Learning Factory Concept and Development at Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang

One of the key resources for the organization to sustain in the competitive business world is the employee’s competencies. Current business environment requires employees who are competent to adapt to ever-changing the business environment as a result of globalization and changes in customer’s requirement. The current teaching and training methods used in the universities is lacking a continuous delivery of competencies, especially in manufacturing education. One of the approaches that are becoming popular in developing student’s competencies is through the application of the learning factory concept. A learning factory represents a simulation of a real factory environment where students can gain hands-on the learning experience by conducting various projects. This paper will, therefore, present the process of setting up a learning factory and discuss how the learning factory can be used to support the teaching and learning process in a public technical university. This study was performed at the Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang. The purpose of the development of such a learning factory is to enable the students to attained hands-on experience on the concepts they have learned during class lecture and see how it can be applied in the real world

Students experience using learning factory at the Faculty of Industrial Management

One of the issues faced by the industry internationally is a lack of skilled workers to meet growing industrial demands. To satisfy the demanding requirements of the manufacturing industry in such a scenario, both the educational content and didactical methodologies need to be enhanced. However, the university and other higher education institutions do not currently use training and teaching strategies that prepare students for employment in the industrial sector. The learning factory concept can be introduced to the institution to resolve this problem. The learning factory technique mixes business activities with the educational process. This study evaluates the student’s perception in using the learning factory concepts at the Universiti Malaysia Pahang, a Malaysian public university located in Pahang, Malaysia. A qualitative research method was employed, and data was collected by interviewing six undergraduate students who had used the learning factory for their lean manufacturing subject. The interview took place at the end of the semester using a structured, open-ended interviewing questions technique. According to the study, the learning factory has four primary advantages which are increase students' interest in TVET topics, boost their level of soft skills, increase their comprehension, and offer tools to help them retain knowledge. The findings of this study can be used to provide new suggestions for lecturers, instructors, or higher education institution administration on how to make teaching students simpler and more engaging using learning factory concept. Future research should study the relationship between learning factory infrastructure, instructional approaches, with student performance

Utilizing learning factory as enabler to TVET goals: Students’ learning experience

One of the practical means of attaining sustainable development is Learning Factory (LF). Learners in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can build their essential competencies in a real-world setting within the LF setting. This article's goal is to examine the value of LF in HEIs and the suggested expansion of LF in HEIs to achieve TVET goals. One issue facing industry around the world is a lack of skilled workers to meet emerging industry requirements. This issue requires the educational content and didactical methodologies improvement. However, many universities are not applying teaching and training techniques that ready students for industrial employment. The learning factory concept can be introduced to the institution as a means of resolving this problem. This is because the learning factory technique incorporates business activities into the educational process. This study examines the advantages of applying the learning factory concepts based on a Malaysian public university experience. Open-ended questions were given to 63 students who had used the learning factory. This study revealed three key advantages, including increased learning process interest, student hands-on experience based on genuine industrial job life, and improved lecturer to student knowledge transfer. Findings from this study can assist instructors, lecturers, or higher education institution management in coming up with new ways to make the process of imparting knowledge to students easier and more engaging, and at the same time supporting sustainable development goals. Future research may investigate the connection between teaching techniques and their academic success

Developing and validating measurement for manufacturing flexibility implementation strategies: The PLS-SEM approach

Manufacturing flexibility (MF) has been acknowledged as tool to help manufacturers adapting to uncertainty in the business environment. Fluctuating market demand, rapid technological changes, shorter product life cycles and increase level of customization are among the caused that create uncertainties in the market. However, manufacturers are facing great challenge to reap the real benefit from implementing manufacturing flexibility. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the contributing factors that can enhance manufacturing flexibility implementation in mass customization production strategy among manufacturing firms in Malaysia. An extensive review on manufacturing flexibility literature and content validity assessment were conducted with industry practitioners and academicians. Four MF constructs and 16 measurement items have been identified from the review. A complete set of questionnaires have been developed by adopting, adapting, or self-develop based on the extensive literature review. This research study has recognized reliable MF constructs, consisting of four MF constructs and 16 measurement items. Thus, this study can be used to help identify provide method to enhance MF implementation at the manufacturing firm’s level. This study provided a useful tool for researchers to gain a greater knowledge and understanding on MF implementation. It acts to bridge the inadequacy of related studies on manufacturing flexibility by using the T-O-E framework. For practitioners, it is useful to review back the effectiveness of the usage of their internal resources in overcoming uncertainties in the environmental factors. More significantly, practitioners should be able to adopt the MF practices in a more holistic way. This study is among the first attempt to develop MF constructs for evaluating the enhancement of MF implementation in Malaysia

Synergistic effect of lean practices on lead time reduction: mediating role of manufacturing flexibility

Purpose: This study scrutinized the synergistic effects of lean manufacturing (LM) on lead time reduction (LR) while investigating the mediating role of manufacturing flexibility (MF) in that relationship within the context of batch and mass customization manufacturers.Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional survey involved 160 large batch and mass customization manufacturers in Indonesia. Data were analyzed by using the PLS path modeling approach and multigroup analysis.Findings: The positive synergistic direct effects of LM on LR and MF were revealed in both process types. In mass customization, MF mediates the effect of LM on LR. However, such a mediating effect was not found in the batch process due to the insignificant effect of MF on LR.Practical implications The findings offered theoretical and practical insights supporting the manufacturers to grasp potential benefits through the holistic LM implementation as well as the suitable strategies to improve MF and reduce lead time by considering the types of the productionprocess.Originality/value: This study bridged the gaps regarding the comparison of LM implementation and its influence on MF and LR in mass customization and batch production

A Hybrid Color Space for Skin Detection Using Genetic Algorithm Heuristic Search and Principal Component Analysis Technique

Color is one of the most prominent features of an image and used in many skin and face detection applications. Color space transformation is widely used by researchers to improve face and skin detection performance. Despite the substantial research efforts in this area, choosing a proper color space in terms of skin and face classification performance which can address issues like illumination variations, various camera characteristics and diversity in skin color tones has remained an open issue. This research proposes a new three-dimensional hybrid color space termed SKN by employing the Genetic Algorithm heuristic and Principal Component Analysis to find the optimal representation of human skin color in over seventeen existing color spaces. Genetic Algorithm heuristic is used to find the optimal color component combination setup in terms of skin detection accuracy while the Principal Component Analysis projects the optimal Genetic Algorithm solution to a less complex dimension. Pixel wise skin detection was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed color space. We have employed four classifiers including Random Forest, Naïve Bayes, Support Vector Machine and Multilayer Perceptron in order to generate the human skin color predictive model. The proposed color space was compared to some existing color spaces and shows superior results in terms of pixel-wise skin detection accuracy. Experimental results show that by using Random Forest classifier, the proposed SKN color space obtained an average F-score and True Positive Rate of 0.953 and False Positive Rate of 0.0482 which outperformed the existing color spaces in terms of pixel wise skin detection accuracy. The results also indicate that among the classifiers used in this study, Random Forest is the most suitable classifier for pixel wise skin detection applications

A Review of Contributing Factors and Challenges In Implementing Kaizen in Small and Medium Enterprises

The introduction of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015 poses another challenges to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia to remain competitive in a larger market of ASEAN, apart from the existing effect of globalization from low cost countries such as China and India. It is important for these SMEs to remain competitive in the market since SMEs contribute significantly to the Malaysian economy. One method to improve business competitiveness is by applying the concept of continuous improvement also known as Kaizen. This paper reviews some selected factors contributing to the successful implementation of Kaizen and its challenges among small and medium enterprises. The factors such as good communication between the top management and their employees, clear corporate strategy, the presence of a Kaizen champion personnel in the organization, good knowledge management and employees empowerment were found to contribute to the successful implementation of Kaizen. The review also found that resistance to change, failure to motivate employees, lack of understanding on companies’ strategic path and difficulties in managing continuous improvement itself formed some of the challenges in implementing Kaizen. It appears some similarities exist between small and medium enterprises, and large companies interm of the contributing factors in implementing Kaizen. Thus, this paper can provides some insights into the factors contributing to successful implementation of Kaizen and its challenges. Hopefully, this paper can be beneficial to the Small and Mediun Enterprises as well as other industry players in formulating their continuous improvement or Kaizen strategies

Applying learning factory in lean management: The experience of undergraduate students in a Malaysian public university

Employee’s competency plays an important role in the organization sustainability. This is important as the business environment is facing globalization effect and changing customer’s demand. However, there is a mismatched between workforce qualification and the changes in the business world. Therefore, universities play a big role in preparing students for the job market. The Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang has setup a learning factory in 2016 and embed it into the curriculum from October 2017 onwards. This research employed qualitative research in its data collection analysis. The experience of 56, second year undergraduate students who have used the learning factory in the Lean Management were reported. The result from this research reveal that learning factory help students to be exposed to real-life industry, improve student's understanding, gain practical experience, ability to relate theory with practical experience, learn new knowledge, make learning experience more interesting, and help to adapt to industrial life (Leave one space here)

University-Industry Collaboration: Barriers to Commercialization

This paper identifies the potential barriers that can affect effective collaboration between industry and public university in Malaysia. Intense global competition has created new requirements to the industry: constant new technological breakthrough, rapid deployment of new technological solutions and shorter product life-cycle. Thus, both the industry and the university need to look into possibilities of sharing knowledge-based capital, technological facilities and access to new scientific development and innovation. Data for this study was obtained through interviews with top management of companies involved in providing training, agriculture and solar energy, fund management and manufacturing which have experience in doing collaboration with Malaysian public universities. Later, the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Among the barriers identified were products are not market driven, bureaucracy, insufficient experience on applied research, lack of proper SOP, unattractive reward system, lack of information on potential collaboration opportunities and Intellectual Property (IP) issues

Roles and Perceptions of Kaizen Champions: A Study of Kaizen Implementation in Malaysian Automotive Industry

Automotive industry in Malaysia provides vital contributions to Malaysian economy. To remain competitive in a globalised business environment, business players will have to ensure continuous improvement are being implemented as part of their business strategy. One of the tools for continuous improvement which has been accepted globally is kaizen. This paper provides some evidence from a larger study on kaizen implementation among automotive companies in Malaysia. It specifically attempts to understand the perceptions of kaizen champions and their role in kaizen implementation. Fifteen participants of semi-structured interviews conducted among automotive manufacturers and their suppliers in the Klang Valley and Pekan, Pahang areas invovled in the study. The data which was recorded during the interview was then transcribed and coded according to the relevant themes. The findings suggest that the role of kaizen champion is important to ensure successful kaizen implementation in organizations. The main role of kaizen champion is to lead and assist other staff members of the organizations to implement kaizen. Teamwork, trainings for employees and support from top management are also important in helping kaizen champion fulfil their roles. Findings from this study enrich our understanding on the kaizen implementation in Malaysia and are beneficial to companies which are going to embark into kaizen or having difficulties to sustain their kaizen activities. In addition, it could also be useful to the respective government agencies in implementing the appropriate strategies that could help automotive companies to sustain their operations