Management of the manufacturing function in Sri Lanka has rarely received the attention and serious thought it requires and deserves, both at a corporate level and at national level. Policy initiatives have generally focused on the manufacturing and marketing of products without any attempt at understanding the structure and dynamics of sustainable competitiveness in manufacturing. Though courses involving production, operations management, supply chain are provided in some of Sri Lanka’s universities and institutions at undergraduate and post graduate levels, there is a probably, just one Sri Lankan university which looks at manufacturing management from an industry practitioner’s perspective. Whilst it may be fashionable to speak of the virtues of the service economy, it is little realized that manufacturing forms the heart of any productive economy....