Welcome to our second issue of Newsletter for 2007!
We express our gratitude and thanks to the previous AOTS Malaysia General Manager, Watanabe-san, for his excellent cooperation during his tour of duty in Kuala Lumpur, and we welcome the new General Manager – Kodaira-san. We look forward to an excellent working relationship.
We also wish “All the best” to our former Administrative Assistant Ms Surinam, who has gone for greener pastures. We wish to thank her for her valuable contributions (especially the Hippo Program) during her almost three years’ service with us. We welcome Cik Siti Zubaidah, who has taken over as Administrative Assistant.
Our 22nd Annual General Meeting went smoothly. One of the suggestions by a member was to set up a Council of Ex-Presidents, to ensure that their experiences in leading PAAM will not be lost. This is because PAAM is highly regarded as one of the few well-run AOTS Alumni
Societies in the world. We want to update our Directory of
Members, and it would be great if all of you can assist us in this important assignment.
As always, I look forward to your suggestions and comments on how to continuously improve our Persatuan. I wish all of you success in your wealth-creation undertakings, and the best of health to you and your beloved family.
A. AZIZ Y. KAMARUDDIN
PRESIDENT
(azizyoup@hotmail.com)
General Meeting (AGM) on 22 April 2007
The Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia (PAAM) successfully held its 22nd Annual General Meeting on 22nd April 2007 at PAAM’s Office, Damansara Jaya, Selangor. Thirty three (33) members including the Central Committee Members and 5 observers attended this meeting. AOTS Kuala Lumpur Office was represented by its newly appointed General Manager, Mr. Masami Kodaira, who came to Malaysia in early April to replace Mr. Watanabe. The AGM started with a welcome speech from PAAM’sPresident, En. Aziz. Kamaruddin. En. Aziz and all members present extended a very warm welcome to Mr. Kodaira.
It is hoped that PAAM & AOTS will continue to work and cooperate closely in terms of training programs and other jointly organized activities. The meeting then proceeded accordingly with the central committee members reporting on past activities implemented by PAAM.
Thirty three (33) members including the Central Committee Members (CCM) and 5 observers attended this meeting.
Self-introductory by Mr. Masami Kodaira,
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The AGM in progress. |
 Full attention from the members during the AGM. | |
Welcome speech from En Aziz Kamaruddin, PAAM’ President. | |
The Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia (PAAM) has just concluded the 4th series of its Afro-Asian Entrepreneurs Program (AAEP). Started in 1999 with the first AAEP which was then opened only to members of the African Federation of AOTS Alumni Societies (AFAAS), the 4th AAEP saw an overwhelming response. The response of 27 applicants and many more enquiries indeed exceeded all our expectation. Regretfully only 18 were accepted for the program proper.
Group photo with participants, PME working committee, CCMs, PAAM & AOTS staff.
The participants were:
From Sudan
– Mr. Ismail Iizzeldin El Sayed, Executive Manager, Al Barakawi International Co.
– Mr. Abdalla Ahmed Mohamed, Maintenance Sect. Manager, Tool & Dies Company.
From Tanzania
– Mr. Didas Rafael Mwilawi, Director of Finance,Dar Es Salaam Water & Sewerage Authority.
From Sri Lanka
– Mr. Gihan Nissanka Perera, CEO/Managing Director, Perera & Sons (Bakers) Ltd.
– Mr. Wasantha R. Lakpriya Wijenayake, Accountant, Papyrus Papers Pvt Ltd.
– Mr. Mohideen Cader, CEO/Managing Director, Sinwa Holdings Limited.
– Mr. Herath Mudiyanselage Ayodhya Mahansen Wijayaratne, HR Manager, Namunukula Plantations Ltd.
– Mr. Nugegoda Gabadage Prasanna Panditharatne, Director, Industrial Components Ltd.
From Ghana
– Mr. Nicholas Kyei-Baffour, Director of Operations, Smice International Ltd.
– Ms Agnes Kyei-Baffour, Managing Director, Unaprof Limited.
– Mr. Amos Oppong Amankwah, Sales Manager, Tractor & Equipment Ghana Ltd.
– Ms Francisca Oppong Amankwah, Management Consultant, Optimal Consultancy Services Ltd.
– Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei, CEO, Public Procurement Board.
– Mr. David Bennin, Director of Capacity Development, Public Procurement Board.
– Mr. John Kwaw Amihere Mensah, Div. Manager, Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd.
– Mr. Joseph Mensah Kpordzih, Sectional Manager (Industrial Relations), Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd.
– Mr. Joseph Piero Krause, Deputy Director of Finance, Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd.
– Mr. Joseph Mbia Coleman, Div. Manager (Operations), Electricity Company of Ghana Ltd.
Mr. Theodore Wong, |
Representative from the Embassy of Japan, |
 Opening ceremony of AAEP on 17 Jan 2007. |
The Program which started from 16 January 2007 with the arrival of most of the participants, ended on 26 January 2007. Due to the long flight time required to travel both from and back to their respective countries, a few of the participants left Malaysia on the night of 25 January 2007 so as to be ready for a brand new day the following Monday.
The planning which lasted for almost a year, considered among its critical issues, the setbacks faced during the last 3 programs. In ensuring no recurrences of those setbacks, the organising team had to re-draft many of the topics so as to fit into the mindset of the modern and successful entrepreneur. This led to the program highlights as follows:-
1. Japanese Influence on Malaysian SME by Mr. Koichi Hayase on Day 1.
2. Plant Visits to Nippon Paint (M) Sdn Bhd (5S Practices) and Autoliv Hirotako Sdn Bhd (Autoliv Production System), on Day 2.
3. Total Quality Management by Mr. A. Aziz Y. Kamaruddin on Day 3.
4. Entrepreneurship by Mr. Eric Koh and Plant Visit to Polymatech (M) Sdn Bhd (Line Innovation using Kanban Tools) on Day 6.
5. Inventory Management / Material Logistics by Mr. Alan Lai on Day 7.
6. Supply Chain Management – Best Practices in SCM: Ultimate Key to Succeed by Mr. Kenny Simon Lee on Day 8
7. Workshop on Investments into Participants’ Own Countries/Industries by Mr. Koichi Hayase on Day 9.
During this workshop, participating nations were asked to draw up plans on how to attract Foreign Direct Investments to their countries and a specific industry using a structured format provided by Mr. Hayase. Considering that the participants were only given 5 working days to plan their presentations, the workshop was extremely successful. Congratulations to the participants for a job well done.
Throughout the program, the enthusiasm and proactive approach towards learning as shown by the participants were indeed encouraging. While we understood that the entire group was made up of professionals and entrepreneurs of high calibre, it was therefore important that they were given the opportunity to see and learn for themselves additional areas which would make them and their businesses grow further.Hence the lecturers and plant visits were tuned to what entrepreneurs needed to be successful, from basic requirements of 5S in our daily chores to the very high end visualisation of Kanban controls in action, risk factors and others.The Q&A sessions during plant visits were also critical for participants to understand how world class companies function. The frank exchange of ideas and responses from the plant representatives, mostly Senior Managers, made the plant visits fruitful but at the same time demanding on the participants. Now they would need to implement many of the concepts seen in their own offices and factories.
Some of the participants have in the 9 days seen places that even some Malaysians would not have. During the weekend, they visited the famous Batu Caves, the National Monument, a Batik Printing factory and the Twin Towers (still the highest twin towers in the World). Also having the program conducted in Melia Hotel Kuala Lumpur has definitely its advantages.
Centrally located, the hotel is surrounded by Shopping Complexes, Food Stalls and Restaurants. From the feedback from the participants, communication problems with shop assistants were non-existent and with bargains galore, great deals were struck and parti-cipants went off happy. The country tagline of Malaysia, Truly Asia has been again tested and has proven true to its word.
While the organising team feels the program succeeded in many ways, some of the problems needed to be overcomed included:
1. The adverse effect of the falling USD/MYR exchange rate. During planning, the rate used was USD1 = MYR3.65. The actual exchange rate at the start of the program fell to 3.5.
2. The lower subsidies from WNF. While we understand the limitations now being faced by the WNF administrators, the limit of USD4,500 for the program restricted PAAM to accept more applications for the program.
3. The period was also reduced from the earlier 12 days to 9 days due to the above limit.
It is without doubt the hard-work and cooperation put in by the respective countries’ alumni societies, the PAAM secretariat, Organising Team members, Partner Companies, AOTS, WNF committee members, PAAM CCM and Melia Hotel’s staff contributed towards the smooth implementation of the program. The sacrifices made were small in comparison to the new friendships and happy faces which are results of a successful program.
Organising Team members:
Yap Choon Ming
Theodore K C Wong
Yang Chor Leong
Eric Koh
Angela Saul
Maggie Yap
Khor Kai Tong
Surinam Othman
Tea Talk
…on Basic Understanding of Restriction
of Hazardous Substances Regulations (RoHS)
(Organized in-conjunction with PAAM 22nd Annual General Meeting)
Our speaker, Mr. P. Balaganesh. |
A section of the crowd during AGM. |
Participants from different fields |
Lunch break Everything looks |
Manning the registration desk. | |
Farewell Dinner
for Mr. Masaki Watanabe
at a restaurant in Sg. Buluh on 22nd March 2007
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Full-day Seminar
on Kaizen Applications in Manufacturing Companies
By : Mr. E.S Lim
With the collaboration of Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia, Johor Branch and JSKMC (Johor Skills and Knowledge Management Center), a full day seminar on Kaizen Applications in Manufacturing Companies has been successfully organized. This is the first time that a co-seminar has been carried out.
The response received from the related industries was indeed very encouraging. A total of 56 participants attended this seminar. Among them 90% were from manufacturing companies from Johor region, at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsular.
There were three invited speakers for
this seminar:
1. Mr. Lim Eng Swee of PAAM CCM.
2. En. Mohamed bin Hassan, principal consultant of BPMI Consultant company
3. Mr. R. Narendranath a/l Rmana, principal consultant of TQS Manage- ment company.
The subjects discussed during the seminar were:
1. Start Implementing 5S, the basic of Kaizen.
2. Kaizen & Gemba Kaizen & developing an eye for waste.
3. Employee empowerment towards success of Kaizen in the factory
Two papers were presented by the main speaker i.e. Mr. Lim Eng Swee, an active Central Committee Member with PAAM, which lasted for a total of 3 hours. A very detailed explanation on 5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu. Shitsuke) concepts, had been presented, followed by the practical approaches, the important aspects of applying team/group activities to 5S activities.
Later, Mr. Lim also provided important points to observe when implementing the 5S audits, how to get management support and various tools used in the 5S activities.,/p>
On the presentation of the 2nd paper, Mr. Lim had emphasized the relationship of 5S with the 3 T, VM and the relationship with Kaizen. 5S is the foundation to Kaizen. And Kaizen is the indispensable approach to strengthen Management Power.
Many questions were asked during the Q&A session of the lecture. Most of the questions asked related either directly and/or indirectly to the actual implementation of 5S. Being an expert at the field, Mr. Lim has been very generously shared his experiences with all the participants. It can be observed that the participants were very attentive throughout the whole of Mr. Lim’s lecture.
Participants paying full attention during the presentations.
| Family Gathering | |
| Date | 8th July 2007 |
| Day | Sunday |
| Venue | Sungai Congkak, Hulu Langat, Selangor. |