Lean Manufacturing System (LMS) is an important approach that could maximize customer value and reduce the amount of waste. The use of LMS in Malaysia is still lacking especially among Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in rural areas. The introduction of Islamic values to the existing LMS is expected to improve the awareness and acceptance of LMS especially among SME in rural areas. The merging of the Islamic values to the lean manufacturing tools is to leverage on the Islamic culture of the locals. The objective of this study is to assess the level of use and practice of lean manufacturing systems on management of seven wastes. This is a case study of an automotive vendor. A field observation was deployed and standard data was obtained for analysis. Field observation was performed by identifying critical areas with a high probability of waste production. The findings from this preliminary study suggest that three most critical causes of wastes are waiting, transportation, and movement. Results from this study is to be used in future to establish the equivalent Islamic LMS (ILMS) for targeted SMEs.

TiO2 nanoparticles is one of the most studied nanomaterials as an additive in oil lubricant due to its outstanding chemical and physical properties as well as low toxicity. This study aims to investigate the effect of TiO2 nanoparticles, as additive in renewable palm oil lubricant on the change of viscosity. Viscosity is one of the most vital physical parameters for assessing the performance of lubricant oil. The method for preparation of all samples involved adding of TiO2 nanoparticles at concentrations of 0, 0.5 and 1.0 weight percentage in lubricants, followed by mixing using ultrasonication method for 30 minutes. Investigation on the viscosity showed that the viscosity of palm oil bio-lubricants is comparable to SAE 0W20 grade lubricant. The viscosity index tends to increase with the concentration of TiO2 additive.

Purpose An optimized model is often deployed to reduce trial and error in experimental approach and obtain the multi-variant correlation. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM), namely, Box–Behnken design (BBD) approach, has been used to optimize the characterization of lubricant with additives. BBD is based on multivariate analysis whereby the effects of different parameters are considered simultaneously. It is a non-linear system which is more representative of the actual phenomenon. This study aims to investigate the effect of three independent variables, namely, speed, load and concentration of TiO2, on the coefficient of friction (CoF). Design/methodology/approach RSM was applied to get the multiplicity of the self-determining input variables and construct mathematical models. Mathematical models were established to predict the CoF and to conduct a statistical analysis of the independent variables’ interactions on response surface using Minitab 16.0 statistical software. Three parameters were regulated: speed (X1), load (X2) and concentration of TiO2 (X3). The output measured was the CoF. Findings The result obtained from BBD has shown that the most influential parameter was speed, followed by concentration of TiO2 nanoparticles and then normal load. Analysis of variance indicated that the proposed experiment from the quadratic model has successfully interpreted the experimental data with a coefficient of determination R2 = 0.9931. From the contour plot of BBD, the optimization zone for interacting variables has been obtained. The zone indicates two regions of lower friction values (<0.04): concentration between 0.5 to 1.0 Wt.% for a speed range of 1,000 to 2,000 rpm, and load between 17 to 20 kg for a speed in the range of 1,200 to 1,900 rpm. The optimized condition shows that the minimum value of CoF (0.0191) is at speed of 1,782 rpm, load of 20 kg and TiO2 concentration of 1.0 Wt.%. Originality/value In general, it has been shown that RSM is an effective and powerful tool in experimental optimization of multi-variants.