Dr. Prasanna Illankoon

• More than 35 factories in Sri Lanka have received our services in Human Factors and ergonomics including MAS holdings (the largest apparel exporter in Sri Lanka). • I introduced a new training discipline “Lean Ergonomics” to support lean transformations with ergonomics.

• In my research on the collaboration of human and intelligent systems, I worked with Saab aircraft support and services Sweden, Sweden’s innovation agency (Vinnova), Luleå Railway Research Centre, and Avery Dennison. • I developed and conducted the Master’s course on “Human Factors for Safety in Maintenance”. • I worked in the organizing committees, management systems, and web administration of intl. conferences.

Responsible for leading and collaborating cross-functional project teams of the organization, customers, and suppliers for quality improvements, met 30% reduction of complaints during four years, consecutively. I maintained the Integrated Management System of ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, FSC CoC, and upgraded the Quality Management System to 2015 series with an explicit focus on risk management. I handled an annual Opex of approximate USD 150,000, and a team of 50 with 5 executives reported to me.

Facilitated plants in the South Asia region to meet the Enterprise LeanSignma standards of Avery Dennison. I developed KPIs and facilitated their deployment. I developed an optimal production batching solution and met 12% material saving and facilitated the setup-time reductions to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by 25%. I was also responsible for assisting the South Asia operational leadership for strategic projects such as footprint optimization and business continuity planning.

Under the supervision of three Senior Lean Consultants, I benchmarked the financial and manufacturing capabilities of 5 client factories, developed lean transformation roadmaps, redesigned conventional assembly lines to modular layouts, and reengineered manual work to improve efficiency by 10- 50%. I developed a software to simulate different production concepts (Fixed line, Skill Centres, Queue Processing, Modular teams), and a Pocket PC software to conduct time studies and follow-up studies.

I set up a lab to conduct ergonomics experiments in collaboration with the Sri Lankan apparel industry. I with another researcher conducted a study on the psychological effects on production lines, and introduced an index called “Boredom Indicator”. The results were published at the 13th International Conference on Productivity and Quality Research, University of Oulu, Finland, 2008.

In my thesis “Soft Issues of Industry 4.0: A Study on Human-Machine Interactions”, I focused on a novel discipline of Human-AI collaboration for gaining Operational Excellence in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

My thesis “Exploring Implementation of Lean Practices in a Customized Product Manufacturing Environment” focused on collaborating human expertise and standard Lean tools for gaining Operational Excellence.

My Industrial Project focused on designing an Automatic Billets Transferring System for a world leading manufacturer and marketer of activated carbon in Sri Lanka.