Effectiveness of inventory management is a vital part in the manufacturing organization to be more competitive. The previous studies have indicated that there are several factors influencing the effectiveness of inventory management in the organization but there is lack of researchers who carried out the research in the manufacturing small medium enterprise in Johor. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the problem of inventory management faced by the manufacturing small medium enterprise and also to determine the factors that will influence the effectiveness of inventory management. In completing this research, 80 employees were selected randomly from the manufacturing small medium enterprise in Batu Pahat, Johor and they were requested to complete questionnaires. The result have shown that the problems of inventory management faced by manufacturing organization were underproduction, overproduction, stock out situation, delays in the delivery of raw materials and discrepancy of records. The factors, documentation/store records, planning, knowledge of employees/staff skill have shown to significantly influence the effectiveness of inventory management while the funds have shown slightly significant influence on the inventory management in manufacturing small medium enterprises. This quantitative study is important to the manufacturing organization in Malaysia because it provides the guidelines to the employers of manufacturing small medium enterprises in Batu Pahat, Johor.

Technology has been recognized as one of strategic resources for sustaining competitiveness among firms regardless of their sizes. Challenges in globalizations and strategic alliances are some of the issues underpinning technology adoption among SMEs. However, existing models on technology adoption have not provided sufficient insights on factors that could influence the successful adoption of technology among SMEs in Malaysia. In particular, uniqueness of SMEs characteristics, especially in terms of pervasive influence of SMEs' owner-managers, has not been considered. Therefore, this study aims to identify significant factors that could have pervasive influence on technology adoption among SMEs in Malaysia by integrating internal and external factors together with the SME unique characteristics. A preliminary study was conducted to propose the SME technology adoption model to validate the influence of external factors, internal factors and SMEs' owner-manager characteristics. This study employed multiple case study strategy as its research design and interviews as primary data collection method. Collected data were analyzed using thematic analyses to identify recurring factors across cases. The findings showed that notwithstanding of the technologies adopted by the firms, internal factors and SME's owner-managers characteristics have significant influence on technology adoption among SMEs.

The objectives of this study are to adopt the well-known business excellence model (BEM), Baldrige excellence framework 2019-2020 criteria and examine in Malaysian Electrical and Electronics (E&E) manufacturing companies. We have identified those elements in BEM like leadership, customers, measurement, analysis, knowledge management (MAKM), strategy, and operations that influence on business results. This study also aims to assess the Lean practices influence on the operations and results of business excellence (BE). The theoretical framework is guided by BEM and Leadership theory. A stratified random sampling was employed to choose the sample from the four sub-sectors of E&E industry. A total of 500 questionnaires was circulated in Peninsular Malaysia with return usable 156 questionnaire utilized for data analysis. The outcome from the structural analysis suggested that positive relationships between strategy, operations, and Lean practices on achievement of BE. The limitations from present study suggest a future research may focus on other industries, Industry 4.0 companies and also ascertain what are the leadership behaviours more favourable to achieve BE. The conclusions of this study extend the knowledge by assisting theory building efforts especially in the operations management domain and BE management. The practical implication is adoption of Baldrige excellence framework and Lean practices will enhance infrastructural decision in fields of business strategy such as human resource policies, best practices, benchmarking and quality management. This study contributes to the methodology perspective by covering both economic and non-economic performance measure metrics.