Hayleys Advantis honours employees for innovation excellence

Isuru Jayasooriya, Dharshana Wijemanne, Dayal Sandanayake, Chamika Chathuranga, Chandana Samaraweera, Supun Ranaweera and Sagara Perera receive Gold award from Hayleys PLC Chairman and CEO Mohan Pandithage

Hayleys Advantis Limited, the transportation and logistics arm of the Hayleys group, recently held Advantis Ideastorm Champions League, to recognise the successful implementation of the ingenious ideas, which were presented at Advantis Ideastorm, the ideation programme introduced in 2020.  

Advantis Ideastorm is a platform that encourages employees to generate innovative ideas to enrich the existing businesses and introduce new business verticals adjacent to the core businesses under two categories: revenue generation and service optimisation. Under Advantis Ideastorm Champions League, the teams that successfully progressed in implementing their ideas that were submitted during phase one were rewarded based on the level of progress, the value realised and future potential – both financial and non-financial.  

“Advantis Ideastorm serves the dual purpose of driving business excellence through innovation and rewarding the disruptive thinking of our employees,” said Hayleys Advantis Managing Director Ruwan Waidyaratne. 

“It has been exciting to see our teams work together and bring their ideas to life and the outcomes have been highly encouraging. The judges were impressed with the quality of the proposals and the strong commitment and enthusiasm displayed in the implementation phase.” 

The board of directors of Hayleys Advantis, with Dr. Nirmal De Silva, an external consultant of Advantis Ideastorm, who played a vital role in formulating the programme, evaluated the 13 teams who emerged as the finalists of Advantis Ideastorm Champions League. 

“As the leader in the transportation and logistics industry, we strive to maintain excellence through a culture of continuous innovation, which requires us to be disruptive in our thinking,” Hayleys Advantis Chief Strategy Officer and Group Management Committee Member Virendra Perera said. 

He further added, “We encourage innovation and make concerted efforts to incentivise and reward such efforts.”
The Gold award was won by a team from Advantis 3PL Plus, comprising Isuru Jayasooriya, Dharshana Wijemanne, Dayal Sandanayake, Chamika Chathuranga, Chandana Samaraweera, Supun Ranaweera and Sagara Perera. The initiative, which focused on further enhancing the efficiency and reducing customer lead times of one of the Strategic Business Units of the Group, resulted in a substantial reduction of the overall carbon footprint of the operation.  

“We take great pleasure and pride in being selected as the overall winners of Advantis Ideastorm Champions League,” said one of the members of the Gold award winning team.

“Our project will be a stepping stone in transitioning from the traditional warehousing model to a future fit fulfilment centre, aligning with the purpose of Advantis; Inspire, Connect and Enrich. This achievement was only possible due to Advantis Ideastorm, which has been proven to be an effective platform to incubate and implement innovative ideas.”

The Silver award was also won by a team from Advantis 3PL Plus, comprising Gayan Rajapaksha, Malaka Yattigala, Lahiru Udawatta and Kasun Bandara. The Bronze award was presented to a team from Advantis Ships, comprising Marzook Maazud, Asanka Bodhirathna, Roshan Medonza, Andrew Tan and Lilip Sanjeewa.