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Perspectives of Science & Education
International Scientific Electronic Journal ISSN 2307-2334 (Online)
Available: https://pnojournal.wordpress.com/2022-2/22-01/ Accepted: 26 October 2021 Published: 28 February 2022
J. R. Tang, V. Sethuprakhash, Z. Hanapi, M. F. Mustaffa Kamal, J. H. Mei
Implementation of 5S Practice in University Electrical and Electronic Laboratories
The problem and the aim of the study. Safety of university laboratories is of paramount importance. Performing hands on in a university laboratory can be considered as work with lower risks if compared with other processes in the industries. Yet, it is revealed that there are still many accidents that results in injuries or even fatalities to the staffs and students. More effort particularly in laboratory management is required to minimize the occurrence of laboratory accidents.
Research methods. This study evaluated perception of laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in the four states of Northern Region of Malaysia regarding the implementation, effectiveness and challenges on the implementation of 5S practice using cross-sectional survey. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire that has been developed and validated by four experts with background of occupational safety. Population of this study was 111 electrical and electronic laboratory technicians from universities in Northern Region of Malaysia. Questionnaire was distributed to all the laboratory technicians and the response rate was 76.6%, where 85 laboratory technicians returned the questionnaire. Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the perception of laboratory technicians among the four states. The level of significance is 0.05.
Results. Around 54% of the respondents have more than 3 years working experience 59% of the electrical and electronic laboratories in the Northern Region of Malaysia have an average usage of 10 to 20 hours per week, with 81% have an average of 2 to 4 courses per semester. Approximately 49% of the electrical and electronic laboratories occupied 21 to 30 students per session. Kruskal-Wallis H test for the implementation of 5S practice showed that there was no statistically significant difference in the four states but the test reported statistically significant differences between the mean ranks of at least one pair of groups for effectiveness and challenges of 5S practice. Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test was employed to further identify the states that were different significantly in the mean rank of scores.
Conclusion. Findings from this study give information about the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. It can be seen that the knowledge delivered to the students might be similar in the implementation of 5S practice, resulting in a similar level of implementation. Intriguingly, effectiveness of 5S practice resulting from similar implementation of 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories was not the same as it might be affected by other factors. Future study will be focusing on understanding the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians so that the authorities such as the university management could identify the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians in their own university while taking appropriate actions to support the implementation of 5S practice in the laboratory.
Keywords: 5s practice, electrical and electronic laboratories, laboratory safety, laboratory technicians, northern region of Malaysia, universities
For Reference:
Tang, J. R., Sethuprakhash, V., Hanapi, Z., Mustaffa Kamal, M. F., & Mei, J. H. (2022). Implementation of 5S Practice in University Electrical and Electronic Laboratories. Perspektivy nauki i obrazovania -Perspectives of Science and Education, 55 (1), 171-185. doi: 10.32744/pse.2022.1.11
_Introduction
lectrical and electronic related courses in university not only compose of theory, but also places emphasis on practical skills. Therefore, university laboratory safety is of the utmost importance as many university students, particularly from science and engineering disciplines, spend considerable time doing practical work in university laboratory. Three factors closely related to safety which are interconnected have been identified, including the environmental, person and behavior factors [1]. The environmental factors include facilities, procedures and standards whereas person factors are related to attitude, beliefs, personality and others. The behavior factors are about the safe and risky practices.
Despite the incorporation of precaution into numerous university laboratory rules, laboratory accidents still happened frequently, causing injuries or even fatalities to the staffs and students. On 7th January 2010, a student was seriously injured in an accident in a chemistry department laboratory at Texas Tech University [2]. A Southwest Research Institute technician died after being struck by an object from a machine he was operating on 25th June 2014 [3]. On 9th May 2015, a science teacher was killed from smoke inhalation inside a laboratory at the University of Health Sciences in Cambodia [4]. Three students were injured in a minor explosion at the chemistry laboratory of the Regional Institute of Education on 3rd March 2017 when they were doing experiments [5]. Also in India, a researcher was killed and three were injured during a gas cylinder explosion at the Laboratory for Hypersonic and Shock Wave Research of the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru on 5th December 2018 [6]. On 27th October 2019, a professor from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology died after an explosion at his laboratory while he was performing a hydrogen-based test [7]. Performing hands on in a university laboratory can be considered as work with lower risks if compared with other processes in the industries. Yet, it is revealed that there are still many accidents happening and more effort is required particularly in laboratory management.
Laboratory safety can be seen as a process or discipline with the objectives to prevent injuries and diseases among laboratory uses. Laboratory users are exposed to various risks. If adequate preventive measures were not taken, unwanted accidents might happen. Currently, work precautions involve personal protective equipment (i.e., lab coats, aprons, gloves and protective eye goggles) are widely used in laboratory to minimize the risk. Apart from personal protective equipment, laboratory user should always be alert and aware of the potential hazards in their workplace to ensure their safety. Safety rules must always be enforced. Meanwhile, laboratory management is an important part that cannot be ignored and 5S practice is one of the popular management method commonly implemented due to its effectiveness.
Since its introduction in the early 1980s by Takashi Osada, the 5S practice is believed to be useful in establishing and maintaining quality environment in an organization such as housekeeping, health and safety. The acronym 5S comes from five Japanese words which refer to seiri (organization), seiton (neatness), seiso (cleanliness), seiketsu (standardization), and shitsuke (discipline) [8; 9]. Theoretically, the 5S practice involves straightforward steps but practically, many factors influence the effectiveness of the 5S practice including human factor like management and resource like money and time [10].
The 5S practice involves the five steps as followed [11-13]:
i. seiri (organization) is about following set of specific rules and principles when organizing the things while removing unnecessary things and clearing the workplace so things are set in order.
ii. seiton (neatness) involving arranging the things at right place. Things are arranged neatly and systematically for quick retrieval and to be returned in the original place after use.
iii. seiso (cleanliness) is dealing with cleanliness, shine and self-inspection. Thus, it involves cleaning equipment or workplace regularly to remove dust and waste to make the workplace immaculate.
iv. seiketsu (standardization) underlines documenting and standardizing the method to maintain workplace with high productivity via maintaining seiri, seiton and seiso using standard procedures.
v. shitsuke (discipline) is about maintaining established procedures continuously to make 5S practice a habit and hence the change of behavior and integrating the 5S practice into culture to sustain the steps and procedures.
This paper aims to study the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia while implementing 5S practice in laboratory management. Laboratory technicians are people who involved directly in the management of a laboratory and therefore with the understanding on their perception together with further appropriate actions, laboratory safety can be greatly improved.
Literature review
Practice of 5S is not something new in industry. In Bangladesh, an experiment was performed to investigate the effect of the application of 5S practice to a real-world production scenario at a food and beverage industry [14]. The results reveal that 5S practice can be effectively in food and beverage industry where multiple advantages are found such as process development in terms of cost reduction, better usage of workplace, prevention of losing tools, increasing efficiency and many others. Randhawaand and Ahuja investigated and evaluated both the quantitative and qualitative benefits accrued by an Indian automotive parts industry [15]. Findings show that the strategic 5S practice initiatives has resulted in considerable level of improvements in various aspects, including quality, production, cost optimizations and work culture in the manufacturing industry. In Romania, a case study concerning 5S practice impact in an automotive company was carried out [16]. Analysis demonstrates a positive relation between 5S level and productivity in an automotive cable production plant, indicating that implementing and maintaining 5S practice in the company leads to improved performances. Gupta and Chandna discussed the effect of a scientific equipment company adopting a simple approach for 5S practice implementation at the workplace [17]. It is reported that the 5S practice has resulted in the overall benefits of the workplace, especially for the searching time for the tool in the workplace that has been improved significantly. The 5S audit score was improved from the level of 6 scores in the first week to 72 scores in the 24th week.
In Malaysia, Mohd Badzran studied two manufacturing companies including the company background and company divisions to be assessed. The researcher then identified the 5S checklist. Findings reveal that both companies basically demonstrated excellent 5S practice
although there are several shortcomings for further improvement (i.e., arrangement of the documents, tool and equipment) [18]. Ahmad et al. performed a comparative study of lean practices including 5S practice between Japanese and Malaysia automotive service centers. The Mann-Whitney test result shows that there was significant difference between Japanese and Malaysia automotive service centers in terms of 5S practice [19]. Chee Houa et al. carried out a study of the implementation of 5S practice in manufacturing industry in Melaka State. It is reported that foreign workers play the main part in implementing the 5S practice due to the large amount of foreign workers. The study also proposed research model which outline the barriers to implementation of 5S practice in manufacturing industry among foreign workers [20].
In Spain, a similar study was performed by Jiménez et al. on the experience in 5S practice implementation with the aim to optimize the work and safety of the university engineering laboratories. Four people were involved in the study including two lab professors, a lab technical worker and a student. Comparison was performed between the absence and the presence of 5S practice using several indicators, such as the errors caused by the incorrect use of equipment, the preparation and spent time for the practice, maintenance costs and accident rate. Improvements such as 30% reduction in practice preparation time, movements and waste transfers, about 25% more space in the work area and 100 hour/year savings in practices were found [21]. Ebuetse performed a case study in Western Kentucky University with the purposes to standardize the surveying laboratory via 5S practice and also to evaluate the impact of 5S practice according to the selected performance indicators. Findings reveal that there was a perceived improvement in the five chosen performance indicators, including the efficiency, workspace, equipment search time, working environment and safety [22].
With the aim to develop and evaluate framework of 5S quality management for university ecosystem in order to achieve green campus, Abu Bakar et al. focused on the areas of education system, finance management, man power arrangement, energy saving operation and building maintenance for the implementation of 5S quality management. The study provided academic institutional a standard operational to implement quality management with the consideration of the environmental issues together with efficient procedure especially for the management of university [23]. In their study entitled "Implementation of 5S Methodology in Higher Education Institute", Chourasia and Nema showed evidence that 5S practice is useful to improve the efficiency of the employees such as reducing the time finding any item in the storeroom, record room and library. The library and computer lab were streamlined and produce new space for a new digital library and an additional computer lab. Moreover, the changing in the layout results in larger front office [24]. Abu Bakar et al. carried out a study on the intention for 5S practice among students in higher education institutions using quantitative method with application of Technology Acceptance Model. The outcome of this study contributes to the body of knowledge in 5S quality management while helping university policy makers to develop conducive environment for students [25].
Based on previous work done regarding 5S practice in industry and higher education institutions, particularly the laboratories, the effectiveness of 5S practice in improving the working environment and safety is non-questionable. Yet, there is no study that is focusing on the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. Laboratory technicians are those who involved directly in the management of laboratories. They experience the practicability and effectiveness of the 5S practice themselves while understand the challenges most. As a pioneer study, this
paper focuses on several university located in Northern Region of Malaysia. Findings from this study will be shared with policy makers such as the management of the university and Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education to adopt better measures for laboratory safety and effective management.
Materials and methods
The study consisted of a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey that was conducted from March 2020 to March 2021. A questionnaire is developed to evaluate perception of laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia regarding the implementation, effectiveness and challenges on the implementation of 5S practice. The questionnaire was e-mailed to the respondents. Four academicians with background of occupational safety were selected to review the questionnaire. Their comments and feedbacks were taken into consideration for improvement of questionnaire.
The study was conducted at the Northern Region of Malaysia, including the following four states: Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak. Universities in these states, which have electrical and electronic laboratories, were chosen. This did not limit to electrical and electronic laboratories, but also microprocessor laboratory, communication laboratory, integrated circuit design laboratory, printed circuit board laboratory etc. Population of this study was 111 electrical and electronic laboratory technicians from universities in Northern Region of Malaysia. Questionnaire was distributed to all the laboratory technicians and the response rate was 76.6%, where 85 laboratory technicians returned the questionnaire.
The questionnaire is divided into four sections as follows:
i. Section A: Respondent Background.
ii. Section B: Implementation of 5S Practice.
iii. Section C: Effectiveness of 5S Practice.
iv. Section D: Challenges in Implementing 5S Practice.
Section A consisted of 5 questions including different variables: working experience, the usage of laboratory in terms of duration, number of subjects and students' number. There are multiple choice questions and open-ended questions. The second to fourth sections each consisted of 10 questions. These sections focused on the implementation, effectiveness and challenges, respectively dealing with the implementation of 5S practice in laboratory management. For these three sections, the questions were rated using 5-point Likert scale ranging from 5 for strongly agree, 4 for agree, 3 for neutral, 2 for disagree to 1 for strongly disagree.
For statistical analysis, demographic data obtained from the questionnaire was expressed as frequencies and percentages using descriptive statistics. The reliability of the scale was tested using the Cronbach's Alpha. Normality test was employed to study if the data was normally distributed so that the suitable analysis method could be used. Since the data was not normally distributed, Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to compare the scores obtained by all the states in terms of implementation, effectiveness and challenges on the implementation of 5S practice. Post hoc analysis will be conducted if statistically significant difference was detected. The significance level was set at p value< 0.05 for all the statistical tests in this study. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.
_Research results
Four demographic variables were analyzed. These include laboratory technicians' working experience, the average electrical and electronic laboratories average usage time per week, the number of courses that involved the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories in a semester and the average number of students who used the electrical and electronic laboratories in a session. Different statistical analysis methods were then performed to analyze data reliability, normality and further for comparison among states.
1) Analysis of demographic data
Working experience of the laboratory technicians as technical staff from all the four states is demonstrated in Table 1. For Perak, thirteen out of twenty respondents have more than three years working experience while six of the respondents have one to three years working experience. Only one respondent from Perak has less than one year working experience. Sixteen out of twenty-seven of the respondents from Kedah have more than three years working experience and only three of them have been working for less than a year while the remaining have one to three years working experience. For Perlis, majority of the respondents (i.e., nine out of sixteen respondents) have one to three years working experience and only one respondent has been working for less than a year. Half of the respondents, which consist of eleven respondents from Penang have more than three years working experience, followed by nine respondents with one to three years working experience and two respondents with less than one year of working experience. Overall, forty-six out of eighty-five respondents (i.e., 54.12%) have more than three years working experience as laboratory technicians, followed by thirty-two or 37.65% respondents with working experience of one to three years and only seven or 8.24% of respondents have less than one year working experience.
Table 1
Working experience of the respondents
State Working Experience
Less than 1 year 1 to 3 years More than 3 years
Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%)
Perak 1 5.0 6 30.0 13 65.0
Kedah 3 11.1 8 29.6 16 59.3
Perlis 1 6.3 9 56.3 6 37.5
Penang 2 9.1 9 40.9 11 50.0
Total 7 8.24 32 37.65 46 54.12
For the average usage time per week of the electrical and electronic laboratories as demonstrated in Table 2, eight responses informed that electrical and electronic laboratories in Perak has an average usage time of less than 10 hours per week and twelve responses informed that the electrical and electronic laboratories average usage time is from 10 to 20 to hours per week. For Kedah, eight responses informed that electrical and electronic laboratories have an average usage time of less than 10 hours per week. More than half
of the responses (i.e., sixteen responses) informed that the average usage time per week is 10 to 20 hours and three responses informed that the average usage time per week for the electrical and electronic laboratories in Kedah is more than 20 hours. A quarter of the respondents (i.e., four respondents) informed that electrical and electronic laboratories in Perlis has an average usage time of less than 10 hours per week and ten respondents informed that the average usage time is 10 to 20 hours. Only two respondents informed that electrical and electronic laboratories in Perlis have an average usage time of more than 20 hours per week. In Penang, ten responses informed that electrical and electronic laboratories has an average usage time of less than 10 hours per week while twelve responses informed that the average usage time is from 10 to 20 to hours per week. In overall, half of the electrical and electronic laboratories have an average usage time of 10 to 20 hours per week while 35.29% has an average usage time of less than 10 hours per week and 5% has an average usage time of more than 20 hours per week.
Table 2
Average usage time per week for electrical and electronic laboratories
State Average Usage Time Per Week
Less than 10 hours 10 to 20 hours More than 20 hours
Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%)
Perak 8 40.0 12 60.0 0 0.0
Kedah 8 29.6 16 52.3 3 11.1
Perlis 4 25.0 10 62.5 2 12.5
Penang 10 45.5 12 55.5 0 0.0
Total 30 35.29 50 58.82 5 5.88
Number of courses that involved with the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per semester under supervision of laboratory technician is demonstrated in Table 3.
Table 3
Number of courses used for electrical and electronic laboratories per semester
State Number of Courses
Less than 2 Courses 2 to 4 Courses More than 4 Courses
Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%)
Perak 0 0.0 20 100.0 0 0.0
Kedah 0 0.0 16 59.3 11 40.7
Perlis 0 0.0 12 75.0 4 25.0
Penang 1 4.5 21 95.5 0 0.0
Total 1 1.18 69 81.18 15 17.65
For Perak, all the respondents informed that there are 2 to 4 courses which involved with the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories whereas for Kedah, sixteen respondents informed that there are 2 to 4 courses and eleven respondents informed that there are more than 4 courses involved the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories. Respondents from Perlis on the other hand reported that 75% (i.e., 12 respondents) of the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories involved 2 to 4 courses and the remaining are
more than 4 courses. For Penang, only one respondent informed that there are less than 2 courses which involved the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per semester under their supervision and the remaining twenty-one respondents inform that there are 2 to 4 courses involved with the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories. Overall, sixty-nine respondents (equivalent to 81.18%) informed that the electrical and electronic laboratories are used for 2 to 4 courses per semester, followed by fifteen respondents or 17.65% on more than 4 courses per semester and lastly only one respondent for the usage of less than 2 courses for the electrical and electronic laboratories under their supervision.
Table 4 demonstrates the number of students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session. In terms of the number of students involved with the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session under supervision of the laboratory technicians, twelve respondents reported that there are 21 to 30 students, followed by five respondents with 11 to 20 students and lastly three respondents with more than 30 students. In Kedah, sixteen respondents reported that the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session involved 21 to 30 students, while five respondents reported that there are 11 to 20 students and more than 30 students, respectively. Only a respondent informed that the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session has less than 10 students. Perlis on the other hand has seven respondents reported that 21 to 30 students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session while nine respondents reported that there are more than 30 students per session. Similar to Perlis, Penang has seven respondents reported that there are 21 to 30 students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session and only two respondents reported that there are 11 to 20 students involved. The highest number of respondents, which is thirteen respondents, informed that there are more than 30 students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session. In overall, the highest number, which is forty-two or 49.41% of respondents informed that there are there are 21 to 30 students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session, followed by thirty respondents (i.e., 35.29%) with the involvement of more than 30 students per session, twelve respondents with 11 to 20 students and only one respondent, which is equivalent to 1.18%, has less than 10 students involved in the usage of electrical and electronic laboratories per session.
Table 4
Number of students involved in the electrical and electronic laboratories per session
State Number of Students
Less than 10 Students 11 to 20 Students 21 to 30 Students More than 30 Students
Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%) Frequency Percentage (%)
Perak 0 0.0 5 25.0 12 60.0 3 15.0
Kedah 1 3.7 5 18.5 16 59.3 5 18.5
Perlis 0 0.0 0 0.0 7 43.8 9 56.3
Penang 0 0.0 2 9.1 7 31.8 13 59.1
Total 1 1.18 12 14.12 42 49.41 30 35.29
The last question in the demographic study is about whether the respondent has heard about 5S practice in the laboratory management. All respondents involved in the study have heard about 5S practice in the laboratory management.
2) Reliability test
Reliability, which is related to the repeatability of the given measurements, is the ability of an instrument in measurement consistency [26]. Cronbach's alpha is widely used for internal consistency measurement via the average correlation of items in a questionnaire. A questionnaire can be prone to response bias. It is the tendency of a respondent to answer the questionnaire untruthfully or misleadingly due to many reasons. Reliability of this questionnaire required a Cronbach's Alpha value that is greater than 0.70 to be considered satisfactory internal consistency with adequate convergence and stability in the measurement scales [27] but greater than 0.95 may suggest that one or more items are redundant.
Findings in Table 5 indicate that Cronbach's Alpha value of all constructs is greater than 0.8, suggesting that measurement scales are reliable. Cronbach's Alpha value is the highest for the category on the effectiveness of 5S practice in the university electrical and electronic laboratories, followed by the category on the challenges faced by the laboratory technician and lastly the category on the implementation of the 5S practice in university electrical and electronic laboratories. Cronbach's Alpha value for total scale is 0.910.
Table 5
Cronbach's alpha value for questionnaire in this study
Category Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha based on Standardized Items Number of Items
Implementation 0.841 0.848 10
Effectiveness 0.902 0.901 10
Challenges 0.855 0.855 10
Total Scale 0.910 0.914 30
3) Shapiro-Wilk Normality Test
Shapiro-Wilk normality test was conducted to know if the data are normally distributed and the test result is demonstrated in Table 6. P-values for data of all the three categories are less than 0.05 at 95% confidence level, indicating that the data are unlikely to have been sampled from a normal distribution. Results of the Shapiro-Wilk test indicate a lack of fit to the normal curve. Due to the data distribution that did not follow a normal distribution, the non-normally distributed parameters will be compared with non-parametric test, i.e., independent samples Kruskal-Wallis H test.
Table 6
Result of shapiro-wilk normality test
Category Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df. Sig.
Implementation 0.943 85 0.001
Effectiveness 0.931 85 0.000
Challenges 0.965 85 0.021
4) Kruskal-Wallis H Test
For the implementation of 5S practice, Kruskal-Wallis H test of x2(3,N=85) =1.245, p=0.742 indicates that there was no statistically significant difference in the four states. The mean rank for implementation scores is 46.58 for Perak, 38.93 for Kedah, 44.66 for Perlis and 43.55 for Penang. The mean ranks for implementation of 5S practice are similar for all the four states. This indicates that according to the observation of the respondents, the laboratory users or the students have implemented 5S practice in a similar way when they are using the laboratory. Some examples included they separate the frequently and infrequently used items and equipment, place equipment according to the label or in a designated place, clean the workspace before leaving the laboratory and adhere to dress code while using the laboratory. The students are alert about practicing of 5S in the electrical and electronic laboratories.
On the other hand, Kruskal-Wallis H test for effectiveness and challenges of 5S practice showed that there was a statistically significant difference in median, with x2(3,N=85)=16.877, p=0.001 and x2(3,N=85)=8.346, p=0.039, respectively. The mean ranks for effectiveness scores are 39.05 for Perak, 29.93 for Kedah, 50.69 for Perlis and 57.05 for Penang, while for challenges score of 41.75 for Perak, 43.94 for Kedah, 29.53 for Perlis and 52.77 for Penang as shown in Table 7. Although the mean ranks for the implementation of 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories are similar for all the four states, the mean rank for effectiveness scores are different, especially for Kedah and Penang. This reveals that there might be some other underlying factors affecting the effectiveness of 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories in the view of laboratory technicians. Respondents gave difference scores about the effectiveness of implementing 5S practice. Effectiveness is mainly based on the experience of laboratory technicians. For instance, to which level the laboratory technicians agree that the 5S practice implemented by the students has successfully helped them in terms of laboratory management, teaching and learning process, laboratory cleanliness, stock management and others. Also, some laboratory technicians were neutral or having doubt regarding the effectiveness of campaign in creating a culture and increasing the awareness of 5S practice among students.
Table 7
Rank of Kruskal-Wallis H Test
Category State N Mean Rank
Implementation Perak 20 46.58
Kedah 27 38.93
Perlis 16 44.66
Penang 22 43.55
Effectiveness Perak 20 39.05
Kedah 27 29.93
Perlis 16 50.69
Penang 22 57.05
Challenges Perak 20 41.75
Kedah 27 43.94
Perlis 16 29.53
Penang 22 52.77
Total 85
Challenges faced by the laboratory technicians are the highest for Penang, with mean rank of 52.77 and the lowest for Perlis, which is 29.53 for the mean rank. Generally, questions in the challenges part comprises of several categories, include students' awareness about 5S practice in laboratory, time concern due to implementation of 5S practice, increased workload caused by 5S practice, financial concern about implementing 5S practice and the support provided by the university or faculty. Challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in electrical and electronic laboratories located in Perak and Kedah are similar, with mean ranks of 41.75 and 43.94, respectively. This shows that the laboratory technicians in both of these states agreed that the level of challenges faced did not differ much in overall for time and workload burden, students' awareness and support from university or faculty. The Kruskal-Wallis H test provided strong evidence of a difference (p-value < 0.05) between the mean ranks of at least one pair of groups for effectiveness and challenges as demonstrated in Table 8.
Table 8
Result of Kruskal-Wallis H Test
Test Statistics a,b
Implementation Effectiveness Challenges
Chi-square 1.245 16.877 8.346
df 3 3 3
Asymp. Sig. 0.742 0.001 0.039
a. Kruskal-Wallis H Test
b. Grouping Variable: State
5) Dunn-Bonferroni Post Hoc Test
Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test was carried out among all the four pairs of groups. As demonstrated in Table 9, Pairwise comparison using Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test reveals that there were significant differences in effectiveness of 5S practice in laboratory management between Kedah and Perlis (p=0.045) as well as Kedah and Penang (p=0.001). For the challenges in implementing 5S practice in laboratory management, Dunn-Bonferroni post hoc test reports significant difference between Perlis and Penang (p=0.024) as shown in Table 10. There was no evidence of significant difference between the other pairs.
Table 9
Dunn-Bonferroni Post Hoc Test for effectiveness in 5S Practice
Sample1-Sample2 Test Statistic Std. Error Std. Test Statistic Sig. Adj. Sig.
Kedah-Perak 9.124 7.257 1.257 0.209 1.000
Kedah-Perlis -20.762 7.761 -2.675 0.007 0.045
Kedah-Penang -27.120 7.065 -3.838 0.000 0.001
Perak-Perlis -11.638 8.251 -1.410 0.158 0.950
Perak-Penang -17.995 7.600 -2.368 0.018 0.107
Perlis-Penang -6.358 8.802 -0.787 0.431 1.000
Table 10
Dunn-Bonferroni Post Hoc Test for challenges in 5S Practice
Sample1-Sample2 Test Statistic Std. Error Std. Test Statistic Sig. Adj. Sig.
Perlis-Perak 12.219 8.258 1.480 0.139 0.834
Perlis-Kedah 14.413 7.767 1.856 0.064 0.381
Perlis-Penang -23.241 8.809 -2.873 0.004 0.024
Perak-Kedah -2.194 7.263 -0.302 0.763 1.000
Perak-Penang -11.023 7.607 -1.449 0.147 0.884
Kedah-Penang -8.828 7.071 -1.248 0.212 1.000
Overall discussion
Objective of this study is to investigate the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. The four states involved in this study are Perak, Kedah, Perlis and Penang and 85 laboratory technicians returned the questionnaires. More than half of the respondents (i.e., 54.12%) have more than 3 years working experience. Most of the electrical and electronic laboratories (i.e., 58.82%) in the Northern Region of Malaysia have an average usage of 10 to 20 hours per week, with most of the laboratories) i.e., 81.18%) have an average of 2 to 4 courses per semester. Around 49% of the electrical and electronic laboratories occupied 21 to 30 students per session. All the respondents in this study have heard about 5S practice. The reliability of the questionnaire is good, with the Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.841 to 0.902 for the three categories.
There is no significant difference in terms of implementation of 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. The mean ranks obtained for all the four states are closed to each other. This might reveal that the knowledge about implementing the 5S practice that was delivered to the students are similar, including the ways to implement 5S practice, such as organizing the things according to labels, removing unnecessary things, clearing the workplace, arranging the things at right place and scheduled cleaning. As a result, laboratory technicians agreed that the level of 5S practice implementation were similar.
In terms of the effectiveness of implementing 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories, laboratory technicians in Penang and Perlis agreed more on the effectiveness of implementing 5S practice when compared to those from Perak and Kedah. Among the four states, laboratory technicians in Kedah returned responses with significant difference with responses from Penang and Perlis. Based on the mean ranks, it is found that the laboratory technicians in Kedah felt that the 5S practice is less effective in several aspects when compared to the perception of laboratory technicians in Penang and Perlis. These aspects include course management, administration of laboratory, stock management and awareness creation.
The effectiveness of implementing 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories could be linked to the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians. In terms of challenges, responses from Penang and Perlis have significant difference, while the other pair wise comparisons do not different significantly. In Perlis, the laboratory technicians of electrical and electronic laboratories faced the least challenges as compared to the other three states,
with the second highest mean rank value of effectiveness in implementing 5S practice. Penang on the other hand, has the highest effectiveness in implementing 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories but the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians are the highest as well. This indicates that despite multiple challenges, such as students' awareness together with time and workload burden, the effectiveness of implementing 5S practice is not reduced.
Findings from this study give information about the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. It can be seen that the information delivered to the students are similar, resulting in similar level of implementation. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of 5S practice results from the similar implementation of 5S practice in the electrical and electronic laboratories is not the same in the view of the respondents. The effectiveness may be affected by several factors, such as the perception of laboratory technicians like how they understand and agree with the level of effectiveness. Challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia also demonstrated differences among the four states. This required further study to understand the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians so that appropriate actions could be taken for improvement. Some of the respondents agreed that 5S practice has increased their workload. Furthermore, there were doubts on the effectiveness of the 5S campaign in increasing students' awareness about 5S practice. Universities or faculties can put in more effort in promoting 5S practice by giving more supports such as training and rewards to the laboratory technicians.
Conclusion
Objective of this study is to investigate the level of implementation, effectiveness and challenges faced by the laboratory technicians working in several university electrical and electronic laboratories located in Northern Region of Malaysia. Kruskal-Wallis H test reported that there is no significant difference for the implementation of 5S practice but there are significant differences for the effectiveness and challenges of 5S practice in the four states. Even though the implementation of 5S practice is similar for all the states in Northern Region of Malaysia, the effectiveness is different according to the laboratory technicians. Challenges faced by the laboratory technicians are different as well, indicating that the authorities such as the universities should identify the challenges faced by the laboratory technicians in their own university while taking appropriate actions to support the implementation of 5S practice in the laboratory. Future study will be focusing on understanding real challenges faced by the laboratory technicians.
_Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the laboratory technicians who participated in the study. This research was funded by Geran Penyelidikan Khas Universiti Berteraskan Pendidikan Fasa 1/2019, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris entitled "Amalan Pengurusan Makmal/Bengkel Berpandukan Amalan Persekitaran Berkualiti 5S" with the research code of 2019-0097-107-01 and by Pusat Pengurusan Penyelidikan dan Inovasi (RMIC), Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.
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Information about the authors
Jing Rui Tang
(Malaysia, Perak) Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering Technology Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris E-mail: tangjingrui@ftv.upsi.edu.my ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1806-5086
Sethuprakhash Vengidason
(Malaysia, Perak) Associate Professor of the Department of Engineering Technology Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris E-mail: prakhash@ftv.upsi.edu.my ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5413-3616
Zaliza Hanapi
(Malaysia, Perak) Associate Professor of the Department of Engineering Technology Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris E-mail: zaliza.hanapi@ftv.upsi.edu.my Scopus Author ID: 56499161200
Mohd Firdaus Mustaffa Kamal
(Malaysia, Perak) Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering Technology Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris E-mail: firdaus.mk@ftv.upsi.edu.my ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9509-4809
Jian Hong Mei
(China, Hebei) Senior Lecturer, College of Electronic and Information Engineering Hebei University E-mail: meijianhong@gmail.com Scopus Author ID: 24776614000
