Japanese fast fashion giant Uniqlo recently announced that starting from July 2, it will begin selling limited edition Made in Tokyo crew neck sleeveless shirts and three-quarter sleeve dresses at its brand flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo. , long-sleeved dresses and other seamless 3D knitted products.
It is reported that these products are produced by Innovation Factory, a holding company of Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo, which specializes in producing Wholegarment seamless knitted products, through Uniqlo Tokyo stores and brand e-commerce channel sales.
The first self-owned factory
All products of Innovation Factory are “Production on demand” is also the first time Fast Retailing Group has tried in-house production. Prior to this, the group’s brand products were all handled by external suppliers, with an annual output of approximately 1.3 billion pieces.
Innovation Factory was originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese knitting equipment giant Shima Seiki Co., Ltd. established in December 2015. In 2016, it was converted to a shareholding of Fast Retailing 49 %, a joint venture model in which SHIMA SEIKI CORPORATION holds 51% of the shares. In 2020, the two parties adjusted their shareholding ratios, and Fast Retailing’s shares increased to 51%. The company’s location was also moved from Wakayama, near Osaka, to Shinonome, a suburb of the Ariake Center, the headquarters of Fast Retailing in Tokyo.
It is reported that the Innovation Factory completed its relocation earlier this year and officially started construction in April. It has a total of 40 seamless knitting machines and 65 employees, with a daily output of 1,000 pieces. . The products for sale this time will be produced from May to mid-June.
Fast Retail pointed out that in the future, this factory will work closely with the headquarters’ Knit Innovation Center (Knit Innovation Center) to increase the speed of product planning to development, and provide the group with consumer-oriented solutions. Provide support for the process of providing products to consumers based on their needs. Tomoya Utsuno, CEO of Innovation Factory, said: “Having a company led by ourselves will bring Ariake’s headquarters closer to the production site.”
Try a new design process and business model
For Fast Retailing Group, the Innovation Factory is a new design process and Business model testing.
Before the relocation of the Innovation Factory, Fast Retailing’s new brand development process was as follows: the team at the Ariake headquarters carried out planning and design, and digitized product specifications while repeatedly testing samples. Final adjustments are made at the Innovation Factory until ready for mass production. However, due to reasons such as “the feel is difficult to digitize”, there may be situations where adjustments are needed before mass production. However, because the headquarters and factory are 500 kilometers apart, it is not possible to confirm adjustments on site in time.
Tomoya Utsuno said: “The Fast Retailing Group’s participation is not deep enough, so there will be problems with new products and a lack of timely response.” He said that after the factory moved to its current location, The head of the product development department visits the factory every week. The closer distance makes it easier for both parties to coordinate and cooperate. In the future, the preparation stage for the group’s 3D knitted products from early design and planning to mass production in major overseas factories will be shortened from the current three months to one month. The group said, “The Innovation Factory is the mother factory for shortening the key elements of lead time.
In addition to producing products limited to the flagship store, this factory is also an “experiment” “Center”, that is, 3D knitted products will be trial-produced here to optimize production efficiency before they are mass-produced in factories in Vietnam and China. In other words, new products developed by Innovation Factory will first be sold in limited quantities at the Tokyo flagship store and will be produced locally. It will be sold locally. “We will observe consumer demand based on this, and if it is popular, we will mass-produce it in overseas factories,” Utsuno Tomoya said. This move will help Fast Retailing Group reduce unnecessary production and reduce inventory.
At the same time, in order to improve the profitability of this factory, the number of looms may be increased to 100 in the future.
Fast Retailing Group Tadashi Yanai, chairman of the board of directors and president, said: “The new factory is the mother factory of the group’s 3D knitting business.” It is linked to the research and development department of the headquarters and shares information with cooperative factories in Vietnam and China. It is expected to produce Innovation simultaneously with overseas factories. Factory’s products.
The multifunctional integrated Ariake headquarters
In 2016, Fast Retailing’s Ariake headquarters was officially put into use, with a large warehouse capable of handling massive e-commerce orders, and Uniqlo’s headquarters was also moved here.
In 2018, Fast Retailing and Logistics The company Daifuku has reached a cooperation to promote the full automation of the warehouse and move the headquarters of the GU brand in 2019.
This spring, Fast Retailing carried out its first large-scale renovation of the famous center. Part of the space on the fourth floor that was originally used for temporary storage of goods was converted into an office area. The renovated office space covers an area of 5,950 square meters, including: a large photography studio shared by internal brands, a dedicated workspace for web page production, a UNIQLO simulation store, and customer service centers, gyms, etc. Among them, UNIQLO simulated stores have a total of standard stores (approximately 1,155 square metersmeters) and two large stores (approximately 1980 square meters). In the future, visual marketing and advertising visuals before products enter the store will be completed here.
According to Fast Retailing, the fourth floor now covers 25 internal studios. For example, it used to be necessary to rent studios outside to take photos of products, but now they are all concentrated at the Ariake headquarters. Further It saves processes and time. “If it’s shooting, it can be updated within a day. What used to take a few days or a week can now be done in a few hours,” said Yukihiro Katsuda, a Fast Retailing executive.
The newly added customer service center covers an area of about 990 square meters, mainly to further strengthen the “VOC (Voice of Customer)” strategy of Fast Retailing Group, that is, It produces products based on consumer feedback and suggestions, “transmitting the opinions and expectations of global customers directly to management and headquarters employees, and using them in real-time development of products and services.” Fast Retailing even prepared a special room for “interviewing customers.” room to listen to their opinions and feedback on services, brand products, websites, mobile apps, etc.
In fact, as early as 1995, Fast Retailing made such an advertisement: “Discuss the shortcomings of Uniqlo and reward 1 million yen”, hoping to further optimize the product . </p
