Kai Yin Chu

- Oversee all the quality function from garment technician, quality assurance, quality control, product testing to social compliance. - Manage the QA team in HK to work closely with inhouse designers, sourcing team and production team in product development, commercialization, and production. - Manage the QC team in offshore providing guidance, technical advice, and training. - Liaison with production team to ensure deliver fit and quality goods to customer and resolve daily production issue

- Lead the vendors’ empowerment program to enable them to make risk assessments and commercial decisions on test failure and ultimately let vendors be responsible for their product quality from design, production, testing to market response. - Build the process to collect all testing-related data as one of the key KPIs in vendors’ scorecards, to analyze vendors’ performance, and drive for improvement. - Lead accessories’ product integrity team in Hong Kong and Shanghai for product compliance and quality improvement in all non-apparel products. Managed the team in daily operation including reports review, risk assessment in testing failure, and providing technical advice to all related parties. - Improve the overall product quality via different strategies including updating safety & quality requirements, proactive participation in product development and line review, strengthening production control in factories, and enhancing production quality monitoring process by close cooperation with QA team and 3rd parties. - Leveraged 3rd party laboratories’ resources in monitoring vendor testing performance via data collection and analysis. - Working with CoE PI in head office and brands (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic) to review and realign quality expectation and channel it to measurable deliverables. - Leaded investigation in customer compliant and cooperate with QA, VM & vendor to prepare and execute the corrective action plan.

- Generate sales through customer account development and relationship management including trade show participation, exhibition organization, cost estimation, quotation, price & terms negotiation, quality, testing and compliance, orders follow up to shipment and excellent sales services. - Full supervision and handling of our retail clients, mainly large multinational retailer stores in the US and Europe.

- Lead the product stewardship function in Asia, managing the global product testing team in Hong Kong and two in-house laboratories in China and Bangkok. - Leading numerous global priority projects including merging newly acquired brands to the global process - Leading the spin-off of jeanswear business (Lee, Wrangler, brands) in the Product Stewardship team, including analyzing the need after the spin-off, operational planning and implementation of the plan. - Provide strategic and operational leadership in assuring manufacturing standards and global product regulatory requirements - Merging the footwear compliance activities into global product stewardship management. - Acting as the focal point in Asia sourcing operation and VF’s brands, building consistency throughout different brands testing and quality control process while respecting different brand’s identity and history. - Design and implement internal processes to assure product compliance and quality. - Leading efforts to build and enforce factory compliance processes in Asia. - Leveraging 3rd party labs to meet the daily demands of each brand and market while simplifying the process and look for cost-saving opportunities.

- Leading accessories product integrity team in Hong Kong and Shanghai including onsite staff from 3rd party laboratories. Monitoring the team in daily test reports review, reviewing and providing risk assessment in testing failure cases, providing technical advice to external, supplier or mill, and internal, vendor management or buyer. - Conducting Line Review every season for all accessories product, from scarves, hats, socks, to footwear, handbags, jewelries and sunglasses. Proactively participated in product development to provide technical guideline in avoiding testing failure and potential quality issue. - Leveraging 3rd party laboratories’ resources in monitoring vendor testing performance via data collection and analysis. Preparing suppliers’ testing performance report and working closely with vendor management team to drive suppliers to improve their performance. - Working with CoE PI in head office and brands to review and realign testing protocol as well as testing method and requirement. Also supporting China PI team in implementing GB standard. - Leading investigation in customer compliant and cooperate with QA, VM & vendor to prepare and execute corrective action plan.

- Reviewing performance and compliance tests requirement, to launch a new requirement that balancing product integrity and cost implication. - Conducting seasonal line review, calling out compliance and performance risk with recommendation of improvement before production start. - To keep abreast of update regulations and requirements, monitor performance of materials and products to ensure that tests are conducted in accordance with required standards - monitoring the test performance of supplier and channeling this information to buyer and designer team - Coordinating with clients and factories for follow up report status and further explanation of testing results - Reviewing test report, to provide technical advices for quality improvement and problem solving to both internal and external - Coordinating with commercial laboratories for testing, streamlining the testing program to ensure report are delivered on-time and consistently. - Monitoring the performance of 3rd party laboratories, negotiating and managing the testing cost. - Manage documentations including RSL, testing manuals, SOPs, etc.

Heading the Material Testing Department, to analyze and optimize footwear raw materials Liaising with different testing services providers to ensure precise result is provided on time. Helping to source better and cleaner material that can meet Germany customers’ chemical requirement Providing feedback to vendor and factory based on the testing result, helping and persuading them to improve their product quality. Working on a project in grading the company's suppliers on their testing performance in turns of quantified indicator to encourage them to improve

- Stationed in Wenzhou city of Zhejiang Province, to open a new cooperate laboratory with Wenzhou Entry & Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau of PRC. - Oversaw and managed the development of the new laboratory including renovation, equipment purchasing, capability development in both analytical and physical testing, capacity and manpower planning etc. - Built up a suitable work flow for the new laboratory, arranged training and supervision of junior staff

- Stationed in Shanghai, managed daily operation process of Softlines division with more than 400 staffs, oversaw the administrative functions (sample login, report typing), laboratory operation (physical and fiber laboratory), customer service and invoice issuing. - Reviewed operation process via different KPI measurement (e.g. Report Turn around Time, Report Accuracy, etc) and benchmarking. - Participated in new product development project to defense and enhance market share in footwear testing sector by repackaging and advancing testing capability in great China laboratory network

Managed the daily operation of physical and footwear laboratory in Hong Kong with more than 40 staffs Introduced KPIs to monitor the daily operations

Reformed the footwear team structure to suit with the business growth, Developed new capability for EU footwear testing, Worked on obtaining and maintaining HOKLAS accreditation for footwear testing