COLOMBO, SRI LANKA and LONDON, UK – 12th November, 2025 – Coats Digital is pleased to announce that Ansell Textile Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., part of the global personal protective equipment leader, Ansell (ASX: ANN), has significantly improved manufacturing consistency and productivity through the implementation of its GSDCost solution. The company has successfully reduced style-based Standard Minute Values (SMV) by up to 7%, achieved a 7% improvement in productivity within its Body Protection division, and is now well-positioned to accommodate increasing capacity demands using existing resources.
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.
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 The absence of reliable SMVs and real-time data visibility meant teams often worked with outdated or conflicting information, undermining confidence in costings and limiting the ability to make informed, data-driven decisions.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.
Eroshan Nilanga, Manager, Industrial Engineering, Ansell Textile Lanka, said, “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.”
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.
Presantha Fernando, Associate Director, Manufacturing Operations, Ansell Textile Lanka, said: “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.”
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.
“GSDCost has become an excellent tool for standardising our manufacturing process,” added Eroshan Nilanga. “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.”
GSDCost, Coats Digital’s method analysis and predetermined times solution, is widely acknowledged as the de facto international standard across the sewn products industry. It supports a more collaborative, transparent, and sustainable supply chain in which brands and manufacturers establish and optimize ‘International Standard Time Benchmarks’ using standard motion codes and predetermined times. This shared framework supports accurate cost prediction, fact-based negotiation, and a more efficient garment manufacturing process, while concurrently delivering on CSR commitments.
Karthik Duraisamy, Sales Director, Coats Digital, commented “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.
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.”
Key Benefits and ROI for Ansell Textiles Lanka:
- Up to 7% reduction in SMV.
- 6–7% productivity increase in body protection garments.
- Standardised operator training via video-based motion analysis
- Guide for future costings
- Supports scale-up in near future from 1 million to 2 million garments/month
- Enhanced transparency across manufacturing and finance teams
About Coats Digital
Coats Digital is the leading digital transformation partner for the fashion supply chain, powering sustainable processes and high value insights through connected technologies. We leverage deep industry and technology expertise to help brands and manufacturers optimise, connect and accelerate business critical processes from design and development to method-time-cost optimisation, production planning and control, fabric optimisation and shop floor execution. Used in over 3,000 factories globally, our unmatched end-to-end apparel, footwear and textile software and SaaS solutions improve agility, speed to market, efficiency, transparency and sustainability. Coats Digital – transform with intelligence. coatsdigital.com
Coats Digital is the software business of Coats Group, the world’s leading industrial thread company and a trusted industry player.
About Ansell Limited
Ansell (ASX: ANN) is a global leader in safety solutions and an integrated manufacturer of personal protection equipment 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 Lanka is widely recognised for its sustainability leadership, having received numerous national accolades including the Gold Award at the 2024 Presidential Environment Awards and ISO 50001:2018 certification.
For more information, visit: www.ansell.com
About GSDCost
GSDCost is the international standard for establishing and optimising accurate method-time-cost benchmarks for sustainable garment cost optimisation and manufacturing excellence. It supports a more collaborative, transparent, and sustainable supply chain through the use of standard motion codes and predetermined times. This common language facilitates accurate cost prediction, fact-based negotiation, and improved manufacturing efficiency—while helping brands and suppliers meet CSR goals.
In 2025, GSDCost was recognised for its exceptional contributions to the fashion industry, winning the Standout Platform/Technology/Tool Silver Award at the UK Digital Excellence Awards, as well as the Innovation – Supply Chain and Environmental – Technology awards at the Just Style Excellence Awards.
