Hole is Hole

I am working for a German company in consumer goods. And I have this lovely colleague from Thailand, who is an inspector in Quality Control.

So as I have not seen many factories from the inside, yet, I asked her a bunch of questions about productions processes, inspections, techniques and stuff. Since I know Bangladesh a little better after my last stay, I was curious, whether factory owners tried to bribe her or not. She said that this has never happened, but of course they always try to downplay minor mistakes on garments to pass the inspection.

So she told me this fun story about an incident she once had. She was checking garments during an inspection and found holes on the inside of an item. As they were not seen when wearing it and it didn’t have any effect on the overall product, they still were mistakes for quality standards but the factory manager tried to argue his way out of it. Instead of arguing, my colleague just pointed at the hole and asked him to spell what he saw. So he did. As tough and funny as she is, she kindly replied “exactly, hole is hole” and the matter was off the table.

Picard since 1928

Before coming to Bangladesh, I didn't know the brand Picard from Germany. Apparently, my interests were in other fields than leather bags, which cost up to 200 Euros. As Picard is a member of the chamber I intern at, I decided to go on a trip and visit them.

Taking along my fellow intern Matteo and our counterparts from the German Embassy, we went on to see, how those high quality (and high valued) bags were manufactured in a factory about an hour drive north of Dhaka.

As I was told, about 70% of all Picard items are manufactured in Savar. Walking around the premises, we were able to see how little wallets to large executive bags were made. Skilled workers sit in groups at workstations and are headed by a group leader. From coloring cutting edges to the quality control of ladies purses, we got an insight on what different stages a bag needs to go through until it is ready for shipment.
Besides the regular training the employees get, the company has a medical station and provides day care for babies and young children for free.

Too bad though, that there wasn’t a company sale going on, since all items were shipped to Germany for the next Christmas season...




A couple of hundred Euros?

 




exclusively made for the Japanese market

 




Can I have all of these, please?