Hubungan Strategi Rantaian Bekalan dengan Prestasi Rantaian Bekalan di Dalam Industri Automotif di Malaysia

Supply chain management is an alternative approach used in the automotive industry to achieve higher levels of competitiveness. Many challenges and problems can be resolved competitively through efficient and effective supply chain. In examining the issues of consistency in supply chain management a conceptual framework has been developed. This framework elaborates the relationship between supply chain strategy and supply chain performance through the mediation role of supply chain practices. In addition, this framework also describes the moderating role of quality management practices in enhancing supply chain performance. For the purpose of testing the research framework, a quantitative approach using survey method was employed. A total of 275 questionnaire sets were distributed to automotive component suppliers located in Malaysia. Out of that number, 65 questionnaire sets were returned and usable for the data analysis. The collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics approaches. The results showed that supply chain strategy is a poor predictor of supply chain performance but it can be a strong predictor of supply chain practices. This illustrates the need of practices in ensuring the developed strategy can contribute toward improved supply chain performance. The conducted test of mediation effect showed that the supply chain practice acts as a full mediator towards relationship between supply chain strategy and performance. This study has also proven that quality management practices can play the role as a moderating variable in the relationship between supply chain strategy and performance. More importantly, this study revealed that if quality management practices had been applied at a high level, it could act as a strategy to enhance supply chain performance. It is hoped that the findings can contribute toward the enrichment of knowledge in the supply chain management area and also help the industry players in managing supply chain more efficiently and effectively

Waste to wealth: production of activated carbon from agricultural waste

Adsorption is the main process for wastewater and drinking water treatment. The ability of activated carbon as an absorbent was proven by many researchers. Agriculture waste can be produced as an activated carbon based on availability, cost, and purity. Physical and chemical activations are the main process in activated carbon (AC) development. Both processes have its own advantage. Before proceeding with the activation process the precursor must be characterized for metal element and surface functional group by doing (X-Ray Fluorescence) XRF and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). TGA will determine the exact carbonization temperature. Adsorbent pore will be analyzed using BET. Activating agent and carbonization temperature gives the main effect for surface area and total pore volume of AC. This chapter will review the AC development process and the exact characterization method in preparing the AC

Recent Advances in Biofuel Cell and Emerging Hybrid System

The present paper reviews the recent development of biofuel cell. Due to its renewable nature and milder operating conditions compared to conventional fuel cell, the electrochemical system has been extensively studied. However, major problems associated with this type of electrochemical system remain an intimidating challenge, the utmost being the low power output and stability of biocatalyst being used. Various attempts have been made to overcome these problems, some are reviewed here. The authors suggest a new direction in solving these problems by using hybrid system i.e. metal biofuel cell. The new hybrid system developed is of lower cost, less complex, higher OCV and greater power output

Achieving Balanced Performance of Service Supply Chain through Structural Capital: Evidence from the Life Insurance Agency in Malaysia

Supply chain performance of a company is determined by its strategic resources. These resources may exist in the form of physical, human and structural resources.  Despite many studies on these resources carried out in the past, structural resource, an element of intellectual capital, is yet to be further explored, particularly in the supply chain of the service sector. Hence, the main aim of this paper is to determine the impact of the structural capital on the Life Insurance Agency performance in Malaysia. A total of 100 respondents of agency managers of life insurance companies in Malaysia was surveyed. A quantitative approach was used and data collection through questionnaire was analyzed using the Smart-PLS 3 software version 3.0. The results indicated the significant element of the intellectual capital focusing only the on structural capital towards agency performance. Overall results revealed that structural capital have a significant influence on agency performance of Life Insurance Agency in Malaysia.

Disposition to trust, interpersonal trust and institutional trust of mobile banking in Malaysia

Mobile banking refers to the use of smart phones or other mobile devices to perform tasks online banking from your home computer, such as monitoring the account balances, transfer of funds between accounts, pay bills and prepaid top-up. Mobile banking is a new strategy for the bank to enhance their latest technology in a new dynamic marketing environment.The low penetration of mobile banking in Malaysia, especially in terms of adoption patterns is becoming the research interest, especially when compared to the total number of cellular telephone subscriptions. The penetration rate of mobile banking in Malaysia is still in the minority.One of the issues identified by a few researchers is the perception of trust. This article will discuss along the trust issue and its constituents and then after the intention to use of mobile banking services. The bank should enhance their strategy to improve and develop new strategy in order to gain more utilization and adoption on intention to use. This article attempts to discuss on the element of trust to benefit the service provider in Malaysia

Tourism impact analysis - an inter-sectoral analysis of the Malaysian economy

Using nation-wide data on tourist expenditures collected by questionnaire method in 1991, the private consumption expenditure and export columns of the 1983 input-output table were broken down into tourist and non-tourist components. The tourist expenditures (local and foreign) were then used to evaluate their impact on each of the sectoral output, employment, commodity taxes and non-competitive imports. The results highlighted a number of tourism strategic sectors and at the same time focus on other sectors which benefit from tourist expenditure through indirect and induced income and employment generations

The impact of environmental dynamism on strategic outsourcing success

Adapting quickly to environmental dynamism is essential for an organization to develop outsourcing strategic and management in order to sustain competitive advantage.This research used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) tool to investigate the factors influence of environmental dynamism on the strategic outsourcing success among electrical and electronic manufacturing industries in outsourcing management.Statistical results confirm that the inclusion of customer demand, technological change, and competition level as a new combination concept of environmental dynamism has positively affects outsourcing success. Additionally, this research demonstrates the acceptability of PLS-SEM as a statistical analysis to furnish a better understanding of environmental dynamism in outsourcing management in Malaysia vividly. A practical finding is contributed for academics and practitioners in the field of outsourcing management

The mechanism of mangrove tree in wave energy propagation

The role of mangrove trees in reducing the tsunami waves during the tragedy of Andaman tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004, has been credited and these indirectly raise awareness about the role of mangroves forest as a natural breakwater on the beach. This paper will focus on the mangrove trees from Avicennia and Rhizophora species in order to identify the methods of breaking wave energy that has been carried out by the mangrove roots and stems. Analysis of the mangrove roots coordination pattern had been conducted by gathering data at study site located at Kemaman, Terengganu and the data had been plotted in Gambit software for simulation purpose in Fluent Inc software. Hence, the simulation result showed that the ratio of wave height and velocity reduction may vary depending on factors such as the species of the mangrove trees and density of the roots that grow around the tree. Consequently, the study will be examining the waveform that is mitigated by the both species Avicennia and Rhizophora using turbulent flow and experiment will be conducted to validate the data obtained by the simulation

Efficiency measurement of a Malaysian hotel chain using DEA

Efficiency evaluation has become an important improvement tool for hotels to sustain in today’s highly competitive environment. This study used DEA approach to evaluate the relative efficiency of a Malaysian hotel chain during the period of 2004 to 2008 in terms of Total Factor Productivity (TFP) change. TFP change is measured using DEA-Malmquist productivity index. DEA is a pragmatic tool which combines multiple inputs and outputs objectively onto an overall measure of organizational efficiency. The Malmquist TFP index measures are decomposed into technical efficiency change and technological change. The decomposition of technical efficiency change into two sub-components, pure technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change is also discussed in this paper. The actual operating data of five inputs and five outputs were collected from 10 hotels under the chain. Empirical results revealed that the TFP of the hotel chain slightly increased by 0.7% over the time period. Six of the hotels in the chain experienced positive TFP change while the others experienced TFP decline. The quadrant of efficiency was proposed to give a two-dimensional view of the hotel efficiency. Meanwhile, technological change was found to be more important factor of TFP growth as compared to technical efficiency change. Therefore, hotels which faced negative growths of technological change are recommended to improve their efficiency through investment in new technology or by upgrading the necessary skills. Additionally, the paper has also identified the best performing hotel within the chain which can be benchmarked by others who are seeking for performance improvemen

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolated from pet animals and pet and non-pet owners

This study was done to determine the occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) among cats and dogs, the pet owners and in persons who did not keep pets and to determine the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates. MRSA was isolated from 7 (11.7%),18 (30%) and 8 (13.3%) of the 60 samples each collected from 30 cats and dogs, 30 pet owners and 30 persons who did not keep pets respectively. Twenty percent (6/30) of the cats and dogs, 30% (9/30) of pet owners and 20% (8/30) of persons who did not keep pets were positive for MRSA. The S. aureus isolates showed resistance to four other antibiotics, namely ampicillin, erythromycin, tetracycline and streptomycin; all isolates were sensitive to gentamicin. The zoonotic and anthroponotic potentials of MRSA in animals were reviewed