Drivers for the Adoption of Sustainable Manufacturing Practices: A Malaysia Perspective

Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid,Novita Sakundarini,Raja Ariffin Raja Ghazilla,T. Ramayah 한국정밀공학회 2017 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol.18 No.11

Sustainable manufacturing aims to reduce environmental impacts during manufacturing activities by implementing strategies such as waste minimization, resource efficiency, pollution prevention, energy efficient manufacturing processes, and end of life management. Although sustainable manufacturing is being practiced and widely studied in developed countries, its advocation and implementation is still in its infancy in developing nations. This research aims to provide an insight into drivers to the adoption of sustainable practices in developing nations, specifically in Malaysia. A cross sectional survey was conducted among various manufacturing company in Malaysia and the data collected was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that competitiveness, company culture and public awareness has positive impact on sustainable manufacturing practices. Furthermore, the supply chain management was identified as the most importance practice in the implementation of sustainable manufacturing. The findings and recommendations from this research can facilitate manufacturing companies in Malaysia in their decision making processes on the possible changes in policies and operational process for the implementation of sustainable manufacturing practices in their organization.

Users Involvement in New Product Development Process: A Designers' Perspectives

Taha, Zahari,Alli, Hassan,Rashid, Salwa Hanim Abdul Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers 2011 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.10 No.3

The purpose of this paper is to study user's involvement in new product development (NPD). It seeks to identify the factors involving user and design practices in the design process of new product development. A survey was conducted on 20 respondents consisting of designers involved in product development from various industries. The study focused on the early activities of the product design process which is called product specification. The analysis performed considers the importance of involving users in design decision. The outcome of this research is the significance of involving users and its effect on product development activities. The research also provides a model for an integrated user, designer and product knowledge activity in the product development process.

The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs

Ale Ebrahim, Nader,Abdul Rashid, Salwa Hanim,Ahmed, Shamsuddin,Taha, Zahari Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers 2011 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.10 No.2

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs' virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts' recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This is turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure.

Users Involvement in New Product Development Process: A Designers' Perspectives

Zahari Taha,Hassan Alli,Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid 대한산업공학회 2011 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.10 No.3

The purpose of this paper is to study user"s involvement in new product development (NPD). It seeks to identify the factors involving user and design practices in the design process of new product development. A survey was conducted on 20 respondents consisting of designers involved in product development from various industries. The study focused on the early activities of the product design process which is called product specification. The analysis performed considers the importance of involving users in design decision. The outcome of this research is the significance of involving users and its effect on product development activities. The research also provides a model for an integrated user, designer and product knowledge activity in the product development process.

The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs

Nader Ale Ebrahim,Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid,Shamsuddin Ahmed,Zahari Taha 대한산업공학회 2011 Industrial Engineeering & Management Systems Vol.10 No.2

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs" virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts" recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This is turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development"s procedure.

A Methodology for Optimizing Modular Design Considering Product End of Life Strategies

Novita Sakundarini,Zahari Taha,Raja Ariffin Raja Ghazilla,Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid 한국정밀공학회 2015 International Journal of Precision Engineering and Vol. No.

Product modularity is a concept of clustering the independent components into logical units that are relatively independent to each other in functions. With the growing interest in environmental protection, the inclusion of product end of life issues during product design has been seen as a promising method to improve product utilization after its retirement. There are very few methodologies that deal with modularity at the conceptual design stage in which incorporate product end of life strategies and end of life cost in the literature. The lack of information during conceptual design will cause failure in overcoming drawbacks that will be apparent later in the detail design. The motivation of this study is to identify the relationship between product end of life strategies and modular design, and to formulate an optimization method to assist designers in designing products with appropriate end of life strategies to reduce environmental impact during product retirement. This paper proposes a practical method in optimizing modular design with different end of life strategies by using an Excel based approach that will be usable by designers.