Effort to grow rubber exports fourfold by 2024

Global Rubber Industries (Pvt) Ltd. (GRI) has partnered with Kingslake, the 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 primary sources 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, 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 GRI’s 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 reap greater dividends for GRI, and for Sri Lanka’s rubber export industry as a whole.”

Since its inception in 1994, Kingslake has focused on providing software to help mid-sized manufacturing companies grow. The company delivers state-of-the-art solutions built with a mix of best-of-breed ERP systems, specialized software solutions, and experienced dynamic consultants. Today Kingslake continues to build and deliver fit-for-purpose software that enables manufacturers to increase the visibility of their operations, be it customer service, inventory management, planning, procurement, manufacturing, engineering, HR, transport, or finance.

GRI was founded in 2002 and has expanded its business globally by taking high-grade Sri Lankan specialty tires to the world. The company produces radial agriculture tires, construction tires and material handling solid tires using locally produced natural rubber. GRI has sales offices and warehouses in nine countries, and a business presence in more than 50 countries.

In 2018, GRI opened an advanced manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka primarily to produce radial agricultural tires. In 2020, GRI also commenced construction of a new mixing facility in the Mirigama Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Sri Lanka and in 2021 laid the foundation to expand its advanced specialty tire plant.