Abstract:
The world is now in the era of the fourth industrial revolution which can be identified
as the latest mechanism of automation and data exchange in manufacturing. The
concept of fourth industrial revolution has originated from the countries like Germany
as “Industry 4.0” as a government initiative and the USA as “Industrial Internet
Consortium” which has emerged from leading multinational organizations. When
considering the concept of the industry 4.0, as a country, the major question that
would arise could be, whether Sri Lanka has the capability to adopt the concept. Even
though this concept originated from the high-end technological industrial world, Sri
Lanka should consider of adopting this as the world is heading to a technological
standardization process with the smart factory concept, which is the backbone of the
fourth industrial revolution. Currently, the Sri Lankan apparel industry is in a
milestone of adopting the best manufacturing practices, lean and sustainability
concepts. In order to attain the research objective of identifying the opportunities in
the Sri Lankan apparel sector to implement Industry 4.0, a qualitative approach has
been adopted in this study. Industry experts representing Information and
Communication Technology sector and the apparel sector, scholars in the field of
industrial engineering and IT, were interviewed using structured and unstructured
questionnaires. The outcome of this study indicates that by introducing Industry 4.0,
Sri Lankan apparel sector would gain a number of advantages. Such technological
advancement in this sector will enhance the vertical integration of all the layers in the
apparel-manufacturing sector and also will enhance the horizontal integration of all
the partners in its value chain.
