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Item Adoption of Industry 4.0 and lean concepts in hospitals for healthcare operational performance improvement.(International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 2021) Ilangakoon, T. S.; Weerabahu, S. K.; Samaranayake, P.; Wickramarachchi, R.Purpose – This paper proposes the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4) technologies and lean techniques for improving operational performance in the healthcare sector. Design/methodology/approach – The research adopted a systematic literature review and feedback of healthcare professionals to identify the inefficiencies in the current healthcare system. A questionnaire was used to get feedback from the patients and the hospital staff about the current practices and issues, and the expected impact of technology on existing practices. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Findings – The results indicate that I4 technologies lead to the improvement of the operational performance, and the perceptions about I4 technologies are made through the pre-medical diagnosis. However, a weak correlation between lean practices and healthcare operational performance compared to that of I4 technologies and operational performance indicate that lean practices are not fully implemented in the Sri Lankan healthcare sector to their full potential. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to two government hospitals, with insights from only the doctors and nurses in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, the study is limited to only selected aspects of I4 technologies (big data, cloud computing and IoT) and lean concepts (value stream mapping and 5S). Therefore, recommendations on the adoption of I4 technologies in the healthcare sector need to be made within the scope of the study investigation. Practical implications – The implementation of I4 technologies needs careful consideration of process improvement as part of the overall plan for achieving the maximum benefits of technology adoption. Originality/value – The findings of the research can be used as a benchmark/guide for other hospitals to explore the adoption of I4 technologies, and how process improvement from lean concepts could influence the overall operational performance.Item A combined Approach of Analytic Hierarchy process and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Methods for Evaluating Key Success Factors of Third-Party Logistics Service Providers(IEOM Society International, 2021) Perera, T; Wijayanayake, A; Wickramarachchi, R.This study aims to evaluate key success factors associated with the third-party logistics (3pL) service providers in Sri !1tru.This study used the systematic literature review and expert's opinlon to"identi$ tt. t.y success factors of third-party logistics industry in Sri Lanka. In total, 20 key rr...r, factors were obtained, and those key success factors were grouped into four categories as organization strategy, management and process, human resources and customer o-rientation' The study used the Q-sort technique to gr*p key-success factors into four categories and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHf) to identiflz the priorities of thi key ,u"..r, factors. Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method used to identify the interelationships among the key ,r.r.r, factors in each category' The result shows that business expansion, technology and automation, internationalizationof operations, management and leadership style are the most important key iuccess factors in the Sri Lankan third-party logistics industry' The outcomes ofthis study can help managers/practiiioners to formulate flexible decision strategies for performance better in their third-party logistics firms and experience a competitive advantage against the competitors.Item A lean maturity assessment model to improve warehouse operations for the 3PL industry in Sri Lanka(4th International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Gamini, G. L. M.; Vidanagamachchi, K.; Wickramarachchi, R.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. Efficient warehouse operations can yield a win-win situation for both parties. Lean management has become a well-accepted and most commonly used approach in identifying waste and non-value-added activities in warehousing industry. However, majority of the 3PL service providers in Sri Lanka have not incorporated those practices into their operations mainly due to lack of domain knowledge. Maturity assessment models can be used as a self-assessment tool and are useful for the company to assess the current stage of lean implementation. It guides the company to set benchmarks and enhance the overall productivity of the operation. Although there are many maturity assessment models developed focusing on various domains such as software development and project management, no such work has been carried out for the field of 3PL warehouse operations in relation to application of Lean management practices. In this research, the authors have developed a lean maturity assessment model to assess the level of lean maturity applicable for the 3PL warehouse operations. A systematic review of literature was conducted by referring 25 research articles. Existing maturity models developed for other applications and lean warehouse practices were also studied in order to develop a suitable maturity model. A pilot study also was carried out with a 3PL provider, in order to study on the practical aspect of lean implementation. Based on these, a Lean maturity assessment model which consists of stages providing a clear roadmap to a company was developed. The results of the study will lead the relevant 3PL service provider to identify the level they are existing and decide the strategy they need to implement in order to improve warehouse efficiency. It is recommended to validate this model through multiple case studies and also the reviews of experts in 3PL warehouses as further research areaItem Combining Industry 4.0 with Lean Healthcare to Optimize Operational Performance of Sri Lankan Healthcare Industry(IEEE Xplore Digital Library, 2018) Ilangakoon, T.; Weerabahu, S.; Wickramarachchi, R.Healthcare is one of the industries that requires the highest quality services for the wellbeing of the society. Today, the demand for healthcare growing rapidly with increasing aging population, rapid urbanization, changing diets, inactive lifestyles and rising obesity levels. The Industry 4.0 technologies and lean techniques can be used to enhance the operational performance of the healthcare supply chain and the patient flow. This paper examines the factors contributing for the inefficiencies in Sri Lankan Healthcare sector and how the operational performance can be optimized through premedical diagnosis of diseases by incorporating Industry 4.0 technologies and lean techniques. Based on a systematic review of literature and feedback of healthcare professionals, the paper identifies the inefficiencies in the current healthcare system. A conceptual framework has been developed by considering the direct impacts from lean management practices and Industry 4.0 technologies on improving operational performance through pre-medical diagnosis of diseases. Thus, patients can take preventive actions and be more health conscious while the healthcare providers and other related parties can plan their medical services and supporting services for arising health requirements making the healthcare industry much more efficient.Item Applicability of Lean and Green Concepts in Logistics 4.0: A Systematic Review of Literature(IEEE Xplore Digital Library, 2019) Edirisuriya, A.; Weerabahu, S.; Wickramarachchi, R.Sustainability is emerging as a main consideration throughout the industrial world due to the environmental pollution and degradation happening in a major scale as a result of industrial wastes while lean management is becoming a popular management tool in minimizing waste. Logistics industry contributes for these issues due to the wastes released in a considerable amount. Experts have highlighted that implementing lean principles in parallel to green concepts is more successful; which could lead to waste and cost reduction. A theoretical gap has been identified in the field of logistics in applying lean and green concepts in the context of Industry 4.0. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to address the identified research gap with the objective of examining the important lean practices and green concepts which are expected to enhance the operational performance of logistics functions. A key word based search, analysis of the topic and abstract, full text review were the steps followed respectively, for selecting the most relevant research papers which have been proven as valid, accepted and published to extract the knowledge for this study. As the major contribution, authors have developed a conceptual framework which focuses on the enhancement of operational performance of logistics operations by applying lean and green concepts with special reference to Industry 4.0 technologies. The results of the study will be beneficial for the LSP as it will suggest the strategies, concepts and techniques to enhance the operational performance of logistics functions.Item Green vehicle routing problem: A systematic review of literature(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Waidyathilaka, E.; Tharaka, V. K.; Wickramarachchi, R.Among the key supply chain functions, logistics plays a prominent role in delivering products and services to the customers. The process accounts for a larger portion of the supply chain cost. Hence, it has forced organizations to move towards cost reduction strategies. Vehicle routing optimization is one such strategy and depending on the organizational focus it has been derived to achieve multiple objectives along with the main objective of reducing the costs. Over the past decade, the concern on environmental sustainability has increased among world population, thus forcing the industries to move towards sustainable operations. Transportation has been identified as a supply chain operation with a high impact on the environmental sustainability. The impact of transportation on the environmental sustainability is multifaceted, such as the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, air pollutants, environmental impacts from the transportation of toxic chemicals etc. A new branch of Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) known as Green VRP (GVRP) has been emerged to satisfy the need of ensuring the sustainability in transportation. GVRP consists of several categories that focus on different sustainability requirements resulting from transportation. Literature review has been carried out with ten articles selected through a three step filtering process; preliminary search based on key words, primary filtering of articles based on title and abstract and secondary filtering of articles based on relevance to the topic. Based on the literature reviewed on GVRP, it has identified the features and classification of GVRP along with the limitations and the predictable future developments. The reviewed literature has also been analyzed to identify the algorithms used for problem solving. Hence, this study presents the results of a systematic review of literature on GVRP. The article will stand as a guide in understanding the current state of the practices in relation to GVRP and will provide guidance for future research as well.Item Simulation-based network optimization for petroleum distribution in Sri Lanka: A systematic review of literature(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Sachini, W. W. N.; Weerabahu, W. M. S. K.; Wickramarachchi, R.Petroleum is one of the industries that has a massive impact on living conditions of the population. Petroleum industry contributes for transportation, power generation, agro chemicals, residential, commercial and industrial needs etc. Petroleum distribution network plays an increasingly important function in delivering value to the end user. Petroleum industry’s complexity has grown as a result of tight competition, strict environmental regulations, high operational costs and low margin of profits. The petroleum product demand fluctuation and the present scenario of high petroleum crude oil price fluctuation demonstrate that industries and markets all over the world are impacted by the volatility and uncertainty of the petroleum industry. These reasons drive petroleum industry toward strategic planning and optimization with respect to the uncertainties and constraints in factors such as the source, raw materials availability, expected market demand, production costs and distribution costs. The objective of this research is to study the current petroleum distribution network in Sri Lanka, identify the inefficiencies and critical factors causing inefficiencies and to propose a simulation-based optimization model to overcome these inefficiencies. A conceptual framework has been developed based on the findings observed from critical review of literature and further data was collected from Sri Lankan petroleum industry domain experts using in-depth interviews. The qualitative analysis of data has been done to evaluate the research findings. With the computational constraints of solving petroleum distribution network problems, a few optimization and approximation approaches have been introduced in the recent past. It has been identified that Sri Lankan petroleum distribution network has not been taken in to account for the optimization. Hence, this paper expects to introduce an innovative mathematical model for the optimization. The proposed model will be validated with complex and real data extracted from Sri Lankan petroleum industry. Subsequently, simulation is used to create scenarios on the designed model. Thus, this study depicts a simulation-based distribution network optimization model, with the purpose of minimizing the cost, based on inefficiencies and contributing critical factors, which are specific for Sri Lankan petroleum industry. As a result, the developed optimization model would enable the Sri Lankan petroleum industry to achieve higher performance leading to competitive advantage.Item A systematic review of literature on the readiness of post-harvesting technologies of paddy cultivation towards agriculture 4.0 in developing countries(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Sandamali, G. A. S.; Weerabahu, W. M. S. K.; Wickramarachchi, R.Agriculture is one of the key sectors of the economy of developing countries and paddy rice is the leading cereal crop grown in most of those countries. The introduction of new technologies to the post harvesting phase help to minimize the serious losses occurring during post-harvest operations. The evolution of agriculture 4.0 can be compared with similar evolutions in the industrial world, with industry 4.0. Agriculture 4.0 stands for the integrated internal and external networking of farming operations. It is vital to assess the readiness to adapt to this technological transformation which will provide a comprehensive roadmap to implement advanced technologies. Readiness is the measure used to assess the maturity of evolving technologies. It is the systematic, metrics-based process that assess the maturity of, and the risk associated with, critical technologies. The objective of this study is to investigate the readiness of post harvesting technologies of paddy cultivation related to agriculture 4.0. The relevant knowledge was extracted from the published research papers which have been accepted as valid. The articles were collected through a web search based on the key words. Then the topic and the abstract of each article were analysed in order to decide the relevance of the article for the study. Next, the full text of selected papers were reviewed by qualitative analysis to be considered in the final analysis. The technologies used in paddy cultivation were extracted from the selected research papers and analyzed qualitatively. Based on the comprehensive literature review, following fundamental questions: What are the post harvesting technologies of agriculture 4.0 which could be used in paddy cultivation and what changes are needed to be done in order to adapt to the new technologies were answered. The results of the study provide a model to assess the readiness of post harvesting technologies of paddy cultivation towards agriculture 4.0, which is aligned with complementary factors along four dimensions; Technoware, Humanware, Infoware, and Orgaware. Technoware includes precision agriculture which use drones to monitor the cultivation, autonomous tractors for harvesting, sensors such as capacitive sensor, mass flow sensor, photoelectric sensor and impact sensor for various purposes in storage phase. Humanware includes level of competence, perception on technology. Inforware compromises level of utility of facts and information sharing. Orgaware refers to the need of organizational support to make Technoware and Humanware more effective.Item Evaluating the level of best practices related with lean and green concepts of logistics service providers(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Edirisuriya, A. W.; Weerabahu, W. M. S. K.; Wickramarachchi, R.The world is experiencing environmental problems due to the environmental pollution and degradation happening in a major scale due to the waste generated both by public and industries. Among the industrial waste generators, logistics industry plays a major role due to the wastes released in different forms in their operations. Sustainability is emerging as a main consideration throughout the industrial world to reduce and control the industrial waste. Lean management is becoming a popular management tool on minimizing wastes. Although lean and green concepts have been studied in different industrial contexts, a theoretical gap has been identified in the field of logistics. A comprehensive literature review was conducted along with the expert reviews based on interviews to address the identified research gap. The objective of the study is to examine the best practices related with lean and green concepts which are applicable to the logistics industry. A key word based search in Google scholar and Scopus was conducted for selecting the published research papers which have been proven as valid to extract the knowledge for this study. In this stage, the studies conducted on lean and sustainable practices were selected while excluding the other studies. Then the topics and abstracts of selected articles were analyzed to select the studies that have studied about the practical implementation of green and lean concepts. Finally, a full text review was conducted to identify best practices in the logistics industry while excluding the research papers in other industries. Transportation and the warehousing are the main logistics functions focused in this study. The result of the study is a best practice reference model developed by authors for logistics service providers to identify their stage in implementing lean and green best practices. Best practices were identified through a comprehensive literature review and industry based observations. The identified best practices have been categorized for five different levels which gives a clear understanding for an organization regarding the current stage while providing a clear road map for organizations to develop to the next stage. The model is validated through the reviews of experts in the logistics industry. The proposed model will be beneficial for the logistics service providers. It can be concluded that the result of the study will lead the logistics service providers to reduce their industrial wastes and provide a sustainable service if the model is used properly.Item Investigating industry 4.0 applications in Sri Lankan healthcare industry to optimize operational performance(Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2018 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Ilangakoon, M. T. S.; Weerabahu, W. M. S. K.; Wickramarachchi, R.Healthcare is one of the industries that depends on the highest quality services for the wellbeing of the society. Today, the demand for healthcare has been increased with increasing aging population, rapid urbanization, changing diets, inactive lifestyles and rising obesity levels. Healthcare providers search for different innovative methods to optimise their operations and increase the patient satisfaction. Most of the western countries are now adopting new technologies to improve the efficiency of their healthcare processes with the introduction of Industry 4.0 concept. Industry 4.0 which is also known as fourth industrial revolution, uses technologies such as big data, Internet of Things, simulation, augmented reality, cloud computing, autonomous systems, cyber-physical systems, additive manufacturing and systems integration. When Industry 4.0 is applied in the healthcare sector, it is known as Health 4.0. The objective of this study is to investigate the current applications of technology in healthcare processes, applicability of Industry 4.0 technologies in Sri Lankan healthcare domain and how these technologies optimise the operational performance of healthcare operations and processes. Based on a systematic review of literature, a conceptual framework had been developed. Further data was collected from healthcare domain experts using in-depth interviews to identify the level of industry 4.0 technology applications in Sri Lankan healthcare domain for the enhancement of operational performance. A qualitative analysis of data using thematic analysis had been done to evaluate the research findings by identifying the technological applications in healthcare and categorize them under Industry 4.0 components. It was found that major issues such as absence of continuous medical records of patients, early diagnosis of diseases and intellectual waste happening in hospitals can be managed and reduced using Industry 4.0 technologies such as big data analytics, cloud computing and Internet of Things. These technologies can be used to develop systems to share patient information over cloud systems, information systems for resource planning and connecting medical practitioners, disease prediction systems and new sensor based equipment to optimise the healthcare processes, which will make it easier for the patients to get treated and for the hospital staff to manage their routine work efficiently and effectively.