Achala Herath Email & Phone Number

Wuxi, Jiangsu, Cn

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

Drive the sourcing and development strategies of the company.Conduct comprehensive market research to identify new and innovative fabric vendors and materials.• Manage supplier relationships, negotiate contracts, and ensure on-time delivery of materials within budget.• Oversee the quality assurance process for all sourced fabrics, ensuring adherence to specifications and industry standards.• Collaborate with designers and product development teams to develop new fabric concepts and specifications.• Oversee the technical development process, including yarn selection, weaving/knitting techniques, dyeing/finishing methods, and quality control.• Stay up to date on the latest fabric trends, technologies, and sustainable practices, and integrate these advancements into fabric development strategies.• Provide leadership, guidance, and coaching to the fabric sourcing, development, and technical team.• Foster a culture of continuous learning and development within the team.• Delegate tasks effectively and empower team members to take ownership of their projects.

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

• Driving newness and innovation together with the Sourcing & Fabric R&D team.• Maintain a consistent alignment with customers on overall concepts as it ties to our company strategy• Attend fabric shows as appropriate to gain perspective on innovation and trend• Regularly shop competitors and aspirational brands to better understand where they are and where they are going with fabrics and price points as it relates to a business• Utilize technical expertise to realistically translate the design intent on fabric and yarn requests to meet raw material cost parameters and guidelines• Oversee fabric approvals with merchandising teams, determining proper hand feel, wash, and construction• Analyze fabric needs across customers and make recommendations to Production and Design for leveraging qualities across divisions• Communicate and elevate potential quality and QA issues to leadership with recommended solves in season• Manage product integrity by reviewing testing reports. Troubleshoots to solve and recommend options• Ensure product development milestones and calendar dates are met• Build and articulate seasonal fabrics that represent overall vision, and textile industry innovations and trends during mill-weeks• Reverse engineer innovative fabrics/yarns to meet a value proposition

Wuxi, Jiangsu, China

• Driving newness and innovation together with the Sourcing & Fabric R&D team.• Maintain a consistent alignment with customers on overall concepts as it ties to our company strategy• Attend fabric shows as appropriate to gain perspective on innovation and trend• Regularly shop competitors and aspirational brands to better understand where they are and where they are going with fabrics and price points as it relates to a business• Utilize technical expertise to realistically translate the design intent on fabric and yarn requests to meet raw material cost parameters and guidelines• Oversee fabric approvals with merchandising teams, determining proper hand feel, wash, and construction• Analyze fabric needs across customers and make recommendations to Production and Design for leveraging qualities across divisions• Communicate and elevate potential quality and QA issues to leadership with recommended solves in season• Manage product integrity by reviewing testing reports. Troubleshoots to solve and recommend options• Ensure product development milestones and calendar dates are met• Build and articulate seasonal fabrics that represent overall vision, and textile industry innovations and trends during mill-weeks• Reverse engineer innovative fabrics/yarns to meet a value proposition

• Develop new products to customers and markets by analyzing trends, predicting market developments with extrapolating insights. • Closely work with material suppliers and customers to support the business with up to date technologies from polymer to garments and cater to innovative product needs. • Identify customer requirements with a focus on functional, emotional, and social dimensions and design products and services to fill that need.• Initiate cross-development for customers to achieve quick business wins. • Extract new business and innovative ideas and convert such ideas to investment-grade opportunities. • Proactively seek to understand the technology requirements of new projects and growth flatforms and develop an innovative approach with technological challenges to generate meaningful resolutions. • Establish testing and inspection standards based on customer requirements for newly developed fabrics and define product specifications. • Ensure the successful integration of new products to bulk production and provide technical solutions.• Manage and guide a team of Textile Engineers to achieve functional goals. Key Skills • Strong Technical knowledge of the warp and weft knitting fabrics• Fabric Manufacturing Process • New product introduction process ( NPI) • New Product development• New Business Development • Innovation• Management and Leadership• Lean Manufacturing • Sourcing • Fabric Costing and Pricing • Engineering

Key Achievements• Helped grow Trischel to the largest 50 Gauge Interlock capacity in the world with innovative developments.• Managed NIKE counter development and help to win Single Jersey business to the organization • Helped to implement New Product Introduction (NPI) process and smooth commercialization process based on lean manufacturing tools to ensure the transition from new product development to bulk production is smoothly achieved • Have developed several new innovative sport wear, intimates and swim collection for customers like Nike, Lululemon, Hurley, Decathlon etc.

Responsible for Active fabric developments

In plant trainee at MAS Design

B Sc Engineering (Hon'S), Textile Process Engineering

Activities and Societies: Vice president Engineering Faculty Students' Union(Engineering faculty students' union is 100% non political.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba, Marketing

Diploma In Management Accounting, Management Accounting

Post Graduate Diploma In Business Administration

Warp Knit Fabric Analysis

5 days specials course on warp-knit fabric analysis

Knitting Machinery And Fabric Analysis

Special training at Santoni about knitting machinery and fabric development/analysis

Advance Level, Physical Sciences