Developing an assessment tool to analyze risk of Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of apparel manufacturing organizations in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Apparel industry is one of the key employment providers in the country, which has been greatly affected due to global economic recession caused by COVID-19. Resulting in having a major impact on the economy and its people. During 2020 when the spread of COVID - 19 was at peak, apparel organizations must either completely shut down or operate at less capacity as a result, annual turnover has been dropped by 21%. This study develops a comprehensive risk assessment tool tailored for the Sri Lankan apparel industry to evaluate COVID-19 safety risk. Further it is used to assess the impact caused by COVID-19 on the operations of the apparel industry. This tool integrates COVID-19 severity and probability factors identified through literature and expert surveys, to provide a holistic approach for risk assessment. Eight severity and five probability factors are established to define COVID-19 risk domain. Developed tool was applied to analyze COVID-19 safety risk in six apparel organizations. Results are further analyzed to identify how it affected the continuous operations of the organization through COVID-19 related absenteeism. Results showed a strong positive correlation between the safety risk and continuous operations. The tool developed would be helpful to detect early signs of COVID-19 safety risk and take preventive actions based on the identified lapses. Hence this research provides a robust approach contributing to both pandemic preparedness and operational continuity in high-risk apparel manufacturing environment.