Abstract:
The Sri Lankan apparel industry is considered as the most significant and
dynamic contributor to the country’s economy. Though the industry creates
profits in significant still it has many losses in financial aspects such as the cost
of raw material. Therefore this research was carried out as a case study in the Sri
Lankan apparel industry to identify factors affecting raw material write off. The
main raw material considered in the study was fabric being the single largest cost
factor in the apparel industry. This research randomly selected 85 schedules as
the sample. Both primary and secondary data were used and collected through
author observations, interviews and secondary data sources. The data were
quantitatively analyzed with regression analysis. The results showed that both
excess ordered raw material quantity and yield per yardage saving were the
significant factors that affected on raw material write off in the Sri Lankan
apparel industry. Further descriptive analysis revealed that pattern changes and
marker improvement mainly contributed to this yield per yardage saving. The
regression analysis further identified a significant relationship among the raw
material write off quantity, excess ordered raw material quantity and yield per
yardage saving. Also this study suggested to create a Lean manufacturing culture
to minimize raw material write off in the apparel industry
