Ansell Textiles Lanka Boosts Productivity by 7% with GSDCost
By streamlining critical planning information in a single platform, FastReactPlan has greatly improved machine utilisation to unlock additional capacity and optimised data visibility across relevant teams - enhancing communications across all departments and facilitating new business growth.
About the customer :
Ansell is a global leader in safety solutions and an integrated manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare and industrial workplaces. With 14 manufacturing sites and operations in over 100 countries, Ansell delivers trusted brands including HyFlex®, Ringers®, MICROFLEX®, and AlphaTec®. Ansell Textile Lanka is widely recognised for its sustainability leadership, having received multiple national accolades including the Gold Award at the 2024 Presidential Environmental Awards. Ansell’s Sri Lankan operations are central to the company’s growing PPE portfolio, producing 1 million body protection garments and 2.5 million pairs of gloves per month, securing an annual turnover of USD 24 million.
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Annual turnover of USD 24 million -
15000+ employees -
Colombo, Sri Lanka -
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The Challenge – Lack of standardised methods resulted in inefficiencies
Before adopting GSDCost, Ansell relied on manual time study and team experience based SMV values to carry out costing and capacity across operations.The absence of reliable SMVs and real-time data visibility meant teams often worked with outdated or conflicting information, undermining confidence in costings and limiting the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions.
As product complexity and demand scaled in body protection from 35 to 150 styles, it was important for ATL to have standardised methods, values, and training in order to manage inefficiencies across its manual practices.
“Accurately benchmarking SMVs across styles and factories has given us high confidence in our costing data. This supports smarter decisions as we expand and diversify production, while significantly improving transparency and alignment between finance and operational teams.”
Presantha Fernando,
Associate Director, Manufacturing Operations,
Ansell Textile Lanka
The Solution:
Coats Digital’s SaaS-based method-time-cost optimisation solution, GSDCost, was implemented at the Ansell Textiles Lanka facility to support the company’s growing need for accurate SMV benchmarks and to improve cross-functional collaboration. The solution enables the establishment of international standard time benchmarks using digitized motion codes and predetermined times, so that Ansell can now ensure uniformity in costing, planning, and production.
Following its implementation of GSDCost, Ansell achieved a 7% reduction in SMVs across its plants, establishing a single version of truth for costing and productivity. As a result, its body protection garment line, for example, saw a productivity improvement of between 6–7%. The company has now transitioned from manually tracking 36 styles to having accurate SMVs available across 150 styles, enabling more precise and scalable production planning. In addition, operator training has been standardised through video-based motion analysis, effectively upskilling teams and aligning operational practices across the organisation.
“As our product portfolio expanded from 35 to 150 styles, we moved to more complex manufacturing processes. Issuing accurate SMV values and standardised methods is challenging day by day. Therefore, we needed a globally recognized, scientific solution that could standardize SMVs and bring greater transparency and control to our operation processes. GSDCost stood out for its data validation, proven methodology, and ability to support scalable, cost-effective manufacturing.
Eroshan Nilanga,
GSDCost has become an excellent tool for standardising our manufacturing process. It’s provided a standardised framework that not only ensures costing accuracy but also accuracy of the employee incentive payment process. The clarity and consistency GSDCost delivers enables us to scale with confidence and respond swiftly to new growth opportunities. That level of control is proving invaluable.”
Manager, Industrial Engineering,
Ansell Textile Lanka
With GSDCost onboard, Ansell is now better equipped to manage scale-ups—such as the major increase in glove production—while avoiding capacity blind spots and unnecessary freight costs. Enhanced visibility has proved instrumental in enabling the company to actively diversify its manufacturing footprint beyond China in response to growing supply chain volatility.
SDCost utilises the latest cloud software architecture to provide a highly intuitive, secure and scalable SaaS solution, which helps achieve cost optimisation and sustainable improvements in productivity. GSDCost’s enhanced feature of a globalised Fair Wage Tool – with data provided by the Fair Wage Network – enables brands and manufacturers to quickly agree the fair living wage allowance for any given garment, in any factory in the world.
“In an industry facing growing complexity and unpredictability, Ansell’s impressive productivity gains and standardisation across multiple production lines highlight just how vital scientifically calculated SMVs are for ensuring operational consistency and scalability.
Karthik Duraisamy,
We’re proud to support Ansell in building a transparent, future-ready manufacturing framework that not only strengthens resilience but also supports its ambitious environmental and performance objectives.”
Sales Director,
Coats Digital
