economy. In
fact, in recent years, the tendency of shifting production orders from China to Vietnam
because low labor price is more competitive than China.
According to Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), the main components
of its value chain include tight connection among raw material suppliers, domestic
manufacturers, intermediaries and international customers, as shown in Figure below
Figure 1: Value chain of Vietnam’s textile and apparel industry.
5

1.2 Company Background
MORE UK LTD is an intermediary company that has been operating in the fashion
business for over 15 years and has built a solid foundation for delivering quality,
ethically produced, design lead products. With decade of experience built into the team,
MORE UK are able to offer a diverse and commercial range of ladies wear products
using high quality, trend lead fabrics and trims. MORE UK’s global network of offices in
Leeds, London, Vietnam and China allows us to offer exceptional customer service with
competitive price. MORE UK Representative Office was established in Ho Chi Minh
City in 2014. Currently, to 2018, there are 15 employees in this office, excluding 5 QCs
(Quality Controls) who has worked in sub-contract factories. MORE UK garments are
usually blouse, trouser, jacket, coat, dress, woman clothes, in which the proportion of
blouse orders is high in the company. MORE UK usually looking for customers who
want to place the blouse orders because it is the strength of MORE UK. In the main
export markets of MORE UK are usually the UK, Australia, South Korea, USA,... In
which, the UK market accounted for the highest proportion. The function of the
representative office is only to carry out trade promotion activities and market research.
In the range of this paper, we only analysis the situation in Representative Office in Ho
Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
CHAPTER II: PROBLEM JUSTIFICATION
2.1 Problem finding process
Being a representative office, the main activity of the office is to carry out market
research and promote trading activities in the textile and garment industry in Vietnam.
With a source of customers which are cooperated directly by parent company in the UK,
MORE UK Rep Office will search for factories, suppliers to carry out garment
processing operations in Vietnam then export garment under the outsourcing factory’s
name
At present, VC is one of the main outsourcing factory which product MORE UK orders
of blouse and trousers. With a close and cooperative relationship for many years, VC
usually offer reasonable CMT price and quality of products are accepted by customers.
By observing all aspects of the company, the author finds that the appearance of another
factory (HUY HUNG, CONG PHAT, PHU KHANG) to replace the main factory (VC)
6

orders to catch up the hangover date which takes proportion is 35% -55%. The author
checked the order numbers from quarter I/2017 to quarter II/2018 and interviewed related
staffs who are merchandiser, planning employee and the pattern makerworks with the
factory to find out the cause of the problem. The first symptom is the increasing costs
including CMT prices, the cost of transporting the materials to the supplementary
factory.
2.2 Company’s Symptoms
According to finding unexpected supplementary factories, it leads to increase some
expenses, especially CMT price. The VC factory's failure meets the hangover date lead
to find an unexpected supplementary factory. The consequence when occurs the replace
factories are the increasing of CMT prices and other costs that have affected the
profitability of orders since the beginning of 2017.These tables below show the detail
symptom.
Q1/2017 Q2/2017 Q3/2017 Q4/2017 Q1/2018 Q2/2018
The total of order 115 90 140 120 108 95
The amount of order in 17 15 15 13 11 11
main factory (VC)
The amount of order which 6 3 5 6 6 4
transferred to
supplementary factory
Percentage (%) 35% 20% 33% 46% 55% 36%
Table 1: The amount of orders which transferred to supplementary factory
In table 1, it shows the amount of orders which transferred to supplementary factory
(PHU KHANG, HUY HUNG, CONG PHAT). Because VC factory can not produce the
good of garments meet the hangover date, MORE (UK) have to transfer all raw materials
to replaced factory. Based on the data in Table 1, the percentage of orders to be shipped
7

to other processing supplementary is significant, especially in the IV/2017 and I/2018.
As this is the peak season of the apparel industry, the volume of garment exported to
countries in the UK and Australia is big, therefore the orders are full capacity in VC. Due
to many objective and subjective causes that will be explain in Situation analysis, many
orders can not put inline for production in VC factory that leads to MORE UK looking
for supplementary factories with better production capacity and clearer production plans
to take over orders.
Finding supplementary factory increases costs such as the CMT price at the new
factory will be higher than the CMT price at the VC. Generating operating expenses
such as the cost of transporting the fabric from the VC factory to the new factory, the
cost of importing and export goods at the new factory. At the same time, the cost of PP
pre-production samples increases as each factory needs to sew PP samples to know
how to produce samples in bulk.
In the limit of this article, the author only mention to the average CMT Price for each
blouse and trouser with MILLERS customer for instance
Blouses Trousers
CMT Price in VC factory $1.5 $2.2
CMT Price in supplementary factory $1.7 $2.5
Table 2: The CMT Price in VC factory and supplementary factory
The cost of transporting goods by truck to the replacement plant depends on the
distance between the plants and the number of fabrics and materials, if the bulk order,
the maneuvering 2-3 trucks for transportation high cost. According to data from the
accounting department, the average costs incurred are listed in the table below
8

Q1/2017 Q2/2017 Q3/2017 Q4/2017 Q1/2018 Q2/2018
The amount of order which 6 3 5 6 6 4
transferred to supplementary
factory (HUY HUNG, CONG
PHAT)
Transferring expenses $2,100 $1,050 $1,700 $2,300 $2,400 $1,400
Table 3: The transferring expense to supplementary factories
In addition, the cost of making PP samples is doubling, depending on the requirements of
customers, such as customer MILLERS, PP samples will be 3 pieces, a size 10 and 2 size
14. When VC factory receives orders from MORE UK, after receiving the bulk fabric
for the production, the factory will sew 3 PP samples to know how to process the
garment and apply for production. Depending on the type of blouse or trouser, the cost
of these styles will increase with its complexity.
2.3 Problem Identification
2.3.1 Problem mess
After the symptom analysis, the increasing of CMT price and management expenses are
the result of “unexpected supplementary factories” company symptom. To have a deep
understanding and find the potential problems, the author have conducted the interview
with Ms. Kim Dung - Merchandiser who working directly with the VC factory and have
new findings. To sum up, there are many causes for the symptom “unexpected
supplementary factory” in MORE UK situation
- Time consuming for sample approval: According to Ms. Dung, "It is very time-
consuming to wait for approval from customers for fabric and trims which making
by suppliers, which leads to MORE UK merchandisers sometimes fail to order
controlling and late delivery to the factory ". In this industry, every single details
which are main fabric, buttons, zippers, eyelets, lining, labels,...which are
approved by customers. After receiving the purchasing order and the technical
packs from customers, MORE UK has to find suitable suppliers in terms of price
9

and product quality that require the suppliers to provide trim samples. The
supplier will take of few days to send sample to MORE UK then will send to
customers to get approval. Because almost of MORE UK customers are
Australian and UK branches, hence the delivery time by DHL, FEDEX or UPS
will take a few days. In addition, because of difference time zone and MILLERS
customer is only give response in every Tuesday and Thursday, it takes long
time, sometimes we lost a whole week to get approval for a button. Then, if the
customer approves, the bulk will be imported to the factory in Vietnam.
- Changing order detail information: This problem rarely happens but MILLERS
customer sometimes make some changes to the product, for example, changing
information in the price ticket label while MORE UK had placed the all label
orders and put it in finished garment. So when customers change information it
will take time and money to MORE (UK) order and produce the price tag from the
beginning. This is also one of the factors that affect to the time of production
orders and leads to main factory can not have enough ability to finish it and need
the support from supplementary factory.
- Low capacity of factory for production: After the contract is executed with CMT
price for each order or multiple orders at the same time, MORE UK will cooperate
to main suppliers and import fabrics, trims from China or in local and transfer to
VC factory to start production. Under the contract, VC have committed to ship
garments to the customer on the hangover date. However, in reality, "VC did not
conduct cutting, sewing activities at the factory until the hangover date, the fabric
was not spread out to make the fabric cutting, which led to the factory have not
had garments to ship out. They received so many orders at the same time but
limited capacity, therefore they can not control all orders that have the same
hangover date”
- Insufficient dealing FOB price: Because MORE UK customers are in the
medium and low cost segment, the company always co-operate to factories who
offer the lowest CMT price with the right quality, including VC factory. From
beginning 2017 to now, almost orders of MORE UK have been signed processing
contract with VC factory, especially the blouse and trouser orders. According to
10

Ms Dung "For MILLERS customer, for instance, their orders are blouse and
trouser almostly, their FOB offers to us is very cheap, therefore, we place orders at
the VC factory because the CMT is cheap as well with the designs and customer
requirements, which is a prerequisite to choose factory"
- Insuffcient ordering fabric and trims process: Because the lead time of fabric
and trims are not the same, it’s hard for merchandisers control when it should
import materials. For example, the lead time of fabric is 60-70 days, trims such as
buttons, zipper, lining,... takes about 10-15 days for production which then sent to
customers for inspection and approval for production”. The period of time for all
trims and fabric to be delivered to the factory takes a months, this is also one of
the causes that the factory can not produce the hangover date. In addition,
sometimes, the quality of the trims are not guaranteed or the supplier produces
and sends the defective product to affect the progress of the factory because of
cutting time, making and sewing is not synchronized with the time of the fabric
and materials imported, which caused the factory to be delayed in the production.
Merchandiser have to know the lead time of materials carefully, but they do not
really effective to control and make sure all materials have to be in factory at the
same time, which make sure the factory have all materials to start production
- Lacking of person who in charge of controlling sample room: At present,
MORE UK has only technical controls on the samples.The requirement for
specific samples has not been controlled, which only under the control of
merchandiser leads to the sample room does not know which sample is the
priority. At the same time, the quality of samples was not checked closely, so
many samples were sewn several times to meet the customer’s standard. This
time consumes in the production process, the factory can not catch up the
hangover date in time.
- Lacking of merchandiser’s role clarity: Merchandisers and planning staff have
similar job. There are many internal issues to be considered. Management system
and work assignment are not clear, merchandiser department has not really
worked effectively. The order receiving department and the planning department
do not have a clear working assignment that leads to across function and working
11

duplication. Sometimes, merchandisers and planning staff have a similar work,
for example, a merchandiser and a planning staff are working with one supplier
for the same order, same styles. Besides it, because of high workload with many
customers, merchandiser team always in high pressure of working. In addition,
the pressure to work with the VC factory also makes the merchandiser department
work really not effective
From the above, MORE UK noticed that with the VC production capacity will not
complete the progress to export garments in time, hence, the Chief Rep make decision
to find supplementary factory such as Phu Khang, Huy Hung, Cong Phat to replace VC.
The happened things are the price of CMT will be higher than VC, and other expenses
such as the cost of fabric and trims transporting from VC to the supplementary factory,
the cost of importing and exporting, the custom expenses, etc... This increases the
management cost MORE UK office in Vietnam in particular and affects to the profit of
MORE UK in general.
In average, an order takes a total of 3 – 3.5 months since MORE UK get the
purchasing order from the customer to the hangover date. Ideally, if there is no factory
change, MORE UK will guarantee delivery time and quality of goods with customer. If
the VC can’t complete the production planning, the things happen is transferring all
fabric and trims to another factory and the requirement for completion in a shorter time
than the average time, it will partly affect the quality of the product and increase the
risk for MORE UK if the supplementary factory can not keep up with the process, in
case if the order is difficult to take more long time to produce that orders
The whole picture will be demonstrated as Initial Cause - Effect Map below:
12

POTENTIAL
PROBLEMS
Ineffective
partnership
management
Ineffective
internal
management
Time consuming for approval
samples
Changing order detail information
Low capacity of factory for
production
Insufficient dealing FOB price
Insufficient ordering fabric and
trims process
Lacking of person who in charge of
controlling sample room
Lacking of merchandiser’s role
clarity
Taking longer production time
Materials have not been at the
factory at the same time
Ineffective merchandisers
Merchandiser and planning staff
have a similar job
Unexpected
supplementary
factories
Higher CMT
Price
ORGANIZATION
SYMPTOM
13
Figure 2: Initial Cause – Effect Map

From the problem finding process and the initial cause effect map, MORE UK have
many orders from MILLERS customer and focusing on finding the new supplementary
factories when VC can not response the MORE UK demand because of many objective
and subjective reasons. Therefore, the consequence is the increasing of CMT and some
expenses from the symptom at beginning is “unexpected supplementary factories. In next
session, the author will do related literature reviews that are as the theory framework
linking with the “unexpected supplementary factories” symptom of the company. Then
the author will find out the core problem using data collected from depth interviews with
the planning staff.
2.3.2 Potential Problem
By doing the depth interview with a planning staff, a merchandiser and a pattern maker
to discover what are the potential problems lead to the existing symptom of MORE UK.
The author has collected related information and had done some researchs to support
the interviewee’s points.
2.3.2.1 Ineffective partnership management
Making an interview by exploring questions with Ms. Georgina - planning staff who
works directly with MILLERS customers, she said, "The problem is that it is very
difficult to synchronize the way partner works: the factory - the supplier - the customer,
this is a closed circle process. Waiting for the approval of customers and the lead time
of goods of different fabric and trims are different totally, the synchronization and
sending the request to the factory is difficult to control. The question is how to manage
all partners and make it effectively. In addition, MORE UK have to integrate all
activities from sourcing raw materials (fabric and trims), sourcing factories for
manufacturing and making, sewing in factory, sourcing courier to import samples from
oversea and other management.
The pressure on the chief of the representative office and the merchandiser is looking
for cheap factories, cheap suppliers but still have to ensure the quality of stable goods to
get profit from the orders. The appendix 2 is the costing sheet of the WSTP13245M and
the FOB price quoted by the customer. This is the style which transferred from the VC
factory to the CONG PHAT factory with the CMT price is $ l.7, the main fabric price
14

and trims are only $ 1.46, the FOB price is $ 5.4, which not including other management
costs such as labor cost, miscellaneous expense, MORE UK does not seem to be getting
profit from these orders. To decrease the material expenses and the CMT price, MORE UK
has to find and negotiate to supplier and factory. Hence the problem is that looking for the
suitable partners that having average price and increase profits for the company. In addition,
the selection of a production factory with production capacity to ensure compliance with the
law and delivery on time with the CMT price must be reasonable. Because MORE UK is
small company and lack of the resources, it is facing the problems of distance from Vietnam
to customers in UK or Australia, long production lead time and quality control that force
MORE UK have to control the partnership effectively.
From all above, MORE UK have an unsuitable partner selection with company to
achieve the business target. According Zhou D, Peng Y, Chen YS1
“the contractor
often put too much focus on price, ignoring other important factors, leading to lost
opportunities of cooperating with better partners”. In MORE UK, it likely to occur that
the partner’s strategy and MORE UK’s strategy does not match about the price, quality
and production ability, so it happens the appearance of supplementary factory and it is
increase the overall costs, reduce the profits of company
Regarding of deadling FOB price with customer, because of low FOB, MORE UK have
to deal low CMT price with factory. This is the conflict of interest, because during the
cooperation, both sides just want to gain the best price, resulting in some conflicts of
goals and needs. In the long-term cooperation, the problem of asymmetric information
exists in the agency relationship, which will increase the total cost of both sides, affecting
its stability and competitiveness.
2.3.2.2 Ineffective operating procedure
Following Gough J2
, operating procedures are binding for a company, and that a
procedure in place means the company must follow it.Operating procedures are written,
step-by-step instructions that describe how to perform a routine activity. Employees
should complete them in the exact same way every time so that the business can remain
consistent, in addition, with the effective operating procedure, it helps company save
time and money, holds the employees accountable because Without standard operating
15

procedures, employee evaluations become a matter of personal opinion, which is hardly
fair to your employees and reducing the risk of employee risk.
At MORE UK, when the author made the interview with Ms. Ngoc Lan who is a member
of merchandiser team, she said “Almost merchandisers are overloaded because of too
many orders from different customers but they have not really worked effectively
actually, it leads to high workload which causes employees to always be stressed and
tired. The process of placing fabrics and materials from receiving purchasing orders from
customers until the transfer of all fabrics and trims to the factory is still limited because
the lead time of fabrics and trims are different. The relevant positions such as
merchandiser, pattern maker, QA/QC actually do not work effectively, who have not
created an official process at the factory and ensure the quality of goods when shipped
garment to customers. At MORE UK, the process from receiving your order until the
shipment is really shortcoming, there is no official procedure for the employee to follow.
There is the lacking of planning and scheduling when merchandiser and planning staff
work to related parties. The procedure of placing fabrics and trims not synchronized,
sometimes, it can not be imported to factory at the same time that led to increasing
importing expenses and the factory can not put all materials in line in production because
of ineffective operating procedure.
2.3.2.3 Unclear organizational structure
Nahm et al3
defined “Organizational structure is normally described as the way
responsibility and power are allocated, and work procedures are carried out among
organizational member”. According to Rajan D4
“unclear and non-transparent
organization structure and policy, unfair work shift and unhealthy interpersonal
relationship such as conflict, dispute at workplace will cause stress which will
further affect their job performance.”
One of the main difficulties which MORE UK is facing is that the company's server
system is slow and always has problems accessing, which makes the work process of the
staff sometimes interrupted. According to Ms. Lan "Because the server system is located
in the UK, sometimes when the office of Vietnam has a problem, we have to spend a
whole day that waiting for IT in the UK to solve the problem because of time zone’s
difference. It’s necessary when merchandiser gets important information on the CMT
16

price on the system to do Costing sheet and send to factory, however, because the system
is faulty which causing the work to be delayed. Another problem here is that the
organizational structure is not clearly actually, there is not a clear job description in
every position. Merchandiser and the planning staff sometimes have similar functions
because of lacking of role clarity. In addition, MORE UK sample room sometimes
makes the wrong pattern with customer requests and takes time to revise and fix it. In
addition, there is no one who is in charge of following samples in sample room for
ensuring the quality of the sample as well.
There is the updated cause-effect map below:
17

POTENTIAL
PROBLEMS
Ineffective
partnership
management
Ineffective
operating
procedure
Unclear
organizational
structure
Figure 3: Updated Cause – Effect Map
Time consuming for approval
samples
Changing order detail
Low capacity of factory for
production
Insufficient dealing FOB price
Insufficient placing fabric and
trims process
Lacking of person who in
charge of controlling sample
room
Lack of merchandiser’s role
clarity
Poor server system
Unexpected
supplementary
factories
Higher CMT
Price
ORGANIZATION
SYMPTOM
18

2.3.3 Identify the central potential problem
Following the analysis above, there is considered three potential problems: ineffective
partnership management, ineffective operating procedure and unclear organizational
structure
Based on the literature and by using the quantitative method, the researcher conducts a
survey to merchandiser team to get the result which is the central potential problem for
the unexpected supplementary factory is ineffective operating procedure. Almost
merchandisers agree that the way to manage all partnership is not effective but the core
problem is MORE UK don’t have an effective and clear operating procedure because
of ineffective operation management. This is the central problem in this case, the
ineffectiveness of operation management makes the way to manage partnership is not
efficient. Or, we can say, the ineffective partner management is the consequence of the
ineffective operation management.
2.3.3.1 Central problem definition
Following the article from UK essay5
quoted “Operation management is concerned
with the managing the resources that directly produce the organization’s service or
products. The resources usually consist of people, material, technology, and
information but may go wider than this. These resources are brought together by a
series of process so that they are utilised to deliver the primary service or product of the
organization. Thus, operation management is concerned with managing inputs through
transformation processes to deliver outputs”. Operation management involves
managing people, technology, information and all other resources needed in the
production of goods and services
“Effective operation management can therefore be defined as the effective planning,
organizing and controlling of an organization’s resources and activities necessary to
provide the market with tangible goods and services” Johnston et al 6
argued. It thus
applies to manufacturing industries, nonprofit organizations and service industries.
According Onyett and Ford, the effectiveness is essential for the development of clear
aims and for monitoring adherence by disciplines to operational. Because the operation
management is application of concepts, procedures and technologies to improve the
19

process of transformation, therefore the effectiveness of an organization depends on
how effectively and efficiently operations are managed.
2.3.3.2 Justify the existence of problem
To justify the existence of problem, the author analyses the existence of the ineffective
partner management in MORE UK because ineffective operation management leads to the
way to manage partnership. There is the relationship between MORE UK, supplier, factory
and customer specifically. However, to prove the core problem is ineffective operation
management from initial symptom is “unexpected supplementary factories”, in the deep
interview to Ms. Kim Dung, when the author ask how to outsource the factory to make the
processing orders. She stated “The final decision to choose the factory which is made by
Chief Representative and almost trousers and blouse processing contracts are signed to VC
factory. Priority of MILLERS 'orders have put at VCs based on the close relationship
between the two directors is not based on the factory's production capacity leading to the
unexpected supplementary factory to keep following these orders that VC can not be
completed and delivered on the hangover date”. She also continue “In addition, because this
is a family-owned company particularly and relying on long term relationships to do the
business, it is one of the reasons for the passivity in getting orders. Although MORE UK in
Viet Nam was established in 2014 but the mother company had a long time to look into the
Vietnamese apparel market. VC is one of the long-term cooperative factories with the parent
company”. In addition, MORE UK outsource suitable material suppliers for ensuring the
quality and cheap price and some material suppliers is nominated by MILLERS customer,
it’s quite passive for MORE UK if the suppliers can not respond MILLERS’s requirement.
Ms. Kim shared “In some cases, for instant, when we order the labels which approved by
customer already, the China supplier make goods and send labels to factory, but in the end
of the day, they send an email to me and said they send wrong label, so we have to wait
again, it takes time and the factory do not have labels to attach to garment”. In the symptom
part, the author has shown the Table 1: The amount of orders which transferred to
supplementary factory, the proportion of the amount of order which transferred to
supplementary factory to the amount of order in VC takes 35% in first quarter of 2017 and
40% in 4th quarter of 2017,
20

it leads to increase the higher CMT price and transferring expenses when change the
factory. This is found that MORE UK do not have an effective partner management
way to reduce the management cost.
“Moreover, because we do not have any standards or procedure to choose supplier or
factory, only based on relationship, so choosing a partner for business is relatively
subjective. At the same time, because there is no clear management process, employees
of MORE company often overlap work, the efficiency of work is not high. So when
working with partners, employees will depend on the situation and personal experience
to solve the problem, the company does not have a standard for employees to rely on
and solve the problem” Lan said. Without set standards, management will face a
disciplinary challenge when poor work performance eventually does affect productivity.
2.3.3.3 Justify the importance of central problem
To justify the importance of central problem is the ineffective operating procedure or the
ineffective operation management, furthermore, the author show some potential
consequences based on theory. There are some research shows the important of
ineffective operating procedure by evaluating how it affects the operation of the
company. There are some potential consequences might be happened if this problem is
still presented.
2.3.3.3.1 Potential Consequences
+ Cost Management
According to Swamynathan R, Ravindran S 7
“The cost management issues in a firm
usually arises in a number of functional areas like: Purchase & supply of raw materials,
shop layout & manufacturing processes, design of the products manufactured, mode of
transportation, warranty & return services, employee training methods, types of
information technologies used, strategic cost audit of the members and their
capabilities and market forecast and research”
21

+ Firm performance
Murphy et al claimed that firm performance is a multidimensional concept, and three
indicators can be production, finance or marketing, or consequences such as growth and
profit. The ineffective operation management affects to firm performance, which can
lead to the decrease in profit. When the organization is facing to ineffective operation
management, employee particularly, they may be lost and do not know how to solve
problems, how to deal with partners. In this case, MORE UK have to pay higher CMT
price because of changing factory in the end of the day, the gross profits are directly
impacted decreasing. In addition, the transferring cost is too high and money is
otherwise mismanaged, a lower business income will be realized.
+ Customer Satisfaction
Successful operations management is the key to ensuring customer satisfaction by
creating more value than the competition
Oliver RL8
defined that “customer satisfaction is defined as pleasurable fulfillment.
That is, the consumer senses that consumption fulfills some need, desire, goal, or so
forth and that this fulfillment is pleasurable. Thus, satisfaction is the consumer's sense
that consumption provides outcomes against a standard of pleasure versus displeasure”.
Another researcher Heskett J L, Sasser WE, Schlesinger LA9
claimed “Customer
satisfaction is understood as a consumer's perceived value received from a product or
service provider during his/her transactional or on-going relationships.
The main objective of in any organization remains to maximize on resources and
improve on customer satisfaction
2.3.3.3.2 The problem importance in MORE UK
The purpose of conducting in depth interview is confirmation the importance of 3
consequences. The analysis method which used to collect data and information is
depth interview with Ms. Kim - merchandiser and Ms. Thao - Accountant, it was
conducted until no more information come out. The finding from qualitative research
was summarized below:
(1) Cost Management: Important
+ Minimize the transferring cost from factory to factory
22

+ Choose the right partners (factory and suppliers) to minimize the
incurred expenses
+ Negotiate reasonable CMT with factory and FOB with customer
(2) Firm performance: Important
+ Control the lead time of fabric and trims more effective
+ Work with partner more effective to reduce the appearance of supplementary
factory.
+ Make sure to deliver garment to customer on time, even MORE UK can
deliver earlier than hangover date
(3) Customer Satisfaction: Extremely Important
+ Get more orders from customers if MORE UK guarantee about delivery time
and garment quality
+ Easy to get approval for sampling in the process
+ Customer will introduce MORE UK to other fashion branch companies
CHAPTER III: ALTERNATIVE
SOLUTIONS 3.1 Cause validation
To find out what causes of core problem of MORE UK is the presence of unexpected
supplementary factories. Interview is the chosen method to identify the underlying causes
of ineffective operation management. The author conducted the interview with Ms. Dung
and Ms. Nhu - two merchandisers in the MORE UK and Ms. Thao - Human Resource
staff, who have deep understanding the working environment and problems of the
company and knows the cause of the problem mentioned. Specific causes shown in the
company are as follows:
3.1.1 Affiliative leadership style
Leaders play a core role in leading their employee to fulfill company’s goals effectively,
Fiaz M, Su Q, Ikram A, Saqib A11
. Leadership has been routinely found to be an
important contributor to organizational success and competitive advantage, Bass BM 12
The effective operation management is not always a result of how efficient the processes
are, but also is a matter of leading people and involving them in achieving the common
goals of the organization. As Yukl & Van Fleet13
said, the leadership is viewed as a
23

process that includes influencing the task objectives and strategies of a group or
organization, influencing people in the organization to implement the strategies and
achieve the objectives, influencing group maintenance and identification, and
influencing the culture of the organization.
Affiliative leadership style helps to create emotional relationships that bring a sense of
belonging and belonging to each member in the company. The strength of this leadership
style is in keeping with the stressful situations. However, using only this leadership
style, the only reliance on praise and encouragement can lead to lack of orientation and
not increase productivity
At MORE UK, the Chef of the representative office based on experience and
relationships with partners to solve the problem is one of the causes of this central
problem. The boss is too soft, easy to change, and does not have a good idea about how
to make decision to choose a good factory or good suppliers, which make it difficult for
employees to keep up with partners and to be very dependent on them. Ms. Kim agreed
“Our Boss is quite easy to deal with factory because the Director of MORE UK in head
office and he have the close relationship with VC owner, therefore, if VC owner agree to
our CMT price, we will place orders in VC even their capacity can not handle all orders.
There is a bias because MORE UK can find another factory to place orders with the same
CMT price but better production capacity. In addition, the way he manage the office is
like family- style management, he’s a good boss, however, we do not have clear policy,
every thing will be sorted out by experience.
3.1.2 Lacking of job description
According to Schneider & Bowen, “job description is a written statement which provides
information on all the essential duties and responsibilities assigned to one or more
individuals performing a job”, which required qualifications and reporting relationships
of a particular job.
Job descriptions affect your employees' performance in a variety of ways, written
descriptions guide both your managers and their employee in their day-to-day work. If
the company don’t have currently provide job descriptions for each employee that
discuss with your executive team members how job descriptions can improve two-way
communications and boost your organization's productivity. Everyone wants to be
24

recognized by their employer for the work they do, especially if it's above and beyond
their job description. It happens often, whether you're asked to complete a task
outside your scope of work.
At MORE UK, sometimes because of too much work and no clear job assignment or job
description, merchandisers and planning staff have a same job sometimes and they don’t
remember is this job that they have done or not and blame responsibility to each other
because there are lacking of job description. Following Mr. Vinh - pattern maker, he said
“We do not have the person who control samples, sometimes when Boss need that
style’s sample but it takes time to find it even we lost it, then, we do not know who take
responsibility here, maybe quality controller or merchandisers or even me”. In the other
hand, because MORE UK don’t have a clear structure, so sometimes, people do not
know who needs the information, who do the tasks and who is the person in charge of
that tasks.
3.1.3 Lacking of training
Following European Journal of Business and Management14
, “Training is a systematic
process to enhance employee’s skill, knowledge and competency, necessary to perform
effectively on job. Effective training and development programs aimed at improving
the employees’ performance. Training programs not only develops employees but also
help an organization to make best use of their humane resources in favour of gaining
competitive advantage”.
Training in workplace is very important, if the manager has been ignoring the importance
of workplace training, the company could get risk, for example: creating unsafe working
environment, employees feel not happy and unsatisfied, it might be lead to the reduce
productivity and even increased turnover rate of employee.
At MORE UK, employees are not trained to improve their knowledge to solve problems,
everything is based on their own experience and depending on the situation they will
discuss to with Chief of the Office Representative to come up with solutions. New
employees are only handled from the predecessor in 1-2 days then the rest must be based
on experience to solve the problems. The author is in the position of merchandiser but
had a background in economics, the knowledge of the apparel industry is absolutely
nothing, the author had no chance to take any training courses at the company, instead of
25

Self-studying from old employees to have knowledge and experience in the garment
industry. This made employees spend a lot of time when they started working at
MORE UK
3.1.4 Poor planning and scheduling
To maximize productivity, the company needs to set up an effective planning and
scheduling in production. The effective planning is a complex process that covers a
wide variety of activities to ensure that materials, equipment and human resources are
available when and where they are needed, it helps you know we are going to and how
long we will take to get there. With a good planning and after that scheduled and
executed accordingly employee productivity will increase significantly and reliability
will increase. This will result in faster product throughput and lower costs.
In the interview with Ms.Nhu - merchandiser, MORE (UK) does not currently have a
system for scheduling and planning purchasing orders efficiently. Purchasing order is
controlled by the merchandiser, but the focus of tracking all the orders of all customers
is limited, so do not know which orders really need priority to arrange the factory in a
reasonable way. Merchandisers do not have weekly meetings to arrange production
schedules for all orders, instead of just ordering their own customers. In some cases,
there is a coincidence of the hangover date of two orders from two different customers,
the chief will assign the factory to produce the orders passively and urgently which can
affect the quality of the final product
3.1.5 Language and Culture Barriers
According to Peltokorpi, V., & Clausen, L15
language and cultural differences create
barriers to intercultural communication in foreign subsidiaries, language has either been
overlooked or considered a subordinate part of cultural values in international business. The
cultural barriers are one of the most challenges for native employees, which have an overall
negative and influence on intercultural internal communication. The main barriers to
intercultural communication were the lack of a shared language and low motivation for
foreign managers and Vietnamese employees to develop their English proficiency. It leads to
employees are quite shy and cautious to express their opinion/ideas. The consequences of
culture and language barriers for Vietnamese employees were feelings
26

of isolation, decreasing work relations with foreign managers and decreasing work
performance
Because the chief of the representative office and managers of the planning and techinal
department are foreigners, the level of staff is mostly just basic English communication,
so sometimes there are difficulties in working because of the language barrier. In
addition to the cultural differences, MORE UK customers come from different countries
and continents, languages, cultures, time zones, and different good standard
requirements. This is one of the difficulties of merchandiser when working with
customers. Sometimes, because of language barriers and cultural, it makes them feel
unconfident to work and communicate with foreigners
3.2 Proposed solutions
The author chooses the causes are lacking of job description, lacking of training, poor
planning and planning and language and culture barriers to solve. The author eleminated
the "Affiliative leadership style" to find the solution because it is an objective cause, it’s a
human nature and personality so it is impossible to propose an appropriate solution to this
problem. For each cause, the author relies on theories and conduct interview and survey
with MORE UK employees to find the one or two alternative solutions. Therefore, this is
the solution map for the author to prepare for an action plan later.
27

Each merchandiser will take
responsible for one step in the
ordering process, applying for all
customers
Each merchandiser will take
responsible to follow up one or
two customer in whole process,
from receiving purchasing orders
to exporting the goods
SOLUTION MAP
S2.1
S1
Writing Job Descriptions
Creating an official
S2
integrated process
planning and scheduling
S3
S2.2
On-the-job Training
S4
Diversity Training
Potential Causes
Affiliative leadership style
Not having a job
description
Poor scheduling and
planning
Lacking of training
Language and Culture
Barriers
Ineffective
operation
management
Figure 4: Solution Map 28

3.2.1 Solution 1: Writing job descriptions
Ducey A16
defined a job description is a written statement of what the worker
actually does, how he or she does it and what the job’s working conditions are. This
information is in turn used to write a job specification, this lists the knowledge and
skills required to perform the job satisfactorily. Most job descriptions contain sections
that cover: Job identification, job summary, responsibilities and duties, Authority of
incumbent, Standards of performance, working conditions and job specification.
It is important of having a clear job description allows employee to understand the
responsibilities and duties that are required and expected of them. By Using job
descriptions will help company in the hiring, evaluation and potentially terminating
of employees.
In MORE (UK), there is no job description for any position at the beginning, hence,
when the problem occurs, the question is who take responsible and why the problem
happens. The author recommends it should write job description for all key positions
in the company, including merchandiser, pattern maker, QA/QC, planning staff,
admin cum human resource staff. Which need to be clear of responsibility and it will
not lead to the duplication of other people's work, especially the merchandiser and
the planning staff that should be clear because the job function are quite similar.
3.2.2 Solution 2: Creating an official integrated process planning and scheduling
The nature of apparel industry complicates the production planning and scheduling
process. Bowers MR 17 “
The main difficulty of planning and scheduling efforts is
the need to process an overwhelming amount of information” that require the
employees have an official integrated process planning and scheduling. According to
Mok PY 18
, to cope with the short lead-time and small but frequent orders, apparel
manufacturers strive to improve their processes in order to deliver finished products
within the expected time frame at the lowest production cost. Planning and
scheduling are therefore gaining importance in contemporary apparel manufacturing.
To have a better understand how to make goods in the apparel industry, the author
describes the basic process in MORE UK for getting a completed order to go
through a process. On average, it takes from 3.5 to 4 months from receiving the
purchasing order from customer to meeting the hangover date
29

- Planning staff will work with customer and receive the official
purchasing order from customers
- Merchandiser will place the order of main fabric in China
- Merchandiser will place the order of trims: button, labels, lining, zippers,.. that
depends on the quotation, MORE UK will choose China suppliers or local
suppliers for trims
- Merchandiser will work with the forwarder to transfer all fabric from China
and distribute to nominated factories.
- At the same time, the technical manager will send the request to sample room
to make fit sample, PP sample for customer approval before make the bulk in
factory
- Pattern maker will send the tech pack to factory, which is the documents that
the factory will be base on to make the bulk
- Merchandiser will contact to local suppliers to transfer all trims to factories
- Merchandiser and QA will follow up the orders, check the specifications and
quality for ensuring meeting the hangover date
The above is the basic process at MORE UK, which is applying to follow an order.
However, because of the causes, symptom is the appearance unexpected
supplementary factory that increases the cost of the company. For solving, the
author proposed two options:
Solution 2.1: Each employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible for
one step in the ordering process, applying for all customers
At present, MORE UK has 8 customers (PEACOCKS, MILLERS, DOROTHY
PERKINS, CROSSROAD, KATIES, BOYES, YOURS). There are 6 merchandisers,
2 planning staffs, QA / QC and the pattern makers are not directly related to
planning and scheduling, so the author only refers to the merchandiser department.
The chief representative should appoint an experienced merchandiser who becomes
the merchandiser manager. All problems must be reported directly to manager instead
of reporting to Chief of Representative as now. Each employee in the merchandiser
team will take responsible for one step in the ordering process, applying for all
customers
30

Position Task
Planning staff 1 + 2 Each planning staff will take responsibility to work with 4
customers, receiving requests from customers and sending the
requests to the merchandiser
Merchandiser 1 Responsible for developing and placing the fabrics in China and
contacting to the forwarder for transferring the fabric to the
nominated factory
Merchandiser 2 + 3 Responsible for developing samples and placing the trims (labels,
zippers, buttons, ...) and transferring to the factory
Merchandiser 4+ 5 Responsible for following up the orders produced at the factory
along with the QC to meet the hangover date of the shipment
Merchandiser General management, ensuring all orders of customers are timely
Manager
Table 4: Proposed solution assigns the tasks for employee in Solution 2.1
Solution 2.2: Each employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible to
follow up one or two customer in whole process, from receiving purchasing
orders to exporting the goods
Every merchandiser will take responsible to follow up one ore two customer in whole
process. Depending on the number of orders, the merchandiser will follow two
customers if the orders with small quantity and the merchandiser will just follow up
one customer only if they are a big customer, MILLERS for example. This is the way
MORE UK is applying at the present time, merchandiser's responsibility will follow
throughout from receiving purchasing orders from planning staff, placing fabrics,
placing trims, contacting the factory and following up the factory during production.
However, this way is not effective, the alternative solution is to continue to apply this
approach, however, the planning staff must work with customers and negotiate to
change the hangover date to be more suitable. The merchandiser must plan to send all
information to the factory about the date of shipment before the actual hangover date
is 2 weeks. To better understand this proposal, the author makes a comparison
31

Current Solution Proposed Solution
Hangover date Purchasing order is placed before Purchasing order
customers approve the bulk of fabric should be placed after
=> the ability to develop fabrics and customers approval
waiting for customers approval is time
consuming, because the bulk of fabric
is produced usually takes 45 to 60
days for a style
Docket Sending to the factory the docket with Sending to the
the exact hangover date from factory the docket
customer. In case, if the factory can with the hangover
not finish the goods in the date of date is sooner 2
shipment, MORE UK will ask weeks than actual
customer for an extension or will be date
punished if the customer does not
approved
Table 5: Proposed solution assigns the tasks for employee in Solution 2.2
In Appendix 2, there is a PO of style WSTP13245M that MORE UK receives from the
MILLERS customer and a docket that the merchandiser sends to the factory based on that
order. On the official PO from MILLERS, the actual hangover date is 23/08/2018,
however on the docket sent to the factories, the hangover date is 09/08/2018 to put
pressure on the factory and the merchandiser to keep up with the shipment. In this case, if
MORE UK and the factory are on schedule, the shipment date will be 09/08/2018. The
work of the planning staff will say customers raise a new PO with the new hangover date
is 09/08/2018. If based on this, the merchandiser will follow through every customer,
they know how the customer works and the production
32

process of the factory, however, the amount of work is relatively large which
makes the merchandiser and the planning staff are always under a lot of pressure.
3.2.3 Solution 3: On-the-Job Training
To the cause is Lacking of Training, following the theory, it should be applied On-the-
job training for solution. Dessler19
defined On-the-job training means having a person
learn a job by actually doing it. In many companies, On-the-job training is the only
avaible training. The most familiar On-the-job training is the coaching or understudy
method. It means an experienced worker or the trainee’s supervisor trains the
employee. This may involve simply observing the supervisor or having the supervisor
or job expert show the new employee the ropes, step by step of the job. There are four
steps On-the-job training approach can be useful:
+ First, preparing the learner by putting the person and explaining the job and why he
or she is being taught
+ Second, presenting the operation by going through it at a normal work pace and
again more slowly to itemize key points
+ Third, trying out the trainee by having the person run through the job several
times to improve their skills and speed
+ Finally, following up by gradually decreasing supervision, correcting errors
and complimenting good work.
At MORE UK, being a representative office, the implementation of other training
methods will not be appropriate because of the cost and time consuming, therefore,
the implementation of On-the-job training will be more workable. Because of the
company size, the experienced staff will be responsible for guiding new employees by
giving you an overview and practice. Because of the relatively specific nature of the
apparel industry, if you have not worked in the apparel industry before, the
experienced staff will give an overview and technical terms to understand the nature
of this industry then be guided in detail for each position.
For instance, in the merchandiser position, after recruiting new employee to meet the
requirement of the position, new employees will be trained by experienced employees by
placing orders and explaining the process of following up in step by step, from how to
make the purchasing orders, making stock sheet, raising docket and following up
33

the orders, ...new employees will observe how the experienced employees on the
system as well as related templates. After that, the new employee will be working
directly, if any unknown problems happen, they will ask the experienced employees to
understand better.
3.2.4 Solution 4: Diversity training
Following Dessler it aims to improve cross cultural sensitivity with the goal of
fostering more harmonious working relationships among a firm’s employees.
Improving interpersonal skills, understanding and valuing cultural differences,
work ethic, improving English,..
In MORE UK, the chief of representative can decide to spend a cost for Just Be
F.A.I.R (Feedback, Assistance, Inclusion and Respect) A Practical Approach to
Diversity in the Workplace program which designed to help employees understand
what diversity really is and when it matters most in the workplace. This program
introduces the F.A.I.R. approach as a practical way to improve an organization’s
cultural competency. This approach can be used as a tool to build more positive,
productive relationships at work that will help employees make better decisions that
impact the overall productivity of the organization. It includes streaming video,
materials and workbook, DVD and Power point Slide. The human resource
department of MORE UK can use it as a document source and send to employee to
help them enhance their skill.
In addition, the Chief of Representative should encourage employees to attend
English classes in language centers and recruit employees with English language
skills, foreigner managers have been found to respond to language problems by
sending employees to go to abroad business trip or sending to parent company in UK
to gain language skills.
3.3 Alternative sets of solutions
From the analysis above, there are two set of solution are recommended:
34

Set 1
Set 2
Writing job descriptions
Each employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible
for one step in the ordering process, applying for all customers
On-the-Job Training
Diversity training
Writing job descriptions
Each employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible
to follow up one or two customer in whole process, from
receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods
On-the-Job Training
Diversity training
Figure 5: Sets of solution
To find out what is the best solution, the author conduct a survey
- The method: Qualitative research by questionnaire survey
- Size of sample: 12 employees (6 merchandisers, 2 planning staffs, 3
pattern makers, 1 human resource staff)
- The purpose: Asking employee about sets of solutions, which one is
more suitable with company situation
35

Based on the conducting data and analyzes by qualitative research, the author have the
result
Merchandiser Planning Pattern Maker HR
Staff
Employee 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
S1 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y
S2.1 X X X Blank vote
S2.2 X X X X X
S3 Y Y N Y Y Y N Y N Y Y Y
S4 N N N N N Y N N N Y N Y
Table 6: Survey result
To sum up the result
+ S1: 100% agree the company should write job description for each position
+ S2.1: 37.5% (3/8 employee were interviewed) agreed that each employee in the
merchandiser team will take responsible for one step in the ordering process,
applying for all customers
+ S2.2: 62.5% (5/8 employee were interviewed) agreed that Each employee in the
merchandiser team will take responsible to follow up one or two customer in
whole process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods
For S2.1 and S2.2, since the departments directly involved in planning and
scheduling is merchandisers and planning staffs, therefore, the other employee did
not conduct the survey.
+ S3: 75% (9/12 employee) agreed that the company should apply On-the-Job training
method
+ S4: 16.66% (2/12 employee) agreed that the company should have training
programs such as learning English at centers and training with the FAIR program.
However the size of the company is too small and the staff does not have enough
time to attend these courses, so this solution is eliminated.
36

Based on the result of the survey, the author choose the set of solution is the
combination of Writing job description, Each employee in the merchandiser team
will take responsible to follow up one or two customer in whole process, from
receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods and On- the- job training to
make the Action plan
3.4 Action plan
3.4.1 Objective
The objective of action plan in solution sets of Writting job description, each
employee in the merchandiser team will take responsible to follow up one or two
customer in whole process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods
and On- the- job training are:
+ Build a Critical Path – an official ordering planning process, a completed
and effective process
+ Help related departments including merchandiser, QA/QC, pattern maker plan
to perform their work in a reasonable and timely way.
+ Minimize delays in ordering and transferring orders to supplementary factories
to speed up production
+ Reduce costs to the maximum in the production of orders
3.4.2 Timeline and Cost
The author develops an action plan for Solution 1 and Solution 3 with specific
activities’s timeline as well as estimated cost. According to Solution 2.2, the author
does not develop a specific cost as this method is being performed by MORE UK at
the present time with the MILLERS customer. However, by proposing more options
on how to negotiate with customers and factories, the author hopes to partly help the
planning and scheduling process to be more effective, and will apply to all MORE
UK customers in the future.
3.4.2.1 Solution 1: Writing the job description
+ Define to write job description for positions: merchandiser, pattern maker,
planing staff, QA/QC
+ The human resource department will send email to have a meeting the experienced
staff of the relevant departments to ask for experience as well as requirements to
37

become an employee, the information included: job identification, job summary,
responsibilities and duties, Authority of incumbent, Standards of performance,
+ At the same time, human resource department will observe and write a draft of
standards of performance, working conditions and job specification to develop a
specific offical detail for a job description for each position.
+ After completed the Job description, human resource will evaluate with related
departments and apply it in new labor contracts and use it when recruite new
employee
The estimated cost is based on the number of working hour of human resource staff,
in the whole process to build the job description. Based on the average salary of HR
staff with over 3 years of working experience is 15,000,000 VND per month, the
average daily cost for the HR staff spend their time to do the whole process is around
680,000 VND per day
Estimated cost
Description Working Day Estimated Cost Timeline
1 Define to write job description for 7 days 4,760,000 VND In Jan 2019
positions
2 Organise meetings with 20 days 13,600,000 VND In Jan 2019
experienced employee to ask job
analysis
3 Observe and write draft standards 30 days 20,400,000 VND From Jan to Feb
of performance, working 2019
conditions
4 Write a official job description 45 days 30,600,000 VND From Mar to
Apr 2019
5 Evaluate and apply it in new labor 45 days 30,600,000 VND From May to
contracts and use it when recruite Jun 2019
new employee
TOTAL 99,960,000 VND
Table 7: Timeline and estimated cost for Solution 1
38

3.4.2.2 Solution 2.2: Each employee in the merchandiser team will take
responsible to follow up one or two customer in whole process, from
receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods
To build an effective timeline, the author gives an example of a typical
WSTP13049M, Docket 0097M to show the timeline from receiving the PO from
the customer until the factory shipped to the customer.
+ Fabric
Following the purchasing order the SKU 00148922 (appendix), WSTP13049M has a
hangover date of 13/12/2018 with 4155 pcs. MILLERScustomer had agreed to raise
the official PO since the lap dip was approved on 17/09/2018, so customer's PO is also
17/9/2018.
The timeline for a bulk fabric will be as shown in the table below
Artwork Lap dip Bulk sample Bulk fabric
Develop base on 45 days since 15 days since the lap 5 days since the bulk
customer requirement artwork approved dip approved sample approved
The bulk completed 65 - 70 days
Table 8: Timeline for a bulk fabric
Because the lead time of the fabric takes a lot of time, from 65-70 days then the fabric
in China will be ready to export to the factory in Vietnam. Therefore, in order to save
time in developing the fabric, the planning staff must negotiate the hangover date after
the lap dip is approved, it means that 45 days will not be included in the process in the
reality for artwork approval but only since the lap dip approved until completed
garments and export to reduce pressure MORE UK when conduct the production plan
and consider the production time more reasonable. Therefore, the lead time will be
only 20-25 days.
The image below shows the purchasing order with style number WSTP13049M
since the HOT PINK lap dip was approved on 17/09/2018 until the bulk fabric was
approved. 05/10/2018 is 18 days => less than the expected time (20-25 days). Then
39

the fabric is arranged to import to Vietnam with ETA 22/10/2018 and be transferred to
the factory
Figure 6: The process of fabric development and importing process
+ Trims
For this style, the merchandiser only need to make a purchasing order to supplier that
is neck ring trim with purchasing order code is MORSG3213. Similar to fabric
development, for trim development process to have bulk trims is estimated as follows:
Sample Lap dip Bulk sample Bulk trims
Develop base on 7-10 days 5 days since the lap dip approved.
customer requirement
The bulk completed 10-15 days
Table 9: Timeline for a bulk trim
Since this type of trim is made in Vietnam, only after the lap dip approved, the bulk
is in factory trim 16/10. For trims, the lead time is not too long, only 10-15 days bulk
trims are ready at the factory and the production line. It all depends on the production
capacity of the factory as well as the process of importing fabric to Vietnam
Figure 7: The process of developing neck ring trims and importing trim
40

In parallel with the development of fabrics and materials, the merchandiser will set
up the docket 0087M and send it to the factory (Appendix), the actual hangover date
is 13/12/2018, however the docket sent to the factory will show the hangover date is
29/11/2018, 2 weeks earlier than customer requested. This will increase the
production pressure on the factory while reducing the probability of late delivery.
Figure 8: The actual hangover date and the docket hangover date
In the deadline for production column is the date required for the entire fabric and
trims must be presented at the factory to keep up with the production schedule,
everything must be presented in the factory before 2 months for the factory to have
production time and make sure the quality of garments. However, for docket order
0087M days, because of late shipping, the fabric was in the factory until October 22, 4
days later than expected, so QA/QC should be responsible for molding and checking
the quality of product thoroughly. In the point of view, the author identify this order
will not be late or have to move to supplementary factory, because the docket sent to
the factory has requested two weeks before the actual, so the risk of late is very low
and the factory still have enough time for production
In summary, with the author's suggested solution, the negotiation with the customer
approved the official PO when the lap dip was approved and sent docket to the factory
with hangover date sooner than 2 weeks is reasonable and workable, the standard
production time of an order will have only 2.5 months left and minimizing the risk
and cost for MORE UK
3.4.2.3 Solution 3: On-the job Training
To do the action plan for On-the –job Training solution, the author propose the plan
and the estimated cost to conduct the plan
+ First, human resource will assign the experience employee who will be in charge
of teaching for new employee in each position
41

+ Second, human resource will prepare related documents for this position for
example company manual, templates, the right to access to MORE UK server
+ Third, the experience employee will spend time for teaching and trainning
new employee
+ Finally, following up by gradually decreasing supervision, correcting errors
and evaluate the training program
Estimated cost:
As same as the Solution 1, the estimated cost is based on the number of hour that
the experience employee spends to trainning the new employees and the
administrative expenses for printing company manual and templates
Based on the average salary of a merchandiser, pattern maker, planning staff with over
5 years of working experience is 23,400,000 VND per month, the average daily cost
for the experienced employee spend their time to training in stead of working is
around 1,100,000 VND
Description Working Estimated Cost Timeline
Day
1 Assign the experience employee who 7 days 7,700,000 VND In Jan 2019
will be in charge of teaching for new
employee in each position
2 Prepare related documents for training: 20 days 22,000,000 VND From Jan to
Company manual, templates Feb 2019
3 Teaching and training 60 days 66,00,000 VND From Mar to
May 2019
4 Evaluate the training program 10 days 11,000,000VND In June 2019
TOTAL 106,700,000 VND 6 months
Table 10: Timeline and estimated cost for Solution 3
42

From the timeline table and estimated cost in the analysis above, if MORE UK
perform the set of solution is Writing job description, each employee in the
process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods and On- the- job
training, MORE UK must prepare a total of expense 206,660,000 VND with the
expected implementation period in the next 6 months of 2019 to build a better system
43

Conclusion
The purpose of this study was to analyse the problem at MORE UK Rep Office in
HCMC with ineffective operation management leading to the appearance of
supplementary factories that increase CMT price and transferring expenses since the
company was established in Vietnam. Throughout the research process, the author
have identified the potential causes leading to the problem of existence are affiliative
leadership style, not having job description, poor scheduling and planning, lack of
trainning and language and culture barrier. Hence, the author has proposed solutions
to solve the above problems by combining the implementation of activities such as
Writing job description, building a official process that each employee in the
process, from receiving purchasing orders to exporting the goods and applying on-the-
job trainning method to help the employee have a deeply understand the way to work
effectively. By doing the combination, MORE UK will minimize CMT costs,
transferring expenses and other importing and exporting costs while helping the
company develop an effective procedure.
Through this paper, the author hopes to provide the reader with an overview of the
situation at MORE UK, as well as the incompleting operating procedure which started
from the ineffective operation management.
44

Reference
1. Zhou D, Peng Y, Chen YS. The Problems and Improvements of Construction
Enterprises Supply Chain Partnership Management in China. Applied
Mechanics and Materials 2012 12;256-259:3073.
2. Gough J, M.A., Hamrell M, PhD. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs): How to
Write Them to Be Effective Tools. Drug Inf J 2010 07;44(4):463-468.
3. Nahm A, Vonderembse M, Koufteros X. (2003). The impact of
organizational structure on time-based manufacturing and plant performance.
Journal of Operations Management 2003; 21(3): 281-306.
4. Rajan D. Stress and Job Performance: among Nurses. SCMS Journal of Indian
Management 2015 Jan;12(1):66-87.
5. UKEssays. The role and importance of effective operations management
[Internet]. November 2013
6. Johnston R, Chamber S, Harisson A & Slack N. Cases in , London, Prentice hall.
2003
7. Swamynathan R, Ravindran S. Strategic Cost Management - A Right Tool for
Supply Chain Management. Journal of Contemporary Management Research
2009 09;3(2):1-12
8. Oliver RL. Whence consumer loyalty?. the Journal of Marketing. 1999: 33-44
9. Heskett JL, Sasser WE, Schlesinger LA. The service profit chain. New York,
NY: Free Press. 1997
10.Mierzejewska W. Directions of Changes in Organizational Structures of SME -
Results of Empirical Research. Foundations of Management 2014;6(3):83-92.
11. Fiaz M, Su Q, Ikram A, Saqib A. LEADERSHIP STYLES AND EMPLOYEES’
MOTIVATION: PERSPECTIVE FROM AN EMERGING ECONOMY.
The Journal of Developing Areas 2017 Fall;51(4):143-156
12. Bass BM. Bass and Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership. The Free Press. New
York, NY.1990
13.Yukl G, Van fleet DD. Theory and research on leadership in organizations. In
M.D. Dunnette & L.M. Hough (Eds.), Handbook of industrial &
organizational psychology. 1990
45

14.European Journal of Business and Management ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN
2222-2839 (Online) Vol.5, No.4, 2013
15.Peltokorp V, & Clausen L. Linguistic and cultural barriers to intercultural
communication in foreign subsidiaries. Asian Business & Management, 2011.
10(4), 509-528.
16.Ducey A. What Is the Use of Job Descriptions? Reflections from the Health-Care
Industry. Working USA 2002 Oct 31;6(2):40.
17.Bowers MR, Agarwal A. Hierarchical production planning: Scheduling in the
apparel industry. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology
1993;5(3):36.
18. Mok PY, Cheung TY, Wong WK, Leung SY, S., Fan JT. Intelligent production
planning for complex garment manufacturing. J Intell Manuf 2013 02;24(1):133-
145.
19.Dessler G. Fundamentals of Human Resources Management, Upper Saddle River,
NY: Prentice Hall, 2016
46

Appendix
Appendix 1: The survey questions were contributed for choosing sets of solution
A. Interviewee’s information:
1. Would you like to introduce about yourself?
2. What is your position in MORE UK?
3. Can you tell me something about your job?
B. Choosing sets of solution
+ Yes/No question
1. Is it necessary of writing a job description in your position? (Merchandiser,
Pattern maker, Planning staff, QA/QC)
2. Is it necessary to apply On- the -Job Training in MORE UK?
3. Is it necessary to apply Diversity Training in MORE UK?
+ Wh-question
1. Between Solution S2.1 and S2.2, which solution that you think it will be
more suitable to MORE UK situation?
2. Why do you think it will be better than the other?
47

Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc

Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc

Similar to Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc (19)

More from Dịch vụ viết đề tài trọn gói Liên hệ ZALO/TELE: 0973.287.149

More from Dịch vụ viết đề tài trọn gói Liên hệ ZALO/TELE: 0973.287.149 (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Luận Văn The Ineffective Operating Procedure At More Uk In Ho Chi Minh City.doc