posted on 2014-05-13, 15:17authored byChris Backhouse, Atiah Abdullah Sidek
Environmental issues are now becoming a constant if not a dominant issues in society and government agenda.
There is an expectation that all institutions especially industries take proactive steps towards improving their
environmental performance. Malaysia recognises this shift and has move towards a more positive approach in
promoting environmentally sound and sustainable development practices for industries and businesses including
SMEs. Yet there are many aspects of the SMEs sector are still isolated and need to be investigated. This case study
is the first part of the investigation and perceived as an opportunity to explore and understand the weakness of the
current system in Malaysia. A series of interviews were carried out with senior management of metal and fabrication
SMEs in United Kingdom and Malaysia to understand the attitude towards environmental sustainability, current
environmental and operation performances, and other key improvement areas. This paper presented the findings of
the case study and the comparative analysis helps identify key areas for continuous improvement, in order to better
promote environmental sustainability to Malaysian SMEs especially in the metal and fabrication sector.
Funding
Case study funded by Loughborough University and International Islamic University Malaysia.
History
School
Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Citation
SIDEK, A.A and BACKHOUSE, C.J., 2014. Environmental sustainability issues in Malaysian metal and fabrication SMEs: comparative analysis from a case study perspectives. Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Bali, Indonesia, 7th-9th January 2014, pp.1653-1662.
Publisher
IEOM
Version
VoR (Version of Record)
Publication date
2014
Notes
This is a conference paper. It is freely available online at: http://iieom.org/ieom2014/pdfs/374.pdf