Volkan Tastan

Conducts market research according to the Concept team’s trend direction Manage the team to execute technical fabric developments to line up with mill strategy Negotiates fabric booking price, lead times & MOQ's Mediates between suppliers and mills over quality issues Adheres to Time & Action calendar, ensuring all development and testing deadlines are met

Collaborates with Design team and supports the execution of textile material development. Sources fabrics based on Design direction, according to brand esthetics. Meets with vendors and presents new ideas for multi brand development. Maintains healthy vendor relationships, corresponding via e-mail, phone and meetings in a timely and professional manner. Negotiates price, lead times, and deliveries.

 Succesfully guided the buyers and designers with the Summer 2017 fabric trends presentation, which resulted in an extra buying budget for the region.  Sourced and feed the departments in line with seasonal fabric trends, with the help of tools such as key mill visits, regular fashion trend catching ( Comp shop, WGSN searching, Vogue etc.)  Created a up and running fabric library, including all aspects such as Innovation, NOOS and sustainable fabrics, European mills sections, which helped the whole office to find anything they need within minutes.

 Created and drove a wide range of projects in the office; subjects from ‘Fabric Consolidation’ to ‘Quality Consistency’ , and ‘Thermal Fabric Ranges’.  Established a continous Fabric Quality control system for the manufacturers, which decreased the Final Audit failures and RTM rates.  Created a QMS form specifically for the fabric mills and arrange a team to regularly visit and advise them for improvements, which resulted in dropping the Customer returns to a record level.  On his management, Turkey became the 1st region for achieving the highest rate of ‘sustainable fabric’ usage without a price change, after several meetings and negotiations.

 Take the initiative of first samples, bulk samples and lab dib approvals.  Approving fabric quality based on the samples and test results  Communicating (and visiting mills every other month) with the suppliers in Turkey to ensure all products and processes meet customer standards.  Managing deadlines,inform customers about technical problems and develop action plans with the supplier.

 Expertised in construction,finishing and testing for all kind of jersey and most woven fabrics.  Prevented potential quality faults and increased on time deliveries by daily risk assessment meetings with his 2 shift engineers and decreased the return rates by %15.  Introduced nano-chemicals for the first time in the factory, in order to provide more durability and flexibility on specific attributes, such as wrinkle and spill resistance

 Promoted in 6 months as ‘Fabric finishing and quality control’ Team leader of 60 workers, in one of the biggest Turkish fabric mills of M&S and Next.  Within a year, on time deliveries increased by 5-6% with less rejection (with % 1.3 return) from the customers.  5% to %20 improvements on fabric quality figures (shrinkage, spirality, pilling), by building up a quality oriented team, through trainings and constant process improvements.  Formed Quality Teams from Finishing staff to start projects in order to improve productivity and quality, such as ‘’automated dosing systems’’.

First 2 years; general engineering&textile classes Last 2 years; specialized in spinning&knitting&weaving&machinery