| dc.description.abstract | The Sri Lankan Apparel Industry is one
of the significant contributors to the country’s
economy as it generates considerable amount of
export income. Tasks in the apparel industry which
involve a higher amount of labour involvement
have been replaced by automated technologies
such as Robotics, Computer Aided Designing and
Computer Aided Manufacturing technologies in
order to achieve a competitive position in the
industry. The objective of the study is to examine
the impact of automation on achieving a
competitive edge in the Sri Lankan apparel
industry. Process automation, intelligent
manufacturing and the global customized
production were used in this study to achieve the
objective by using cost advantage as the mediator.
This study employed the deductive approach, and
quantitative data were utilized to achieve the
objectives. A questionnaire was distributed among
65 respondents selected to gather quantitative
data. An exploratory research was conducted by
the researchers conducting three interviews with
industry experts, which helped to design the
overall study. The researchers analysed the effect
of the mediator through the Sobel test. As per the
data analysis conducted in this study, it was found
that there is a correlation between process
automation, intelligent manufacturing, and
customised production with competitive
advantage, and there is a strong relationship
between cost advantage and competitive
advantage. The qualitative findings of this research
conclude that apparel companies should invest in
automation to gain a popularity in the global
market. Thus this study proves that automation
should exist in a developing country like Sri Lanka
to achieve a competitive advantage | en_US |
