Recently, in the SHEIN Garment Manufacturing Innovation Research Center, the skilled garment makers sat in front of the sewing machine, and with the referee's order, their fingers were like smart butterflies shuttling lightly between the fabrics, and in the combination of stitches and threads, the first "SHEIN Craftsman Cup" Garment Production Vocational Skills Competition Sewing Worker Finals was launched.
In addition to the sewing process, the competition also brought together many industry elites in many fields such as design, pattern making, and cutting. After strict selection, more than 60 contestants, including pattern makers, cutters, sewing workers, etc., stood out and won the award.
From "manufacturing start" to "manufacturing leader", in recent years, Guangdong's supply of skilled talents has been increasing year by year, and the construction of skilled talent team has been regarded as an important support for high-quality development and cultivation of new quality productivity, so as to promote the realization of skill upgrading, employment and income, talent development and industrial prosperity.
As the world's leading fashion and lifestyle online retailer, SHEIN has been deeply cultivating the apparel industry supply chain for many years, leading the digital transformation and upgrading of upstream and downstream suppliers through technology-driven agile and flexible supply chains. The empowerment and training mechanism of technical and management talents in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain will help ensure the lasting vitality and sustainable development of the entire industry, and create a benign ecology for going overseas.
Build a full-link empowerment training system to solve the pain points of the industry by "sending education to the door".
In recent years, in the clothing and fashion industry, SHEIN has been praised by the outside world for its full-link empowerment training system for suppliers. SHEIN will continue to train suppliers on the empowerment of skills and management talents from various aspects such as operation management, planning and development, production scheduling, operation and stocking, and quality management. According to the latest data, SHEIN has conducted more than 620 supplier trainings in 2023 alone.
The problem of "broken thread and skipper" in the sewing process is a common pain point in the industry. In the view of SHEIN's relevant trainers, there are many reasons for this defect, such as the heat of the needle during high-speed operation, poor stitches of the equipment, etc., and the difficulty lies in the fact that the sewing workers do not understand the basic principles of thread breakage and jumper, and lack of quality control links and corresponding methods in daily production. This seemingly subtle problem is actually one of the key factors in measuring the quality of clothing, which will not only affect the wearing experience of consumers, but also affect the appearance of the product, which in turn will affect consumers' trust in the brand.
In this regard, the technical staff of SHEIN Garment Manufacturing Innovation Research Center put forward corresponding solutions by focusing on and analyzing key issues, refining equipment debugging methods and workshop management precautions, and carried out multiple periods of special empowerment training for supplier skilled personnel. After passing the empowerment training assessment and certification, the rate of broken wire defective products decreased by nearly 6 percent, and the rate of jumper defective products decreased by nearly 5 percent, and remarkable results were achieved.
This is a microcosm of SHEIN's in-depth penetration into the supply chain and strengthening the empowerment training of skilled and managerial talents for suppliers. It is worth mentioning that with the replication and fission of the "SHEIN model" to promote the digital transformation of suppliers in various subdivided industrial belts across the country, in addition to fixed-point training, SHEIN is also exploring special training for "sending education to the door" in the industrial belt, and sending lecturers, equipment and teams to the industrial belt to carry out special empowerment training.
In 2023, SHEIN will carry out special training on quality management for hundreds of swimwear suppliers in the well-known Liaoning Xingcheng Swimsuit Industry Belt. Empower training in plate making, sewing, quality inspection, lean production and other links, and solve the pain points of suppliers point-to-point in "what you learn is what you use". After the training, the data showed that the supplier's products have achieved continuous improvement in terms of size problems, wrong codes, poor sewing, stain problems, product interception, etc.
Carry out the identification of vocational skill levels and send professionals to the industry
In order to mobilize the activity of skilled talents in the garment industry chain, SHEIN also actively participates in the competition of technical talents, stimulates the self-transcendence and creativity of skilled talents through the competition, contributes more high-quality professionals to the sustainable development of the industry, and strives to create a good ecology of skilled talents in the industrial chain with "upward channel and social recognition".
At the same time, SHEIN also concentrates the resources of universities, industries, and internal and external experts, develops talent evaluation standards based on industry characteristics and policy requirements, carries out vocational skill level identification, and cultivates professional and excellent technical and management talents for the whole industry. It has also established a training base for garment industry workers to send skilled workers in the rural revitalization industry to the central and western regions. For example, the industrial park training system established by SHEIN provides local workers in Guizhou with skills training from zero to advanced, covering more than 10 core positions such as cutting, cutting, sewing, quality inspection, packaging, etc., and establishing a talent training model of "fast training and fast delivery", focusing on practical training, so that novice "Xiaobai" can grow into skilled talents who can be employed.
Establish a mechanism for the integration of industry and education, forge a talent engine, and inject fresh water into the industry
Recently, after five days of fierce competition, the 47th WorldSkills Competition came to an end in Lyon, France. Zhou Qinfei, a teacher from Guangzhou Baiyun Industrial and Commercial Technician College, competed with players from nearly 70 countries and regions, and finally won the gold medal in the 47th World Fashion Technology Project, which also means that China's fashion technology project has achieved the "four consecutive championships" of the World Championships.
Held every two years, the WorldSkills Competition is the world's highest-status, largest and most influential vocational skills competition, known as the "WorldSkills Olympiad", and is an important platform for WorldSkills members to display and exchange vocational skills. It is worth mentioning that relying on the training base of the World Competition, the "school-enterprise cooperation class" jointly created by Guangzhou Baiyun Industrial and Commercial Technician College and SHEIN will officially open in February 2023. A win-win situation for schools and enterprises.
In addition, the original pattern design projects carried out by SHEIN and the College of Art of South China Agricultural University, Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and other colleges and universities have effectively cultivated the understanding of the external market environment of clothing students, and applied excellent design to the real clothing design and production process. Some of these designs have become popular models after they were put into the SHEIN global market.
At present, SHEIN has established various types of school-enterprise cooperation with more than 200 colleges and universities at home and abroad, such as talent training, student employment, scientific research cooperation, and integration of industry and education, and has carried out school-enterprise cooperation in the form of order classes with clothing design and logistics management and other related majors in higher vocational colleges in many places, integrating the real employment needs of enterprises into the school's classroom and student activities, and cultivating professional and technical and management talents required by enterprises.
Through the above-mentioned multi-pronged talent training model, SHEIN not only uses digital tools and technologies to help the overall supply chain upgrade the industrial Internet, but also forges a talent engine to inject a steady stream of endogenous power into the sustainable development of the industry.