Working Toward a World Class University

Objective

The objective of this project is to develop an Industrial Practical Project (IPP) for MBA full-time students. The project is a real-life practical project for students from the MBA class.

Background

(i) The Scope of the project

The scope of the project covers (but not limited to) the followings topics:

1. Project Management,

2. Process Control,

3. Quality Management,

4. Capacity Planning,

5. Constraints Management,

6. Supply Chain Management,

7. Inventory Management,

8. Forecasting

9. Scheduling

10. Resource Management

11. Production Planning and Control,

12. Simulation, etc.

(ii) The Ways of how the project is conducted

The Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is a short term (few days to few weeks) project. It is quite similar to a ‘War Game’. Unlike ‘War Game’ that is based on a rather simulated/hypothetical situation, IPP focuses on real-live industrial practices. Under this project, graduate students from the MBA class are required to solve industrial problems. The Graduate Students will travel to the site for an intensive fieldwork. At first, the students gather and they will be transported to the site (usually it involves a large manufacturing or service operation). Then, these students are divided into separate groups. Each group will be brief about the issues/problems face by the company. Each group will have a different problem. The relevant material and information is given. Sometimes limited amount of information is available, whereby the students have to search for more information from the site. After that, the students will have to identify the real problems (the causes/ the relevant issues / the related individual or departments, etc.). Having identified the problems and the causes, the students will have to look for alternative ways to solve the problems. They usually have to do some analysis, discussion, brainstorming, interviews, etc. Then, they have to evaluate the alternative solutions and choose the best possible solution. Finally, the students have to present their work to the management of the company.

The project takes from 2-3 days to 2-3 weeks. Because it is an intensive project, the students will have to stay overnight in the nearby hotel/chalet/apartment. Usually during day time, they have to report to the company for fieldwork. Evening and at night, they have to have meeting and preparing reports, analyzing data, etc. The whole project will be assisted by an Industrial Tutor (IT) . It is called Industrial Tutor rather than Graduate Assistant or Research Assistant is because they have to involve in searching, contacting, discussing, planning, organizing, and coordinating the project. Every individual project is jointly designed by the Industrial Tutor, company personnel, and the lecturer.

The company (usually manufacturing or services operations) provides the following:

(a) To provide access to company premises and operations site

(b) To provide places and facilities for the project

(c) To provide information, such as company background, products, process, operations, and systems, etc.

(d) To provide the issues/problems of real industrial practices.

(e) To allow students for site observations, requests for information, interview, collect data, analyze data, etc.

The university provides the following:

(a) To provide transportation and logistics for students’ field work

(b) To provide background theories/concepts before field work

(c) To provide necessary facilities and equipments such as computer, camera, laptop, projectors, papers, stationery, etc.

(d) To employ an Industrial Tutor/Industrial Assistant (instead of Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant) to search, contact, discuss, plan, organize, and co-ordinate the project.

(e) To bare the labor cost, equipment costs, transportation and logistics cost, as well as any other cost that directly involve in the project.

(iii) Beneficiaries

Through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), MBA students will be benefited in the following ways:

§ The MBA graduate will gain high industrial knowledge, skills, experiences, and capabilities in solving practical industrial problems.

§ The MBA graduate will acquire industrial-relevance and hands-on experiences

§ The MBA graduate will gain managerial and operational knowledge transfer from the industries, update of the latest development in industrial management.

§ The MBA graduate has high employability in future

Justification

1. Industrial-relevant: MBA graduates are more well-trained than others due to their industrial-relevant project

2. Real-live practices: teaching MBA courses in future should be practical oriented, unlike others that usually conduct their course in the classroom, we should provides a substantial fieldwork from the industries.

3. Problem-solving ability: In line with the world class university learning outcome, the project helps to improve the graduate students ability in solving industrial problems

4. Decision making capability: It will help to strengthen graduate on their decision making as well as improve their expertise in the areas of operations management

5. Knowledge transfer: New knowledge may be generated from the project, knowledge also transfer from the university to industries as well as from the industries to the university

6. Helping the industries: companies that involve in the project may benefit from solving the problems, and possibly improve their performance.

7. Activities and networking: through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), many activities are organized which will enhance networking between the university, MBA graduates, and the industries.

Suggestion

It is suggested that the Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is implemented in MBA and working toward a World Class Business School (University)

Industrial Practical Project

Linking teaching to practice - Improving students ability in practice

Objective

The objective of this proposal is to develop an Industrial Practical Project (IPP) for MBA full-time students from Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The project is a real-life practical project for students from the MBA Operations Management (GSM5113) class.


Background

(i) The Scope of the project

The scope of the project covers (but not limited to) the followings topics:
1. Project Management,
2. Process Control,
3. Quality Management,
4. Capacity Planning,
5. Constraints Management,
6. Supply Chain Management,
7. Inventory Management,
8. Forecasting
9. Scheduling
10. Resource Management
11. Production Planning and Control,
12. Simulation, etc.

(ii) The Ways of how the project is conducted

The Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is a short term (2-3 days) project. It is quite similar to the ‘War Game’ in GSM. Unlike ‘War Game’ that is based on a rather simulated/hypothetical situation, IPP focuses on real-live industrial practices. Under this project, graduate students from the MBA classes in GSM are required to solve industrial problems. The Graduate Students will travel to the site for an intensive fieldwork. At first, the students gather at GSM and they will be transported to the site (usually it involves a large manufacturing or service operation). Then, these students are divided into separate groups. Each group will be brief about the issues/problems face by the company. Each group will have a different problem. The relevant material and information is given. Sometimes limited amount of information is available, whereby the students have to search for more information from the site. After that, the students will have to identify the real problems (the causes/ the relevant issues / the related individual or departments, etc.). Having identified the problems and the causes, the students will have to look for alternative ways to solve the problems. They usually have to do some analysis, discussion, brainstorming, interviews, etc. Then, they have to evaluate the alternative solutions and choose the best possible solution. Finally, the students have to present their work to the management of the company.

The project takes 2-3 days. Because it is an intensive project, the students will have to stay 2-night in the nearby hotel/chalet/apartment. Usually during day time, they have to report to the company for fieldwork. Evening and at night, they have to have meeting and preparing reports, analyzing data, etc. The whole project will be assisted by an Industrial Tutor (IT) from GSM. It is called Industrial Tutor rather than Graduate Assistant or Research Assistant is because they have to involve in searching, contacting, discussing, planning, organizing, and coordinating the project. Every individual project is jointly designed by the Industrial Tutor, company personnel, and the lecturer.

The company (usually manufacturing or services operations) provides the following:
(a) To provide access to company premises and operations site
(b) To provide places and facilities for the project
(c) To provide information, such as company background, products, process, operations, and systems, etc.
(d) To provide the issues/problems of real industrial practices.
(e) To allow students for site observations, requests for information, interview, collect data, analyze data, etc.

The school (GSM) provides the following:
(a) To provide transportation and logistics for students’ field work
(b) To provide background theories/concepts before field work
(c) To provide necessary facilities and equipments such as computer, camera, laptop, projectors, papers, stationery, etc.
(d) To employ an Industrial Tutor/Industrial Assistant (instead of Research Assistant/Graduate Assistant) to search, contact, discuss, plan, organize, and co-ordinate the project.
(e) To bare the labor cost, equipment costs, transportation and logistics cost, as well as any other cost that directly involve in the project.

(iii) Beneficiaries

Through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), MBA students will be benefited in the following ways:

§ The MBA graduate will gain high industrial knowledge, skills, experiences, and capabilities in solving practical industrial problems.
§ The MBA graduate will acquire industrial-relevance and hands-on experiences
§ The MBA graduate will gain managerial and operational knowledge transfer from the industries, update of the latest development in industrial management.
§ The MBA graduate has high employability in future


Justification

1. Industrial-relevant: MBA graduates from GSM are more well-trained than others due to their industrial-relevant project
2. Real-live practices: teaching GSM is very practical oriented, unlike others that usually conduct their course in the classroom, GSM provides a substantial fieldwork from the industries.
3. Problem-solving ability: In line with the UPM learning outcome, the project helps to improve the graduate students ability in solving industrial problems
4. Decision making capability: It will help to strengthen GSM graduate on their decision making as well as improve their expertise in the areas of operations management
5. Knowledge transfer: New knowledge may be generated from the project, knowledge also transfer from the university to industries as well as from the industries to the university
6. Helping the industries: companies that involve in the project may benefit from solving the problems, and possibly improve their performance.
7. Activities and networking: through Industrial Practical Project (IPP), many activities are organized which will enhance networking between the university (GSM, UPM), MBA graduates, and the industries.


Suggestion

It is suggested that the Industrial Practical Project (IPP) is implemented as part of the course structure of GSM5113 Operations Management in the Graduate School of Management, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Prepared by,

Dr Yee Choy Leong
Senior Lecturer
Graduate School of Management
Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel.: 03-8946 7731
Fax: 03-8948 6188
e-mail: yee@econ.upm.edu.my

Teaching MBA students to use TRM

Objectives:
The course has the following objectives:

Introducing the functional areas of operations and demonstrating how operations interface with other functional areas within an organization.
Highlighting the various issues and problems that traditionally arise in the management of operations within both manufacturing and service organizations.
Building a familiarity with terminology, modeling, and methodology often employed in the operations function.
Presenting recent technological advances that directly affect operations management.

K-Economy and K-Worker for the Future

With regard to the Malaysia’s formal Prime Minster Tun Mahathir vision towards the year 2020 that Malaysia to be an industrialize nation, organizations in Malaysia need to have a pool of knowledge workers in order to ensure the vision is achieved. These knowledge workers will be the mover of the future Malaysia as the industrialized nation. Price (1997) indicated that the information age has changed the nature of work just as the industrial revolution changed early nineteenth-century work. In essence, the content of work and the means of producing products and services have changed. Hence, Malaysia will need thousands of numbers of knowledge workers by the year 2020. Any shortage of knowledge workers in manning the organization can substantially impair the overall performance of the organization.

Buhler (1997) asserts that today’s work force is drastically different from years ago, thus the differences have created tremendous challenges for the managers of today’s organizations. Furthermore, the current work force is more diverse and is not always geographically located together. In order to mitigate the shortage of the knowledge workers, organizations need to look into ways of attracting, motivating and retaining the workers to work with the organization.

Knowledge management is not merely about the latest technology but also managing knowledge within the company and treating it as the most valued asset for the success of the company (Davenport & Cronin, 2000; Grayson & O’Dell, 1998; Kermally, 2002). Looking from this perspective, knowledge workers have been considered to become an important asset by virtue of their possession of this knowledge (Darr, 2003; Drucker, 1988, 1999 and 2000; Newell et al.; Tymon & Stumpf, 2003). Therefore, human resource management is another aspect that would help knowledge management in terms of managing the workers as an invaluable asset for the company, by taking on a more strategic business partnership-like role (Greengard, 1998; Soliman & Spooner, 2000, Thite, 2004; Yahya & Goh, 2002).

It is widely proclaimed by governments, academics, consultants and industrialists that management of knowledge is essential to competing in the “new environment” (Tushmen and Nadler, 1986). Reich (1991) argues that firms are increasingly dependent on knowledge workers as they compete through their employees’ know-how. This implies that organisations must address the needs of knowledge workers in their efforts to retain their primary resource for achieving competitive advantage.

The understanding here is this: if we do not take care of the knowledge workers, will they leverage their knowledge for the success of the company or for themselves? Thus, we must start by managing these knowledge workers effectively with the hope that they will remain in the company and will contribute to its success and profits.

In Malaysia, the shift to the k-economy is part of a wider plan to achieve the objective of the nation’s Vision 2020. Vision 2020 is a 30-year plan to “push” Malaysia to achieve a level at par with industrial nations in terms of economic performance and technological capability (Mustapha & Abdullah, 2000). However, Malaysia currently lacks some of the critical elements to support the k-economy. Among them are the lack of adequate knowledge and skilled human resources (Govindan, 2000). In other words, Malaysian organizations need to prepare themselves towards the shortage of knowledge workers in the coming years. In order to mitigate the shortage of the knowledge workers, there is an urgent need for Malaysian organizations to know the most effective HR strategies and practices for attracting, motivating and retaining the workers to work with the organization.

MBA

MBA GSM