Dr. Muhammad Harith Zainal Abidin
Dr. Muhammad Harith Bin Zainal Abidin has been with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) since February 2025 and currently serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Management. In addition to his academic career, he has prior industry experience as an engineer in operations, which provides him with strong practical insight into manufacturing systems, process improvement, and operational decision-making. He has extensive teaching experience in Malaysia, particularly in Quality Management, Lean Management, and Operations Management, and is actively involved in academic supervision, curriculum design, outcome-based education implementation, and industry–university engagement initiatives. His teaching philosophy emphasizes the integration of theoretical rigor with real-world industrial practices. His research interests focus on Lean Management, Quality Management, Artificial Intelligence adoption, and data-driven decision making, with a strong emphasis on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), sustainability, and Industry 4.0 applications. He is particularly interested in examining how operational excellence practices, digital technologies, and managerial capabilities jointly influence organizational performance and sustainable outcomes. Dr. Muhammad Harith has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in reputable Scopus- and Web of Science-indexed journals. His openness to interdisciplinary and cross-border collaboration has led him to contribute to international research projects, innovation-oriented grants, and community-based educational programmes, especially in STEM education, Lean–AI integration, and applied business analytics. Dr. Muhammad Harith earned his Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering from the International Islamic University Malaysia, followed by a Master’s degree in Engineering Management from Universiti Putra Malaysia. He obtained his PhD in Manufacturing Systems from Universiti Putra Malaysia, with doctoral research focusing on scrutinizing the impact of Lean methods on sustainable performance among Malaysian SMEs.
Research Interest
Lean Management, Quality Management, Operation Management, Lean Six Sigma, Continuous Improvement
