Development of an Effective Cost Management Method for Malaysian SMEs

Cost management is essential to manufacturing company for sustaining market share, competitive position and profit growth. In the past, many SMEs had made mistakes during their cost management process. Two of these major mistakes were due to lack of knowledge in cost management and not knowing the right technique to use for monitoring all production costs. This paper has two main objectives: first, to present a case study on cost management method at a local SME; and secondly, to point out their mistakes and weaknesses of its cost management system. Later, the authors will present a case study of an effective cost management method practiced by a Japanese multinational company. Based on the findings of both case studies, the authors shall propose an effective costing management method that may be applicable to local SMEs for monitoring their production costs. The authors believed this costing management method will be able to help local SMEs to improve their cost management system, which eventually giving them the opportunity to achieve more profitable sales and sustainable competitive position in global market place

Structural and magnetization behaviors of Ni substituted Li-Mg ferrites

Magnetization behaviors of Ni-substituted LixMg0.5Ni0.5-2xFe2+xO4 ferrites, where x = 0.25, 0.20, 0.15, 0.10 and 0.00 synthesized by standard ceramic technology sintered at 1300°C in air for 5 hours has been presented in the present study. The bulk density and lattice constants of the samples found to be decreased with the increase in the Ni-content for the x values from 0.25 to 0.00. DC electrical resistivity has found to show highest magnitude at room temperature and decreases with further increase in temperature. Magnetization of the samples has been measured as a function of the field using hysteresis loop tracer at 30°C. It was observed that addition of nickel in polycrystalline Li-Mg ferrites plays an important role in modification of structural and magnetization characteristics

Comparison and Study of Minimizing Rotor Angle Instability using GSA and FF Algorithm

AbstractThis paper presents a study and comparison of Gravitational Search (GS) and Firefly (FF) algorithms for the enhancement of rotor angle stability for a wide range of operating conditions. A systematic approach for optimizing the parameters of Power System Stabilizer (PSS) using Integral Square Error (ISE) technique has been implemented in this paper. A single machine infinite bus power system with system parametric uncertainties is considered as a case study and the proposed methods are evaluated against one another at this test system. The simulation results clearly indicate the effectiveness and validity of the proposed methods

Setup Time Reduction in an Automotive Battery Assembly Line

One of the most critical challenges faced by many manufacturing industries is to produce high quality products using cost-efficient methods and tools in the shortest possible time and at the lowest operating costs. Many past researches had shown that in order to reduce setup time and manufacturing costs it need for fast setups and changeovers. Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is one of the Lean Manufacturing System (LMS) tools used to measure setup and changeover efficiency. Setup time reduction is an important key parameter for improving manufacturing flexibility and reducing manufacturing costs. The three main objectives of this study are: first, to reduce machine setup time by 35% during a mould changeover; second, to identify the root causes of the bottlenecks operations; third, to propose and implement possible solutions to the bottleneck problems. SMED methods were applied at two major bottlenecks during setup operations, they are cast on strap and heat seal. Results and findings on the data analysis of the two bottlenecks before and after implementation of SMED are examined and analyzed. The setup operations performance is measured based on data analysis result with respect to machine setup time reduction. The result of this study shows significant reduction of cast on strap setup time to 54% and heat seal setup time to 47%. In other words, this study has achieved more than 35% of setup time reduction

Conceptual design of semi-automatic wheelbarrow to overcome ergonomics problems among palm oil plantation workers

An ergonomics problem is one of the main issues faced by palm oil plantation workers especially during harvesting and collecting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB).Intensive manual handling and labor activities involved have been associated with high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among palm oil plantation workers.New and safe technology on machines and equipment in palm oil plantation are very important in order to help workers reduce risks and injuries while working. The aim of this research is to improve the design of a wheelbarrow, which is suitable for workers and a small size oil palm plantation.The wheelbarrow design was drawn using CATIA ergonomic features. The characteristic of ergonomics assessment is performed by comparing the existing design of wheelbarrow. Conceptual design was developed based on the problems that have been reported by workers. From the analysis of the problem, finally have resulting concept design the ergonomic quality of semi-automatic wheelbarrow with safe and suitable used for palm oil plantation workers

Superconductivity and Electronic Structure of Perovskite MgCNi3

The electronic structure, stability, electron phonon coupling and superconductivity of the non-oxide perovskite MgCNi$_3$ are studied using density functional calculations. The band structure is dominated by a Ni $d$ derived density of states peak just below the Fermi energy, which leads to a moderate Stoner enhancement, placing MgCNi$_3$ in the range where spin fluctuations may noticeably affect transport, specific heat and superconductivity, providing a mechanism for reconciling various measures of the coupling $\lambda$. Strong electron phonon interactions are found for the octahedral rotation mode and may exist for other bond angle bending modes. The Fermi surface contains nearly cancelling hole and electron sheets that give unusual behavior of transport quantities particularly the thermopower. The results are discussed in relation to the superconductivity of MgCNi$_3$.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, 5 ps figure

Investigation of oil palm harvesting tools design and technique on work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper body

The oil palm industry is one of the important sectors in Malaysia. The growth and development of this industry shows that Malaysia is the world second-largest oil palm producers. However, in the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) harvesting process, the harvesters are exposed to many types of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The FFB harvesters tend to develop WMSDs especially the shoulders and trunk. Hence, it is important to identify the exposure levels, awkward postures and the reaction forces of muscle activity based on the posture and movement of the harvesters when using pole, chisel and loading spike during the harvesting process. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the design of oil palm FFB harvesting tools on WMSDs of the upper body. Rapid Upper Limb Analysis (RULA) was used to investigate and assess the exposure level on the harvester body during the harvesting process. The assessment showed that the shoulders and trunk have high exposure level and undergo awkward posture. Human Musculoskeletal Model Analysis (HMMA) was used to identify the reaction force exerted on the muscle during the FFB harvesting process. In this study, 4 muscles were analysed including Triceps, Biceps, Erector Spinae and Psoas Major. The highest reaction force of 16.36 N was found on the left triceps when handling a loading spike. In conclusion, it is important to address the risks by reviewing all possible aspects that contribute to the WMSDs and interventions on the tool design, task and working shifts may be required

A CHIME/FRB Study of Burst Rate and Morphological Evolution of the Periodically Repeating FRB 20180916B

FRB 20180916B is a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with a 16.3 day periodicity in its activity. In this study, we present morphological properties of 60 FRB 20180916B bursts detected by CHIME/FRB between 2018 August and 2021 December. We recorded raw voltage data for 45 of these bursts, enabling microseconds time resolution in some cases. We studied variation of spectro-temporal properties with time and activity phase. We find that the variation in dispersion measure (DM) is ≲1 pc cm−3 and that there is burst-to-burst variation in scattering time estimates ranging from ∼0.16 to over 2 ms, with no discernible trend with activity phase for either property. Furthermore, we find no DM and scattering variability corresponding to the recent change in rotation measure from the source, which has implications for the immediate environment of the source. We find that FRB 20180916B has thus far shown no epochs of heightened activity as have been seen in other active repeaters by CHIME/FRB, with its burst count consistent with originating from a Poissonian process. We also observe no change in the value of the activity period over the duration of our observations and set a 1σ upper limit of 1.5 × 10−4 day day−1 on the absolute period derivative. Finally, we discuss constraints on progenitor models yielded by our results, noting that our upper limits on changes in scattering and DM as a function of phase do not support models invoking a massive binary companion star as the origin of the 16.3 day periodicity.</p

Adapted conservation agriculture practices can increase energy productivity and lower yield-scaled greenhouse gas emissions in coastal Bangladesh

While numerous studies have documented the benefits of conservation agriculture (CA) in South Asia, most focus on favorable environments where farmers have reliable access to energy supporting irrigation and inputs. The performance of CA in South Asia’s under-developed coastal environments is comparatively understudied. In these environments, farmers are increasingly interested in growing a second crop to meet food security and income generation objectives in rotation following the predominant monsoon season rice crop, though labor, energy costs, and investment constraints limit their ability to do so. We hypothesized that rotating rice (Oryza sativa) with maize (Zea mays) using conservation agriculture, or CA (i.e., strip-tilled maize followed by unpuddled transplanted rice), or seasonally alternating tillage (SAT, i.e., strip-tilled maize followed by fully-tilled, puddled rice with residues retained across rotations) would reduce costs and energy use, increase energy-use efficiency, and reduce yield-scaled CO2-eq emissions (YSE) and total global warming potential (GWP), compared to farmers’ own practices (FP) and conventional full-tillage (CT) under the same rotation in Bangladesh’s coastal region. Starting with winter maize followed by summer rice, we evaluated four tillage and crop establishment treatments in farmer-managed experiments in partially irrigated and rainfed environments over three years in 35 farmer’s fields across Bangladesh’s coastal districts. Treatments included FP, CT, complete CA, and SAT under a rice-maize rotation. Across years, the full suite of CA practices and SAT were significantly more energy-efficient and energy-productive than FP or CT. The order of YSE in rice was CA< CT or FP < SAT while in maize, it was CA or SAT < FP < CT. Across environments, CA and SAT resulted in 15-18% higher yield at the cropping systems level (maize and rice yields combined) and 26-40% less manual labor than CT or FP. CA and SAT also reduced by 1-12% and 33-35% total production costs respective to CT and FP. This was associated with 13-17% greater grain energy output in CA and SAT, and 2-18% lower YSE, compared to CT or FP. While our data suggest that both CA and SAT can result in a range of positive agronomic, economic, and environmental outcomes compared to FP or CT, post-trial surveys and discussions with farmers revealed a strong practical aversion to use of the full suite of CA practices and preference for adapted practices due to logistical constraints in negotiating the hire of laborers for unpuddled manual transplanting