Work Experience at Matalan- Workplace and Implementation

Matalan's head office is based in Knowsley industrial estate in Liverpool. They were originally based in Skelmersdale and have only relocated in the past couple of years. The new building has a postal room, sample room, fitting rooms as well as a brand new canteen for all staff. The building has offices over 3 floors, and each floor had its own department; children's wear and home wear on the 1st floor, men's wear on second and women's wear on the third floor. The quality assurance department was also on the second floor, where fittings took place. There are over 1000 Matalan employees who's job roles include; trainee buyers, assistant buyers, head buyers, designers, trainee merchandisers, assistant merchandisers, head merchandisers and many more, these job roles would be on every department. All offices were modern and spacious, with up to date technological equipment. These were just employees in the office, however there are many more in stores throughout the UK. As I was based in the head office, I didn't get to see the manufacturing process, therefore I didn't know what types of machinery were used during this stage, however I know that most of their factories are based in places such as India and Turkey, and they would have specialist people running the production. They would have experienced machinists on the sewing machines, and also pattern cutters, who would use software such as the Gerber cutter for precise and efficient pattern cutting. However, the equipment I got to see was computers (every member of staff had their own), and the designers of each department had Adobe software; Photoshop and Illustrator installed onto their computers. These are crucial in a design department as they allow workers to be as precise and also as creative as possible. In addition, the designers also had a device called the Wacom, this was a touchpad where their keyboards where, and they used a sensitive touch pen so that they were able to draw on the touchpad as though they were using a mouse. This device was specifically used by the designers as they were able to draw on Illustrator and edit on Photoshop a lot quicker than using a mouse. Using the Wacom to design also meant the designs being created were a lot more precise and professional looking, as they could emulate the feeling of using a pencil to draw with, whereas using the mouse to draw could feel unnatural.

Health and Safety act:

Most of the health and safety assessments were about IT resources and telecommunications code of conduct;

• Do not allow other users to learn or use your individual passwords or utilise their identities.
• Do not use the internet to view, obtain, download, transmit or otherwise access offensive material.
• Do not use the email system for personal purposes unless specifically authorised to do so.
• Do not create, transmit or forward emails or attachments which contain offensive material.
• Do not delete or attempt to delete the disclaimer which is automatically attached to all outgoing emails.

Here is an article about Matalan's head office: 
 https://www.drapersonline.com/inside-matalans-new-head-office/5074001.article

Entrance to Matalan's head office

A few of Matalan's employees

layout of the office i was working in