Implementing RFID labels at Vivienne Westwood in Italy

Nurben Usta (MSCPM 11)
Nurben Usta works at the fashion house of Vivienne Westwood, where she is currently in an exciting transition from her current role as supply chain project manager to a new role as production coordinator. She has been with the company since 2012, when she began in the logistics department.

At the time, Vivienne Westwood was having significant challenges with spreadsheet management and information flow, which Nurben was able to help resolve. She then moved to project management, where she served as a point of contact for all departments. “We worked together to develop a workflow and apply it to our IT systems. This took two or three years!”

You can tell when speaking with Nurben that she’s always pleasantly surprised by the positive outcomes of her work – no matter how many times she succeeds. “We had a really unexpected achievement,” Nurben says excitedly of her time as a project manager. “Vivienne Westwood had a problem with counterfeit items, and while looking for a solution, we became one of the first companies to weave RFID [radio-frequency identification] textiles into product labels.”

Thanks to the work of Nurben and her team, Vivienne Westwood was named an “Innovator Winner” in Apparel Magazine’s prestigious 2016 Top Innovators list. The honour was well-deserved; by using RFID labels from the point of manufacture on, Nurben and her team improved the authentication process and distribution channel control.

Now, as production coordinator of men’s accessories, she is helping move Vivienne Westwood’s production in-house. “I’ve been lucky to have continuous progress in my career,” Nurben says. This new role aligns with one of her long-term goals: “Because I also studied textile engineering, technical production is one of my areas of knowledge. It’s a nice mix doing large-scale and detailed work.”

Nurben loves the fashion sector, in part because it’s quite challenging: “It’s very fast-moving and changes so rapidly.”

Nurben is a passionate world traveller who is fluent in Turkish, English and Italian. “I also love Italian food! There’s this cheese here made out of buffalo milk – when you cut it, the milk runs out. It’s really delicious, really different, really fresh.”

Nurben also shares that another of her passions is her work.

“I still remember how excited I was at the Audencia orientation dinner my second day of the programme!” Nurben says. She’ll also never forget the diversity of her MSCPM classmates and faculty members. “We had really different professors from all different countries: American, Dutch, French, British – we improved our ability to understand different accents, ways of working, ways of teaching.”

Nurben also fondly remembers her international classmates, including the time they attempted to skip class and go bowling together. Nurben laughingly recalls how five or six people piled into one taxi, only to arrive and find the place closed. “We weren’t used to the French hours of business!”

Nurben emphasises how meaningful her time at Audencia was to her current life and career. “My programme helped me adjust to different cultures, experiencing project work in a group such as Chinese, Turkish, Russian … it really helped me in my work. As you get used to this diversity, the problem you’re working on gets easier. You become adaptive, flexible, easy-going.”

“Get a mentor! When you graduate, you feel like you know everything and you have lots of confidence; there’s nothing wrong with that, of course, but you need someone who believes in you and knows your weaknesses as well as your strengths.” Nurben emphasizes that a mentor can help recent graduates build a vision of their future career. For her part, Nurben is now reaching out to new Audencia students, writing letters of welcome to offer guidance and encouragement. [BWG1]

Nurben’s relationship with her Audencia classmates is still an important part of her life. They stay connected through the usual social media channels, but they also get together in person. “I have some classmates in Milan, and we have dinners together. We arrange trips to see friends in Switzerland, France, the UK – one of us is in Mexico so we’re planning a trip there soon!” It’s clear that Nurben is still very much an active part of the Audencia community.