Browsing by Author "Wijayanayake, A."

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An AHP approach to prioritize the distributor’s requirements while minimizing the transportation cost
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Madushika, I.K.; Wijayanayake, A.
Academic and corporate interest in Supply Chain Management (SCM) has risen considerably in recent years as SCM has emerged as one of the major areas for companies to gain a competitive advantage. Basically, the three fundamental stages of a Supply Chain (SC) are, procurement, production and distribution. Among these three stages, distribution plays a vital role as it directly impacts both the SC cost and customer experience. Many models have been developed in the past to minimize transportation cost under different constraints, as the main cost of logistics is transportation. In fact, when the organizations run on cost cutting approaches, not all the customers are satisfied when the demand surpasses the supply. Therefore, to retain the most important customers a proper mechanism is needed to prioritize them. Previous studies have been addressed different problems in logistics and improved models have been developed to maximize the service level and customer satisfaction but prioritization of customers is still a gray area which remains in the logistics literature. One of the main hurdles for distributors is handling situations, where the demand is higher than the supply and selected set of orders have to be delivered. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to identify the most important customers to be delivered first, from the distributor’s perspective while minimizing the cost of transportation. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to identify the most important customers to the organization, under different criteria, defined by the distributor. All the criteria and alternatives were compared pair-wisely to calculate the overall importance of the alternatives. A mixed integer linear programing model has been developed with priority values in order to minimize the transportation cost. The proposed model will satisfy the needs of the important customers first and then the rest of the customers will be satisfied with the remaining quantities. When comparing the results of the developed model and ordinary transportation model, the transportation cost is higher in the developed model than the general transportation model. However, the satisfactory level of meeting the demands of the important customers is almost 100%. Therefore, this model is more appropriate for the firms who value customer needs more than minimizing the transportation cost.
AHP integrated MILP approach to minimize transportation cost to prioritize distribution requirements
(International Research Conference on Smart Computing and Systems Engineering - SCSE 2018, 2018) Madushika, I.K.; Wijayanayake, A.
Customer satisfaction can be considered as the most important factor for any business as it is tightly linked to revenue and determines the company’s growth and the sustainability. Further it is the leading indicator of customer repurchases and loyalty. Final outcome of the effective supply chain (SC) management is to make the customer loyal and if failed it would result to transfer the customer towards the competitor. Understanding this importance, research in supply chain management (SCM) has grown significantly in recent years. Many organizations have identified that customer satisfaction (CS) and the SC cost are linked and it is impossible to optimize both at the same time. Many studies have been done under different situations to minimize transportation cost (TC) as it ultimately reduces a tremendous amount of SC cost. The need for a reliable approach to optimize customer satisfaction while minimizing the transportation cost has been raised in many occasions as improving customer satisfaction is a goal sought by many businesses in the logistic industry. This requirement becomes critical when the distributor has to select a set of customer orders to be delivered when the supply is less than the demand. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a model to find a way to optimally satisfy the customer orders, while minimizing the transportation cost. As a result, a customer focused approach is presented by incorporating Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and then employing a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to find the optimal solution. The proposed model addresses customer satisfaction while minimizing the transportation costs
Application of Markov theory for inventory and cost analysis: Case study for tyre re-treading in automobile company.
(International Research Symposium on Pure and Applied Sciences, 2017 Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Helarathna, N. B.; Wijayanayake, A.
Tyre re-treading is a major value adding process in Sri Lankan rubber and tyre industry as it is focused on repairing, refurbishing and remanufacturing of used tyres’ carcass by attaching new tread on the outer layer. The tyre repairing methods reduce the tyre disposal and enhances the recycling process to earn profits while making the company efficient in environmental performance. The process’ complexity is much higher than traditional manufacturing process as it changes frequently based on the quality of the used tyre. Therefore, it requires close monitoring in order to ensure that the output is error-free to meet the customer expectation in an economical way. Identified key processes in the tyre re-treading department are initial inspection, buffing, tread preparation and building, curing and final inspection which are followed respectively. These are considered as different workstations in the tyre re-treading process. At the end of the process, if the product is in an acceptable quality level, then it is dispatched to the customer, and if not, then the product is sent for re-rework or considered as a defect /rejected product. It is experienced that there are many products fall into the re-rework category causing higher inventory in every workstation and creating unnecessary work order complications and delivery backorders. Also, the processes which are not properly scrutinized incur unexpected raw material, labour and machinery consumption which finally become a huge cost to the company. Since there is no proper mechanism to identify the number of items sent for reverse operations or re-reworks, there is no way to incorporate these things in pricing strategy. Therefore, the unexpected re-rework at each station is not counted for bill of material (BOM) generated through the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and the additional cost is borne by the company. Therefore, this research is to be conducted to find solutions for the above issues relevant to tyre re-treading. Each workstation is considered as different states in the Markov process as a tyre at any stage can be reversed back to any workstation for the process of re-work and try to compute the number of units move from one stage to the other stage and finally, it moves to the absorbing stage. Application of steady state vector in Markov Theory enables the calculation of the probability of products which will be accepted or rejected in the long run. The transition matrix also enables us to identify the number of items in the reverse operations. Identification of number of products for rework supports not only to manage additional required resources, but also to calculate the relevant cost. This facilitates to compute the actual cost relevant to re-treading into account and enables to incorporate that to the Bill of Material. All these applications eventually increase the efficiency of the tyre re-treading process while reducing the cost borne by the company on re-rework. The research is in the conceptual stage and yet to find the results.
Classifying risk and vulnerability in the supply chain during an epidemic outbreak
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Perera, M.A.S.M.; Wijayanayake, A.; Peter, S.
Companies always try to maximize shareholders' value by reducing the cost and maximizing profits in the long terms. However, one of the primary difficulties they face in doing so, is because of disruptions in the supply chain (SC). The supply chain can be disrupted due to natural disasters, manmade catastrophes, strikes, legal disputes, and special cases like epidemic outbreaks. The study explores what causes the supply chain to be disrupted in a company during an epidemic outbreak. It focuses on the Sri Lankan apparel industry as it contributes 6% to Sri Lanka’s GDP and 44% percent to Sri Lanka’s National Export Revenue, which is a significant proportion of the country’s economy. The primary objective of this study is to identify the supply chain risks in order to be prepared, mitigate the effects and ensure business continuity. The study proposes a model to identify the SC risks and vulnerabilities during an epidemic outbreak, and which risks should be prioritized. The model was primarily developed through a systematic review of literature and information collected from experts in the apparel sector was used to validate the findings. Leading apparel manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka were selected through convenience sampling and managers with more than five years’ experience were selected through random sampling. Using the output, the identified risks are then analysed and mapped in a vulnerability matrix considering cost and time factors. The model was tested and validated using 80%-20% rule. 80% of the collected data was used to develop the model and 20% of the collected data was used for testing and validation. Moreover, experts’ opinions were also used to validate the vulnerability matrix. Loss of local key supplier, loss of international key supplier, local port closure, international port closure, transportation link disruption (other than ports), raw materials delays and shortages, human resource shortages, product demand variations, order cancellations and lead time variations are SC risks which are considered for this study. The loss of international key suppliers and order cancellations were classified as high risks, whereas, human resource shortages were classified as the least risk. Though, a generalized vulnerability model is developed in this study considering cost and time factors, it can be customized using different factors and risks depending on the experience and needs of the company. Participants for the survey assumed that customers are international, and suppliers are both local and international. The study can be further developed to identify the SC strategies which should be taken to mitigate the SC disruptions during an epidemic outbreak or during a major global crisis.
Cost minimization model through consolidation: application to a third party logistics distribution center
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Weerakkody, H.D.W.; Niwunhella, D.H.H.; Wijayanayake, A.
Third Party Logistics (3PL) providing industry has become an essential service for the manufacturers due to the numerous benefits they could obtain by outsourcing their logistics activities to a 3PL provider. When considering the 3PL industry in Sri Lanka, growth can be seen in the past few decades. Since the distribution of goods of multiple clients in a 3PL Distribution Center (DC), is handled by the 3PL providers, they are much interested in minimizing the distribution cost which will not only ultimately benefit to the 3PL provider but also the client as well. However, managing the distribution of multiple clients at the same time with an optimized cost is challenging for 3PL service providers. The consolidation of goods of multiple clients in the distribution process is one of the main cost-effective strategies that the 3PLs could use. But due to several reasons such as compatibility constraint of goods transported, client concerns, complicated scheduling, consolidation is not practiced by many of the 3PLs in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study was conducted on identifying the main factors to be considered when consolidating goods of multiple clients, and to develop a mathematical model to minimize the distribution cost in a 3PL DC by shipment consolidation. This paper proposes a mathematical model considering the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) as an extension found in the literature, where the compatibility of the products distributed has been added as a new constraint. The mathematical model has been tested and validated using the actual data obtained from few of the 3PL firms in Sri Lanka and has been simulated using the Supply Chain Guru Software. Different scenarios are created in the software to check the feasibility and accuracy of the model. The results obtained showcase an average cost reduction of nearly 25% when consolidating shipments of multiple clients in a 3PL DC. Therefore, it is evident from the study that, the 3PL firms could obtain a significant cost reduction by consolidating shipments of multiple clients. It was also identified that factors like compatibility of the distributed goods, cargo tonnage, clients’ privacy concerns and scheduling of shipments should be considered when consolidating goods of multiple clients to distribute in a 3PL DC. The findings of this research will help the 3PL providers to consider consolidating shipments of several clients and the mathematical model proposed in the research will help them to minimize the distribution cost. Furthermore, the trucks can be properly utilized, the number of trucks and fuel wastage can be reduced and the impact on the environment will be lesser. Future researches could be done on adding more complexity to the model by considering different constraints such as time windows for the orders.
A cross-functional collaborative model for supplier evaluation for the sustainability of a firm
(International Research Conference on Smart Computing and Systems Engineering - SCSE 2018, 2018) Jayarathne, K.; Wijayanayake, A.; Weerabahu, S.
Business organizations have emphasized the importance of sustainability in their business processes. Sustainability of a firm can be measured on social, environmental and economic benefit indicators known as “triple bottom line”. Supplier selection process is one of the critical issues of sustainability activities faced by supply chain managers to maintain a strategically competitive position in the industry and supplier selection can significantly affect in achieving the triple bottom line. Given the current context, technological factors immensely affect the sustainability of a firm. Communication and web based systems related technology is a vital factor to build sustainable supply chain relationships. Thus, technological aspects can be taken into consideration under different sustainable criteria for supplier selection, though it has not been considered yet as a major factor. Analytical Network Process (ANP) has been incorporated to compute the supplier evaluated score that was computed by each department against each supplier. Then an Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model has been used to integrate the judgments of the multiple decision-makers. This research addresses the supplier selection decisions by groups of experts, which improves the quality and accuracy of the decisions made. In this model, both subjective and objective factors related to supplier selection are incorporated in order to optimize the procurement process aligning to the sustainability of the firm.
Dengue prediction modelling and development of area-specific thresholds for epidemic management in urban settings of Gampaha district, Sri Lanka
(International Research and Innovation Symposium on Dengue amidst the Pandemic, 2022) Dalpadado, R.; Amarasinghe, D.; Gunathilaka, N.; Wijayanayake, A.
Introduction and objectives The growing global threat of dengue in both endemic and non-endemic countries have shifted the attention to establishing an early warning system to assist in dengue control and effectively allocating scarce public health resources to manage outbreaks. Thus, the current study was designed to develop localized thresholds to aid in sustainable dengue vector control measures in three Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas (Negombo, Wattala, Kelaniya) in the Gampaha District. Method The cross-correlation function analysis (CCF) was performed to check the effects of climatic variables (average rainfall, rainy days, average temperature, humidity) and Breteau Index (BI) with dengue case incidence from 2014 to 2019. The dengue incidence at time t, BIs with a one-month lag; Aedes aegypti; BIA(t-1), Aedes albopictus; BIB (t-1) and monthly average rainfall; RFavg (t-2), rainy days; RD (t-2), Average relative humidity; RHavg (t-2) at twomonth lag and monthly average temperature; Tavg at three-month lag were checked. Areaspecific thresholds were derived from multiple linear regression. The model was validated for the Jaela MOH area for the same period. Results Stepwise regression has excluded temperature, rainfall and BIB in urban areas and a statistically significant strong association (r= 0.775) was displayed with BIA(t-1) and RHavg(t-2). When the incidence of the cases exceeded 25, it reached an alarming situation while exceeding 44 was classified as an epidemic in urban areas. BIA>1, RHavg >85%, BIA>2; RHavg>81%, the model implies an early outbreak scenario and when BIA >3; RHavg > 88%, BI>4; RHavg>84%, BIA>5; RHavg>81%, and whenever BIA > 6; RHavg>77% it reached up to severe epidemics. The model accurately predicted all outbreaks in the Jaela MOH area. International Research and Innovation Symposium on Dengue amidst the Pandemic 63 Conclusions and recommendations The common thresholds utilized for vector control entities remain ineffective and cannot be applied throughout the country. Therefore, early warning indications can plan a prior month source reduction in a low-risk zone. In contrast, government-led source reduction programs should be maximized and an intense integrated vector control method must be implemented before it reaches an epidemic.
Determining Critical Factors of Consumers‟ Adoption of Internet Banking
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wijayanayake, A.; Perera, T.
Banks in Sri Lanka have been at the forefront in the deployment of ICT based products and services. With Electronic banking, financial institutions began to exploit new approaches to their business while delivering their customers a wide range of value added products and services in aligning with the product delivery mix with the new technology. One of the major E-banking channels is the Internet Banking (IB). Though there is a growth in transaction volume of IB in Sri Lanka over the years, yet it takes less than 10% compared with total transaction volume. This implies that still the IB services have not been used as much as customers could or should have used them. There are few studies have been conducted to determine the critical factors affecting the customer adoption of IB. The objective of this research is to identify the different banking customer segments on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics and then to identify the deterrent and appealing factors governing in these segments that affect IB adoption. The paper describes IB-readiness as the state of being fully prepared to engage in IB, and it is argued that both the potential banking customers, banks and their web technology must be equally ready before IB-adoption can occur. Eight factors such as Technology readiness, Banking service usage, Access and availability of resources, Risk and adaptability, User friendly IB services, Security, Perceived convenience and Cost are considered to evaluate their effects towards IB adoption through a survey. This study presents the results of the initial test of the conceptual model of IB adoption with a sample of retail banking customers who belong to different demographic segments in Sri Lanka. Technology readiness has a statistically significant difference among different age groups and Risk and adaptability, Access and availability of resources and Security shows a statistical significance impact towards IB adoption. The above findings provide information on consumer behavior in IB and this enables the banks to identify the motivating and the deterrent factors in different customer segments. This would enable the banks to discover the deterrent factors in different segments and to address them by introducing new strategies and promotional programs to increase the IB usage.
Developing a methodology for evaluating the sustainability performance of logistics service providers using AHP
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Prabodhika, A.P.K.J.; Niwunhella, D.H.H.; Wijayanayake, A.
Sustainability and sustainable development have become a buzzing topic in today's business world. Business organizations are now more towards making themselves more economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable. With the introduction of concepts like “Sustainable Supply Chain Management” organizations have determined not only to make themselves sustainable but also to make the whole supply chain sustainable as well. Many manufacturers and retailers often outsource their logistics functions to Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) to focus more on their core business process. Due to the competitiveness and the popularity of the sustainability concept, those organizations evaluate their prospective LSPs not only based on economic aspects like cost, service quality but also on social and environmental aspects as well. This paper proposes a methodology for evaluating the sustainability performance of LSPs using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). A Composite Sustainability Performance Index (CSPI) was developed using AHP since multiple dimensions and indicators need to be incorporated when measuring the sustainability performance and composites indices assist in aggregating all dimensions and indicators into a single measurement which will be easy to interpret, compare and benchmark. CSPI can be used by organizations when selecting the LSPs as their business partners based on the performance of three traditional dimensions of sustainability; Economic, Social, and Environmental, and a newly included technological aspect. The proposed methodology is flexible as it depends on the sustainability requirements of a particular organization when selecting LSPs as the relative importance of the dimensions and its indicators are up to the organization to decide. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used to create a model and give relative importance for each dimension/indicator and then the sub-dimensions or sub-indicators under each dimension are compared. Weighted and evaluated indicators are then aggregated using linear additive aggregation to construct the CSPI based on which the LSPs can be evaluated. This proposed model enables the selection of the best LSP according to the organization's preference or requirements. The proposed methodology was then used to compare and select the 3 prospective LSPs of an apparel manufacturing organization using the data obtained through interviews and questionnaires. According to the results, the highest importance of the organization was given to the economic dimension (0.5498), then to environmental (0.2748), then social (0.1202), and least to the technology dimension (0.0554) by the decision-makers. CSPI values are computed as 3.6863, 3.1644, 3.3044 for LSP 1, LSP 2, LSP 3, respectively. Among them, the highest values were obtained by LSP 1 which is 3.6863 and it is the best selection among the three alternatives. The reason LSP 1 got the highest CSPI is, it has performed best in the highly weighted sustainability performance indicators by the organization when compared to the other two LPSs.
Developing a model for effective supplier selection using Analytic Network Process (ANP)
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Udakanjalee, H.I.; Niwunhella, D.H.H.; Wijayanayake, A.
If any organization needs to survive in this intensively competitive market, they should possess a competitive advantage over other companies. An effective supplier selection process is a major determinant of the degree of competitive advantage within an organization. The common drawbacks in the existing supplier selection processes which hinder the selection of effective supplier/suppliers are the absence of a systematic mechanism and subjectivity of decisions. It is also a disadvantage from suppliers’ perspective, as a supplier cannot systematically align their processes because requirements and expectations differ from organization to organization. Therefore, the objective of this research is to propose a mechanism and a general model to prioritize criteria, sub criteria, and alternative suppliers along with appropriate set of criteria and sub criteria and to validate it across few industries. With the scope of this paper, supplier selection was considered as a multi criteria decision making problem (MCDM) because supplier selection is the evaluation of trade-offs between inconsistent, contradictory and competing criteria with each other. Analytic Network Process (ANP) which is a technique to solve MCDM problems in which the criteria affect each other and have nonlinear correlation, is used here to prioritize criteria and alternatives. In this study, a systematic review of literature was conducted to identify the different research approaches, limitations, and gaps and to determine most appropriate criteria, sub-criteria, tools and techniques used for supplier selection. Then developed the tentative criteria list and tentative ANP model using data gathered through literature review. Then this model and criteria list was finalized through a survey in a chemical manufacturing company, by acquiring industry experts’ opinion. After finalizing the model, it is validated by feeding data obtained through past supplier selection records into it. Here results were compared and constructed with the actual results in each case. The results of the survey show that most important criteria that should consider when selecting suppliers for the selected product in this chemical manufacturing company are the production capability, delivery capability, financial capability and service capability of the supplier. In the current supplier selection process in this company, they consider only factors like the quality and price of product and punctuality delivery goods by suppliers. But these limited set of criteria have led to choosing ineffective suppliers. The result of this study shows the scope and the importance of criteria and sub criteria that should be used for supplier selection in this company. Here when comparing these results with past literature, it can be concluded that industry wise prioritizations are not exactly similar but can relate to general model with few modifications and assumptions. Also, when comparing the finalized model and mechanism with past literature it can be concluded that this model is more appropriate for large scale manufacturing companies who are mainly focusing on exports, procuring products than services, procuring products use as the raw materials in manufacturing processes.
Developing a model to identify the factors affecting customer satisfaction and their impact on third party logistics services in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Egodawela, S. M. D. T. K.; Peter, S.; Wijayanayake, A.
Locating on a major east-west trade route near India, Sri Lanka has significant geographic advantages that are necessary to become a major logistics hub in South Asia. Despite its underdeveloped economy, the island country's total trade volume is around $ 88.9 billion (2018), making it a major hub for the region. A number of shipping lines use this site to, consolidate and deconsolidate cargo for transhipping to various destinations. Considering logistics performance, Sri Lanka was ranked 94th out of 167 countries according to the World Bank’s 2018 Logistics Performance Indicator (LPI). Therefore, Sri Lankan Logistics and Freight Forwarder Association has identified that the country needs to move up on the index, while providing a competitive service to the customers’ need. Both practitioners and scholars recognize the fact that embracing corporate sustainability as well as enhancing customer satisfaction can produce several relevant business benefits such as decrease of the intention to switch. Although past research captures the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality through a combination of the SERVQUAL (service quality) model or the SERVPERF (service performance) model, however, the controllable factors may influence this relationship when considering the Third Party Logistics (3PL) industry in Sri Lanka. The model developed explores both service and performance, and other controllable factors affecting on customer satisfaction and their impact on the 3PL industry in Sri Lanka. It considered all key influencing factors and their relationship with each other using a systematic review process and complemented by reviews from industry experts. The model constructs include relationship performance as the independent variables while the impact of the 3PL industry on customer satisfaction has been measured using customer loyalty, customer switching behaviour and customer complaints which also been considered as dependent variables. Tech initiation has been recognized as a moderator variable for the operational performance and the Organizational image has been recognized as a controllable variable of customer satisfaction. The study results show that there is a statistically significant impact of the overall dimensions on the customer’s satisfaction and it implies that 8.09% of customer Loyalty depends on the above four independent variables and 18.85% of Switching Behaviour and 6.30% of Customer Complaints depends on all the independent variables. The proposed model which has verified will lead 3PL service providers, to distinguish significant factors, which have a considerable effect on the customer satisfaction. Further, the outcomes would assist the 3PL providers to minimize customer switching behaviour and switching costs, as they have a clear idea about the expectations of customers that should be fulfilled when delivering 3PL services.
Developing heuristic models to evaluate logistic network of 3rd party logistic providers
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Ranasinghe, T.D.; Wijayanayake, A.
Third-Party Logistics Providers (3PL) face a great pressure in order to meet its manufacturers’ and customers’ needs. Meeting the demands of manufacturers and customers’ (agents) while optimizing the available resources is one of the main problems faced by the managers of 3rd party logistics companies. Previous researchers have developed various models relevant to optimizing logistic networks but they have not sufficiently addressed how to optimize logistic network while utilizing vehicle capacities, volume of goods and distance while minimizing the cost. The researchers consider multiple carriers and single vehicle types available to cover a set of pickup and delivery orders in the research. This research addresses the problems in the logistic network on how to transport goods from plants to central warehouse and retailers. The researchers present two different scenarios to identify and assess different configurations to design logistics networks. These overall logistics cost minimization frameworks support 2 scenarios based on number of plants, distance from destinations of deliveries and volume of goods and vehicle capacity. In scenario 1, the researchers consider how to transport goods from many plants to single central warehouse when there is no demand from customers. This enables the logistics managers to decide the route of the vehicles i.e. whether the vehicles should go to single plant or more plants to pick up the order by consolidating the same vehicle. In scenario 2, it addresses how the goods should be transported from many plants to many warehouses when there is a demand for the goods from customers. In both cases the capacities of vehicles and the capacities of the good to be transported is taken into consideration to minimize the transportation cost. A heuristic approach is used to develop the two different models to evaluate the proposed configurations. The standard column generation procedure is applied to solve the linear relaxation. When the result is compared with the existing process, it is proven that the companies can save more than 14% of the logistics cost by modelling the first configuration which was depicted using Arena simulation software. It is also shown that the approaches are capable of generating near-optimal solutions. The outcome of this research ease the selecting process of most appropriate logistic network configuration while optimizing logistic routes and utilizing vehicle capacities efficiently.
An efficient inventory management system for the blood banks in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Kumari, D.M.S.; Wijayanayake, A.
BACKGROUND: Over the past decades, the requirement for platelets seems to be increasing continuously around the world, while the number of potential donors is decreasing. However, due to its very short life span of just five days, a large volume of platelets expires while they are on the shelves, resulting in unnecessary shortages. Moreover, it is very costly and borrowing platelets from other blood banks with short notice is not feasible. These unexpected shortages may place the life of patients at risk. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop an efficient blood inventory management model to reduce platelet shortage while minimizing wastage. METHODS: Currently, the blood banks are managing platelet inventory according to their own methods. As a solution we propose a model to manage the daily supply of platelets by forecasting the daily demand. Considering the past daily demand, the Weighted Moving Average method was used to forecast the future demand. Ten different models were developed and tested to find the optimal solution that minimizes shortages of platelets. These models were tested using 60 days data obtained from two different levels of blood banks; a General and Base Hospital. RESULTS: The study was able to come up with two different inventory management models for the different types of blood banks. The model that best fits the General Hospital blood bank will be able reduce the shortages by 89.37% and, the model that best fits the Base Hospital one will be able reduce the shortages by 100%. CONCLUSIONS: It may be concluded that the same models can be adopted by other blood banks with similar characteristics to manage their blood inventories efficiently.
Framework to select the most suitable production line in an apparel firm in Sri Lanka: use of Analytical Hierarchical Process
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Thalagahage, N.T.H.; Niwunhella, D.H.H.; Wijayanayake, A.
The apparel industry is considered as one of the most labour-intensive industries in the world despite the technological advancements and the amount of automation. Line planning in the garment industry is the process of scheduling and allocating production orders to production lines according to the product setting and due dates of manufacturing completion. Most of the apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka have switched to lean model production, in which large sewing departments are split into smaller, self-balancing sewing lines. The decisions that address the production line selection process for a particular production order still heavily rely on production planners, based on their experience. These decisions tend to be neither consistent nor scientific because of the lack of interdepartmental connectivity. Little emphasis has been placed on the impact of the planning considerations and ways to apportion certain production orders to the appropriate production system with specific characteristics. This problem is addressed in the research through the development of a multi criteria decision making framework to enable the incorporation of all the parameters to select the best production line for a particular sales order using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). AHP method is adopted for decision making which models multiple, possibly conflicting factors dependent on each other and it makes appropriate trade-offs to recommend well-balanced solutions to different stakeholders. The production line selection criteria identified through expert opinions and literature review were applied in the AHP conceptual model. 23 factors were identified and they were categorized under 5 areas which are characteristics of the product, characteristics of the production order, characteristics of the production line, technical support and quality parameters. In order to build the AHP model, 4 manufacturing firms and 4 senior and middle level managerial industrial experts from each firm were selected and interviewed through AHP questionnaires. After the pairwise comparisons, each criterion was weighted and prioritized. Most of the interviews resulted in high priority for delivery date, technical infrastructure, skills inventory of the line, the efficiency of the line, and cadre requirement while the ability to adopt changeovers, prioritization of machine service, and infrastructure support by the technicians were given low priorities. This interprets that, for any kind of a production order the mostly prioritized criteria are important to be considered. Therefore, focusing on them in line selection would lead to improved planning efficiency. After the criteria comparison, each alternative production line was given a score against the planning criteria and the production lines were ranked in order to select the best production line. Through data analysis, it was found out that the results obtained from different industrial experts representing different apparel manufacturing firms vary from each other depending on individual perspective and policies inherent to the manufacturing firm. However, the framework can relate to any apparel manufacturing firm by allowing Decision Makers to select the valid criteria depending on the Production Order and its related parameters. Also, the framework can be used for other manufacturing industries with few modifications and assumptions. In order to avoid the subjectivity in AHP method, a Linear Programming model can be developed as a future improvement and optimize the production lines selected through AHP ranking.
Identifying the Factors Affecting Non-Performing Advances: Lending Officers Perspective
(Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Gunaratne, N.; Wijayanayake, A.
Core income generation source for any commercial bank is “Lending”. The asset value of a bank is several times of its equity. The largest portion of asset base of a bank consists of advances to customers. Non Performing Advances are the main threat to an asset base of a bank. Deterioration of even a small portion of its asset base would severely impact the equity and the stability of a bank. Hence, Key function of any bank is managing Non-performing Advances. The purpose of this research is to identify factors affecting to Non-Performing Advances in the perspective of Lending Officers context. Identified four factors by the author are Training and knowledge of the Lending Officers, Risk assessment, Monitoring and follow up and financial stability of the borrower. The principal under the research is common to all commercial banks in general. The survey was carried out using Simple random sampling method for selection of Lending Officers. Quantitative method was used to gather data through a selfadministered questionnaire. Relationships for the identified factors were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 software through Spearman’s coefficient of correlation. Recommendations of the study are that Non-performing Loans could be managed through enhancing the Training and Knowledge of Lending Officers by adequate credit exposure. Further, it is recommended that, bank need to consider Risk assessment and financial stability of the borrower. Also, continuous monitoring and follow up of Loans.
Identifying the key success factors in third party logistic services: Sri Lankan context
(Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2020) Perera, D.G.T.M.; Wijayanayake, A.; Wickramarachchi, A.P.R.
To be more cost-effective as well as to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, many enterprises tend to improve their business practices by having a strong relationship with thirdparty logistics (3PL) service providers. 3PL service providers mainly focus on warehousing, inventory management and control, planning, cross-docking and transportation. By outsourcing such processes, enterprises gain benefits such as reducing costs, improving product quality, and improving the flexibility of operations. Sri Lankan 3PL service providers also provide many services for their clients but compare to other countries Sri Lanka is facing more challenges including poor infrastructure, complex tax regulations, insufficient use of technology and limited service offerings. According to the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Indicator ranking (LPI) for 2018, Sri Lanka is ranked 94th out of 160. Compare to the previous year Sri Lanka’s rank has dropped down. This indicates a need for Sri Lanka to improve the quality of its logistics services. Better performance of the 3PL service providers is one factor which can contribute to improving the quality of logistics services. Therefore, it is important to investigate key success factors of 3PL industry in Sri Lanka which can support to increase the performance of 3PL service providers. The main objectives of this paper are to determine key success factors associated with the Sri Lankan 3PL industry and prioritize those key success factors. This study used the systematic literature review and expert’s opinion to identify the key success factors of 3PL industry in Sri Lanka. In total, 20 key success factors were obtained, and those key success factors were grouped into four categories as organization strategy, management and process, human resources and customer orientation. The study used the Q-sort technique to group key success factors into four categories and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to identify the priorities of the key success factors. Survey analysis is conducted with four Sri Lankan 3PL service providers to collect the data. Data were collected through questionnaires from executives, middle and seniorlevel managers of 3PL firms who got more than least five years of experience in 3PL industry. Totally, 36 experts in 3PL industry have participated in the data collection process. The geometric mean was used to consolidate different experts’ opinions to a single value in pairwise assessment matrix. The result shows that business expansion, technology and automation, internationalization of operations, management and leadership style are the most important key success factors in the Sri Lankan 3PL industry. These factors explain that most of the Sri Lankan 3PL service providers are currently in the growth stage of the 3PL industry and these key success factors will lead them to reach the maturity level. Therefore, managers need to focus more on these factors to increase the performance of 3PL companies. This is the first research that addresses the key success factors of 3PL industry in Sri Lanka. The outcomes of this study can help managers/practitioners to formulate flexible decision strategies for better performance in their 3PL firms and experience a competitive advantage against the competitors.
Increase the performance of apparel industry through the application of lean tools and techniques
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Wijayanayake, A.; Wannisingha, W.M.N.N.
Lean manufacturing is an approach to identify and eliminate wastes through continuous improvement. Lean principles and techniques that drive organizations to continually add value to the product they deliver by enhancing process steps that are necessary, relevant, and valuable while eliminating those that fail to add value. Lean has been used in manufacturing for decades and has been associated with enhanced product quality and overall corporate success. The benefits of using lean manufacturing approach are evident in factories all over the world. With a view to achieve performance improvement, both developed and developing countries are applying lean. The apparel manufacturing industry in Sri Lanka faces many challenges as a result of low cost garment manufacturers worldwide, and which now seeks options and tools to stay in the competitive market. With this need in mind many apparel companies have looked at lean manufacturing as a valuable method to promote new strategic positioning. There is no evidence in the literature in similar research where a framework is developed to identify the most appropriate lean tools or technique that could be used to minimize a particular waste. The purpose of this study is to identify the waste that is common in apparel industry in different departments and to map the most effective lean tools and techniques that are applicable to reduce the identified waste. This will enable to reduce waste, cost and time taken for each non value added activity and enable to stay competitive in the international market. A framework has been developed by mapping the significant waste in apparel industry with the most appropriate lean tools and techniques that has been proven effective in eliminating waste in order to improve the apparel manufacturing performance. The study, first, undertook literature review in the area of lean manufacturing and developed extensive research questions. These questionnaires were given to 15 lean practitioners in selected leading apparel manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. The collected data was analyzed and tested on several nonparametric tests using SPSS version 22.
Influencing Factors for The Adaptation of Mobile Phone Banking App Case Study for ABC Bank PLC
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Vincent, C.; Wijayanayake, A.
ABC Bank PLC introduced a mobile application referred as “Mobile App” software application designed to run on smart phones. The focus of this research is to evaluate influencing factors for the adoption of this mobile banking app in the context of registered retail mobile banking users of ABC Bank PLC and thereby to identify the relationship between the factors. The conceptual frame work was developed bases on the concept of Parasuraman’s (1988) SERVQUAL model measuring the relationship between the mobile banking application and its impact on customer adaptation to the mobile banking app. According to the critical literature review five dimensions were identified as important for customer adoption to internet banking (Mobile App) namely Awareness, Reliability, Perceived Value, Ease of use and Social influences. The research data was collected from actual mobile banking app users both customers and employees from ABC Bank PLC. The researcher was able to collect 73 positive responses to the questionnaire which was circulated among the target group. The reliability as measured by Cronbach’s alpha for the hypothesis which met the minimum requirement. The descriptive analysis of data has been done to evaluate the research findings. The Pearson correlation and regression analysis found all 05 dimensions have a positive impact on the adaptation of mobile banking app. The R2 coefficient revealed that the Social influence and Ease-of-use having highest influences. The limitation of the study is that it was focusing on the mobile banking app uses of ABC Bank PLC, where the scope of the study is much limited. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of Influencing factors affecting the adaptation of mobile banking app at ABC bank PLC, enabling the bank to simulate Product Development and Marketing strategy.
Low Visibility of Foreign Banks in the Sri Lankan Banking Industry
(University of Kelaniya, 2014) Premathilake, H.; Wijayanayake, A.
The Sri Lankan banking sector is dominated by Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) that has the highest contribution and accounts for 86%, of the Banking Sector assets. Out of the 22 LCBs,11 are branches of international banks. But the six main local LCBs, which include 2 state banks that alone account for 42% of the LCB assets, has dominated the banking sector so far. Even though the international banks are backed by a long history of operations in Sri Lanka and a goliath and stable Group structure, they are yet to make their mark in the local banking industry. This research, focus on identifying the factors affecting the visibility of international banks, via an in-depth study in customer awareness of the products and services offered, customer preference and loyalty towards the banks and the level of marketing done by these banks to establish their brand image. Both primary and secondary data collection techniques were used to obtain data. Primary data collection was done via a questionnaire that was circulated primarily via electronic format. The secondary data used, was marketing budgets and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) of international banks. Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods such as co-relation, two sample variance testing and non parametric analysis has been used to identify relationships between the variables under investigation and their impact on the visibility of foreign banks in the Sri Lankan retail banking industry.
Measuring Sustainability Performance of Logistics Service Providers using AHP
(IEOM Society International, 2021) Prabodhika, A.P.K.J.; Wijayanayake, A.; Niwunhella, D.H.H.
Many manufacturers and retailers often outsource their logistics functions to Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) to focus more on their core business process. Due to the competitiveness and the popularity of the sustainability concept, those organizations evaluate their prospective LSPs not only based on economic aspects like cost, service quality but also on social and environmental aspects as well. This paper proposes a model that can be used by organizations when evaluating and selecting LSPs based on their sustainability performance. Along with the traditional three dimensions of sustainability, a new dimension of Information Technology (IT) is incorporated into the model. A Composite Sustainability Performance Index (CSPI) is constructed using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a weighting method and linear aggregation method since multiple dimensions and indicators need to be incorporated when measuring sustainability performance. The proposed model is flexible as it depends on the sustainability requirements of the organization when selecting LSPs and their relative impoftance of the sustainability dimensions and indicators are up to the organization to decide. The proposed model is applied to an apparel manufacturing organization to evaluate and select their prospective LSPs.