SUSEEMA FERNANDO
Flemington,USA
Summary
Ambitious Sourcing Production Manager with 20+ years of experience in Apparel, Footwear and Home Fashion environments. Motivates employees to align performance with company objectives in fast-paced production environments. Superior competency in resource allocation, production scheduling and workflow management.
Overview
24
24
years of professional experience
Work History
Strategic Sourcing Production Manager
Delta Galil USA
New York, NY
01.2023 - Current
- Liaised with internal and external stakeholders to identify and leverage contract value opportunities
- Utilized and implemented cost-effective recruitment strategies to attract highly qualified and diverse candidates
- Managed and developed relationships with suppliers to attain maximum cost efficiency and leverage buying power
- Collaborate with product development, raw material sourcing to ensure product standards and on time delivery can be achievable
- Monitor closely WIP and TNA to ensure on time delivery
- Resolved issues quickly to maintain productivity goals
- Managed multiple projects concurrently, ensuring timely completion and meeting budget constraints
- Optimized supply chain management for improved product quality and reduced lead times
- Conducted market research to identify new potential suppliers, expanding the company's network of partners
Sourcing Production Manager -Footwear & Apparel
Zefyr Consulting LLC
Portland, OR
01.2021 - 12.2022
- Increased profit by streamlining operations
- Reviewed operations reports to understand numbers and trends
- Identified procedure or process changes required to improve performance and productivity
- Evaluated suppliers to maintain cost controls and improve operations
- Partnered with vendors and suppliers to effectively manage and budget
- Established quality SOP's with global quality team to meet branding needs and follow through reports and provide necessary guidance where requires
- Managing $20 million worth of Apparel and Footwear business
Product Manager
Inno Knits LLC
Hillsborough, NJ
12.2008 - 12.2020
- Manage 55 million worth of business per year
- Manage 5 direct reporting and 20 indirect reporting
- Oversee outsource factories and approve production allocation
- Analyze & approve production TNA & cost sheets
- Maintain vendor scorecard
- Analyzed spend data to identify and execute cost-savings, cost-avoidance and value analysis opportunities
- Increase profits by streamline operations
- Managed and developed relationships with suppliers to attain maximum cost efficiency and leverage buying power
- Reduce process bottlenecks by training & coaching employees on practices, procedures & performance strategies
Sourcing Associate
White House Black Market
Fort Myers, FL
09.2004 - 08.2005
- Assist on managing 35 million worth of business/year
- Maintain, coordinate, and track development, fit, pre-production, and marketing sample process
- Supported gross profit goals by negotiating and controlling costs, lead times, freight terms and purchase quantity requirements
- Track and report all global sourcing and production related functions and processes
- Follow up on outstanding production issues with vendors or overseas offices
- Provide written and verbal communication with cross-functional partners and overseas offices as directed by management in regards to sourcing and production functions and processes
- Lead approval meetings with Design, Production, and merchants and relay communication and follow up to overseas offices or directly to vendors
Sourcing Manager
William Econnor & Associates (Dillard's Overseas)
Overseas
04.2003 - 07.2004
- Maintained 80 million worth of business
- Lead approval meetings with Design, Production, and merchants and relay communication and follow up to overseas offices & directly to vendors
- Analyze and approve sourcing allocations, visit outsource factories
- Oversee production TNA's & Production WIP reports
- Calculated and reported actual and projected sourcing savings by spend categories
- Analyze and approve costing
- Identify opportunities to develop and improve efficiency of sourcing process for suppliers and international market
- Maintain vendor scorecard
- Managed 12 direct reporting
Sourcing Production / Product Develop. Manager
Collins Buying Office / Kelson Apparel Ltd.
Overseas
01.2001 - 04.2003
- Managed 57 million worth of business
- Analyze and approve production allocation/ Product Development + Production TNA/ costing
- Managed direct and indirect reporting
- Outsource factories & managed vendor score cards
- Participate fit sessions/quality review meetings
- Implemented new learning strategies depending upon employee's skill levels
- Source fabric and trims
Education
MBA - Business Administration & Management
University of Sunderland
Certification - Production Organization & Management
University of Moratuwa
Certification - Fashion Merchandising
University of Moratuwa
Diploma - Fashion Merchandising
Clothing Industry Training Institute
Associate of Arts - Business Administration
Technical College of Godagama
Skills
- Sourcing & Manufacturing
- Product Development
- Quality Management
- Team Building
- Costing
- Capacity Planning
- Brand building
- Microsoft Office
- Production Planning
- Operations Management
- Strong leadership abilities
- Domestic and overseas working experience
- Material Sourcing
Accomplishments
- Able to save 2.5 million in quality area through proper documenting and planning.
- Able to save millions of dollars by outsourcing $750K/year by creating offshore production team.
- Able to increase production capacity by implementing proper training facilities in production floor + proper vendor filtering strategies.
Timeline
Strategic Sourcing Production Manager
Delta Galil USA
01.2023 - Current
Sourcing Production Manager -Footwear & Apparel
Zefyr Consulting LLC
01.2021 - 12.2022
Product Manager
Inno Knits LLC
12.2008 - 12.2020
Sourcing Associate
White House Black Market
09.2004 - 08.2005
Sourcing Manager
William Econnor & Associates (Dillard's Overseas)
04.2003 - 07.2004
Sourcing Production / Product Develop. Manager
Collins Buying Office / Kelson Apparel Ltd.
01.2001 - 04.2003
Certification - Production Organization & Management
University of Moratuwa
Certification - Fashion Merchandising
University of Moratuwa
Diploma - Fashion Merchandising
Clothing Industry Training Institute
Associate of Arts - Business Administration
Technical College of Godagama
MBA - Business Administration & Management
University of Sunderland