Pavankumar Kulkarni
Bengaluru
Summary
- Quality management and industrial engineering expert with 16 years in the apparel industry. Specializes in garment quality assurance, vendor management, and continuous improvement initiatives. Demonstrated success in optimizing production processes and building effective partnerships with teams and vendors. Focused on enhancing quality and precision in manufacturing operations.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Senior Quality Process Specialist
Columbia Sportswear Company
03.2017 - Current
- Company Overview: Based in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM) is a global outdoor brand that crafts active lifestyle gear fortified with industry-leading technologies and tested in our backyard. Our apparel, footwear, and accessories reflect our Pacific Northwest heritage and indomitable spirit. Over the last 80 years, Columbia and our family of brands, Sorel, prAna, and Mountain Hardwear, have grown to over 10,000 employees and proudly sell products in over 100 countries.
- Led and managed the Sri Lanka quality team, driving regional alignment and performance excellence.
- Effectively leading and managing the Jordan quality team, delivering impactful initiatives that enhanced vendor capabilities, improved Right First-Time metrics, and implemented proactive risk mitigation strategies that significantly reduced bulk quality issues.
- Regional lead for Quality Process Management, driving excellence across Columbia’s global sourcing base.
- Established and scaled quality systems in India, Sri Lanka, Jordan, and Egypt, ensuring consistent standards across diverse factory networks.
- Champion Right First-Time delivery through integrated Product & Process Engineering, enabling best-in-class product sourcing.
- Lead vendor transformation via a Quality Embedded Value Chain, from development to bulk execution, ensuring consumer satisfaction.
- Influence vendor leadership to adopt modern manufacturing and quality practices, fostering continuous improvement and operational maturity.
- Drive implementation of Columbia’s Factory Assessment Program, delivering tailored solutions and unlocking process optimization.
- Empower factories through QFI and VQE programs, building ownership and accountability in quality performance.
- Align product outcomes with brand and regional expectations, ensuring consistent delivery of premium products.
- Conduct upstream risk assessments to establish product performance standards and mitigate potential failures.
- Validate bulk reproducibility and resolve issues across design, materials, and manufacturing processes.
- Advise teams on best practices and quality standards, enhancing product integrity and operational efficiency.
- Lead Columbia’s Strategic Product Audit Program, ensuring rigorous governance and continuous improvement.
- Lead resolution of Non-Conformance Issues and Customer Complaints, ensuring robust root cause analysis and effective closed-loop corrective actions.
- Collaborate cross-functionally to design and implement quality processes within the Regional Liaison Office, enabling best-in-class manufacturing performance.
- Based in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM) is a global outdoor brand that crafts active lifestyle gear fortified with industry-leading technologies and tested in our backyard. Our apparel, footwear, and accessories reflect our Pacific Northwest heritage and indomitable spirit. Over the last 80 years, Columbia and our family of brands, Sorel, prAna, and Mountain Hardwear, have grown to over 10,000 employees and proudly sell products in over 100 countries.
- Office 6S Implementation – Led workplace organization and efficiency improvements through 6S methodology, enhancing operational discipline and safety.
- Product Discovery Initiative – Developed a proactive risk identification framework to secure product integrity before bulk production.
- Spec Discrepancy Resolution – Spearheaded a project to eliminate techpack errors, achieving near-zero discrepancies across styles.
- New Office Construction Support – Played a key role in delivering a high-quality, best-in-class office environment aligned with brand standards.
- DWR Process Setup – Established a robust garment DWR (Durable Water Repellent) process, reducing complaints from many to zero and elevating product performance.
- Graphic Tee Setup at Vendor Site – Key contributor in setting up graphic tee capabilities at vendor.
- Planet Water Installation – Acted as brand ambassador for a clean water initiative in collaboration with vendors, reinforcing sustainability and community impact.
Associate Consultant
Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd.
06.2014 - 02.2017
- Company Overview: India’s foremost consulting firm, with an experience of working with multiple private and government organizations across various sectors. Founded on the principle of 'concept to commissioning', we partner our clients to identify their maximum-value opportunities, provide solutions to their key challenges and help them create robust and high growth business models.
- Managed and mentored cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment with project goals and fostering a culture of accountability and continuous learning.
- Implementation of skill development programs in several garment manufacturers.
- Factory set up and production improvement programs.
- Imparting IE training for the freshers.
- Actively involved in taking technical classes for Merchandisers, IE, Quality and other departments of garment manufacturing.
- Improving the present method of production.
- SOP Implementation.
- Implemented Lean concepts like 5’s, Kanban, Poka-yoke, Jidoka, and JIT in several Garment manufacturing.
- Complete factory set up from green grass to income-based factory.
- Providing end to end solutions to the clients.
- Handled all types of production improvement, Operator Efficiency Improvement, Preparing SOP and Implementation of IE and Lean Manufacturing.
- India’s foremost consulting firm, with an experience of working with multiple private and government organizations across various sectors. Founded on the principle of 'concept to commissioning', we partner our clients to identify their maximum-value opportunities, provide solutions to their key challenges and help them create robust and high growth business models.
Senior Industrial Engineer
Venus Garments India Ltd.
Ludhiana
10.2013 - 06.2014
- Company Overview: Venus Garments India Ltd, Ludhiana. The promoter of the group, Mr. Anil Kumar Jain belongs to 'Duke' family who made a humble beginning in the garment line in 1967. The group took major initiatives in popularizing knitted garments in India. Mr Anil Jain, known for his sound technical knowhow, flexibility and administrative skills, made a dent in the export market in the early nineties. With his vision and ability Venus Garments (India) Limited has grown into a reputed 3-star Exports House within a short span & competes with the best in the world.
- Managed a team of 3 Industrial Engineering professionals, ensuring effective implementation of IE systems and fostering team development.
- Provided mentorship and guidance, enabling team members to contribute meaningfully to process improvements and project execution.
- Introducing Implementing IE concept to Venus Garments to establish the system.
- Establishing the measure for performance.
- Introducing of GSD for Venus garments.
- Improving the present method of production.
- Establishing of TCR for garments.
- Line planning based on the performance.
- Layout change by reducing the NVA’s.
- Introducing of efficiency, costing & Daily performance report.
- Preproduction activity follows up.
- Pcs rate closing process based on the GSD and time study.
- Handling of about 350 machines.
- Production planning based on the order quantity.
- Internal Line, cutting, loading & shipment planning.
- Allocating the work to the resources based online plan.
- IE pre-work like OB preparation, Line Design, Consumption crosses verification.
- Execution of work as per plan & trouble shooting abnormalities practically in floor.
- Quick change over plan.
- Line balancing to smooth the flow of production using Lean technique.
- Conducting Method study to improve the process & productivity.
- Implementing new methods based on experimentation.
- Making daily & monthly efficiency, down time, DPR, FTR, Style completion, style wise efficiency reports & publishing.
- Training to new operators & grade fixing based on their skills.
- Implemented Lean concept in machinery spares.
- Reducing & controlling the cost in machinery spare through systematic analysis.
- Conducting time study, Method study to improve the Efficiency & to utilize the resources.
- Implementing Lean concepts like 5’s, Kanban, Pokayoke, Jidoka, and JIT in bag manufacturing.
- Venus Garments India Ltd, Ludhiana. The promoter of the group, Mr. Anil Kumar Jain belongs to 'Duke' family who made a humble beginning in the garment line in 1967. The group took major initiatives in popularizing knitted garments in India. Mr Anil Jain, known for his sound technical knowhow, flexibility and administrative skills, made a dent in the export market in the early nineties. With his vision and ability Venus Garments (India) Limited has grown into a reputed 3-star Exports House within a short span & competes with the best in the world.
Senior Industrial Engineer
Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd.
02.2013 - 10.2013
- Company Overview: Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd. began as a hobby project in the 1990s from a garage in Bangalore. Today, it has evolved into India’s leading outdoor gear brand, backed by a dedicated in-house R&D team and captive manufacturing facilities located in Bangalore and Solan. The company employs over 2,000 people across three production units.
- Managed and mentored a team of 3 Industrial Engineering professionals, ensuring effective implementation of IE systems and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
- Led cross-functional collaboration with production, quality, and planning teams to align goals and drive operational excellence.
- Managed operations of approximately 350 machines across production lines.
- Planned production schedules based on order quantities to ensure timely delivery.
- Coordinated internal line planning, cutting, loading, and shipment activities.
- Allocated tasks to resources in alignment with the line plan for optimal efficiency.
- Conducted Industrial Engineering (IE) pre-work including Operation Bulletin (OB) preparation, line design, and consumption cross-verification.
- Executed production plans and resolved on-floor abnormalities through practical troubleshooting.
- Developed and implemented quick changeover plans to minimize downtime.
- Performed line balancing using Lean techniques to ensure smooth production flow.
- Conducted method studies to enhance process efficiency and productivity.
- Introduced and tested new methods through experimentation for continuous improvement.
- Prepared and published daily and monthly reports including efficiency, downtime, DPR, FTR, style completion, and style-wise efficiency metrics.
- Trained new operators and conducted skill-based grading assessments.
- Implemented Lean concepts in machinery spare management to improve inventory control.
- Reduced and controlled machinery spare costs through systematic analysis and process optimization.
- Conducted time and method studies to improve efficiency and resource utilization.
- Applied Lean manufacturing principles such as 5S, Kanban, Poka-Yoke, Jidoka, and Just-In-Time (JIT) in bag manufacturing processes.
- Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd. began as a hobby project in the 1990s from a garage in Bangalore. Today, it has evolved into India’s leading outdoor gear brand, backed by a dedicated in-house R&D team and captive manufacturing facilities located in Bangalore and Solan. The company employs over 2,000 people across three production units.
Industrial Engineer
Gokaldas Exports
Bangalore
04.2012 - 02.2013
- Company Overview: Gokaldas Exports Limited (GEX) is the largest and one of the leading exporters of apparels in India having worldwide presence with established manufacturing, marketing and research capabilities and is a ISO 9001:2002 certified company. GEL is vertically integrated with a presence across the apparel and textile and textile products.
- OB & line design preparation for suit construction.
- Shop floor kaizan breakthrough in suit construction.
- Reducing of NVA’s through VSM and find the opportunity clouds to improve the process.
- Method improvements using work study technique like time study, micro motion study.
- Execution of line design and updating the difficulties and opportunities to department HOD.
- Preparing daily and monthly reports like efficiency, style wise costing, DPR, FTR, FPR, style wise efficiency, change over tracker, KPI reports.
- Line balancing, skill matrix establishing, skill up gradation of operators.
- Process improvement in finishing area using OCT vs Taktime and new layout design.
- Establishing of IE score cards and updating the practical standards to the HO.
- Utilization of man, machine, material.
- Line planning.
- Machinery and spare arrangement.
- Introducing new folders based on the experimentations.
- New project development & implementation.
- Optimizing the finishing process by reducing the NVA’s.
- Gokaldas Exports Limited (GEX) is the largest and one of the leading exporters of apparels in India having worldwide presence with established manufacturing, marketing and research capabilities and is a ISO 9001:2002 certified company. GEL is vertically integrated with a presence across the apparel and textile and textile products.
Industrial Engineer
Arvind Limited
09.2009 - 04.2012
- Company Overview: About Arvind: An ISO 9001:2000 Certified company. It’s one of the Largest Denim manufacturing companies in India.
- Actively engaged in preproduction, planning & scheduling.
- Preparing OB for denim bottoms.
- Monitoring style startup checklist at the time of batch setting.
- Execution of line design and updating the difficulties and opportunities to department HOD.
- Time study, capacity study.
- Utilization of man, machine, material.
- Line balancing, skill matrix establishing, skill up gradation of operators.
- Monitoring and improving low performing operators.
- Educating new operators about work and systems.
- Coordinating with finishing to meet the delivery dates.
- Preparing daily and monthly reports like efficiency, style wise costing, DPR, style wise efficiency, reports.
- About Arvind: An ISO 9001:2000 Certified company. It’s one of the Largest Denim manufacturing companies in India.
Education
B. Tech - Textile Technology
G.S.K.S.J.T.I
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 01.2009
Pre-university college - Science
L.V.D Collage
Raichur, Karnataka, India01.2005
Std X -KSB -
K.S.S.B High School
Raichur, Karnataka, India 01.2004
Skills
- Microsoft Office suite
- C programming
- Power BI
- Self-motivation
- Adaptability
- Troubleshooting expertise
- Solution orientation
- Team management
- Collaborative leadership
- Positive workplace culture
- Quality management
- Risk assessment
- Process optimization
- Vendor management
- Production planning
- Lean manufacturing principles
- Continuous improvement strategies
- Cross-functional collaboration
- Problem solving skills
- Effective communication abilities
- Team leadership skills
- Data analysis techniques
- Root cause analysis methods
- Stakeholder management practices
- Quality assurance processes
- Supplier qualification standards
- Efficiency optimization strategies
- Process improvement methodologies
- Process analysis techniques
- Lean Six Sigma practices
- Project management
Certification
- Decision Making for Managerial Effectiveness from IIM Bangalore
- Six Sigma Green Belt Training via LinkedIn Learning
- Gallup StrengthsFinder Training
- Influencing Skills Training
- Motion and Time Study for Lean Manufacturing
- Kanban Strategies, Line Balancing, and Value Stream Mapping
- LEAN Training at Gokaldas Exports
- Line Design, TCR, OB, and Technical Reporting
- Optimization Training and Implementation
Personal Information
- Date of Birth: 05/20/87
- Nationality: Indian
- Marital Status: Married
Languages
- English
- Hindi
- Kannada
- Telugu
Hobbies and Interests
- Badminton
- Cricket
- Bike riding
- Music
- Traveling
- Exploring new cultures
- Socializing
Disclaimer
I hereby declare that the above information given by me is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Strengths Skills
- Confident and self-motivated professional.
- Adaptable to diverse work environments.
- Strong troubleshooting abilities.
- Highly motivated to take on challenges.
- Capable of independently managing teams.
- Promotes a healthy, positive, and engaging work atmosphere.
Professional Summary
16, Quality Management, Auditing, Capability Building, Vendor Management, Industrial Engineering, Deep understanding of apparel production and quality systems, Collaborative approach to vendor and team development, Passion for continuous improvement and lean thinking, Belief that quality is a culture, not just a checklist
Timeline
Senior Quality Process Specialist
Columbia Sportswear Company
03.2017 - Current
Associate Consultant
Technopak Advisors Pvt. Ltd.
06.2014 - 02.2017
Senior Industrial Engineer
Venus Garments India Ltd.
10.2013 - 06.2014
Senior Industrial Engineer
Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd.
02.2013 - 10.2013
Industrial Engineer
Gokaldas Exports
04.2012 - 02.2013
Industrial Engineer
Arvind Limited
09.2009 - 04.2012
B. Tech - Textile Technology
G.S.K.S.J.T.I
Pre-university college - Science
L.V.D Collage
Std X -KSB -
K.S.S.B High School
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