Case Study: A Mobile ERP to Handle Multiple Sand Mining Sites (Welithota App)

Abstract

Construction industry has been growing rapidly from 2002 due to massive constructions done for rehabilitation. Further post-tsunami construction also contributed to the exponential growth of the industry from 2004. Recent mega projects including Sothern, Central and Airport highways, lotus-tower, condominium housing projects, and tourist hotels are few examples which contributed directly to the growth in the economy. However, the construction industry directly depends on supply sand and other raw materials. Hence the mining industry governs productivity in the construction industry. The main concern when it comes to the mining industry is the environmental concerns due to excessive consumption of earthy resources. The natural resources are non-renewable and require thousands of years to recreate the extracted minerals. The sustainability within the mining industry attracts major concerns as ill-management in extraction jeopardizes the nature, industry and also the economy. The Sri Lankan government has imposed Laws and By-laws by act number 33 of 1992 and established Geological Survey and Mines Bureau (GSMB) to ensure that construction raw material extraction industry functions with sustainability without compromising nature. This case study has been conducted to acknowledge how the Information Communication Technology had incorporated within the industry stakeholder; raw material mining contractors for sustainable sand mining.

Miners with valid licenses were integrated with mobile based technologies to manage the day-today operations and the systematic adherence to imposed Laws. Furthermore, the paper discusses how technology has improved governance and management in technologically unattained industry. This case study resulted in the mobile based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) mobile application ''Welithota'', titled to be the first mobile only ERP system in Sri Lanka which works standalone without an internet access or other technological infrastructure.