Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The adoption level of the Problem Solving Tools is reported to be low in the Malaysia Small and Medium Enterprises. Hence the main objective of this research is to identify the Organizational Factors that influence the adoption level. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The questionnaires are sent to the selected respondents which were selected through the random sampling technique. 1000 questionnaires are sent out through post service. The result then uses the Discriminant Analysis technique to analyze the result where the SPSS 19 software was used. Findings: In the end of the research period, 141 respondents returned the questionnaires. The respond rate is about 14.1%. The 141 was then analyzed using the Discriminant Analysis. The results had shown that both organizational factors are having significant values where the significance level of the factors is lower than 0.05. This shown that the factors are discriminating the high level and low level of adoption of Problem Solving Tools successfully. It is also reported that the accuracy level is 75.2% which is high. The result of the research could recommend the managers of the Small and Medium Enterprises to actually provide more resources and also could adopt the Tailor-Made Problem Solving Tools where they could custom made their own tools by combining parts from other tools. This will increase the adoption level of the tools as they are more familiar and also the cost will be lower. Applications/Improvements: Future research could use survey on the other factors of the TOE model. 

Keywords: Discriminant Analysis, Manufacturing, Problem Solving, Problem Solving Tools, SME