Browsing by Author "Vidanagamachchi, Kasuni"

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Industry 4.0 readiness assessment for apparel industry: A study in the Sri Lankan context
(Department of Industrial Management, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Lakmali, Erandika; Vidanagamachchi, Kasuni; Nanayakkara, Julian
Sri Lankan apparel industry is the most significant and driving contributor to the country’s economy by constituting a large portion of GDP. In the highly competitive apparel world, manufacturers search solutions for problems such as worker inadequacy while minimizing the human impact. Therefore, there is a need for apparel manufacturers to enhance value chain processes with the latest technologies. Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution that transforms the physical production into a combined cyber-physical production environment with IoT and decentralized intelligence. It enhances the process functions from new product development to logistics by providing real-time visibility of the production flow. Existing literature mentions the applications of Industry 4.0 in the apparel industry, but these have not addressed the issue of assessing the readiness for its adaptation in the apparel value chain process. Hence this scrutiny proposes a model to assess the current level of readiness of the Sri Lankan apparel industry to adapt Industry 4.0 technologies and practices. The model was developed based on a systematic review of literature with the industry experts' guidance. The factors that determine the readiness for Industry 4.0 within an organizational context were classified under four categories; People, Process, Technology and Data which were defined as readiness dimensions. The proposed model consists of five readiness levels from 0 to 4 namely: Stranger, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite. This model enables managers to measure the readiness for adapting of Industry 4.0 in selected apparel value chain processes by using the specified minimum requirements under each dimension and level. The outcome of this study indicates that Sri Lankan apparel industry is in "Intermediate" level in terms of overall readiness with a value of 1.91 in the predefined readiness scale from 0 to 4.
A Knowledge Transfer Model to Implement Lean Practices for Apparel Industry based Multi-stakeholder 3PLs
(International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2020) Gamini, Lakshika; Vidanagamachchi, Kasuni; Wickramarachchi, Ruwan
Warehousing plays an important role in the logistics sector in order to facilitate economic and business benefits for both parties including customer and the service provider. 3PL (third-party logistics) service providers are specialized in providing end-to-end logistics solutions including warehousing, transportation and distribution to their multi-stakeholders in various sectors (Apparel, FMCG). Lean knowledge transferring process from 3PLs to their apparel based multi-stakeholders is a kind of challenging process for both parties due to several factors. The way of transferring and receiving knowledge is directly affected by the success of any business. In this research, a framework is developed on the perspective of 3PLs by examining the factors that affect effective knowledge transferring on lean practices for their clients. Based on these, the model which consists of relevant factors named extent of lean practices, capabilities of the source and the recipient and the relationship between them are providing a clear roadmap to the service provider and their stakeholders. The proposed model will help the 3PL service provider to identify critical success factors for sharing the knowledge of lean practices effectively. Also, it facilitates the successful collaboration with the multi-stakeholders and finally it helps to improve the overall warehouse operational performance.
Transforming Agriculture Supply Chain with Technology Adoption-: A Critical Review of Literature
(International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, 2020) Karunanayaka, Chapa; Vidanagamachchi, Kasuni; Wickramarachchi, Ruwan
With the increase in the global population, natural disasters and climatic changes the agricultural supply chain faces lots of challenges due to fluctuations of both supply and demand sides. This is adding pressure on the agriculture supply chain demanding it to be more productive and efficient. Adapting to technology to improve the agriculture supply chain have been identified as one solution. As the rest of the world is moving towards digital transformation, agriculture supply chains should follow the suite in order to meet the current challenges they face. This article reviews the literature on technology and technology applications in the agriculture supply chain. This article has identified the technological applications that have been built with respect to agricultural processes. Among them, it has found that, IoT as the technology which was based on many technology applications developed within the past few years. Further, this highlights IoT, Big Data and Blockchain as true enablers for the transformation of the agriculture supply chain to a digital agriculture supply chain.