Lean manufacturing practices in Malaysian automotive industry

This paper presents a case study of lean manufacturing implementation in Malaysian automotive components manufacturer. Semi-structured interview and open-ended questionnaire were used to investigate on how to successfully implement lean manufacturing in Malaysia manufacturing industry. The interview was conducted at a case study company with two managerials who are familiar with lean manufacturing implementation projects. The case study company was selected due to its achievement as a Toyota Production System Model Company awarded by the Malaysia Japan Automotive Industries Cooperation. The finding shows that this case study company used the project approach in their early stage of implementing lean manufacturing projects. The project based is a small scale project where the focus of lean manufacturing implementation is to solve the problems at a small area. They form a team with five full-time members, determine a model line for lean manufacturing implementation project, and then did the continuous improvements effort with focus on reducing the level of inventory. By reducing the level of inventory, this case study company was able to reduce other form of wastes including over production, waiting times, excessive transportation, excessive processing, excessive motion, and defective products. In the project based approach the company, conducted continuous improvement efforts until saturated level of major improvement and achieving a stable condition for the model line. Through their efforts and achievements in implementing lean manufacturing, this case study company has become a reference and role model for the other manufacturing companies in Malaysia

Penentuan Struktur Permukaan dengan Menggunakan Kaedah Kapasitans

This work describes a method to obtain surface microtopography of a material by scanning its capacitance. Capacitance was measured by the three terminal method with the core of a coaxial cable used as the measuring probe while the shielding wire acted as the guard electrode to eliminate the fringing field effect. From our results, we found that good image resolution is best obtained if the medium used has a high dielectric constant than the sample

Analysis of residuals in daily solar radiation time series

The Box-Jenkins approach is applied to daily solar radiation data from four different locations in Malaysia. The deterministic annual component is obtained by Fourier analysis. The stochastic component of the time series is fitted to three models, ARMA (1,0), ARMA (2,0) and ARMA (1,1). Random shocks from these models are tested by Box-Pierce statistic and Ljung-Box for whiteness of residuals. Skewness and kurtosis coefficients are tested for normality

Biosorption of Zn(II) from aquoues solution by jatropha curcas press cake

Biosorption of Zn (II) from aqueous solution using Jatropha curcas press cake was comparatively investigated over a range of variables (contact time, pH, and initial metal concentration) by batch adsorption experiments. Highest Zn (II) removal (~40 mg/L) was attained using 0.5g adsorbent for 100 minutes with initial Zn (II) concentration of 50 mg/L and pH 4. The adsorption data was best fitted with Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.99) and follows second order kinetic rate equation (R2 > 0.99). FTIR analysis revealed the availability of phenol, alcohol and carboxyl functional groups in Jatropha curcas press cake for the biosorption. XRD results confirmed the presence of Zn (II) in the press cake after adsorption process. These findings concluded that Jatropha curcas press cake is a suitable biosorbent for removing Zn (II) in heavy metal polluted wastewater

Konsep khiyar dalam muamalat di Malaysia: Satu tinjauan berdasarkan kitab Mughni Almuhtaj Syeikh Mohamad Al-Khatib Al-Syarbini

Secara asasnya, sesuatu akad yang telah dipersetujui hendaklah dilaksanakan secara terus. Namun sedikit kelonggaran diberikan kepada kedua-dua belah pihak yang berakad untuk menarikbalik akad tersebut disebabkan sesuatu perkara.Konsep ini disebut sebagai khiyar.Hikmah khiyar disyariatkan adalah untuk memperkukuhkan konsep reda dalam urusniaga.Persoalannya sejauhmanakah konsep khiyar itu dibenarkan dalam Islam. Kajian ini menganalisis konsep khiyar menurut pandangan mazhab Syafi’i berdasarkan kitab Mughni al-Muhtaj yang dilihat bersesuaian untuk diimplimentasikan dalam masyarakat di Malaysia.Kitab Mughni al Muhtaj karangan Syeikh Mohammad al-Khatib al-Syarbini menjelas dan menghuraikan teks Minhaj al-Talibin karangan Imam al-Nawawi, kedua-duanya bermazhab Syafi’i. Belum ditemui lagi sebarang kajian yang telah dilakukan terhadap pandangan Syeikh Mohammad Khatib al-Syarbini mengenai konsep khiyar melalui karangannya itu.Kajian ini merupakan kajian kualitatif yang bersifat tekstual dengan memfokuskan kaedah penyelidikan melalui kajian kepustakaan.Data yang diperolehi dari kajian ini dianalisis menggunakan kaedah analisis isi. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa konsep khiyar amat luas penggunaannya sehingga meliputi juga akad yang lain seperti akad salam, syarikat, sharf dan sebagainya.Terdapat dua jenis khiyar yang utama iaitu khiyar tasyah dan khiyar naqisah. Terdapat akad yang tidak boleh diberikan hak khiyar seperti akad nikah, syuf’ah, sewaan dan lain-lainnya.Namun dalam keadaan yang tertentu hak khiyar tidak boleh digunakan seperti jika keaiban itu amat sedikit dan tidak merosakkan tujuan pembelian tersebut.Persoalan timbul adakah hak khiyar ini turut terlaksana terhadap mana-mana akad yang telah dipersetujui tetapi belum berlaku sebarang penyerahan barangan

Conceptual design of a hybrid thermal and photovoltaic receiver of an FMDF collector

The optical characteristic of a Fixed Mirror Distributed Focus (FMDF) solar collector is used as a basis for the design of an hybrid thermal and photovoltaic (PV) receiver. The result provides another variation in energy conversion that an FMDF solar collector can conveniently perform

Effect of physical pretreatment on dilute acid hydrolysis of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes).

Effects of different physical pretreatments on water hyacinth for dilute acid hydrolysis process (121 ± 3 °C, 5% H2SO4, 60 min) were comparatively investigated. Untreated sample had produced 24.69 mg sugar/g dry matter. Steaming (121 ± 3 °C) and boiling (100 ± 3 °C) for 30 min had provided 35.9% and 52.4% higher sugar yield than untreated sample, respectively. The highest sugar yield (132.96 mg sugar/g dry matter) in ultrasonication was obtained at 20 min irradiation using 100% power. The highest sugar production (155.13 mg sugar/g dry matter) was obtained from pulverized samples. Hydrolysis time was reduced when using samples pretreated by drying, mechanical comminution and ultrasonication. In most methods, prolonging the pretreatment period was ineffective and led to sugar degradations. Morphology inspection and thermal analysis had provided evidences of structure disruption that led to higher sugar recovery in hydrolysis process

Project practitioners' competency in Malaysian construction industry

The purpose of this study is to investigate which competencies are perceived importance by the project practitioners in order for them to perform accordingly towards achieving project objectives. At the same time, the study also allows the opportunity to evaluate their keenness on self-learning which is important for project practitioners to continuously enhancing their skills. Questionnaires are distributed at one of Malaysian Government Department, which is responsible for the construction of government infrastructure projects in the country. Total of 179 respondents gave their feedbacks during a training, a workshop and talk events. Six (6) types of competencies were measured. The findings indicate that three most important competencies perceived by project practitioners are Behavioral, Technical Generic and Generic competencies. On top of that, feedbacks on self learning elements shows that the project practitioners are agreeable and aware on the importance of learning and are willing to take up their own time to learn by themselves. This study revealed the behavioral competency is the most importance competency perceived by the project practitioners. With this information, the Department could plan the project practitioners’ development programs more effectively and drive the motivation to learn continuously. Effective learning creates skilled human resources who could withstand the competitive environment in the construction industry

Correlation of JKR Probe with Undrained Shear Strength

The JKR probe test is a popular field test in Malaysia, and is especially used in soft soil areas to determine bearing capacity. However the correlation of undrained shear strength (Su) and the JKR probe test is not available at this moment. This study was performed to develop an empirical correlation of JKR probe and undrained shear strength of soft to stiff soil. In order to produce the correlation, the JKR probe test and the vane shear test have been performed at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM). Six JKR probe tests and 12 field vane shear tests were performed in close proximity to obtain good correlation. The results show that undrained shear strength and JKR probe can be correlated as Su=18J0.3. The proposed correlations will serve as a reference for engineers in estimating undrained shear strength, especially in low-risk construction design

Demokrasi pendidikan dalam sistem pengajian di institusi pondok : pelaksanaan dan amalan / Mohd Zahirwan Halim Zainal Abidin ... [et al.]

Istilah demokrasi amat sinonim dengan keadaan geo-politik dalam aspek pentadbiran atau pemerintahan sesebuah negara. Namun, sekiranya diamati, peristilahan demokrasi bukan hanya berkisar kepada prospek politik semata-mata, malah boleh diperluaskan kepada prospek-prospek lain antaranya prospek pendidikan. Demokrasi dalam pendidikan terutamanya pendidikan Islam telah menjadi perbincangan para sarjana sejajar dengan matlamat pendidikan Islam yang menumpukan kepada melahirkan umat Islam yang berjaya dalam kehidupan di dunia dan di akhirat. Dengan kedatangan Islam ke Nusantara, penubuhan institusi-institusi pengajian Islam antaranya institusi pondok memperlihatkan pendemokrasian pendidikan dalam sistem pengajian yang dipraktikkan di institusi tersebut. Justeru, objektif kajian ini ialah untuk menyelusuri kefahaman berkaitan demokrasi pendidikan di samping mengkaji demokrasi pendidikan yang telah dilaksanakan di institusi pengajian pondok khususnya di Malaysia. Bagi mencapai objektif tersebut, kajian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif sepenuhnya berpandukan analisis dokumen, temubual dan pemerhatian dalam mendapatkan data-data yang diperlukan. Dapatan kajian ini menunjukkan sistem pengajian di institusi pondok telah mengaplikasikan demokrasi pendidikan berbentuk sistem pengajian secara percuma dan terbuka, tiada had umur, kepelbagaian jantina dan masa pengajian yang berpanjangan. Rumusnya, demokrasi pendidikan merupakan satu langkah praktikal yang telah dilaksanakan di institusi pengajian pondok. Dasar ini amat bersesuaian dengan matlamat penubuhannya dalam menyebarkan ilmu pengetahuan Islam bercirikan fardhu ain kepada masyarakat Islam seluruhnya tanpa mengira status, darjat, latar belakang atau gende