Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 88 in total

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  1. Jawahar N, Ponnambalam SG, Sivakumar K, Thangadurai V
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:458959.
    PMID: 24790568 DOI: 10.1155/2014/458959
    Products such as cars, trucks, and heavy machinery are assembled by two-sided assembly line. Assembly line balancing has significant impacts on the performance and productivity of flow line manufacturing systems and is an active research area for several decades. This paper addresses the line balancing problem of a two-sided assembly line in which the tasks are to be assigned at L side or R side or any one side (addressed as E). Two objectives, minimum number of workstations and minimum unbalance time among workstations, have been considered for balancing the assembly line. There are two approaches to solve multiobjective optimization problem: first approach combines all the objectives into a single composite function or moves all but one objective to the constraint set; second approach determines the Pareto optimal solution set. This paper proposes two heuristics to evolve optimal Pareto front for the TALBP under consideration: Enumerative Heuristic Algorithm (EHA) to handle problems of small and medium size and Simulated Annealing Algorithm (SAA) for large-sized problems. The proposed approaches are illustrated with example problems and their performances are compared with a set of test problems.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  2. Hossain MK, Kamil AA, Baten MA, Mustafa A
    PLoS One, 2012;7(10):e46081.
    PMID: 23077500 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046081
    The objective of this paper is to apply the Translog Stochastic Frontier production model (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate efficiencies over time and the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth rate for Bangladeshi rice crops (Aus, Aman and Boro) throughout the most recent data available comprising the period 1989-2008. Results indicate that technical efficiency was observed as higher for Boro among the three types of rice, but the overall technical efficiency of rice production was found around 50%. Although positive changes exist in TFP for the sample analyzed, the average growth rate of TFP for rice production was estimated at almost the same levels for both Translog SFA with half normal distribution and DEA. Estimated TFP from SFA is forecasted with ARIMA (2, 0, 0) model. ARIMA (1, 0, 0) model is used to forecast TFP of Aman from DEA estimation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  3. Shair F, Shaorong S, Kamran HW, Hussain MS, Nawaz MA, Nguyen VC
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2021 Apr;28(16):20822-20838.
    PMID: 33405126 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-11938-y
    This paper investigates the efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) growth of the Pakistani banking industry and determines the impact of risk and competition on the efficiency and TFP growth. The data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist productivity index is used to measure efficiency and TFP growth of the Pakistani banking industry. The generalized method of moments (GMM) model is applied to observe the impact of risk and competition on efficiency and TFP growth. The motivation behind the use of GMM model is its ability to overcome unobserved heterogeneity, autocorrelation, and endogeneity issues. The results of the study show that the credit and liquidity risks have positive while insolvency risk has negative effect on the efficiency and TFP growth. The competition leads to improve technological efficiency but declines the technical efficiency growth. Among other explanatory variables, operational cost management, banking sector development, GDP growth rate, and infrastructure development show significant relationships with various efficiencies and TFP growth. The banks also facilitate for the purchase of carbon-intensive products in order to reduce carbon emissions. Strong banking development successfully allocate their financial resources for the development of energy-efficient technology while banking sector development is found to be negatively related with environmental sustainability. The strong banking sector possesses a significant negative influence on carbon reduction and environmental degradation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  4. Zhong C, Hamzah HZ, Yin J, Wu D, Cao J, Mao X, et al.
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2023 Mar;30(15):44490-44504.
    PMID: 36692722 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-023-25410-0
    As an important indicator of sustainable development, industrial eco-efficiency (IEE) has aroused growing attention from governments all over the world including China, in recent decades. The Chinese government has introduced numerous environmental regulations; however, the environmental pollution issue does not appear to have been solved. Moreover, although several earlier studies have shown that environmental regulations may promote innovation, there is no consensus on their ultimate effects on IEE. Therefore, this study took a critical look at the connection between environmental regulations and IEE in 36 Chinese sub-sectors from 2009 to 2018. Based on the weak Porter hypothesis (weak PH) and strong Porter hypothesis (strong PH), this paper constructed two panel regression models and conducted group analysis by pollution intensity to check the relationships among environmental regulations, technological innovation, and IEE. It was found that environmental regulations can improve technological innovation and IEE, but these impacts vary across different pollution groups. Specifically, environmental regulations have a U-shaped or inverted U-shaped relationship with technological innovation and IEE. Of the 36 sub-sectors, 26 prove the existence of the Weak PH while 10 verify the Strong PH, indicating that environmental regulations generally advocate technological innovation for most sub-sectors but only promote IEE in a few sub-sectors at present. Finally, differentiated policy implications for environmental regulations and technological innovation are provided for decision-makers.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  5. Aliero MS, Pasha MF, Toosi AN, Ghani I
    Environ Sci Pollut Res Int, 2022 Dec;29(57):85727-85741.
    PMID: 35001275 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-17862-z
    The enforcement of the Movement Control Order to curtail the spread of COVID-19 has affected home energy consumption, especially HVAC systems. Occupancy detection and estimation have been recognized as key contributors to improving building energy efficiency. Several solutions have been proposed for the past decade to improve the precision performance of occupancy detection and estimation in the building. Environmental sensing is one of the practical solutions to detect and estimate occupants in the building during uncertain behavior. However, the literature reveals that the performance of environmental sensing is relatively poor due to the poor quality of the training dataset used in the model. This study proposed a smart sensing framework that combined camera-based and environmental sensing approaches using supervised learning to gather standard and robust datasets related to indoor occupancy that can be used for cross-validation of different machine learning algorithms in formal research. The proposed solution is tested in the living room with a prototype system integrated with various sensors using a random forest regressor, although other techniques could be easily integrated within the proposed framework. The primary implication of this study is to predict the room occupation through the use of sensors providing inputs into a model to lower energy consumption. The results indicate that the proposed solution can obtain data, process, and predict occupant presence and number with 99.3% accuracy. Additionally, to demonstrate the impact of occupant number in energy saving, one room with two zones is modeled each zone with air condition with different thermostat controller. The first zone uses IoFClime and the second zone uses modified IoFClime using a design-builder. The simulation is conducted using EnergyPlus software with the random simulation of 10 occupants and local climate data under three scenarios. The Fanger model's thermal comfort analysis shows that up to 50% and 25% energy can be saved under the first and third scenarios.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  6. Hamzah NM, See KF
    Health Care Manag Sci, 2019 Sep;22(3):462-474.
    PMID: 30868325 DOI: 10.1007/s10729-019-09470-8
    Various pharmacy services are offered in public health facilities, ranging from distributive activities (dispensing) to patient-oriented services (pharmaceutical care). These activities are monitored through indicators established at the national level. In Malaysia, the indicators have not been transformed into a measurement of hospital pharmacy service efficiency. The main objectives of this study were to assess the relative performance of hospital pharmacy services and to investigate the factors that may affect the performance levels. Double-bootstrap data envelopment analysis was applied to measure the technical efficiency levels of 124 public hospital pharmacies in 2014. An input-oriented variable returns to scale model was adopted in the study, while bootstrap truncated regression was conducted to identify the factors that may explain the differences in the efficiency levels. The average bias-corrected technical efficiency score varies according to the hospital size (0.84, 0.78 and 0.82 in small, medium and large hospitals, respectively). The hospital size, hospital age, urban location and information technology are important determinants of the efficiency levels. The study contributes to establishing baseline technical efficiency information for public hospital pharmacy services in Malaysia. The measurement of hospital pharmacy efficiency can guide future policy making to improve performance and ensure the optimum level of available resources.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  7. Javed I, Md Dawal SZ, Nukman Y, Ahmad A
    Int J Occup Saf Ergon, 2022 Dec;28(4):2238-2249.
    PMID: 34556003 DOI: 10.1080/10803548.2021.1984673
    Work productivity is one of the most important economic measures in the manufacturing industry. However, the physical, psychosocial and individual risk factors of an industrial work environment affect workers' physical or mental health, resulting in work productivity loss, absenteeism and presenteeism. Therefore, this study aims to identify the most critical risk factors and develop statistical models for predicting work productivity loss, absenteeism and presenteeism of garment industry workers. A sample of 224 sewing machine operators was taken for data collection through observation and self-reported studies. The results indicated that the average work productivity loss, absenteeism and presenteeism was 38.21, 2.35 and 37.23%, respectively. Finally, the statistical models of work productivity loss, absenteeism and presenteeism was developed using multiple linear regression with precision of 69.9, 53.7 and 84.0%, respectively. Hence, this study will help garment industries to improve their work productivity by taking initiatives based on the developed models.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency*
  8. Khalid R, Nawawi MK, Kawsar LA, Ghani NA, Kamil AA, Mustafa A
    PLoS One, 2013;8(4):e58402.
    PMID: 23560037 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058402
    M/G/C/C state dependent queuing networks consider service rates as a function of the number of residing entities (e.g., pedestrians, vehicles, and products). However, modeling such dynamic rates is not supported in modern Discrete Simulation System (DES) software. We designed an approach to cater this limitation and used it to construct the M/G/C/C state-dependent queuing model in Arena software. Using the model, we have evaluated and analyzed the impacts of various arrival rates to the throughput, the blocking probability, the expected service time and the expected number of entities in a complex network topology. Results indicated that there is a range of arrival rates for each network where the simulation results fluctuate drastically across replications and this causes the simulation results and analytical results exhibit discrepancies. Detail results that show how tally the simulation results and the analytical results in both abstract and graphical forms and some scientific justifications for these have been documented and discussed.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational/statistics & numerical data*
  9. Reidpath DD, Olafsdottir AE, Pokhrel S, Allotey P
    BMC Public Health, 2012;12 Suppl 1:S3.
    PMID: 22992346 DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-S1-S3
    In the health systems literature one can see discussions about the trade off between the equity achievable by the system and its efficiency. Essentially it is argued that as greater health equity is achieved, so the level of efficiency will diminish. This argument is borrowed from economics literature on market efficiency. In the application of the economic argument to health, however, serious errors have been made, because it is quite reasonable to talk of both health equity being a desirable output of a health system, and the efficient production of that output. In this article we discuss notions of efficiency, and the equity-efficiency trade off, before considering the implications of this for health systems.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  10. Hasan MZ, Kamil AA, Mustafa A, Baten MA
    PLoS One, 2012;7(5):e37047.
    PMID: 22629352 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037047
    The stock market is considered essential for economic growth and expected to contribute to improved productivity. An efficient pricing mechanism of the stock market can be a driving force for channeling savings into profitable investments and thus facilitating optimal allocation of capital. This study investigated the technical efficiency of selected groups of companies of Bangladesh Stock Market that is the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) market, using the stochastic frontier production function approach. For this, the authors considered the Cobb-Douglas Stochastic frontier in which the technical inefficiency effects are defined by a model with two distributional assumptions. Truncated normal and half-normal distributions were used in the model and both time-variant and time-invariant inefficiency effects were estimated. The results reveal that technical efficiency decreased gradually over the reference period and that truncated normal distribution is preferable to half-normal distribution for technical inefficiency effects. The value of technical efficiency was high for the investment group and low for the bank group, as compared with other groups in the DSE market for both distributions in time-varying environment whereas it was high for the investment group but low for the ceramic group as compared with other groups in the DSE market for both distributions in time-invariant situation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational/statistics & numerical data*
  11. Hasan MZ, Kamil AA, Mustafa A, Baten MA
    PLoS One, 2012;7(8):e42215.
    PMID: 22900009 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042215
    Banking system plays an important role in the economic development of any country. Domestic banks, which are the main components of the banking system, have to be efficient; otherwise, they may create obstacle in the process of development in any economy. This study examines the technical efficiency of the Malaysian domestic banks listed in the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) market over the period 2005-2010. A parametric approach, Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA), is used in this analysis. The findings show that Malaysian domestic banks have exhibited an average overall efficiency of 94 percent, implying that sample banks have wasted an average of 6 percent of their inputs. Among the banks, RHBCAP is found to be highly efficient with a score of 0.986 and PBBANK is noted to have the lowest efficiency with a score of 0.918. The results also show that the level of efficiency has increased during the period of study, and that the technical efficiency effect has fluctuated considerably over time.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational/economics*
  12. Salbiah Isa, Rohayu Hami, Hanita Hashim, Mohd Nizam S., Harani MS., Sairi S., et al.
    MyJurnal
    Introduction: Laboratory turnaround time (LTAT) is considered a reliable indicator of the quality and efficiency of a laboratory’s service. LTAT achievement, particularly of urgent tests, remains unsatisfactory and challenging in many clinical laboratories especially in tertiary health care centres with high workload and restricted resources. The unresolved issue of unsatisfactory urgent renal profile (RP) LTAT below the standard performance goal prompted our interest to improve laboratory’s handling of urgent test request. We thus implemented the Lean principle in the management of urgent test requests using urgent RP as the test model. Methods: The implementation of laboratory Lean involved 4 steps process; (1) Development of burning platform for change (2) Identification of waste (3) Plan- ning and implementation of control measures (4) Measuring, monitoring, and sustaining the improvement. Urgent RP LTAT and the percentage of the request met the time requirement determined based on the data extracted from laboratory information system (LIS) before and after the implementation of Lean was compared to assess the effec- tiveness. Results: Urgent RP LTAT after the implementation of Lean was reduced i.e 35 min (before) vs 31 min (after), with the percentage of LTAT met the time requirement was significantly increased above the set target i.e 82.8% (before) to 93.5% (after) with P-value = 0.001. Conclusion: Implementation of innovation using Lean management has significantly improved urgent RP LTAT achievement, thus optimised urgent test management in our Chemical Pathology laboratory. Lean is a strongly recommended strategy to improve urgent test LTAT especially in laboratories with restricted resources.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency; Efficiency, Organizational
  13. Mohd Hassan NZA, Bahari MS, Aminuddin F, Mohd Nor Sham Kunusagaran MSJ, Zaimi NA, Mohd Hanafiah AN, et al.
    Front Public Health, 2022;10:959812.
    PMID: 36684911 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.959812
    INTRODUCTION: Ambulance services are pivotal in any country's healthcare system. An efficient ambulance service not only decreases patient mortality rate but also allows resource prioritization for better outputs. This study aims to measure the efficiency of ambulance services provided by health facilities in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia.

    METHODS: This cross-sectional study analyzed the efficiency of 76 Decision-Making Units (DMUs) or health facilities, consisting of 62 health clinics and 14 hospitals. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for computing efficiency scores while adopting the Variable Return to Scale (VRS) approach. The analysis was based on input orientation. The input was the cost of ambulance services, while the output for this analysis was the distance coverage (in km), the number of patients transferred, and hours of usage (in hours). Subsequent analysis was conducted to test the Overall Technical Efficiency (OTE), the Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE), the Scale Efficiency (SE), and the Return to Scale with the type of health facilities and geographical areas using a Mann-Whitney U-test and a chi-square test.

    RESULTS: The mean scores of OTE, PTE, and SE were 0.508 (±0.207), 0.721 (±0.185), and 0.700 (±0.200), respectively. Approximately, 14.47% of the total health facilities were PTE. The results showed a significant difference in OTE and SE between ambulance services in hospitals and health clinics (p < 0.05), but no significant difference in PTE between hospitals and clinics (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in efficiency scores between urban and rural health facilities in terms of ambulance services except for OTE (p < 0.05).

    DISCUSSION: The ambulance services provided in healthcare facilities in the MOH Malaysia operate at 72.1% PTE. The difference in OTE between hospitals and health clinics' ambulance services was mainly due to the operating size rather than PTE. This study will be beneficial in providing a guide to the policymakers in improving ambulance services through the readjustment of health resources and improvement in the outputs.

    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency, Organizational*
  14. Dzullijah Ibrahim, Alifah Alyana, Hasrul Hafizuddin Hassim, Yusli Yaakob, Hamid Yusuf
    ESTEEM Academic Journal, 2018;14(1):83-92.
    MyJurnal
    A facility layout can be defined as an arrangement of the equipment area in the
    industry or organization of the factory. The main objective of this project was to
    improve the existing layout in SMEs using DELMIA QUEST simulation. In this
    project, new layouts are proposed to reduce the waiting time in a production
    line and increase the productivity. This study focused on packaging production
    line of a coffee manufacturing company located in Tasek Gelugor Pulau
    Pinang. The problems identified in this production line are limited working
    space, some processes overlap and are stuck due to high demands of the
    products. This results in high lead time. The existing layout was studied and
    simulated to improve certain parameters such as labour, machines, and shape
    of the layout. The workstations were repositioned in the proposed layout before
    undergoing simulation process using DELMIA QUEST software. From the
    simulation results, the significant improvement was determined and the best
    layout was chosen in terms of machines utilization and total output. Based on
    this, a new layout is proposed to increase the productivity capacity and to meet
    customers’ demands. Simulation data of the proposed layout showed its
    productivity had increased to approximately 41.5%.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  15. Rafidah Kamarudin, Azura Abd Jamil @ Kamarudzzaman, Albakri Mohammad, Norlis Osman, Zaidatulhusna Mohd Isnani
    Jurnal Inovasi Malaysia, 2020;3(2):26-41.
    MyJurnal
    Hari Bertemu Pelanggan (HBP) is an essential event of the Port Dickson Municipal Council (MPPD) which is held twice a year for staff to review their Personal Files. The problem faced by the staff at the Human Resource Department (JPSM) MPPD is to handle staff Personal Files from the file room to the HBP location during the event. Risks such as loss and damage of Personal Files and the high cost in transferring staff Personal Files lead to the development of innovation known as dgDocSPACE. The implementation of the innovation has successfully reduced the operating cost, increased productivity, shortened time for reviewing Personal Files and increased customer satisfaction.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  16. Lisbona A, Las Hayas A, Palací FJ, Frese M
    PMID: 34066535 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18094947
    Background: The central point of this study is team initiative, and we analyzed how the theoretical model of antecedents and consequents of personal initiative contribute to explaining the relationship between team initiative and its antecedents and consequents. Authentic leadership is proposed as the antecedent, and the consequent leads to two types of outcomes, one of which is related to employee well-being, and the other is related to performance. However, little is known about what occurs in this relationship once the focus shifts to the team level. From a team perspective, with the label team initiative, we propose a collective construct defined similarly to personal initiative. This study shows the relationship between team initiative and its two consequences, team work engagement and performance, which are measured in terms of team productivity by the leader. Methods: Our model was tested in a field study with 344 employees of 79 work teams belonging to 55 organizations. Results: The analysis of the results using SEM and a regression analysis supported our main hypotheses. Conclusions: The finding that initiative is related to performance establishes the importance of initiative at the team level. It also emphasizes its impact on employee well-being through team work engagement and suggests the importance of authentic leadership.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  17. AKMAL NOR WAJIHAH BINTI AHMAD
    MyJurnal
    Technology is a tool that influences today’s lifestyle especially in the employment sector. The use of technology in employment may help in increasing the worker’s appraisal. The efficiency can be measured based on the increase of the productivity and the acceptance in using this system to help in upgrading the quality of the product output. It also assists in communication, increasing the worker’s integrity, productivity and the spread of information.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  18. Ahmad Rasdan Ismail, Baba Md Deros, Mohd Yusri Mohd Yusof, Mohd Hanifiah Mohd Haniff, Isa Halim
    MyJurnal
    Environmental factors such as temperature, lighting and noise have very significant impact to workers’ health, safety, comfort, performance and productivity. In an ergonomically design industrial work environment, these factors need to be control at their optimum levels. The main objective of this study is to find the effect of temperature, illuminance and sound pressure level on workers’ productivity in automotive industry. To perform this study a workstation in an automotive component manufacturing was selected as the location of the study. Results of data analysis showed there were relationships between temperature, illuminance and noise on workers’ productivity. Later, the authors’ developed multiple linear equation models to represent the relationships between temperature, illuminance and noise on the workers’ productivity. These multiple linear equation models could be used to predict the production rate for the workstation by referring to the value of temperature, illuminance and noise level.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
  19. Hossein Moshiri, Syed Mohammed Aljunid, Rahmah Mohd Amin
    MyJurnal
    In a time of rising demands on hospital reimbursement levels, focus on efficient operations is becoming more imperative. In health care systems, the measurement of efficiency is usually the first step in auditing individual performance of production units, e.g. hospitals, health centers, etc. It constitutes the rational framework for the distribution of human and other resources between and within health care facilities. The term efficiency is broadly used in economics and refers to the best utilization of resources in production. Typical example of efficiency is technical efficiency, referring to the effective use of resources in producing outputs. In the Farrell framework, a hospital is judged to be technically efficient if it is operating on the best practice production frontier in its hospital industry. In general, there are two main frontier methods in measuring efficiency. The first is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a linear programming method which enables the measurement of efficiency consistent with the theoretically based concept of production efficiency. DEA typically examines the relationship between inputs to a production process and the outputs of that process. The second technique for assessing efficiency that is employed is Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). This is an econometric technique to estimate a conventional function; with the difference being that efficiency is measured using the residuals from the estimated equation. The error term is therefore divided into a stochastic error term and a systematic inefficiency term.
    Matched MeSH terms: Efficiency
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