The North Face Inc.

The North Face INC. New Product
QSO 600: Operations Management

17TW3

Southern New Hampshire University, College of Continuing Education

Submitted to Professor Constant Craig

Vanessa Rebecca

February 25, 2017

North Face Workflow

        The North Face INC. is an American based company. They are known for their stylish and good quality products.  The company follows a simple workflow to make sure that they are providing their best to their customers. The workflow that the company uses helps the workers to be more efficient in their work. The workflow consists of first the designing process which gives the employees a visual of the product. The sketch shows the different parts of the product, if it will have the company’s logo on it and where it will be. By having that visual the employee can get started on making the pattern.  The pattern making can be done both manually and computerized method. The company chose the method that is more effective and efficient.  The designing team provided the pattern making team with an art work sheet as guidelines to make the patterns. The art work sheets give specifics details about the patterns and how they should be made. After the patterns are being made, then they are transferred to the fit sample making team whose job is to make sure that all the details were followed and that it is ready to be sent to the buyer for rectification. If everything looks perfect then the samples is sent to the marker making workstations to mark the samples and get them ready to be sent to the fabric cutting workstations. If by any chance there’s a mistake the sample is return to the previous workstation for corrections. Once the correction is made the sample is now sent to the fabric department. But before the fabric is cut, it has to be spread so that the measurement can be right.  

        The fabric spreading can be done manually or computerized. Once the fabric is cut and the different parts are sorted out, they can be transferred to the sewing department.  At the sewing workstations all the fabric parts are put together to form the new product which is done manually. Once the sewing is done the product has to go through another inspection to make sure that all the process were follow and that everything is perfect. If there are products that are not done to the buyer’s perfection, the buyer will either decide to dispose of them or send them back for corrections. The purpose of the workflow is to help in increasing the productions process’s effectiveness and efficiency.

        Effectiveness and Efficiency

        The layout provided above is beneficial to the company due to the fact that it helps make the process a bit easier and smoother.  By having a visual of what the product looks like it allow them to assess whether or not there are some parts of the design that needs to be change or even erased. It allows them to visualize ahead of time how they will work to make this new product a success. The workflow allows the managers to match the staff with the appropriate skills to the right department. By being able to do so it increases productivity due to the fact that the worker is an expert in the area and therefore will have no error coming from that department. It eliminates one more steps which save the company more money and closer to the new product release or shipping date. The management of each activity ensures that there is effectiveness in the production of services to the public. In case of errors, it is possible to trace the mistakes to the roots due to the separation that has been made possible by the workflow (Gilligan, 2012).        The workflow layout Workflow helps identifying and removes the unnecessary steps/processes that are slowing down the production. By modifying the order of the steps, it makes the process more efficient. It allows the managers to track the progress of the production and keep the buyer informed as well. The workflow provides major benefits for any organization. It makes an organization become more efficient by helping to save time, remove wastage, cut out unnecessary work, better use of human resources, which overall saves money and will help an organization to grow and improve.

...