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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.
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.
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.

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