Sustainability Paradigm for Malaysian Manufacturing SMEs: An Operations Research Approach
Date
2017-10Author
Man, Djun Lee
Rahmat Aidil, Djubair
Heng, Jong Ngu
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the driving force for Malaysian
economy. They provide employment, stimulate local economy and participate in
the supply chain for large companies. However, limited studies were found for
SMEs to achieve sustainability in operations perspective. On the other hand, the
concept of sustainability is considered new for most Malaysia manufacturing
SMEs. On this note, the research question for this study is “what model is useful
for Malaysian manufacturing SMEs to measure their sustainability based on
current production performance?”. The novelty is that this study provides a
practical starting point towards the development of sustainable manufacturing
SMEs by incorporating production performance. The methodologies used in this
work are extensive literature review, conceptual model building and
mathematical model building. Findings from this study suggest that
underutilized capacity or wastage of inputs creates gap in productivity and
appears as non-value added input to production process which reduces degree
of sustainability in manufacturing SMEs. This gap contributes to the reduction
in production performance, increase the production cost and introduces adverse
impact on economy and environment. It is imperative for the manufacturing
SMEs to eliminate this waste to achieve sustainability. However, the research
area on SMEs waste reduction remains under explored. The findings of this
study would serve as guideline for Malaysian SMEs managers to formulate
effective approach to achieve sustainability. In this aspect, this work is original
as developed from fundamental manufacturing concepts. The model is useful for
relevant stakeholders to eliminate the non-value added inputs. This paper will
add new information in the manufacturing SMEs knowledge domain.
Furthermore, this paper will wo