Reaching for Success: Jeyantha Industrial Park

After finishing the half-way point of the trip, Travelling University reached its fourth and final destination: Jaffna, hometown of Jeyantha Industrial Park and NEFAD Foundation.

The Industrial Ice Manufacturing Plant was the main focus at the Jeyantha Industrial Park owned by Mr. Senthan who is its founder. The daily production of the plant is 400 ice cubes, which is the maximum plant capacity. The owner has plans to diversify his products portfolio by manufacturing plastic cups as the ice demand fluctuates throughout the year. Currently, his profit margin is low due to facing heavy competition. Financing new projects is a major issue he faces, due to the covenants set by the banks which issued the existing loans. He also wants to utilise the free land around his plant for cultivation, but only pomegranate and passion fruit grow in the area due to the unsuitable soil qualities. He had hopes of resolving his issues with the help of the Travelling University as its motto is to ‘bring out the students’ creativity to optimise the business competiveness of Sri Lankan SMEs’.

The final stop of the Travelling University was the NEFAD Foundation in Jaffna, owned by Ms. Nicholine Saminathar. It is a social organization with a labour force of 120 employees producing 150 sizes of fishing nets. As a fishing net manufacturer, NEFAD Foundation expected Travelling University to seek solutions for their high labour cost as well as the operating losses they continuously incurred. The government policies were making their situation more arduous, and the help of ‘student consultants’ was expected to generate viable solutions for NEFAD to improve the present scenario.

The students of Travelling University then came to face their final and most critical challenge of presenting the results of all the analyses and evaluations. The final presentation was a gathering of many invitees, including the representatives from SMEs as well as significant personnel from the local authorities. Reaching the Success, the ‘student evaluators’ were able to sum up their findings in an enthralling way, pleasing all the invitees. The final presentation concluded with the distribution of certificates to all the participants from five National Universities.

The ‘Traveling University’ (TU) is a signature seminar course of the International Material Flow Management (IMAT) master degree program offered by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS). ‘Higher education for sustainable development’ being the motto of TU, in this interdisciplinary seminar course IfaS aims to deploy its expertise in tangible projects all over the world whilst giving the students the opportunity to put their acquired knowledge into practice in real time.

Read More

Kings Ice (Pvt). Ltd

The third stop of the travelling university led the students to Trincomalee, hometown of the Kings Ice (Pvt) Ltd where the owner, Mr. D.B. Jeyakumar called the students for help. He owns an Industrial Ice Manufacturing plant started in 2013. He processes 450 ice cubes per day which are bought by fishermen. Ice manufacturing is highly affected by the fish production. Fish production varies due to business and environmental changes therefore it directly effects on ice manufacturing as well. Sometimes he needs to shut down the plant due to less demand, which he hopes to resolve with the help of the Travelling University as its motto is ‘bring out the students’ creativity to optimise the business competiveness of Sri Lankan SMEs’.

Hence, the students started to evaluate the “strength-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats (SWOT)” of his current business structure and the future outline of his new factory being currently constructed. While analysing the company’s production process, material flows and energy flows the neuralgic points had been spotted: Market improvement potentials as well as energy, water and waste water management. Having identified the challenges, the “student consultant” immediately started to develop appropriate solutions for him laying out the technical details and business plans.

Initially, the students focused on energy related issues in the company. They suggested installing Variable Speed Drives (VSD) to the motor compressors and replacing new motors for Crushers to reduce electricity consumption of the company. Furthermore they suggested insulating the Ammonia distribution pipes and shading condenser from direct sunlight. The students also pointed out the importance of installing a Photovoltaic system to reduce total electricity demand by covering the total roof area of the company. The students found that the Nitrogen percentage of the fresh water is greater than the accepted value for human consumption. Therefore, water treatment methods known as “Ion exchange and Membrane Separation” were suggested by the students to reduce the Nitrogen percentage of fresh water. Another idea of improving hygiene of the process was suggested by the students which will be beneficial when expanding the market of the company.    

Yet again, the students and their senior academics proved that an interdisciplinary university-industry project jointly handled by five national universities can strengthen the backbone of the Sri Lankan society. Three completed and two more to go. Travelling university is now heading towards Jaffna.

The ‘Traveling University’ (TU) is a signature seminar course of the International Material Flow Management (IMAT) master degree program offered by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS). ‘Higher education for sustainable development’ being the motto of TU, in this interdisciplinary seminar course, IfaS aims to deploy its expertise in tangible projects world over whilst giving the students the opportunity to put their acquired knowledge into practice in real time. 

Read More

Ambitious visions for an ambitious traveling university! - Himalee Dairy Company

The second stop of the traveling university lead the students to Maradankadawala, home of the Himalee Dairy Company where the owner, Mr. C.A.H.M.N. Chandrasekara, called the students for help. In 1998, he started his small curd production with 3.5 litres of buffalo milk per day. Currently he processes nearly 5,000 litres a day and aims to be one of the biggest sustainable curd producers within the next five years. This enormous growth and their future expansion plans are associated with various business and environmental challenges, which he hopes to resolve with the help of the Travelling University as its motto is ‘bring out the students’ creativity to optimise the business competiveness of Sri Lankan SMEs’.

Hence, the students started to evaluate the “strength-weaknesses-opportunities-and-threats (SWOT)” of his current business structure and the future outline of his new factory being currently constructed. While analysing the company’s material and energy flows the neuralgic points had been spotted: supply chain management as well as energy and waste water management. Having identified the challenges, the “student consultant” immediately started to develop appropriate solutions for him laying out the technical details and business plans.

Fully exploiting their creativity and knowledge, the students developed new marketing concepts, product portfolio diversification plans, combined energy waste and waste water treatment by anaerobic digestion as well as a sound human resource development concept for his future staff demand. The final results of the one-day and nearly a full night’s work have been presented to the family members running the business.

‘Himalee Dairies. As you deserve the best’, is the new slogan for the newly developed product portfolio. The owners and the students are sure that this slogan will became a reality if the proposed concept parts and be turned into reality.

One more time, the students and their university supervisors proofed that an interdisciplinary university-industry project jointly handled by five national development can strengthen the backbone of the Sri Lankan society – the numerous small and medium sized family business operation throughout the island.

The travelling university heads off to Trincomalee, ready to take the next challenges and help the next companies on their way to their final target in Jaffna.

The ‘Traveling University’ (TU) is a signature seminar course of the International Material Flow Management (IMAT) master degree program offered by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS). ‘Higher education for sustainable development’ being the motto of TU, in this interdisciplinary seminar course, IfaS aims to deploy its expertise in tangible projects world over whilst giving the students the opportunity to put their acquired knowledge into practice in real time.

Read More

Greening the green! - Serandipol (Pvt) Ltd.

The first stop of the traveling university posed a real challenge for the participating 20 students: greening one of Sri Lanka´s greenest enterprises. The well-known producer of virgin coconut oil, Serendipol Ltd, inter alia operates a seasoned corporate social responsibility program ensuring and promoting their organic supply and production scheme. Consequently, the company has been awarded organic and fair trade labels and serves some of the most aware consumer markets such as Germany and the United States.

Therefore, the challenge of finding optimisation potentials, technical designs and financially evaluating them had not been an easy task to be completed within just a day. But as the travelling university aims to ‘bring out the students’ creativity to optimise the business competiveness of Sri Lankan SMEs’ the students started meticulously analysing the company’s current production process and their outreach into the regional communities to detect efficiency potentials and new business opportunities. By applying different value-chain-mapping technics and material flow analysis tools the “student consultants” finally were able to successfully outline a number of interesting ideas. 

The simple approach to make the already green and sustainable company more sustainable and greener example was to look into the opportunities of creating a “Zero Emission” company. Hence, the entire energy demand was analysed to postulate several electrical energy efficiency projects reducing the overall electricity demand that should finally be covered by a new roof mounted photovoltaic system. The thermal energy demand of the facility is already covered using the residues of process, namely coconut shells which are crushed and used in a biomass boiler. Despite that being a Zero Emission measure, the students found that the coconut shells are too valuable to be used as fuel wood only. Therefore, a concept of producing activated carbon by employing German Zero Emission pyrolysis technology was evaluated and alternative local biomass creating additional value for their local coconut growers was proposed.  The final idea to round up this very ambitious and far-reaching concept had been the Zero Wastewater Discharge approach although the existing wastewater treatment is fulfilling the requested threshold limits. The new idea of a constructed wetland using indigenous plants to purify wastewater and produce biomass does not only comply with water treatment requirements but integrates perfectly into the landscape and reduces the energy demand of the treatment process significantly while providing water suitable for irrigation purpose.

Members of the top-management of Serendipol and the student supervisors of the five national universities were pleased with the performance of the “student consultancy team” and discussed further industrial – university cooperation possibilities in the field of recruitment and research.

Hats off to the students for their successful performance at one of the greenest companies in Sri Lanka. One completed, next challenges up ahead. The Traveling University is on the road for 10 days visiting 5 companies in Kuliyapitiya, Maradankadawala, Trincomalee, and Jaffna.

The ‘Traveling University’ (TU) is a signature seminar course of the International Material Flow Management (IMAT) master degree program offered by the Institute for Applied Material Flow Management (IfaS). ‘Higher education for sustainable development’ being the motto of TU, in this interdisciplinary seminar course, IfaS aims to deploy its expertise in tangible projects world over whilst giving the students the opportunity to put their acquired knowledge into practice in real time.

Read More

Serendipol (Pvt) Ltd, Kuliyapitiya

The first destination of TU 2014 was Serendipol (Pvt) Ltd in Kuliyapitiya, a virgin coconut oil manufacturer and exporter to the Western countries.

The processes as well as all the other operations were examined by TU 2014 team and the suggestions were made in order to overcome the identified issues with regard to management, technical and production operation aspects.

Read More

Travel Plan of Travelling University 2014

The upcoming Travelling University (TU) program is scheduled to be started on the 9^th of October 2014 from Colombo. After the inauguration ceremony which will be held in the morning that day, it is planned to travel about 85km to reach the first destination, Kuliyapitiya, to undertake the process analysis at Serendipol (PVT) Ltd. and its energy consumption.
Two days are scheduled to be spent on site before heading to Maradankadawala in the evening of the 10^th October.

In Maradankadawala, Himali Dairy Farm will be subject of analysis by the TU. The work shall last for two days on-site. Kings Ice Manufacturers (PVT) Ltd, a leading ice block manufacturer in Trincomalee, shall be the next stop on the 12^th of October. Again, two days of on-site work is scheduled before heading to the final destination of TU, which is Jaffna.

15^th to 16^th October TU will spend time with two leading SMEs in Jaffna namely, Jeyantha Ice Manufacturing, which produces ice blocks, and NEFAD Foundation, which produces fishing nets. 

On the 17^th of October the grand finale of TU; the final presentation of works, is scheduled. The findings will be presented to the respective stakeholders.

Read More