Zulkifli Mohamed Udin

Supply chain management from the perspective of value chain flexibility: an exploratory study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate supply chain management practices related to flexibility, value chain and capabilities. It describes an exploratory study to examine the interrelated factors to propose a research framework.Design/methodology/approach – A comparative case study was conducted on several manufacturing organizations in the electrical and electronic industry, investigating the business drivers and response effect of a flexible value chain.Findings – In general, all the organizations enhanced their manufacturing flexibility components with supply and logistic networks in order to be responsive to customers and gain tangible benefits. The core flexibility of the value chain can be defined from operational, supply and logistics perspectives where different levels of integration and implementation strategies offer different levels of flexibility response to volume and product mix.Research limitations/implications – Research through case survey requires further empirical invest...

A collaborative supply chain management framework: Part 1 – planning stage

Purpose – This paper presents issues associated with the needs of collaborative supply chain management (CSCM) and proposes a planning stage of a CSCM framework.Design/methodology/approach – The proposed planning stage of a CSCM framework incorporates issues of organisation profile, internal functional strategy and supplier‐customer strategy. The gauging absence of prerequisites (GAP) analysis technique which embedded in the knowledge‐based system is proposed in the planning stage to analyse the gap between the current and the desirable position (benchmark) for an effective implementation in organisation.Findings – The planning stage framework provides information specifically for designing a CSCM by focusing on the organisation capability and business processes and discussed the important issues in planning a CSCM for business organisations, specifically for a manufacturing environment.Research limitations/implications – Further research could be carried out to capitalise the framework for improving the ...

Supply chain technology adoption in Malaysian automotive suppliers

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the relevance of technology adoption factors and to explore how it can influence suppliers of automotive manufacturers to adopt the supply chain technology (SCT) within their organisations.Design/methodology/approach – An empirical survey of Malaysians automotive supplier was conducted to study those factors and also their relationship to the types of technologies being adopted. Data were collected using mail questionnaires which were sent to suppliers of two leading national automotive manufacturers. Out of 122, a total of 73 respondents were used for the purpose of the study. The study tested three hypotheses in data analysis.Findings – The results of the analysis confirm that three identified factors namely; organisational structure, organisational size and supply chain member pressure have a positive relationship with the SCT adoption. The analysis shows these three hypotheses have been supported and satisfied the identified gaps.Research limitations...

The relationship between ERP system and supply chain management performance in Malaysian manufacturing companies

Purpose – This research aims to improve supply chain management performance through the successful usage of ERP system. This can be through investigating the relationship between enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and supply chain management (SCM) performance in the context of Malaysian manufacturing companies that use ERP system.Design/methodology/approach – The questionnaire survey was posted to the Malaysian manufacturing companies that are using ERP system in order to investigate the relationship between ERP system and SCM performance. The respondents of this study were the MIS or IT executives. A total of 80 usable responses were received and used in the analysis.Findings – The findings of this research indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between ERP system i.e. (integration, material management, production planning, and controlling), and SCM performance. The workflow management, however, does not have a significant relationship with SCM performance. The findings of...

Impact of Reverse Logistics Product Disposition towards Business Performance in Malaysian E&E Companies

Generation of electronic waste is concurrent with higher demand for equipments consumed by households and business institutions. Exponential growth of waste that enters landfill is a valuable secondary resource that presents cost-saving opportunities for OEMs through take back programs because recoverable assets would otherwise be worthless and hazardous to environmental and human health. Research on reverse logistics practices will focus in product disposition as recouping product in whole or in subassemblies, components and materials contributes prolonged usefulness in various stages of product lifecycle. Ambiguous and profit sensitive product disposition options such as repair, refurbish, remanufacture, recycle and disposal have directed this research to assess the product for availability of added value recoverables and to anticipate the complexity of work to be rendered within each options so that returned products garner substantial secondary value.Products are evaluated prior to selecting recovery option in order to optimize restoration of products’ and parts’ functional qualities for reuse or harvest recyclables to salvage some material and energy resources.This study presents a conceptual framework for analyzing the impact of reverse logistics among electrical and electronic companies in Malaysia which have established environmental management system that are ISO 14000 certified.Where a product and its constituents can be reprocessed, it is also essential to address the potential business benefits to ascertain the viability of reverse logistic activities.

Integrated process design for e-learning: a case study

Higher education (HE) institutions are expanding fast. Universities are becoming genuine learning organisations and providers of a wide variety of opportunities for e-learning. Despite all efforts, the processes carried out do not meet learners expectations, and often lead to ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Clearly, we need to develop a better understanding of the processes in e-learning in order to satisfy learner requirements. The research examines the nature of learner demand in the e-learning process such as in the registration process. In particular, it examines how integration in process design could support e-learning. The first part of the paper raises issues and questions about the meaning of e-learning and about the challenges which members of HE institutions have to face and cope with. It then deals with application integrated process design to enhance the competitiveness of e-learning. The study identified one HE institution as a case study. The study found the current initiatives on e-learning to be co-operative technologies, and easy to operate, where the transformation of the entire processes were considered in order to accommodate the new realities, such as cost effective, reliable and effective learning tools. In addition, the process design must incorporate learner requirement information at all stages of the e-learning process.

Factors affecting ERP system effectiveness in post-implementation stage within Malaysian manufacturing companies

Enterprise resource planning ERP system has become one of the main pre-requisites for many companies enabling them to compete in the local and global market, a price of entry to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy, and a backbone for e-business as well as for the whole supply chain. Many companies are still reluctant to implement ERP system and therefore they will not be able to join the supply chain of several global and local companies where ERP system has become a pre-requisite and a price of entry for the global economy. This study has investigated the impact of ERP system on supply chain performance with respect to top management support, employee involvement, and cultural fit in the context of Malaysian manufacturing companies that are using ERP system and this is to fill up the gap in post-implementation stage. The study found that employee involvement, top management support, and cultural fit partially affects positively and significantly the relationship between ERP system and supply chain performance.

Adoption level of sustainable construction practices: A study on Malaysia’s construction stakeholders

Purpose - For this research, the concept of sustainability had been divided into two different perspectives which include the financial sustainability performance (economics aspect) and non financial sustainability performance (environment and social aspect). Design/methodology/approach – A survey method was employed due to the reason that it is the most appropriate research design to obtain personal and social facts, beliefs, and attitude on a large scale. Since the data of analysis is done at the company level, the unit of analysis for this research is the construction stakeholder’s organization. Findings – The result of this study shows that the adoption level of financial sustainability is better than non financial sustainability. Originality / value – This paper attempts to identify the current level of sustainable construction performance among the Malaysian construction stakeholders.

Enterprise Resource Planning System Global and Malaysian Perspective

Global and Malaysian Perspective Ahmad Saleh Shatat, Faculty of Business, Sohar University Sohar, Oman, and Zulkifli Mohamed Udin College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah Darul Aman , Malaysia Abstract: Business management has entered the era of networking competition. This has moved the competition from a local to that of global business environments and from company against company to that of a supply chain against supply chain. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system has become one of the main pre-requisites for many companies enabling them to compete in the local and global market, a price of entry to gain a competitive advantage in the global economy, and a backbone for e-business as well as for the whole supply chain. Many companies are still reluctant to implement ERP system and therefore they will not be able to connect their supply chain with several global and local companies where ERP system has become a prerequisite and a price of entry for the global economy. This study has investigated the main issues, challenges and the benefits of ERP system. ERP systems will be the price of entry and a prerequisite for many companies enabling them to run their business smoothly and effectively, and to be able to connect with other companies in the current global network economy. 1. ERP Global Change The big five ERP venders in the ERP global market are SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Baan. In 1999 they acquired 59 percent of ERP revenue and each has specialty in a particular module area, for example, SAP specialized in logistics, Oracle in financials, PeopleSoft in human resources management, and Bann in manufacturing. SAP was the largest ERP vendor among them with revenue of

Development of a Web-based academic time management system

5 billion, and then Oracle with