- 1 hour ago
As Malaysian manufacturers plan their 2027 investment budgets, the case for AI in manufacturing has to be feasible.
A faster production line may do little for margins, if orders are still held up by material shortages or cash is tied up in stock.
On NIAGA SPOTLIGHT, Tehmina Kaoosji speaks with Ben Lim, Regional Director, Sales for Malaysia & Singapore Territory at Epicor, about how manufacturers can pinpoint where margins are slipping and decide whether AI can improve production planning, reduce waste or help them deliver on time.
A faster production line may do little for margins, if orders are still held up by material shortages or cash is tied up in stock.
On NIAGA SPOTLIGHT, Tehmina Kaoosji speaks with Ben Lim, Regional Director, Sales for Malaysia & Singapore Territory at Epicor, about how manufacturers can pinpoint where margins are slipping and decide whether AI can improve production planning, reduce waste or help them deliver on time.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00for the next big investment it's important to understand where you're losing money today you
00:05know of course before you know putting up the next investment thank you thank you very much
00:11ben for that really good um overview because also the federation of malaysian manufacturing they did
00:16conduct a survey with close to 700 manufacturers and what they found out was close to 70 percent
00:21of them are actually really reporting higher production costs and all the tips as well as
00:27insights that you've shared with us hopefully helps to look out for those small daily factors
00:34and expenses that actually add up and ultimately will be cutting down on profit margins regardless
00:39of whether or not a factory is actually busy all the time because that can actually be deceptive
00:45so let's move on from there then and looking at factory floors themselves and of course about
00:51the big question about whether a different production plan is required or is it actually
00:56about upgrading machines now dosim the department of statistics malaysia has identified weak demand
01:04material shortages and also machinery maintenance among the reasons our factories operate a little
01:11below capacity now each of these factors it requires a really different response before a manufacturer
01:19let's say buys equipment or automates a production line what is important for them to establish
01:25when it comes to the factors limiting their output tell us a little more about these finer details
01:35excuse me sorry for my intro so a very good question to start with um and manufacturers in
01:44malaysia uh in a lot of cases they always thought that you know throwing a big investment on another
01:49machines basically you know give me more productivity capacity yeah serve more customers i can get more
01:56orders right um but they never thought of uh in a lot of cases i won't say they never but
02:02in a lot of
02:02cases manufacturers uh kind of undermined questions of where is my bottleneck in the production line right is
02:09it uh due to certain workshop certain machines yeah old machines or due to the process it's not so uh
02:17connected
02:18seamlessly that basically creates a bottleneck or even operators is not uh out of skill to operate
02:25certain machines yeah and you rely very much on limited resources so these are things that uh we
02:30should look at should be asking manufacturers should be asking themselves where is my bottlenecks yeah so in terms of
02:36the bottlenecks
02:36that means manufacturers should look at identify or find the constraint or limitations that you mentioned
02:42yeah uh be it is it you know the demand is a sudden spike yeah maybe due to sudden spike
02:48and it doesn't
02:49manage for longer term and uh do you have a shortage of uh materials all the time or do your
02:56supplier of
02:57your materials uh have this uh delivery issue all the time yeah they late deliver to use or you may
03:04have
03:04always really under you know uh buffer in terms of your safety stock right important sku you always buffer
03:11you usually have a buffer which is across the board then um one very important elements which is uh a
03:20lot of
03:21manufacturers also miss out is uh of course due to uh they don't have a seamless information across
03:27the whole organizations maintenance is one key thing that they always neglect yeah they may do it manually
03:34and it is not seamlessly integrated to their scheduling or production planning so they may accidentally
03:42or you know uh schedule some maintenance during a particular important job that basically you know
03:49hold your productions if that is being executed at the middle of your productions right that also links
03:56back to the schedule scheduling constraint right so if we look back at all these elements uh kickstart
04:03with the materials there which is won't say the easiest to to counter but it is actually one thing
04:10that a lot of manufacturers care the most so you're right make materials available before job starts that's
04:16the most you know simple thing right simple to say but always is uh do you have that kind of
04:21uh capability
04:21or visibility or visibility to do that kind of planning yeah buyer have been always buying stuff but they
04:27always made or accidentally uh you know overlook certain materials that should have more buffer down
04:35the road because there's a history of telling us that for example our sales order for certain seasonal
04:40greetings is coming and you know the spike of the demand will be high but then you didn't react towards
04:47it
04:47right you do have that data but you didn't react to it right then um another part that we should
04:52look
04:52at for manufacturers definitely ratio is that how you can improve your scheduling yeah your schedules of
04:58job and of course how you schedule to optimize your machines yeah and then with that capability of
05:06planning and scheduling integrated across your machines availability that is so important to help
05:12manufacturers to be able to be able to plan and maintenance around the production job order rather
05:19than during some important productions happening right of course you can prioritize since you have
05:25the information of you know your sales order your job what you have planned then availability of your
05:30machines with that visibility you can plan yeah you can prioritize what you know due to depends on the
05:36delivery day depends on the price that customers or priority of the customers you can plan
05:40accordingly then only fit in your maintenance either not always later after important deal but it may
05:48be earlier right because earlier prevent uh sudden uh these are down time that is so important for you to
05:56make sure that your productions being optimized yeah if you would be able to tackle one or two rounds of
06:02downtime sudden shock to your production by in a year that basically telling you that you are freeing up a
06:08lot of
06:08capacity for your production plan so again i say um i think it's also uh to our manufacturers to do
06:15these
06:16steps um basically you need to be able to measure what is the good output right set uh basically baseline
06:23one is before you try to improve your better production plan and then after the solutions being uh
06:31implement or technology being introduced after implementation what is the comparison do you uh
06:38still optimize your production shop floor is your machine always still out of uh uh uh sorry optimize
06:47your utilization on 100 utilization that that is a good good thing for you right if after you compare and
06:53this sort of groundwork that gives you a stronger business case for you to invest the next machine the
06:59next technology but before you jump in the gun and straight away you know invest a big big machine
07:06those are some great insights over there ben because actually it will be more about having an overall view
07:11rather than just pushing ahead to get more equipment before actually streamlining completely those workloads
07:17thank you for the insight so far we do take a quick break now don't go anywhere we'll be back
07:21with the
07:21rest of this conversation only on nyaga spotlight
07:39welcome back to nyaga spotlight still with me tamina kaustrian today we're focusing on all things ai
07:44adoption in manufacturing with ben lim of epi core joining us online for this very important discussion
07:50so ben launching straight back into the conversation and looking at how much inventory
07:55businesses can actually afford to hold you made a very good point earlier about the fact that most
08:00businesses that are in the manufacturing sector they do um understand the seasonal demand but
08:05sometimes manufacturers they face a little bit of unreliable deliveries um around these uh
08:11particular season so they may actually be buying extra materials to protect production even as
08:16customers become a little less predictable about orders um how should purchasing and production teams
08:22then decide which materials justify a buffer and which are tying up um cash flows unnecessarily tell
08:30us a little more on this all right um i guess it's important questions for manufacturers again
08:37especially for buyers yeah and our planners i well we always love to have the answer straight answer
08:43you know how much uh but it is actually there's no uh definite answer but the the philosophy of uh
08:52making this right is the right stock uh that protects products productions and your cash flow that
08:58would that means the right inventory for you to to afford or hope and in a lot of cases uh
09:04to do this you
09:05you know manufacturers definitely need to you know access each material uh critically right you don't
09:12basically have the same planning right same buffer across the board for each of your material then
09:18basically you're trying to create a risk for by yourself yeah not by your suppliers and then of course
09:24when it comes to each category or each individually important parts that you have material and do
09:31to assess the supplier risk yeah is it from certain region that you know may be exposed to uh potential
09:38of uh disruption yeah and uh this best is always to substitute with a supplier uh from different region
09:46and of course look at also the demand trend yeah like i shared with you just now uh seasonal greetings
09:52of
09:52course uh do have a spike on certain uh products certain to certain industry and then first uh one or
10:00two months
10:00before you always should have this uh uh buffer being taken care and of course um i guess it's important
10:08for you to keep a buffer where a shortage can really cause uh production stock right that is also a
10:14key thing
10:14right and um aligning readily uh available materials uh with production needs right and i think it's also
10:24important to review orders um the stocks and uh incoming deliveries as forecast changes right set up
10:32periodically uh preview required by either materials group yeah we can't always review everything you
10:40know across the board on certain time but i guess it's very important for be able to set a periodic
10:45preview on my group on uh each time so that your forecast uh very well uh uh introducing the right
10:54data for you to you know basically order the right buffer for your safety stock level and again every
11:00ringgit unnecessary you know being tied up in the stock is uh basically unavailable elsewhere in your
11:06organization so it's important to look at this uh i think this question is very good clearly and of
11:12course um for every year's planning so now we move on into looking at uh urgent orders now urgent orders
11:18can of course earn useful revenue particularly during peak seasons but it also does require overtime
11:25expensive freight or even changes that can delay other customers download downstream so what should
11:31a manufacturer know before they go ahead and promise a price and delivery date and how should the
11:37calculation differ in case the factory has spare capacity versus when accepting the order would
11:42actually display other ongoing orders or work
11:49these pop up uh to many organizations of manufacturers a lot of time yeah uh be it disruptions
11:56elsewhere that means a potential opportunity to our region manufacturers so on and off there's this
12:02urgent order pops up to an organization's or manufacturers and that is a question station you know ask
12:08themselves yeah does this order really improve the business after its full impact yeah so maybe we
12:15unfold a little bit of what we mean by whole impact um definitely they have to encounters sorry they have
12:22to
12:22include uh the this uh strongly analyzed is it any overtime required for me to accept this order firstly yeah
12:33do i have
12:34the buffer capacity to take up the buffer capacity to take up this am i able to reprioritize my production
12:41plan if i were to take up this order would this disrupt my production setup right urgent order may
12:48come in all of a sudden and you're trying to fulfill you know being a very loyal suppliers you're trying
12:53to
12:53fulfill your customers and it will disrupt straightway what is your job now and you try to shift your setup
12:58that
12:58really cost you a lot and then followed by materials right if you disrupt your production plan or job order
13:05scheduling that also in a chain impact to your material you know availability for this urgent order and
13:12the following orders right if this happens to your inventory again do you have a sufficient buffer then
13:18followed by if not sufficient the urgent freak that you uh in in in terms to uh sorry that you
13:25intend to
13:26order order would that increase your cost so this really needs a lot of uh information across
13:34integrated across your organizations to be able to answer these sort of questions so when you look at
13:40your spare capacity definitely you have to uh like i mentioned just now you have to access additional costs
13:46and would this contribute more revenue rather than contributing more cost to you right and basically spike up
13:54the cost rather than increase the margin so this is a good question if you are able to answer yourself
13:59it will assist you to really yes i have the spare capacity but it will increase my cost so the
14:07questions now is that do you want to have a different pricing for this urgent order right so we are
14:14while
14:15you still maintain your margin so it's always best that you can have full capacity across your production line
14:20right uh but definitely you have to include this place you know order that the chain impact order
14:27yeah the next order and uh definitely you have to be able to answer or reprioritize with your other
14:33orders or your other customers right if again if you have that information that basically gives you more
14:39confidence to uh pick up this urgent order right i think uh that will be some of my delivery also
14:47like late
14:47delivery margins for example can actually completely erase any kind of additional profit that you may
14:53be getting in so that brings us to a very crucial area as well ben and where does ai improve
15:00any
15:01manufacturing decisions in your experience now manufacturers have been using general ai tools
15:07and it's much more widespread than deeper factory transformations let's look at operational decisions
15:13uh there's you know forecasting demands scheduling production or even identifying a quality problem tell
15:19us a little more about where ai can improve on existing methods and what information is required and how
15:26should a manufacturer be able to test the recommendations from ai systems before relying on them
15:35yeah it's a it's a very great hype as you know ai in a bucket uh yeah i want to
15:42mention just uh generative ai
15:44a generic ai for across the board uh for every organizations to apply but when it comes to epico we
15:49focus
15:50very much on ai that assists or infuse into enterprise platform that assists straight away to our
15:56manufacturers that we serve i think uh when we are looking at ai don't look as you know
16:03a bandwagon to jump in straight away yeah invest in new technology don't have that kind of mentality
16:09i always advise my manufacturers my my fellow customers to start with your business problem yeah
16:15don't start with emoji the other way around if you are able to be very clear and after identifying
16:22your business problem yeah this is the key part before choosing any ai so for example you mentioned about
16:29demand forecasting yeah that's a good example a very practical one yeah um ai in this area really can
16:37analyze the sales history and current orders that you're about to simulate in that uh demand forecasting
16:45system right ai gives you all these algorithms uh based on certain uh this uh concept
16:53my algorithm that they can help to plan production and purchasing um and you can simulate
17:00excuse me and you can simulate the situations based on certain algorithm
17:03uh then decide uh based on the suggestions from this demand forecasting um having said that you
17:11definitely need the data to be input to this sort of uh you know air assisted demand forecasting right
17:17data quality matters so in this case make sure that you know data is complete and consistent so that
17:23it doesn't mislead your forecast suggestion right that's also very important apart from knowing that
17:29oh i have a very good good technology but you know while deploying you definitely have to go into these
17:34sort of elements um start small um always you can uh identify for for my customers they mean identify
17:42let's say eight to nine you know these sort of uh problems that they are facing but you can always
17:47start
17:47small as in face accordingly which are your priority of what are the uh problems that you are
17:53trying to tackle and measure the results again it comes back to what i mentioned just now you have
17:58to set out a baseline how you measure the uh improvement after undertaking this uh ai uh technology
18:05you are deploying to certain of your process then keeping people accountable yeah people always
18:11thought that oh yeah i can see in there we replace resources replace employees i i i don't think
18:16that we honestly we have we have about uh globally about more than 100 100 customers that has
18:22deployed our ethical prism of ai in use to our solutions and we are not reducing their employees
18:28but instead we are empowering the employees to basically do a lot of more automations to their
18:34identified problems yeah make sure they have more times to validate the data is complete and
18:41consistent right then give them better decision faster so these are the things that are really assist
18:47uh our people doing more with ai and of course uh keep it proportionate stable uh predictable demand may
18:57only require simple matter what does it mean sometimes you don't try to complicate a problem right
19:03it is a single problem just probably put up a simple uh you know automations to it don't really complicate
19:10try to leverage every ai everywhere possible right but just keep it uh at some point keep it simple
19:17so um for malaysian manufacturers i think the questions for this ai topic uh you should ask is
19:24where can ai help us make a better business decision and can we measure the profile that is also key
19:33absolutely and there's plenty of room for actually more ai adoption because federation of malaysian
19:38manufacturers their data is showing that less than 40 percent of our smes and smes etc are actually
19:45using um industry 4.0 style ai to streamline their manufacturing processes um so ben as we close out
19:54and land the discussion um some quick thoughts on um as manufacturers plan their 2027 spending after
20:01budget tabling tell us about um what can be done now so that um all the manufacturing businesses out there
20:08they are able to perhaps um work with one improvement that comes with ai adoption
20:14without having to committing to a factory-wide overall
20:21yeah i think uh for manufacturers there's like like i always share it's very important uh i mean
20:30conceptually you are very very important and look at uh these sort of deployments to improve your
20:34productivity improve your efficiency don't start big bank right don't go and consider uh once you
20:42identify all your problems don't go and consider to deploy everything at one shot right uh big bank
20:47approach but you should be able to uh pick one costly prioritize it costly problem prioritize it
20:53establish uh what is the cost uh the business today and set a very clear target for this improvement
20:59yeah to when you solve this problem and do agree success measure with the team right top management
21:07itself knowing that you know the success measure is not important but the message has to basically uh the
21:12goal or the success measurement has to be transpired across the team very clearly so that everyone record
21:18the baseline and as well at the same time after pilots are done will they be able to review this
21:25in
21:25stages together and then compare again the similar runs and account for extra is it really
21:32require extra demand or support right sometimes we see that oh why can i deploy certain
21:37automations i saw my revenue goes up but do your increase of revenue goes up due to you have more
21:43demand and you require more support you've got more ot you have more material then that is the
21:49by right the revenue should go up right but you should be looking at the baseline that you said if
21:54i
21:54would have to have the same resources same material same uh shift required to operate this job do i
22:01increase my revenue so if yes that is increased that proof basically you already uh have enjoyed the value
22:12of this uh ai deployment or automation deployment across uh and you're ready to basically deploy it more
22:19but if let's say uh you think that oh the measurement of the success is just so so uh then
22:26you actually
22:27not to stop but in fact you should review again where do we go wrong right because the problem is
22:33still
22:34there yeah but you still need to thank you very much for the discussion so far and also for sharing
22:39some
22:39top tips for manufacturers going ahead uh beyond q4 of 2026 and moving into q1 of 2027 we really appreciate
22:49your
22:49insights so everyone that was ben lim of course regional director sales for malaysia and singapore
22:54territory at epicor now for manufacturers growth depends on knowing where value is being lost and
23:00which investment will deliver a measurable return that's exactly how businesses can strengthen margins
23:05without placing unnecessary pressure on cash flow that's all we have time for today on niaga spotlight
23:11i'm tamina kazji signing off for now here's to a productive week ahead
24:08thank you
24:11.
24:41.
25:11.
25:41.
25:42.
25:48.
25:55Hello and welcome to It's About Youth.
25:57I'm your host, Fahna She.
25:58Now, young people today are constantly told they are changemakers.
26:02They are encouraged to volunteer, champion for causes, and give back to their communities.
26:07But beyond campaigns and also programs, how much power do they really have to create real impact?
26:15And as well as the tools, are they ready at their disposal to use them to create meaningful changes?
26:21Now, with me to discuss this are two young changemakers,
26:25Muhammad Nazri from MySDG as well as Siti Hajar Bazlin from Bayasan Sukarelawan Siswa.
26:32Thank you so much both of you for joining me today.
26:35Right.
26:36I want to talk a little bit about, you know, obviously volunteering
26:40and how we go beyond volunteering to create real impact here, especially among youth.
26:45But maybe we can start a little bit of introduction and motivations and inspiration
26:50as to how you are here today at this set with us, right?
26:54Nazri, you're still a student, yes?
26:55Yes, yes.
26:56But you've taken, you know, on the work of advocating for children's rights, driving social initiatives.
27:03What made you decide that you want to take on this journey?
27:05Maybe we can start a little bit.
27:07Yeah, sure.
27:07So my name is Muhammad Nazri.
27:09I'm currently finally a law student at the University of Malaya.
27:12So I run my own organisation called SBINA Malaysia, where we focus on advocating into education.
27:18We focus on SDG 1 and SDG 4.
27:20And besides that, I also works as an intern as my SDG Academy.
27:25And I was also a part of the SDG agent cohort, second cohort.
27:31And I think what driven me to start volunteering is because when I was, I think, five,
27:37I followed my grandma to orphanage home.
27:40She was actually one of the volunteer cook there.
27:43And that's the moment I realised that there's another side of the world
27:46where kids struggling for basic needs, kids having a lot of issues.
27:49And I tell to myself during that time, when I grew up, I have to, you know, like help them.
27:54I have to make a change. Maybe it can be a small kind of change.
27:57And, and that actually encourages me for what I'm doing right now.
28:01Right. That's amazing.
28:02So you have role models in your family that are also driving change, you know,
28:06and you witness this when you're growing up.
28:08What about you, Hajar?
28:09You are in Yayasan Sekarliwan SISWA, which is an organisation under the government
28:14that handles sort of youth volunteering programme.
28:17What makes you decide to, to take on this?
28:20Yeah. My story starts during my, around third year or fourth year in also University Malaya.
28:27I start for, I spending my time for every SEM break just to do volunteering.
28:34Whether it be paid volunteering or not, I just kindly spend my time to it.
28:38And then suddenly I met Zoe, I met my currently mentor in my SDJ Academy.
28:45And we have quite a good discussion.
28:48And the discussion goes around, okay.
28:50I mentioned my concern on the gaps of between universities and also community.
28:55Because I do find that university, they have a lot of initiatives that connect, wanted to connect with the community.
29:03However, maybe there is a gap in, you know, delivering the message of university levels to the community.
29:10And after I, you know, have sort of discussion and just chit-chat with Zoe, I think this is a
29:18wonderful journey.
29:19Because when you do something, you can look at people smiling and how it changed their life.
29:25So I think because of that small action that I take every SEM breaks, it's brought me here who I
29:32am today.
29:32Right. And I think it's not every day that you can take a step back and really see what you
29:38can do for the community as well.
29:40You know, we all wrapped up with work, with university, with, you know, cause of living issues.
29:46There's so many things that, with climate change, there's so many things that are on our heads.
29:50But it's so nice that both of you have taken the time to sort of step back and see what
29:55you can do for your communities.
29:58I want to talk a little bit about, you know, Yaya San, Sukar Le Wan, Siswa.
30:02You know, you are, we often hear about youth empowerment and the importance of volunteerism here.
30:07And YSS is driving that change as well.
30:11But from your experience,
30:13Like you said,
30:13So for representation with you,
30:13You know,
30:14I'll see you next time.