MASTER OF SCIENCE (QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT)

Study Duration
Minimum 3 semesters (1½ year)
Maximum 6 semesters (3 years)
*Classes on weekends

Intake
Intake – 2 times a year (March & October)
*subjected to UKM academic calendar

Public Sector Module

Manufacturing Sector Module

Service Sector Module

STPD6024 Research Methodology
This course provides guidance in planning, implementing and succeed in a scientific research. Students are introduced to the science philosophy and ethics necessary to be adopted by researchers. Students are given exposure to determine and manage risks in scientific research. Apart from that, issues and rules related to research such as intellectual property, copyright, plagiarism etc. will be discussed. Subsequently, students are guided to plan their research and prepare a research proposal. For this, students are trained with techniques in information search both manually and on-line, identifying issues and research objectives, planning research and experimental design within their period of study. Students are required to prepare their research proposal according to the format and making sure that it is free from plagiarism by introduction of plagiarism checker system. Students are given the opportunity to present their proposal in a seminar and defend them. Students will be evaluated based on written and oral presentation of the research proposal, and final examination.

STQK6114 Quality Assurance and Standardization
This course aims at giving students knowledge on the quality system in an organization and its role in assuring quality in products and services. Topics that will be discussed include the Total Quality Control, ISO 9000 and its development, documentation and planning of quality system, quality assurance analysis techniques, and quality audits and accreditation. This course also exposes the students to Quality Management System (QMS) based on Islam perspectives and the Syariah principles in supporting and defining QMS MS 1900:2005. Next, the QMS MS1900:2005 is studied on its implementation in various sectors, and method that can improve their competitiveness by adding Islamic values and halal aspects in the process of producing products and providing services, and in the work environment.

STQK6124 Process Control and Quality Improvement
The aim of this course is to illustrate students the importance of process control and quality improvement based on 6Sigma concept and how to apply the 6Sigma methodology in order to identify customers and improve process in an organization. The application of 6Sigma will be divided into one general categories; i.e. in manufacturing and management. Topics that will be discussed include the understanding and definition of 6Sigma concepts and its steps, identification of critical factors for success, measurement strategies including measurement tools, analyze phase, control phase including some control charts such as multivariate charts, CUSUM, EWMA, decision barrier scheme and reliability test, reference measurement, break even analysis of the quality values, learning curve and process improvement.

STQK6134 Total Quality Management
This course introduces students to the concepts of Total Quality Management (TQM) from the aspects of history, philosophy, principles, needs, measurement, reports and its usage. Topics that will be discussed include the historical development of TQM; TQM philosophy, needs and principles of TQM; customer concentration, human resource management, process management, ISO 9000 and its development, documentation and planning of quality system, quality audits and accreditation, and benchmarking.

STQK6144 Organizational Performance Measurement
This course aims at giving students knowledge of the concepts of measuring an organization’s performance, either in public or private sector. Emphasize will be given on the questions of why performance measurement is an essential element in an organization and how it can be done. One of the performance principles that are important is the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and its linkages to the organization’s strategic planning. Other performance principle that will be highlighted is the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) that measures performance in 4 major perspectives: Internal Process, Customer, Finance and Human Capital. Implementation aspects of BSC and its challenges will also be discussed. Several case studies will be presented in order to enhance the knowledge of students towards the performance measurement through BSC implementation.

STQK6264 Supply Chain Management
This course is an introduction to the supply chain concept and will explore the management of supply chains to improve an organization’s overall supply efficiency. Other concepts included are the definitions of supply chains, identification procedures, an overview of methods, processes, and systems that are used in the operation of supply chains, and the applications of methods, processes, and systems to improve supply chain performance.

STQK6324 Service Delivery System in the Public Sector
In this course, student will be exposed to the service delivery system of the government agencies. Students need to understand various policies, regulation and circulation about various types and level of public service released by the Public Service Department of Malaysia. The history aspects of the public service and its evolution in Malaysia also will be discussed. Among important approaches in the public service that will be discussed includes ‘Best Value Review’. Comparison with various service delivery systems from other countries, particularly from Australia, United Kingdom, USA and Canada will also be touched. Case study on the public service system in the government agencies will also be discussed

STQK6514 Quality Management in Service Sector
This course explains to students the definition of ‘customer service’ and ‘service excellence’, basis of service excellent and the importance of services excellent in an organization. The importance aspect is how an organization can manage the customer complaint and solve the problem that being complaint by the customer. It also discusses the barrier to service excellence. The aim of this course is also to introduce students the methods of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which is one of the important business strategies for an organization which put customers as the main focus. Students will get to understand the meaning and concepts of CRM and its importance to any organization, especially business organizations. Implementation of CRM in an organization includes aspects such as customer profiling, customer data warehousing and customer data mining, and also problems often encountered whilst implementing it will be discussed. Other aspects are customer satisfaction measurement, customer loyalty, customer equity concept and value equity. The usage of information technology makes the implementation of automatic CRM easier and establishment of Call Centre or Customer Service Centre is also discussed.

STQK6524 Productivity Measurement
This course introduces the concept of measuring the productivity of a firm, which efficiently convert inputs into outputs. Productivity measurement is a way which provides an excellent medium to monitor the status of productivity, and to explicitly relate productivity to its other strategic objectives. Topics discussed include productivity indicators, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, Index numbers and Malmquist Index. Several applications of the DEA method and Malmquist Index will be discussed.

STQK6534 Marketing Research Methods
This course discusses the research in marketing. Students will be exposed to the scientific research methods in order to understand and be able to analyze any problem in an organization. Comprehension of problem statement, research issues, research design, collection and analysis of data will be discussed in detail. The best approach in producing an ‘Executive Summary’ will also be discussed. The use of SPSS statistical package to analyze data and the interpretation of the outcomes of the statistical analysis will be delivered to students. In this case, several concepts and statistical analysis techniques will be discussed using collected data from a selected real life problem.

STQK6544 Quality Design and System Reliability
This course explores how statistics is used for controlling quality of product design and the process in manufacturing industry and furthermore for reliability assurance in production system. Experiments done by most researchers from various fields will be made an example in teaching and learning of this course. The outcomes from the analysis of these experiments depend and rely on the factors (whether the factors are fixed or randomly chosen) and experiment errors. Data collected from the experimental design are not only important to be analyzed statistically but also the ability to interpret the results becoming more important for more established experimental design development having taken into account suitable errors and factors. The topics that will be discussed are design of experiments in quality improvement and control; analysis of variance, f-test, multiple comparison, completely randomised design, factorial design, orthogonality, optimal blocked and design; Taguchi quality definition, Taguchi method, signal-noise ratio, robust design, loss function and output tolerance, reliability and failure function; life time distribution, model selection and fitting; repairable systems; fault tree; life testing plan; accelerated life testing; failure rating models and regression.

STQK6988 Research Project
Research project is a compulsory course work involving case study/literature survey/research. The student is required to conduct the research study under supervision of a supervisor. The student is also required to select a pertinent topic as agreed to by the supervisor. The students are required to write up a comprehensive and scientific report on the study that he/she has conducted.

• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field with minimum CGPA 2.50 or equivalent, from any institutions of higher learning  recognized by the UKM Senate; or
• Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field with minimum CGPA 2.00 – 2.49 or equivalent, with minimum of 5 years working experience or research project in relevant field. Proof of the working experience of a foreign candidate should be acknowledge by the embassy of the respective country; or
• Fulfill Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL A) for local candidates only:
  • should be more than 30 years of age in the year of application; and
  • possess at least STPM or diploma in relevant field or other equivalent qualification recognized by the Government of Malaysia and approved by the UKM Senate; and
  • possess a certificate of MQA APEL with MQF Level 7
• An international student shall obtain minimum results of TOEFL iBT score 46 / IELTS band 5.5 / CEFR band B2 / MUET band 3 (An international student who comes from a country where English is the official language, or who has obtained academic qualifications from any institution of higher learning that uses English as the medium of instruction may be exempted from the requirement for TOEFL / IELTS / MUET); and
• Fulfill other requirements prescribed by the UKM Senate from time to time.

1. Quality Manager
2. Quality Assurance Executive
3. Head of Quality Audit / Quality Auditor
4. Quality Engineer
5. Consultant in the field of Quality / Quality Improvement / Six Sigma/Lean Six Sigma