E-Wis, Sri Lanka’s only original device manufacturing plant; new life experience for local citizens
View(s):HAMBANTOTA – In Sri Lanka one comes across many factories that manufacture various products from local resources and sell them in the local market and also export to other countries.
Sanjeewa Wickremanayake
There is a trend and mindset amongst people that when you say it’s a local brand, not much appreciation is given to it. Many products and goods today are manufactured in Sri Lanka, exported abroad for branding purposes and when they come back to Sri Lanka with the branding and logo on it, people buy them even though it’s very expensive. But when it’s a brand manufactured locally (and getting great mileage abroad), the same concern is not applied. ‘Typical Sri Lankans’ I should as they say.
South of Sri Lanka – Hambantota is more famous for the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) and Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port which are working at half capacity with millions of rupees spent on this piece of infrastructure. What could be done next is a question among many today, whether to abandon the infrastructure or to make use of them.
Travelling further into the city of Hambantota we find something interesting that most people do not know about; the only state-of-the-art Original Device Manufacturing (ODM) plant set up by E-Wis Computer Systems, built in the heart of the city of Sooriyawewa in Hambantota, 20 km away from the Mattala airport. If one is to look at Hambantota objectively, then this is the place where a world-class product is produced.
On Wednesday, E-Wis took the media on a tour to visit the factory in Sooriyawewa. The location is a calm and quiet environment without the slightest noise heard by any passer-by. It has been planned and built with modern technology that probably no one would have seen such a factory elsewhere in the country. Entering the factory, visitors are obliged to wear a factory-provided jacket and a cap with a cover for the footwear and go through a screening to avoid dust particles entering the facility from outside. The factory has a special floor arrangement that does not allow dust particles to cling onto tiny parts used in the devices manufactured.
The factory employs over 60 employees from the same village with 75 per cent of them females. Every employee has a story to narrate to visitors about their family background and how the company has helped them grow in knowledge, technology and even the language they speak. It’s unbelievable to see the technology and innovation established in the factory in manufacturing desktops, tablets, laptops and even smartphones considering every aspect of quality the company could provide the end user.
Factory
One of the workers told the Business Times, “We learnt a lot since the day we joined E-Wis, three years back. There is improvement in our language and knowledge though we live in a village far away from Colombo. We learn new things every day and go forward in achieving our aspirations. We do not want to stay at the same place of employment only in the factory itself, we want to achieve more and learn new things and go to higher positions. Technology has no end; it’s improving every day and we are innovating new things together with the technology advancement.”
E-Wis is the first Sri Lankan company here to have produced a motherboard. International brands such as Intel, Microsoft and Asus have partnered with E-Wis to provide services in terms of device parts and other equipment. All parts for the devices are imported from countries like Singapore, Taiwan and China and assembled here, while some are bought from Tos Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a Japanese-owned company that manufactures some of the circuits in Sri Lanka.
The technology industry and the academics should link together in order to manufacture and produce a Sri Lankan product from scratch, says Sanjeewa Wickremanayake, Chairman of the company during the factory tour. The company opened a Research and Development Centre at the University of Moratuwa on Monday, he added. With US$1.7 million investment, E-Wis was started in 2013 in Sri Lanka and the company soon be joined by Bangladesh company, Summit Group with a $2 million investment.
The company on average produces 500 PCs a day while 30-35 per cent value addition is done during the manufacturing process. “In order to establish a factory at a particular location, you need a port, an airport and people. I believe that Mattala airport and the Hambantota port will be beneficial for corporates and businessmen who are looking forward to set up factories in the outskirts of Colombo despite the political consequences. More factories should be set up in rural areas and provide employment to the villagers so that not only the people in Colombo would enjoy the technology and knowledge. There is more talent and enthusiasm among the villagers to work and innovate new things,” noted Mr. Wickremanayake.