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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Tugas Headboy SMSJ 1978

I have been writing serious stuffs until now. I think I should actually tell my life story. Randomly. In term of time and event. I will write about my Form 5 experience in Sains Johor, SMSJ. I was actually the Head prefect , the first head boy (Saadiah Ahmad was the Head Girl) selected from the Form 5. I remembered that year there was no Upper Six. So, the HM, at that time Cikgu Hamzah Rashid appointed me as HB and Sudin (Shamsuddin Md Dom) the Secretary. We were seen as the 'bad guys' by the students just because we had to enforce all rulings in this boarding school. Common 'kesalahan' was curi barang, hisap rokok, bising masa prep, apa lagi, etc. I remembered every Sunday during assembly, I have to stand in front of everybody, I will shout "Sekolah. Baris Sedia" when the HM enter the school hall. There was 'public caning' at that time. I don't remember now who got the whack. There are things that you tend to forget because you 'forgive and forget' not keeping in the heart or 'dendam' business. To me I was doing my job, as best as I can, and if I need to scold anyopne I will do so. Thousand apologies. One thing I remembered till today is during prefect meeting, I think I went overboard and scolded especially the Girls Prefect, (for not doing their job well) this I will apologise , Fati, Hafizah, who else, I know that I was 'garang' at that time. In fact I am also at times garang till today but have mellowed a lot. I learned the hard way of being a leader at a very young age. But, I have no regrets because I have been given many opportunities to lead throughout my life in undergraduate, and in my career. I thank SMSJ for giving me that chance.
There are also stories which I will not forget, such as being reprimanded by Cikgu Hamzah Rashid about 'why students are wearing 'tudung', why this dakwah movement?' If you all remembered masa kita form 5 dulu kita sangat ketagihkan ilmu Islam, so we seek to find truth and we found it. As Headboy, I have to defend some girls for putting on 'tudung'. Anyone remembered the HM asking some of them to remove it, Hafizah ingat? Myself and Sudin pergi mengadap HM dan terpaksa backing pelajar. In fact I questioned him back, 'Apa salahnya pakai tudung - tutup aurat" He did not answer. Probably he was in a position where the authorities (Kementerian) need some answers as to why the dakwah movement is getting much interests.....

to be continued

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Hari Anugerah Cemerlang UTM

Today UTM had its Citra Karisma. Well it is the Anugerah Kecemerlangan for staff at at levels, as well as in recognition of achievements in various aspects in a university including publication, consultancy, research, teaching, sports, community service, safety, IT, and the ultimate Anugerah Kualiti Naib Canselor (AKNC). I was invited to the occasion not that I received an award but as one of the member for evaluating the AKNC. Perpustakaan Sultanah Zanariah (PSZ) was declared the winner and I think they deserved it.
Reward and recognition is part of the process to achieve organizational excellence. People, whether individuals or as teams/unit/faculty must be given due recognition. I am proud that my Faculty of Mechanical Engineering emerged as winner for Anugerah Penerbitan, FKKKSA has always been our close rival for this award. Congratulations to all award and also to FKM.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Business and Organizational Excellence

What do you mean by Business Excellence? The idea of Business Excellence within the context of quality mangement resulted from advances and compilation of concepts and philosophies that demand organizations to become, not only profitable, but excellent in everything they do. In their struggle to deliver, produce and provide high quality products, services, or projects, organizations must capitalize on the limited resources that they have or will obtain. They must use/work on/employ/deploy their resources to ensure continuity and sustainability (i.e. survive and the intiatives continue to work).

One important resource or asset is the people. Not only companies must locate, select , recruit the talents from the global pool of human beings, they must provide the avenue and opportunities that the talented workers are able to perform at the level desired by the organization, producing the desired outcomes, results, performance, as agreed by the parties involved. And at the same time providing a caring and emotionally stable environment which the person can work.

I was in Port Dickson on Saturday and Sunday 25th and 26th April 2009, participating in a workshop on a new Master of Science in Engineering Business Management programme with industry and academics brainstorming (with some heated arguments) about the subject matters, the contents, the outcomes and the expected product out of the program. When discussing about the program outcomes, one guy from Proton pointed out the need to incorporate the soft elements missing in many academic programmes. It is about injecting the elements of not only IQ but EQ, SQ and CQ in the programme. How it will be done is another matter (or another workshop), but they must be taken into account. The industry is telling the academia that we need to put EQ and SQ in our engineering business subjects/modules. Technical matters are already enough, managerial issues are more than sufficient. We need the 'human inner elements' through the inculcation of ethics, moral, integrity, spiritual, emotional values and principles to the leaders and managers so as to ensure sustainability of business and organizational excellence. This is the critical success factor. Greed has destroyed the US economy and infected all countries including our beloved country, Malaysia.

In short, Business Excellence is not only technology, management related but most importantly the 'INSAN' and 'IHSAN' as defined in the teachings of Islam. Think about it..... or Read about it.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Lean Thinking

Lean means no waste. Slim and fit. Developed by Japan TPS and the likes, I remembered the 3 Mu - Muri, Muda Mura when I was training in MMC, Mizushima in 1983/84. Japanese organizations have been practising lean for a very very long time. Only recently that many companies (manufacturing and services) are hopping on the bandwagon of 'Lean Manufacturing' 0r 'Lean Enterprise'. Now it is quite a big issue in Malaysia. Last year, I went to Jeffrey Liker's two days course on TPS organised by Proton and it was enlightening.
Lean is a philosophy as well as a system which requires everyone to contribute their ideas in eliminating wastes in everything that we do and think. Just try to remove or reduce waiting time, idle time, travelling time, etc. Or even overproduction is a waste since we are making a product that no one needs at the moment. That is why the Toyota system is designed to be flexible and it is based on a pull system. Only make what the customer request. Imagine trying to make the system perfect.... just like a masterpiece Swiss watch. So, the next time you go to a bank, a hospital, or any commercial or government service for that matter, try to observe the system in working. In fact I found a book titled 'Lean Hospitals' published 2009 at the KL International Book Fair now on till 26th April 2009. In Europe and US, they are already making their health care systems lean. So, make Lean our way of life and this is what Islam has taught us. Pembaziran adalah amalan syaitan (Wasting is an act of the satan). So try not to waste.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

bijaksana

bertindak bijak.
apakah yang dikatakan bijak?
yang dikatakan bijak itu ialah berpindah dari keadaan yang baik kepda keadaan yang lebih baik. what ever...apa saja...kalau dulu banyak sangat bercakap..kurangkan sedikit bercakap...bijaklah tu. kalau dulu kita gagal dan rendah markahnya..kini kita mendapat markah ujian yang lebih tinggi..maka bijak lah tu.

dalam meningkatkan kualiti langkah bijak dan pemikiran bijaksana amat perlu. dengan langkah bijak dan pemikiran bijaksana sajalah akan menyerlahkan kualiti pada apa yang kita lakukan.

salam

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

KPIs

Key Performance Indicators is the new word and concept. The new word has evolved form earlier concept of Management by Objectives where objectives equals KPIs. At the end of the year, your immediate supervisor (boss) will evaluate your performance based on the agreed targets. Then (supposedly) you will be rewarded based on the outcomes that you have achieved.
The current system is ' no time limit' do work until finish even if it takes 24 hours. then I measure you e.g.

Read the book - tell me what the book says
versus you have 4 hours , tell me what the book says

You have 8 hours to do the work, then work - who gets there first gets the reward.

Hypothethical Case
40 hours per week (in fact less minus Friday time)
teach 2 subjects which consists of
contact hours = 3 hrs/wk x 2 = 6 hrs
grading and preparing = 2 x 3 hrs/wk = 6 hrs
supervising PSM students = 1hr x 4 students = 4 hrs
supervising phd students/master research 9 students x 1hr = 9 hrs
supervising master by course 2 students x 1 hr = 2 hrs
reading manuscripts (proposals, chapter writeups, paper publications, etc) = 2 x 5 = 10 hours
committee members, managing programs = 1 x 5 = 5 hours
what about preparing research reports, examiners role for phd and master (internal and external). may be 5 hours average per week.
and now they (who they. Dont know) are talking about 3 journals per year, 70 k grants, and others...
Employer is having a nice time not getting people who openly fight their rights.. as the malay saying goes... Reda dan Syukur dengan apa yang ada...

not finished... still thinking

Monday, April 6, 2009

Quality Management

How can you produce or make a product that people need.
1. Design with end in mind, i.e. acceptable product quality level (function, form, fit) and not forgetting design for processibility and manufacturability and maintainability - easy to make and maintain the product (e.g. automobile)
2. Produce it based on standardised work by qualified workers
3. Prepare equipments and machineries that can achieve the desired effficiency and effectiveness - low downtime, high uptime, high throughput
4. Equipment selection and maintenance system
5. Quality suppliers through selection, control and to remove poor performing suppliers - so purchasing quality materials
6. Proper and suitable production planning, progress control and logistics systems - internal and external to the producer.

what did I leave behind ? All these can be viewed as Quality Processes. R and D integrate with Manufacturing, supported by Plant Engineering and Maintenance, serviced by PPC and Procurement, with Marketing and Sales getting customers requirements right. Not to forget the Human Capital doing their job in getting the best people to the organization. After that ..... work hard...... monitor .... then Improve and...