The Roles of Organization Innovation and Aging Workforce in Maysian Manufacturing Sectors' Readiness for Industry 4.0

The manufacturing sector is an indispensable part of a country's economic system. For Malaysia, it not only helps in transmuting raw material to finished goods but also an essential driver to the country's economic growth. Owing to this sector, Malaysia holds a remarkable position in exports across the world. It is also a principal contributor to the employment of the country. Although, the manufacturing industry is deemed as the backbone of a country's growth, however, the industry also faces many challenges with technological advancements due to the industrial revolution known as Industry 4.0.The aim of Industry 4.0 is to realize productivity and improve efficiency. Its potential disruptive technologies are altering the way of work. Correspondingly, it poses challenges for organizations to innovate and in analyzing their readiness for Industry 4.0. Thereby, current research aimed to investigate the key role of organization innovation and its enablers including electronic human resource management, knowledge-oriented leadership and decentralized organization structure. In addition, change in demographics has shaped another snag in the form of an aging workforce for manufacturing companies. Ergo, the moderating role of the aging workforce was gauged in support to readiness for Industry 4.0 by using Structural Equation Modelling.A quantitative method was adopted to establish the relationship between the variables. By using self-administered questionnaire, a total of 218 useful responses from manufacturing companies of Malaysia were collected and examined through SmartPLS 3 software. The results highlighted the important dual role of organization innovation for readiness of Industry 4.0. It further confirms the moderating act of aging workforce in relationship between organization innovation and readiness for Industry 4.0.Current research contributed to the body of knowledge a detailed vision of Industry 4.0 and its significance for manufacturing sector in Malaysia. The research findings confirmed a noteworthy knowledge concerning high dependency of readiness for Industry 4.0 on organization innovation and moderating effect of aging workforce between them. Additionally, electronic human resource management and knowledge-oriented leadership were also identified as an enabler of organization innovation through empirical examination. The moderating role of organization innovation is of high interest for keen researchers. Current research provides a directive for practitioners to pave the way for successful implementation of Industry 4.0. Forbye, the research outcomes are thoughtprovoking to national policymakers which can aid in development of impressive policies for Industry 4.0 while considering the vital role of organization innovation and aging workforce

Lean manufacturing culture: The role of human perceptions of standardized work

The final publication is available at IOS Press through http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-902-7-523.Lean implementation and its sustainability are strongly coupled with organizational culture and consequently the culture defines success. Organizational culture is strongly linked with organizational dynamics. Work standardization is one of the lean tools whose role in terms of organizational performance improvement has been claimed in the literature; however, its implications in terms of employee's perceptions are still controversial. This study aims at investigating the effect of position on employee's perception about the standardized work. Four textile manufacturing companies in Pakistan were selected for the purpose of data collection, where the implementation level of the tool and organizational maturity towards lean adoption were initially measured. A questionnaire was administered to 326 employees from these organizations. The overall data sample was divided into two categories (white-collar and blue-collar). Data analysis was by F-tests (for identifying significance levels) and separate regression analyses (for identifying variables associated with negative perceptions of employees). A significant difference was found between white-collar employees, who were generally positive about the standardization of work, and the blue-collar employees that had negative perceptions. Moreover, the study concluded that positive perceptions about standardized work are directly linked with job satisfaction and inversely linked with job stress

Integrated computational intelligent paradigm for nonlinear electric circuit models using neural networks, genetic algorithms and sequential quadratic programming

© 2019, Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature. In this paper, a novel application of biologically inspired computing paradigm is presented for solving initial value problem (IVP) of electric circuits based on nonlinear RL model by exploiting the competency of accurate modeling with feed forward artificial neural network (FF-ANN), global search efficacy of genetic algorithms (GA) and rapid local search with sequential quadratic programming (SQP). The fitness function for IVP of associated nonlinear RL circuit is developed by exploiting the approximation theory in mean squared error sense using an approximate FF-ANN model. Training of the networks is conducted by integrated computational heuristic based on GA-aided with SQP, i.e., GA-SQP. The designed methodology is evaluated to variants of nonlinear RL systems based on both AC and DC excitations for number of scenarios with different voltages, resistances and inductance parameters. The comparative studies of the proposed results with Adam’s numerical solutions in terms of various performance measures verify the accuracy of the scheme. Results of statistics based on Monte-Carlo simulations validate the accuracy, convergence, stability and robustness of the designed scheme for solving problem in nonlinear circuit theory

Facilitating the Malaysian Manufacturing Sector in Readiness for Industry 4.0:A Mediating Role of Organization Innovation

The manufacturing sector of Malaysia is an essential part of its economic system. Malaysia holds a remarkable position in the global market through the exports of manufacturing products. However, this sector faces challenges such as organizational capability to innovate due to rapid technological and business environment changes in line with Industry 4.0. These challenges may prevent manufacturing firms from embracing Industry 4.0 and thriving in their businesses. Therefore, this research aims to identify the role of organizational practices such as knowledge-oriented leadership, electronic human resource management, and decentralized organization structure in support of organization innovation to prepare manufacturing firms for Industry 4.0. A quantitative method was applied to 218 samples collected from Malaysian manufacturing firms. The results of this research are interesting for keen researchers and helpful for decision-makers and practitioners to successfully pave the way for Industry 4.0 implementation in manufacturing firms by developing innovation capabilities.</p

IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON ORGANISATIONAL INNOVATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A STUDY OF THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

The manufacturing industry is an indispensable part of the economy, especially for Malaysia. The manufacturing sector in Malaysia is not only transforming raw material into products, but also contributing significantly to the country’s economy. Malaysia has attained a significant position in the world by exporting its manufactured goods. However, the production services always require innovation to meet the ever-changing customer demands. With the advent of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing industry faces constant challenges such as the innovation capability of organizations, and swift and frequent shifts in the use of technology. These issues may hamper the efforts of manufacturing firms to fully participate in Industry 4.0 Malaysia. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the influence of knowledge-oriented leadership, electronic human resource management (E-HRM), and decentralised organisational structure on organizational innovation. The current research has adopted a quantitative method to establish the relationship between these three variables and innovation in organizations. A total of 218 samples were collected from manufacturing firms located in Malaysia. Data collected through a self-administered questionnaire was examined by using SmartPLS software. The results of this research has added to the body of knowledge in the respective field by highlighting the significance of knowledge-oriented leadership and E-HRM in predicting organizational innovation. It can further help stakeholders to plan a way forward in facing Industry 4.0 through the development of innovation competencies

Achieving Community Happiness through Affordable Eco-Friendly Smart Houses

The significant lack of affordable house is contributed by urbanization, economic power, and population growth. Accessible housing views having different types of houses at variety of costs to suit the needs of different levels of household income. This paper proposes to resolve the unaffordable house issues by constructing eco-friendly smart houses. Eco-friendly smart houses play a vital role in developing affordable houses because it will minimize construction costs, minimize negative environmental impact and reduce energy consumption. Besides, it was suggested that those houses will lead to community happiness. This study identifies the determinants for buyer intends to purchase the houses and make recommendations on the impact of the houses towards community happiness expectation. Questionnaires have been distributed to the potential buyer using the online application. The results conclude that attitude, perceive behavioral control and social media influence potential buyer intention to purchase the affordable eco-friendly smart houses. The findings further reveal that purchase intention leads to expectation on community happiness. This study contributes in two ways. First, it contributes to sustainable development goals agenda and offers a new approach in constructing affordable houses. Second, it contributes to theoretical development on the linkage between purchase intention and expectation on community happiness

Strong baselines for complex word identification across multiple languages

© 2019 Association for Computational Linguistics Complex Word Identification (CWI) is the task of identifying which words or phrases in a sentence are difficult to understand by a target audience. The latest CWI Shared Task released data for two settings: monolingual (i.e. train and test in the same language) and cross-lingual (i.e. test in a language not seen during training). The best monolingual models relied on language-dependent features, which do not generalise in the cross-lingual setting, while the best cross-lingual model used neural networks with multi-task learning. In this paper, we present monolingual and cross-lingual CWI models that perform as well as (or better than) most models submitted to the latest CWI Shared Task. We show that carefully selected features and simple learning models can achieve state-of-the-art performance, and result in strong baselines for future development in this area. Finally, we discuss how inconsistencies in the annotation of the data can explain some of the results obtained

Photoluminescence revealed higher order plasmonic resonance modes and their unexpected frequency blue shifts in silver-coated silica nanoparticle antennas

© 2019 by the authors. Higher order plasmonic resonance modes and their frequency blue shifts in silver-coated silica nanoparticle antennas are studied. Synthesizing them with a wet chemistry method, silica (SiO2) nanoparticles were enclosed within silver shells with different thicknesses. A size-dependent Drude model was used to model the plasmonic shells and their optical losses. Two higher order plasmonic resonances were identified for each case in these simulations. The photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) experimental results, in good agreement with their simulated values, confirmed the presence of those two higher order resonant modes and their resonance frequencies. When compared with pure metallic Ag nanoparticles, size-induced blue shifts were observed in these resonance frequencies

Synergy Estimation Method for Simultaneous Activation of Multiple DOFs Using Surface EMG Signals

Surface electromyography signals are routinely used for designing prosthetic control systems. The concept of synergy estimation for muscle control interpretation is being explored extensively. Synergies estimated for a single active degree of freedom (DoF) are found to be uncorrelated and provide better results when used for single movement classification; however, an increase of simultaneously active DoFs leads to complex limb movements and multiple DoF detection becomes a challenge. Synergy estimation is a non-convex optimization technique, to provide better estimation this paper proposes the use of regularized non-negative matrix factorization for the evaluation of synergistic weights in complex movements. The use of regularization constraint makes the overall problem bounded and provide smoothness. The proposed technique showed better accuracy when tested for activation of multiple DoF simultaneously at a significantly lower computational time, i.e., by 34%

Motorcycle three-wheelers in Pakistan: Low-cost rural transport services, crucial for women’s mobility

Rural women and men without their own means of transport depend on transport services. In low- and middle-income countries these are mainly provided by informal sector entrepreneurs. In Pakistan, motorcycle three-wheelers (designed as six-seater, route-based vehicles) provide most rural transport services. Research was undertaken in three districts of Punjab Province, with traffic counts and surveys of transport users. Motorcycles are increasing rapidly, and men’s use of transport services is declining. The traffic counts showed motorcycles for personal and family use carry almost half of the people travelling. Women are increasingly passengers on motorcycles driven by male relatives, but these are seldom available for women’s multipurpose trips during the daytime. On village-to-town roads, motorcycle three-wheelers are the only low-cost (two cents USD per passenger-km) public transport throughout the day. Point-to-point taxis are more costly. Most (55%) of women’s public transport journeys are in three-wheelers. Women and men rate motorcycle three-wheelers highly, particularly their fares and frequency. Women have a greater willingness to pay more for less crowded, safer vehicles than men. It is concluded that the informal sector motorcycle three-wheeler services are optimising village-to-town transport connections, providing the only low-cost travel option for many rural women. Policies should avoid disrupting their vital services. With motorcycle growth undermining transport services, gender-aware strategies should be developed to facilitate frequent, uncrowded three-wheeler operations