Track: Operations Management

Abstract

This paper presents results from a survey on awareness, implementation, perceived effectiveness, and potential future adoption of seven operational improvement initiatives based on Malaysia context. Seven improvement initiatives being studied include: Lean, Organizational Assessment based on Business Excellence Model, Quality Management System, Improvement Team, Outsourcing, Business Continuity Management and Six Sigma. This study was conducted due to lack of existing studies on current status of awareness, implementation, effectiveness, and future adoption of improvement initiatives in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to 107 practitioners, managers, executives, consultants and/or academicians who have been involved in the selection and/or implementation of improvement initiatives, which resulted in a response rate of 37.4%. Subsequently, the data were analyzed using the IBM SPSS software package. The findings of study indicated that Quality Management System has been the most popular initiative in term of awareness and implementation. Lean has been ranked as the most effective initiative. Meanwhile, improvement team has been ranked as the most wanted initiative for future adoption. The findings of study have also shown that there are no significant differences between manufacturing and service organizations with regard to the awareness, implementation, effectiveness, and future adoption for the majority of improvement initiatives.