Supply chain management practices in malaysia palm oil firm

Globalisation leads to competitive business environment which resulted companies continuously striving for excellence in their operations. Among others, supply chain management (SCM) is used as strategic tool for companies to remain competitive than their competitors. However, there are lack of evidences in the existing literature on the supply chain practices in Malaysia particularly in the palm oil industry. The purpose of this research was to explore issues relating to supply chain management and its practices in palm oil firm in Malaysia. This study used qualitative investigation in a single case study setting of a palm oil firm in Malaysia. In-depth semi-structured interviews were employed with twenty-one participants from six subsidiaries companies of Felda Global Venture Berhad. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the transcribed interviews. Findings from the study reveal the SCM practices for FGV are inter-subsidiaries obligation, trust, loyalty, strategic location, suppliers and customer relationships, information systems and internal integration. In addition, this study discloses the issues concerning the SCM practices in FGV are problems concerning communication, poor quality of materials from outside suppliers, conflicts between subsidiaries, logistics and pilferage of stock. Theoretically, the study contributes towards the development of a model for supply chain practices of palm oil firm in Malaysia. The model shows that the integration of SCM practices blend the resources and capabilities of FGV and the success of SCM practices relies on the strong backbone of element on the subsidiaries relationship. Methodologically, the study illustrates the effective use of qualitative study in the predominant quantitative approach in SCM field of study contribute to the SCM literature. Practically, this study adds a valuable contribution to the supply chain profession, palm oil bodies, and government bodies in term of the constructs of the supply chain that should be implemented in palm oil industry. Future research in this area are recommended to focus on the quantitative approach in order to generalize the findings to a wider context

An assessment of the levels of ethical perception among public University student in Malaysia

Ethics is indeed crucial because we will not survive the 21st century with the 20th century ethics. With the onset of globalization, many hands guide the controls and many decisions move those hands whose core values play an instrumental role in creating a stable and peaceful future for the world (Institute of Global Ethics, 1999).Denhardt (1999) suggests that ethics should be concerned with providing normative guidance, standards for behavior and goals for policy and practice at all levels.Colleges and universities are custodians of knowledge. Because possession of knowledge is the source of power, understood here as the ability to influence decisions in contemporary society, these institutions are also the gateway to power, significantly affecting the quality of economic and social life throughout the world. Thus, insofar as colleges and universities create and disseminate knowledge within a particular society,they are institutions with moral responsibilities to maintain the well being of that society (Wilcox and Ebbs, 1992). Ethics is not merely another subject or discipline taught at a university for the University is a community of scholars from a variety of disciplines who come together [uni-verto = turn into one because they are ultimately concerned with the common good of society, not merely the good of individuals (Curtin University, 2001). Today that concern extends to the ethical dilemmas currently faced by the global community.Thus, ethics should play a central role in a university and not merely a cosmetic role (i.e. as a set of rules to disciplinary misconduct). Education and training is the primary communications vehicle that a university can utilize to promote and instill core values so that students are able to recognize and respond to ethical dilemmas in personal, professional and global life. Globalization, liberalization and higher mobility made possible through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution and the Internet amplify the role that the university play in producing individuals who can and will search within themselves to ensure that the power and responsibility bestowed upon them are factored into ethics i.e., Justice, Responsible Care and Respect for Persons.Students on today’s campuses encounter a variety of complex situations for which they are often ill prepared by experience or individual development. The relationship between students’ attitudes and values and the environment that supports or challenges them stands as a dynamic dialectic of confirmation and rejection that affects the ethical positions and choices of both the individual and the institution.Ethics can be defined as the rules and principles that define right and wrong conduct (Davis & Frederick, 1990). Whether an individual acts ethically or unethically is a result of complex interaction between the individual stage of moral development and several moderating variables including individual characteristics, organization structured design, organizational culture and the intensity of the ethical issues

Supply chain resilience: A review and research direction

Supply Chain Resilience (SCRES) has gradually concerned as an important strategy which recovers from supply chain disruptions (SCDs) in this globalization era. SCRES has gained popularity by academia and practitioners in recent years. This paper aims at identifying the potential research trends in the emerging area and to provide a future research platform for researchers and practitioners in supply chain (SC) industries through conducting a review of empirical study on SCRES. As such, a detailed literature review is conducted, classified and synthesized with the objective to propose the future study direction for SCRES. The review also investigates the research development of SCRES in developing and developed countries, with a focus on case studies related to supply chain risk management and operation management within manufacturing industries. Finding from the empirical research review suggests that there is limited studies done on exploring the adoption and implementation of SCRES strategies especially in developing countries, such as China. Therefore, this paper contributes to the literature of SCRES by outlining the SCRES adoption and implementation strategy, with the focus on China’s manufacturing industries

Sustainability-oriented application of value stream mapping: a review and classification

Notwithstanding the research on refining lean tools for the sake of sustainable development is slowly progressing, sustainability-oriented application of value stream mapping has received undivided attention from practitioners and researchers. Going through the literature highlights that there is a lack of research in integrating and systematizing the available knowledge on this lean tool, which is regarded as a visual process-based method to make sustainable progress over the time-based and green concepts of wastes to also assess and improve the societal sustainability performance of organizations. Hence, this paper has been aimed at presenting the findings of a systematic literature review on value stream mapping from the triple bottom line point of view. It classifies and codes the main studies in the context as well as provides a research agenda with nine recommendations that may advance this under-studied field. To narrow the gap in the current literature, this article also proposes a sustainability indicator set that would considerably contribute to guiding and strengthening the state-of-the-art research on successful implementation of the application. Besides, the findings indicate that more investigations are needed on employing survey and conceptual methodologies, applying comparative and cross-industry perspectives, developing sustainability indicator sets particularly societal metrics, and considering the stakeholders' benefits from adopting sustainability-oriented value stream mapping. The research on the convergence of this sustainability-oriented application and new paradigms such as IR 4.0 and/or Circular Economy should be also strengthened

Service quality in education: Management students' perspective

According to some scholars, the strategic success of a service organization depends on its ability to consistently meet or exceed customer service expectations. This study thus set out measure the service quality performance of a faculty in a public university. Based on stratified random sampling on 229 students employing a survey instruments that measure six dimensions of quality attributes, the result of the study revealed that the level of service quality in this particular faculty is moderate. Analysis showed that there are significant differences based on the students’ perception of this faculty service quality by year of study and race. However, there are no significant differences based on gender. Implication and limitation of the study are highlighted and further research discussions are suggested

Kajian terhadap pengamalan pengurusan penyenggaraan oleh industri terpilih di Malaysia

The drastic development of the industrial sector in Malaysiacauses maintenance to be more significant in its importance becasse of, amongothers, the increaseduse of sophisticatedmachinery and equipment. No study has been done to look into the practices of maintenance in industriesin Malaysia. Therefore,this thesis aims to get information of the types of maintenance used by some major industries in Malaysia, namely; Electricaland Electronics(E&E), Wood and Wood Products(p&PP) and Transport and Transport Equipment(PG&PPG). This requires that the importantfactor in an ideal maintenance management systemsbe determined. These factors are; the commitment of the management, equipment ownership, support from other departments in maintenance, continuous improvement, smallgroup activities, teamwork, training and education, planned maintenance, autonomous maintenance, levels of usage and lastly maintenance record keeping. The questionnaire constructedbased on these factors were then distributed to companiesidentified. The results of the study show that there are differences in the practices of the maintenance systems between smalland large companies in the above three industries. There is no significance difference betweensmall and large companies in practisingthe ideal maintenance management components in all three industries. However, there exists significant difference among large companiesin all the three industries. As a whole, the practice of the idealmaintenance management components in companieswithinthe selected industries is consideredto be average except large companiesin the E&E industry

Perkongsian pengetahuan di kalangan industri kecil dan sederhana di Malaysia

Menjelang abad ke-21, ekonomi dunia semakin bergerak kearah ekonomi yang berbentuk pengetahuan. Malaysia juga tidak ketinggalan dalam membangunkan modal insannya. Oleh itu adalah tidak keterlaluan menyatakan bahawa salah satu asset utama dalam syarikat adalah pengetahuan yang diuruskan oleh syarikat itu. Dalam menguruskan pengetahuan, perkongsian pengetahuan antara pekerja semakin dilihat sebagai salah satu aktiviti utama pengekalan pengetahuan di peringkat syarikat dan menjaga keupayaan persaingan syarikat. Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi perkongsian pengetahuan dalam industri pembuatan. Sebanyak 800 soal selidik tleah dihantar keseluruh negara dengan penumpuan kepada zon perindustrian di kawasan selatan, tengah dan utara. Walau bagaimanapun bilangan yang dipulangkan untuk analisis ialah sebanyak 258 atau 32.23%. Tahap perkongsian pengetahuan diukur dengan menggunakan instrumen yang dihasilkan oleh Gross (2001). Kajian mendapati bahawa tahap perkongsian pengetahuan di IKS di Malaysia adalah di peringkat sederhana. Faktor-faktor yang dikenalpasti ialah budaya, struktur organisasi, kepimpinan, teknologi dan insentif. Walau bagaimanapun hasil analisis menggunakan analisis regresi berbilang menunjukkan hanya dua faktor yang mempengaruhi perkongsian pengetahuan di IKS di Malaysia iaitu teknologi dan kepimpinan. Cadangan juga diberikan pada akhir kajian ini

Supply chain management practices in Malaysian manufacturing firms

Malaysia’s manufacturing sales value rose 2.6 % or RM43.78 billion in June 2007 from RM42.66 billion registered in the same month last year ( Department of Statistics). Contribution from manufacturing sectors in GDP shows that manufacturing has become the second most important sector in the Malaysian economy which accounted for RM47, 458 billion (Department of Statistics). Electrical and Electronic (E&E) Industry remain the main contributors from manufacturing sector to Malaysia’s GDP. In addition, E&E products, valued at RM125.2 billion remained the largest export revenue earner which was valued at RM22.4 billion or 38% of total export. However, competition in the electronics industry is fierce, driven by decreasing technological innovation cycle time. Therefore, methods for implementing and controlling production have changed. Players along the supply chain have undertaken critical roles in a firm’s competitive advantage (Sudarjat, 2007). Thus, as pointed out by many researchers, competition is no longer so much among firms, but among supply chains