Email Service Notes (Tony)

Your Original Email

Can you brief the most difficult part in your current work?
From design and technical view, there are not too many difficulties parts. However, we need pay the attention for all the details and dimensions.
Firstly, our head of design and construction director is a person who strive for the perfection and she had a high standard for everything. She will come to site before the opening with around one week. We need make sure everything be ready and well-prepared and she can’t accept any defects when the opening. Even everything is perfect when she come to site, she will rectify some part based on the site situation. We need to react and finish the work in a very short and limited time, for example, when we open the HK store, before the opening days, she wants to demolish one of the logo in the façade. I discussed this with our GC and found a film which color is similar with the façade. This temporary solution was what we can do in the short time. Finally, the store successfully opened.
Secondly, since all our furniture was produced in Netherland, we need make sure all the site dimension is exactly same as drawings. For example, the fitting room was produced in Netherlands and they won’t double check the dimension same as we normally do in China. All of them will produce based on the design drawings. So, if the fitting room should be exactly same as the drawings. Otherwise there will be a gap to the ceiling. Looks weird.
Thirdly, we will order lots of items such as loose furniture, decoration part, etc from Netherlands. We spent a lot of time to coordinate with lots of European vendors regarding to the payment, logistic. To manage lots of small vendors oversea, I need be very clear about for all the information and keep tracking and following with them.
Fourth, our internal design is based at our HQ and I spend a lot of times to coordinate with them and local architect.
Fifth, internal department coordination, I think it is general issue in retail industry due to many departments will involve in the store opening and all of them are our stakeholders. How to manage and coordinate with them is very important.

Your Edited Email

Can you brief us on the most difficult part of your current work?
From a design and technical view, there are not too many difficult parts. However, we need to pay attention to all the details and dimensions.
Firstly, our head of design and construction director is a person who strives for perfection and she has a high standard for everything. She will come to the site around one week before the opening. We need to make sure everything is ready and well-prepared and she can’t accept any defects for the opening. Even if everything is perfect when she comes to the site, she will rectify something based on the site‘s situation. We need to react and finish the work in a very short and limited time, for example, when we opened the HK store, before the opening days, she wanted to remove one of the logos in the facade. I discussed this with our GC and found a film with a similar color to the facade. This temporary solution was what we could do in a short time. Finally, the store successfully opened.
Secondly, since all our furniture was produced in The Netherlands, we needed to make sure all the site dimensions are exactly the same as the drawings. For example, the fitting room was produced in The Netherlands and they won’t double check the dimensions are the same as we normally do in China. All of them will produced based on the design drawings. So, the fitting room should be exactly the same as the drawings. Otherwise there will be a gap near the ceiling. It would look weird.
Thirdly, we will order lots of items such as loose furniture, decoration parts, etc from The Netherlands. We spent a lot of time to coordinate with lots of European vendors regarding the payment and logistics. To manage lots of small vendors overseas, I need to be very clear about all the information and keep tracking and following them.
Fourth, our internal design is based at our HQ and I spent a lot of time to coordinate with them and local architects.
Fifth, internal department coordination, I think it is a common issue in the retail industry due to many departments being involved in the store opening and all of them are our stakeholders. How to manage and coordinate with them is very important.

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