PurposeThis paper seeks to document an approach to reduce scrap losses using the root cause analysis technique in a lean manufacturing environment.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses lean manufacturing root cause problem solving (RCPS) technique. The study starts with the collection phase, followed by the analysis phase and ends with the solution phase. Supporting data are presented using a Pareto chart to prioritise wastage in order to be more focused for improvement. The Toyota Production System's 5‐whys analysis is performed to analyse the cause of wastages, to formulate and implement corrective actions.FindingsThe application of the 5‐whys analysis in a manufacturing industry (XYZ Corporation) provides a fact‐based and structured approach to problem identification and correction that not only reduces, but also totally eliminates defects. Corrective action has permanently eliminated the top defect, which is the “last piece material scratch” and this results in zero scrap thereafter. In this study it was also proven that with sound understanding of manufacturing coupled with possible solutions using the 5‐whys analysis the authors were not only able to eliminate waste, but also to do it with zero‐cost.Originality/valueThe approach documented in the paper can be extended to other areas in the manufacturing industry to help improve overall equipment efficiency, breakdown, time loss, customer complaints, etc.

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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">With the increasing complexity of business enterprises and the growing popularity of conglomerate type businesses, it has become clear that consolidated financial statement reporting, while obviously necessary, may not necessarily provide users with sufficient insights for the making of informed decisions. Segment reporting</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" name="_ftnref1" href="http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/author/saveSubmit/#_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> is therefore fundamentally indispensable and integral to investment analysis process (AIMR, 1993, pg 39; Berg 1990). This study highlights evidence on a fraction of Malaysian companies that do not provide any segment reports at all in contrast to their direct competitors who comply. Additionally it was found that the proprietary costs motive theory seem to hold true for the selected companies, where companies which experience high profit margin are the ones who choose not to disclose segment information. The consequences of non-disclosure of FRS 114</span><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" name="_ftnref2" href="http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/author/saveSubmit/#_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> by Malaysian companies has far reaching impacts, right<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>from valuation of shares, to corporate governance and control mechanism (Burger and Hann, 2003; 2007). The adoption of suggestions recommended by this study is expected to solve this reporting problem to a certain extent, if not completely. The eventual outcomes of the effectiveness of the new FRS 8 in solving the problem mentioned above would be of great interest to financial analysts and general users. This could well be the direction of future research in this domain.</span></span></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><br /><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><hr size="1" /></span><div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" name="_ftn1" href="http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/author/saveSubmit/#_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> Segment reporting refers to the provision of additional disclosure in the audited annual reports </span></p></div><div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><a style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" name="_ftn2" href="http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/author/saveSubmit/#_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 9pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"> <span style="text-decoration: underline;">http://www.masb.org.my</span></span></p></div></div>

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Data heterogeneity in the public sector is a serious problem and remains to be a key issue as different naming conventions are used to represent similar data labels. The e-government effort in many countries has provided a platform for government entities and their business partners to exchange data through Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and standards such as RosettaNet (B2B data exchange standard), EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport), XML (Extensible Markup Language) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). However, e-government efforts have not really resolved data heterogeneity problems significantly due to limitation of these standards. One such limitation is the inability of data inheritance. In order to solve this problem with emphasis on Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Web Services, a semantically enriched web service for the public sector is needed. Thus we propose an ontology-based solution which allows data inheritance and polymorphism. This goal of this paper is to show how heterogeneous e-government documents can be semantically matched. We propose a shared hierarchical knowledge repository approach and a detailed process methodology for semantic mediation. A two-part semantic mediation approach using SRS (Semantic Relatedness Scores) and SWRL (Semantic Web Rule Language) is highlighted. Both measures are complimentary and provide the semantics necessary for resolving schema heterogeneity. Our approach incorporates a rule-based engine that reads and executes SWRL rules (i.e. RacerPro). We also adopted several tools for proof-of-concept such as Protégé (i.e. ontology editor) and JESS (Java Expert Shell System).