Fabric Optimisation Specialist

Job Overview

The Fabric Optimisation Specialist plays a pivotal role in bringing the customer offer to life by establishing direct mill partnerships, focusing on new raw materials to drive simplification, cost, lead time, and quality benefits for large volume value retailers.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Insight & Customer Engagement
  • Ability to understand and interpret strategic goals to drive Raw Material strategy, implementation, and execution for own brand product ranges.
• Internal Stakeholder Collaboration
  • Partner with internal and external stakeholders to interpret new Raw Material trends for large volume value retailers.
  • Partner with design and product development teams to translate fabric briefs and trends into commercial translations for volume value retailers.
  • Source and scope fabric through new and known fabric mills to establish independent sources of Raw Materials to enable procurement.
  • Establish an optimal supply path that meets cost, quality, lead time, and fit-for-end-use requirements.
  • Drive and guide team on the application of raw material into range.
  • Collaborate with the design team to coach and develop knowledge on fabric principals and performance.
• External Stakeholder Management
  • Source and negotiate Raw Material costs, leadtimes, and quality standards.
  • Coordinate the relationship between sourcing merchandising teams and suppliers to establish the use of fabric mills across our supply base.
  • Work with design, sourcing, category, and suppliers to drive the application of Raw Materials into product ranges to achieve consolidation optimisation.
  • Partner with Quality and sustainability to drive and deliver against sustainability goals.
  • Relationship management with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Relationship management with Material Suppliers & Garment Vendors. Forging partnerships to deliver cost, quality, and technically sound products. Right products at the right price inclusive of Sustainability ambition.
• Raw Material Standards Development
  • Establish Raw Materials quality and standards that meet cost, lead time, and quality requirements for fabric performance, meeting brief and fit-for-end-use.
  • Establish all Raw Material standards library; both digital library in PLMS and physical Library across the Asia and Australia offices.
  • Continuous evaluation of materials used in ranges to drive quality, consolidation, cost, and lead time improvements.
  • Drive the procurement and allocation of Raw Materials at the supplier partner level.
  • Understanding of the entire material supply chain across all fabric types to actively seek opportunities to simplify, reduce complexity, and drive efficiency.
• Colour & Print Standards Implementation
  • Work with Mills to set up colour and print approval process and standards.
  • Ability to lead and make commercial and technical decisions on colour and print.
• Quality Assurance
  • Ensure all new fabrics sourced and adopted by the business meet the technical performance standards established and outlined by the Quality Team.
  • Support and provide Technical and commercial expertise to troubleshoot and find solutions that are fit for purpose and minimise impact.
• Continuous Improvement
  • Work end-to-end to strengthen capability, continuous improvement, and consistency in our ways of working, process improvements, optimising efficiency, and cost.
• Technical Skills & Problem Solving
  • Provide Technical experience to troubleshoot and provide solutions to deliver the best outcome for customer, team, and brand.
  • Strong influencing and people skills.
  • Strong negotiation skills with suppliers and partnership creation and maintenance.
• CORE CAREER EXPERIENCES
  • Formal qualification in Textile Engineer/Textile Technologist.
  • Previous experience 5-7yrs with accountability in a Textile/Raw Material/Fabric role medium-large volume retail business with medium-large complexity of options.
  • Expertise of the Raw Material supply chain with demonstrated expertise in across cut & sew, woven, and denim fabrications.
  • Demonstrated experience in Supplier sourcing and relationship management.
  • Demonstrated experience in providing direction of application of fabric application into end-use product ranges.
  • Previous experience working with multiple stakeholders across a broad skill base.
  • Demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills, with high attention to detail.
• BEHAVIOURS
  • Customer Focus
    • Customer first mindset, using the customer as the focal point for all decisions.
  • Commercial Acumen
    • Strong commercial analytical ability combined with technical knowledge. Ability to drive a commercial approach to cost and quality measures that suit large volume retailers.
  • People Management
    • Can identify and develop talent, create career paths, and succession planning.
  • Stakeholder Management
    • Is able to influence and positively engage with others.
• KPI's
  • Sales
  • Profit
  • VOC
  • VOS
  • VOT