The Impact of Employee Engagement on Sewing Automation Success in Apparel Manufacturing in Sri Lanka

Most significantly, in apparel manufacturing, the introduction of sewing automation with strategic intention has improved productivity largely. Automation in apparel manufacturing was primarily considered as critical productivity enhancement approach and it can be argued that success of sewing automation may depend on astute employee engagement. Therefore, this paper intends to outline how employee engagement benefits sewing operation automation in the apparel industry to realize its successful outcomes. Thus, to conduct the research study on this topic, the researchers considered manual sewing operation at ABC Company, which was selected due to its low productivity and high rework leading to high costs. The outcomes of the research study are generalizable towards the apparel industry in Sri Lanka. Having conducted a comprehensive review of the literature and empirical studies; Employee Engagement, Employee Competency, Employee Motivation and Top Management Commitment have been selected as the independent variables and Sewing Automation Success is presented as the dependent variable. Results show that, developed conceptual model is accepted and a strong positive relationship between all the independent variables and the dependent variable (Sewing Automation Success) is established. The researchers used quantitative method and data collection by deploying a questionnaire to 196 operators, the result has been analyzed using SPSS version 27. The findings suggest a significant impact of employee engagement towards sewing automation. Recommendations stress that top management should focus on employee engagement providing career prospects to optimize their potential.