Job Requirements
Role Purpose
Key process owner for New Product introduction from the merchandising side .
This role works closely with various key stakeholders - Design, NPI, Regional Sourcing, Manufacturing and category teams to ensure on time delivery of New product protos .
Key Responsibilities
1. New Product calendarization , New product process management and New product profitability adherence
- Coordination with the category team for creation of the NPD calendar
- On time adherence of brief creation by the category team and relaying the same forward to other stakeholders like Design /Sourcing.
- Maintenance of the New product launched dashboard by vendor & need state and alert category in case of excess or starvation as per the planned New product number
- Ensuring through his/her team the timely release of PDIS for the new products selected by the category team within a day .
- Ensuring that Benchmark GC ( BMCG) and AMC-LC is validated for all new products before the PDIS is released
- Ensuring that the fill rate against brief is at least 95% for all briefs released to the NPD team
- Maintain a stage gate process chart for all critical new product development projects initiated by the merchandising team
- Lead the periodic meetings between Design / NPI and merchandising to ensure adherence of time for the new products selected.
- Flag of any deviations / delays in timeline for protos in advance with specific call out of the stage where the delay is occurring.
2. Planning & execution of NPIM for both L1|L2 and L3 channels
- Managing the NPD team to ensure that the NPIMs ( both Offline & Online) are scheduled & completed on time and the hit rates are shared with the respective stakeholders – Category , NPI & Design
- Coordinate with the L3 team to ensure that the L3 indents at the NPIM are processed within 3 days
- Take end to end responsibility & Ownership of the protos brought for the NPIM till the return is completed without any damage or loss.
- Ensure RSO & Franchisee satisfaction during the NPIM process in terms of boarding , lodging , transportation as well as the indenting process.
- Ensuring that the Quality walk through with the QA team happens post each NPIM.
3. Driving Operational excellence & Lead time reduction
- Owner of the New Product development portal ( BSID) portal and ensure that the critical responsibility of ensuring that the key stakeholders have visibility on the stage & the time elapsed since selection of the design.
- Coordinating with the IT team to integrate all new product developments ( DEC designed) into the New Product development portal
- Coordinating with the IT team to ensure that all stages of proto development right from the first stage (selection of proto) to the final stage ( bulk indent) is visible on the portal
- Drive the lead time goal of selection to inwarding of selected protos ( In Tanishq quality ) in 7 days for all protos using the portal effectively.
- Ensuring proto bin liquidation through periodic nudges & interaction with the category team.
- Evangelizing and Driving the adoption of Bottom up feedback portal ( Design instigator) by the store teams and ensuring that any product gap feedback is captured only though the Design Instigator portal
4. New Product insights , development of new skillsets and new vendor onboarding
- Ensuring New vendor onboarding on the basis of the new requirement ( through Instigator portal) and the current skill set gaps in workmanship & Innovation
- Coordinating the participation in various trade shows ( IIJS / Jaipur Jewellery show ..etc)
- Collation of new trends seen across vendors as an input to the category team
- Ensuring that the new product briefs are released to the vendors with the right skillset thereby ensuring that the briefs for products with lower complexity are with cost effective partners ( KP/KC)
5. People Management
- Responsibility of allocation of the various deliverables to the right team member
- Grooming of the team to ensure that they take on higher order responsibilities
- Periodic reviews & appraisal of the team’s work
Work Experience
Internal & External Interfaces
- Internal: Design, NPI, Category, Sourcing, ISCM, IT, Regional Merchandiser & sales team
- External: Vendors, Franchisee partners, Hospitality & setup partners
Required Qualifications / Experience / Behavioural Skills
- Graduate or MBA for a reputed college or university.
- 7–10 years of experience in Jewellery business with a strong understanding of the product development process.
- Ability to coordinate with multiple stakeholders and work on tight timelines
- Ability to manage a team
- Experience in Oracle will help.
