Kingslake to support GRI’s next phase of growth: Increase rubber exports
Global Rubber
Industries (Pvt) Ltd. has partnered
with Kingslake, Sri Lanka’s manufacturing solutions experts,
to lay the foundation for its next phase of growth. By leveraging Kingslake’s
Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions, the country’s leading
manufacturer of specialized tires hopes to make a significant contribution to
the rubber industry, a key export of the country.
For the past 150 years, Sri Lanka has been one
of the world’s most sought-after export destinations for natural rubber and
rubber-based products, having contributed $1 billion to the country’s export
revenue in 2018 alone. With a revenue target of $4.4 billion set for 2024, all
eyes are on specialist companies such as GRI to bolster their own production,
advanced planning, and scheduling capabilities so as to stay on par with global
players. Additionally, as a member organization of the Sri Lanka Export
Development Board (SLEDB), GRI’s move to partner with Kingslake will help the
local export economy stay competitive as a result.
With Siemens Opcenter APS, GRI will have
decision-making support for overtime, order prioritization, split production
batches, due date negotiation, and order processing clarity. With the new
solution, the company will also have complete visibility and control to support
better scheduling decisions. More
specifically, GRI will be able to make better and more strategic its Bill of
Materials (BOM) level Planning, Make to Order (MTO) Planning, and Make to Stock
(MTS) Planning; all of which are critical to a tangible enhancement of existing
manufacturing processes.
“Work
order modifications, time overruns, and material availability issues frequently
disrupt the production schedule. GRI is
looking to solve these challenges by seamlessly connecting our planners to the
shop floor, enabling capacity-based production plans, and real-time schedule
changes with Kingslake’s experience and scheduling APS software,” said Ananda
Caldera the Executive Director of Global Rubber Industries (Pvt) Ltd.
“We have
entrusted Kingslake’s interactive and multi-constraint scheduling APS software
expertise to fortify and further digitize our operations,” said Global Rubber Industries Chief
Information Officer, Tharaka De Alwis. “The
availability of resources and additional constraints such as tooling and
materials, needs to be taken into consideration during scheduling to ensure an
accurate model of our environment. This is of vital importance given the
aggressive investments we are making, and our vision to position Sri Lanka and
GRI as a tire manufacturing hub.”
“Digitalization
is changing everything, and manufacturers must be able react quickly and
intelligently to unexpected changes, while also being able to respond to
shorter lead times and satisfy customer demands,” said Duleep Fernando, CEO of Kingslake. “Through this partnership with Kingslake,
GRI will be able to sequence production orders faster, make production planning
more accurate, improve production master plans, and enhance inter-departmental
and inter-factory communication.”
“Our
systems have added immense value to the processes of a range of manufacturing
companies, and subsequently their sectors which include tea, furniture, rubber-based
products, complex electronics, fashion, gloves, packaging, plastics, molds,
tools, electrical devices and glass,”
he added. “We are certain that our
digital solutions and expertise will only reap greater dividends for GRI, and
for Sri Lanka’s rubber export industry as a whole.”