Measuring inefficiency in the rubber manufacturing industry

Malaysia is the fifth largest producer of natural rubber in the world after Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and China as well as producing rubber products exported to more than 190 countries worldwide. However, the slowdown in growth of major importers such as China, the European Union and the United States and the perception of stock surplus as output exceeds demand led to fluctuating rubber production performance over the period 2010 to 2016. Hence, this article aims at examining the level of technical efficiency (TE) and to analyze the determinants of the inefficiencies of the rubber manufacturing industry. The analysis was conducted using the latest 145 firms’ data obtained from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOS) and using the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) method. The results showed that the overall TE level was high while the determinants such as the capital-labor ratio, wage rate and firm size had a negative and significant impact that could reduce industrial technical efficiencies. The policy implication is that the rubber manufacturing industry needs to focus on high technological production investment, increase employee motivation through wage increment and create more strategic cooperation with international industry

Pembangunan kerangka konsep penyertaan latihan : kajian kes staf akademik di universiti awam Malaysia

Latihan merupakan aktiviti formal dan usaha berterusan yang dilakukan oleh pengurusan universiti dalam meningkatkan prestasi dan kualiti kerja staf akademik di Universiti Awam Malaysia. Latihan juga penting kepada staf akademik meningkatkan keupayaan dan keyakinan dalam menjalankan tugas yang diberikan. Namun terdapat isu dan permasalahan tentang ketidakcukupan penyertaan staf akademik dalam latihan. Kajian lepas menunjukkan kebanyakkan permasalahan dalam penyertaan latihan diselesaikan hanya melalui kajian peringkat penentuan faktor sahaja. Oleh itu, kajian ini dijalankan bagi meneroka dan mendalami faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penyertaan staf akademik Universiti Awam Malaysia dalam latihan. Seterusnya satu kerangka konsep baharu telah dibangunkan bagi melihat signifikan perkaitan faktor yang mempengaruhi penyertaan dalam latihan. Kajian ini telah menggunakan kaedah kualitatif kajian kes di mana seramai tujuh (7) orang pegawai latihan dan dua puluh lapan (28) orang staf akademik Universiti Awam Malaysia telah ditemu bual. Temu bual separa berstruktur bersama kaedah ’probing’ digunakan bagi mendapatkan maklumat dengan lebih mendalam. Data yang diperolehi telah dianalisis dengan menggunakan kaedah Analisis Tematik. Berdasarkan analisa yang dijalankan, didapati empat faktor domain mempengaruhi penyertaan staf akademik Universiti Awam Malaysia dalam latihan. Empat faktor yang dimaksudkan adalah faktor kerja, individu, organisasi dan latihan. Berdasarkan keempat-empat faktor yang telah dikenalpasti, kajian ini telah membangunkan kerangka konsep berdasarkan pengintegrasian teori (Teori Tindakan Bersebab, Teori Tingkahlaku Terancang, Teori Hierarki Keperluan Maslow, Teori Jangkaan, Teori Pembelajaran Sosial, Teori Pembelajaran Dewasa, Teori Modal Insan, Teori Matlamat dan Teori Kerjaya Holland) yang berkaitan penyertaan dalam latihan. Kerangka konsep yang dicadangkan dapat mengisi kelompongan permasalahan kajian serta boleh dimanfaatkan oleh pihak yang berkepentingan terutama Universiti Awam Malaysia dan Kementerian Pendidikan Tinggi Malaysia (KPTM) yang merupakan badan induk kepada Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Malaysia bagi meningkatkan penyertaan staf akademik dalam latihan

Active compliance control strategies for multifingered robot hand

Safety issues have to be enhanced when the robot hand is grasping objects of different shapes, sizes and stiffness. The inability to control the grasping force and finger stiffness can lead to unsafe grasping environment. Although many researches have been conducted to resolve the grasping issues, particularly for the object with different shape, size and stiffness, the grasping control still requires further improvement. Hence, the primary aim of this work is to assess and improve the safety of the robot hand. One of the methods that allows a safe grasping is by employing an active compliance control via the force and impedance control. The implementation of force control considers the proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller. Meanwhile, the implementation of impedance control employs the integral slidingmode controller (ISMC) and adaptive controller. A series of experiments and simulations is used to demonstrate the fundamental principles of robot grasping. Objects with different shape, size and stiffness are tested using a 3-Finger Adaptive Robot Gripper. The work introduces the Modbus remote terminal unit [RTU] protocol, a low-cost force sensor and the Arduino IO Package for a real-time hardware setup. It is found that, the results of the force control via PID controller are feasible to maintain the grasped object at certain positions, depending on the desired grasping force (i.e., 1N and 8N). Meanwhile, the implementation of impedance control via ISMC and adaptive controller yields multiple stiffness levels for the robot fingers and able to reduce collision between the fingers and the object. However, it was found that the adaptive controller produces better impedance control results as compared to the ISMC, with a 33% efficiency improvement. This work lays important foundations for long-term related research, particularly in the field of active compliance control that can be beneficial to human–robot interaction (HRI)