An integrated decision support framework for the adoption of lean, agile and green practices in product life cycle stages.

In order to stay competitive in today’s overly competitive market place, businesses must be engineered to match product characteristics and customer requirements. This increased emphasis on achieving highly adaptive manufacturing with reduction in manufacturing costs, better utilization of manufacturing resources and sound environmental management practices force organisations to adopt efficient management practices in their manufacturing operations. Some of the established practices in this context belong to the Lean, Agility and Green (LAG) paradigms. Adopting these practices in order to address customer requirements may require some level of expertise and understanding of the contribution (or lack of it) of the practices in meeting those requirements. Primarily, the wide choice of LAG practices available to address customer requirements can be confusing and/or challenging for those with limited knowledge of LAG practices and their efficacy. There is currently no systematic methodology available for selecting appropriate LAG practices considering of the product life cycle (PLC). Therefore, this research provides a novel framework for selecting appropriate LAG practices based on PLC stages for reducing costs, lead time and generated waste. The methodology describes the application of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), statistical inference and regression analysis as decision support tools, ensuring a systematic approach to the analysis with appropriate performance measures. The data collected were analysed with the aid of SPSS and Excel using a variety of statistical methods. The framework was verified through a Delphi study and validated using a case study. The key findings of the research include the various contributions of lean, agile and green practices towards improving performance measures, the importance of green in improving performance measures and the importance of selecting appropriate practices based on product life cycle stages. This research makes a clear contribution to existing body of knowledge by providing a methodological framework which could serve as a guide for companies in the FMCG industry to systematically integrate and adopt lean, agile and green to better manage their processes and meet customer requirements in their organisations. However, the framework developed in this research has not been tested in other areas.N/

Development of a cost reduction methodology for start-up SMES developing a novel product.

This thesis is concerned with identifying cost engineering requirements of start-up SMEs in the manufacturing sector and developing a solution to address a number of their major requirements. The focus of the thesis is on cost reduction at the product development stage of a novel product. The aim of the thesis is to develop a cost reduction framework for SMEs developing a novel product in order to transfer necessary cost engineering knowledge to an SME in a structured way. A literature review has been completed to identify potential areas for cost reduction and build an understanding of SMEs’ characteristics in cost engineering requirements. The review confirmed the finding that SMEs lack cost engineering knowledge. Therefore, cost reduction best practices were identified through literature review and analysed for relevance for SMEs. Collaborating with a start-up SME developing a novel product helped to identify SMEs cost engineering requirements. By close observation and participation of the SME, areas lacking knowledge were identified. In addition, potential cost reduction opportunities were examined. Due to the nature of cost reduction activities, it was required to study day to day activities of the collaborating company and become familiarised with development, production and business plans for the product. The identification of the requirements and development of the AS IS model of the SME helped to build an understanding of characteristics and requirements of start-up SMEs. Based on these the cost reduction framework was developed. The framework includes best practice tools and methods which comply with start-up SMEs’ characteristics. Where a suitable method could not be identified, the method was developed in this research to address their requirements. The framework was implemented in the collaborating company and was validated by presenting the results to internal and external experts from industry and academia. Keywords: Start-up SME, Cost Engineering, Manufacturing, Novel product, production cost.PhD in Manufacturin

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia