Title:
Knowledge Science Research at Universiti Utara Malaysia: Exploring Opportunities via Strategic and International Partnership with JAIST

Speakers:
Shahimi Bin Mohtar¹ and Quamrul Hasan<sup>2

1</sup> Associate Professor Dr. Shahimi Bin Mohtar, Dean of the School of Technology Management and Logistics (STML), College of Business (COB), Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
² Professor Dr. Quamrul Hasan, Professor of Technology Management,  STML, COB, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Kedah, Malaysia; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract:
The School of Technology Management and Logistics (STML) at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) has initiated a few research topics related to the Knowledge Science and currently exchanging the information with a couple of counterpart academic faculties identified at the School of Knowledge Science, JAIST. The aim is to establish the international partnership between these two schools including in research. The research topics have been chosen strategically and mutually agreed so that both parties can complement by effectively utilizing their unique strengths and achieve more together in win-win situation. Two examples are:

1) Sustainable Halal business management for global market 
The Halal hotel business is one of the main components in the total Halal industry. The increasing trend of Muslim population has resulted in the demand for the hotels with the Halal certification to grow quickly. In addition, research in Halal certification practices in hotel industry is rather limited. Hence, this research aims to develop a model of Halal certification practices for hotel business in Malaysia. In addition, this research further examines how Halal certification practices affect the hotel performance. The Halal certification practices were measured by 12 dimensions, namely: (1) Halal Documentation, (2) Management Responsibility, (3) Raw Material, (4) Location, (5) Exterior Area, (6) Premise, (7) Facility, (8) Tools and Equipment, (9) Staff Characteristic, (10) Staff Policy, (11) Pest Control, and (12) Waste Management. A total of 60 questionnaires were distributed to the staff of a local hotel from which 54 responses were returned, which represented 90% of response rate. The data was analyzed using factor analysis, reliability analysis, descriptive statistic, and regression analysis. The findings showed that there were only two factors, namely facility and staff policy which had significant effects on hotel performance. In contrast, the other 10 practices were found to have no significant effect on the hotel performance due to Halal certification in Malaysia.  Currently, we are planning to expand this study also by including Japan considering the importance and urgency to successfully host the Tokyo Olympic 2020. Once successful, this could become a benchmark (reference) to conduct further studies in other countries as well.   In addition, we plan to include the Halal products (food, beverage, snacks, cosmetics, etc.) in our future studies.

2) Sustainable lean management in manufacturing industries in Malaysia
Under Malaysia-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (MJEPA), a five-year programme called The Malaysia-Japan Automotive Industry Cooperation (MAJAICO) was established in 2006. In this, the SMEs in Malaysia were given the responsibility of handling one of its projects under the Automotive Technical Expert Assistance Programme. This capacity building project used the Lean Production System (LPS). The aims of the project was to improve the manufacturing processes of domestic (Malaysian) automotive parts and components manufacturers by creating the local LPS experts, and develop an in-house LPS Kaizen team or department in every participating company. Though, in this, many companies were able to emulate the structural parts of lean management, however, they found it difficult to adopt the required organizational culture and mindset which were important for the success in this.

Lean management is not a new concept. It is originated from Toyota's Production System based on the Japanese culture. The concept of lean management can be divided into technical- oriented and human-oriented. The human elements in lean management are to establish relations and team-work which include labor flexibility, multi-skill and greater responsibility in maintenance, quality improvement and personnel issues. The purpose of this study is to develop a model of tacit knowledge transfer that show the conveyance process of the knowledge through the organization in order to create a lean culture. The tacit knowledge in lean manufacturing that include kaizen, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Kanban, 5S, standardized working, and policy deployment (hoshin kanri), are the know-hows which are difficult to implement especially outside of Japan. To understand how knowledge can be developed and become sharable, it was important to understand the process of learning, knowledge development and the processes that enabled people to develop knowledge and how that the knowledge conveyed to others. This study will employ multiple case studies. The main reason of choosing this approach is the method is more compelling and robust as compared to single case study. In order to improve the research reliability, for triangulation purposes, the data collection for this study will employ three different sources of evidence: interviews, documentation and direct observation. This study will be significant both theoretically and practically as it develop a clear, coherent understanding of lean tacit knowledge development, the conveyance of this knowledge and to understand how it becomes organizational.

More details will be explained during the presentation.