Hartalega Holdings Berhad Strategic Management

1. Introduction Hartalega Holdings Berhad is a mitts manufacturer and began their headache with the vision of produce mitts that protect life (Hartalega, 2013). Hartalega has go through tremendous produce in the mart and there argon much a(prenominal) issues and problems that faced by them. The prototypical issue that faced by Hartalega is fluctuation of US dollar (CIMB Research Report, 2011). USA is a tombst peerless food market for glove fabrication and has contri buting part of the market sh be of Malaysian industries. Fluctuation on US dollar has placeed the bounds of the order.Besides, the scotch conditions commence influence the glove attention ordain put forbidden to be unst sufficient due to rises in material and issue hails. More all over, exalted good-for-nothing-base paint determine excessively is single of the issue that faced by Hartalega (CIMB Research Report, 2011). Latex scathes continue to be volatile would pose an effect to its marg in. Supply of rubber-base paint may be reduced due to the weather conditions. During the change precondition in Thailand and Malaysia, it would return the take of latex paint paint. Thus, wrong of latex during dry season will be slimly risque comp ar to otherwisewise season.Furthermore, Hartalega faced the issue about moil. The recent governments policies about foreign labor have cause a p apiecey concern for the gloves industry. The gloves industry has voiced out their concerns towards this issue because leased labor would have an impact on the manufacturers embody. Besides, more and more glove manufacturers atomic number 18 using automation and it will decrease the reliance on man designer. Next, defilement is one of the most important issues that faced by Hartalega as their come withs temperament has reckoned by the negative tidings or rumours.Hartalega was trustworthy accusations from the Deputy Minister in the Prime Ministers Dept and a fewer residents of Taman Suria and claim that they are causing air and water pollution. Hartalega deny all the accusation and declare that they are operating(a) licitly according to the Malaysian surround regulatory standard (Hartalega Aggrieved At Accusations, 2010). This office staff affect the reputation and the creditworthiness of Hartalega and skill cause the market distribute decrease in this specific time frame. 2. Remote EnvironmentRemote environment is the promoters that affect a form of decision making abilities, but are beyond its control. Political, economic, social, technological and ecologic factor are the factors that include in the remote environment. The first factor is political factor. Hartalega has exports almost all of their products in the first place to the developed countries such as USA, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Europe, Malaysia and others. Hartalega too has expanded its business enterprise successfully to China and India. Gloves sales have summation but a little drop in the selling prices. Major output of the troupe is made up by nitrile gloves.The total woos of the gloves growths due to the eminent output and increase in labor costs. Besides, the recent governments policies about foreign labor have cause a great concern for the industry. Hartalega have to adjust the absorb structure of their workers due to the minimum wage ruling that in effect(p) from January 2013 that regulate by the government. Stringent government regulatory also is the threat for Hartalega. There are many government edicts and policies need to be follow by the fraternity such as minimum wage legislation, guidelines on buffer zones and more.If companies fail to follow or break the rule that enforce by government, it may bring them into trouble, such as they might receive penalty from the government. Next is economic factor. Fluctuation of US dollar, raw materials prices increase and fuel costs rising has bring an impact towards the gloves industry with challengi ng economic conditions (Hartalega, 2013). Fluctuation on US dollar has touch the margins of the companion. The nitrile gloves have experienced declining its margins due to high raw materials price and face competition with their competitors.Furthermore, strike for nitrile gloves have not affected by economic crisis and slowdown because it is a recession proof products and an es directial thing in the healthcare sector. Hartalega expects the demand for nitrile gloves will master(prenominal)tain positive growth in the future and continue export to the other countries such as Europe, China and India. In economic factor, Hartalega might face the threat of high latex price. Latex prices change iron a regular basis would execute a threat to its margin. Supply of latex may be reduced due to the weather conditions as well as measures to support rubber prices by Thailand and Malaysia.The dry season in Thailand and Malaysia would decrease the production of latex. Thus, price of latex dur ing dry season will be slightly higher compare to other season. In the social factor, the annual report of Hartalega has show that Hartalega has enchant the 100% market share in Victoria, Australia because all public hospitals in this state solitary(prenominal) utilize Hartalegas gloves. Global hospital supplies market also is one of the opportunities for Hartalega. People wearing gloves in the hospital help to prevent spread of germs and help to protect both medical staff and patients from infection.Hence, it also shows that Hartalega has a big opportunity to growth in this area. Hartalega dissolve brook top calibre and great filling of gloves to the hospitals or other industry, so that more and more people from all or so the world batch choose and use Hartalegas gloves. Opportunity that mess be strand in this factor is industry recognition. Industry recognition defines as the degree of public awareness for the brand or products. Hartalega has put many efforts in innova tion, quality, R&D and good manufacturing.Thus, Hartalega has the opportunity to gain more recognition from all around the world as the company continually expands its business to more nations. Furthermore, technological factor is also one of the factors that affect a decision making abilities of the company. Advancements in engineering science modifys Hartalega put them with a competitive emolument in the glove industry. High capacity production lines, automated product manipulation system, glove removal system, process simulator and biomass heat energy plant are the technologies that used by Hartalega (Hartalega, 2013).High capacity production lines is the in vogue(p) high speed production lines in the industry which able to produce 40,000 pieces of gloves per hour. Automated product handling system used to nullify defect during transit, packing and storage. RFID tags are tagged in every pallet, so that understructure monitoring the product movements and make sure the products are on time ripostey to the nodes. Besides, glove removal system used to decrease the reliance towards the manual workforce. This system also able to remove nitrile and latex gloves quickly from the hand moulds.Process Simulator enable the company test their imagination in a timely manner and go out quick delivery of a new product to their customers. The opportunity that found in this factor is advancement of engine room. Technology advancement enables the company produce more pieces of gloves in a compacter time and better quality. Besides, automated product handling system that used by Hartalega also enable the company toilette easily track the location of the products and ensures entrusts an on time delivery to their customers. come through is ecological factor.Hartalega has set up a next generation integrated glove manufacturing complex (NGC) that contains high technology production lines and mainly involved in the production of rubber gloves (Hartalega, 2013). The project location is landscaped to be green and eco-friendly environment. Moreover, Hartalega has used biomass energy plants to avoid emission of Greenhouse Gases (Hartalega, 2013). Biomass energy plant is the only environmental friendly energy plant in the industry where it burn on the plantation waste to hark back heat for the production process.Hartalega also used effluent water treatment plants to ensure the waste that the company discharge is no harm to the environment. Biomass heat energy plant allowed Hartalega to conduct their business in a more effective way. Negative complaint about pollution could a threat for Hartalega. In socio-economic class 2010, Hartalega has received complaints from Deputy Minister in the Prime Ministers Dept and some residents of Taman Suria and claim that they are violate the environmental regulations that set by government. Hartalega deny all the accusation and declare that they are operating legally according to the regulations stated.Altho ugh Hartalega has state that they have independent inspectors and consultants who regularly test water and air emissions to ensure it is always full compliance with the requirements of government, but this also might happen again if they did not pass on sufficient culture and training that relates to the green environment to their employees. This also might affect the reputation and the creditworthiness of Hartalega and might caused the market share decrease in this particular time frame. 3. Industry Environment Industry environment is the concept to the foreground for the strategic thought and business planning.This includes Porter 5 Forces that explain the competitiveness of the particular company in the relevant industry. The strategic business manager chiffonier use this model or strategy to get a better understanding of the industry context in which the sign of the zodiac involves so that an effective strategy to cope with rival great deal be developed. There are 5 forces or factors to create the competitiveness of the company which is the threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, talk toll power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers and intensity of rivalry.Threat of the new entrants is the seriousness of the barriers occurred or presented by the existing competitors to the new entrants to immortalise the relevant industry or market. A high threat of entry heart that the new comers are likely to be attracted to the make headways of the industry and can enter the market with ease. New entrants enter the market can endanger or decrease the profit gained by the existing competitors which mean high threat of entry will result the industry scram more competitive. The glove industry has high threat of entrants as only RM1 million to RM1. millions is needful to start a line (CIMB Research Report, 2007). Cheap labor, low level of technology skills needed and natural gas access as well as the procurement price for latex due to bulk purchas e making the barrier of entry high for the new entrants. However, although it is cheap to enter the industry, new comers may not be competitive as they have to differentiate themselves from other existing competitors and need to compete in terms of volume to enjoy the economies of scale. Moreover, threat of substitutes is the avail magnate of product a consumer can purchase instead of the industrys product.The availability of obturate substitute products can make an industry more competitive and decrease the profitability of the particular market. The threat of substitutes for rubber glove industry is relatively low as the industry is dominated by the main 6 players, namely upper side Glove, Supermax, Kossan Rubber, Hartalega, Latexx Partners and Adventa. spinning top Glove is the traditional industry leader but recent explore showed that Hartalega has had taking on return Glove in term of the success on the increase of R&D (Research and Design) of Hartalega.The other reason f or the low threat of substitutes is low rubber glove cost and making no incentives for the inquiry house to find other alternatives. The bargaining power of suppliers explains the pressure the suppliers can exert on business by raising prices or reducing the quality of purchased goods and services. Powerful suppliers can squeeze the profitability out of an industry to recover cost increases in its own prices. (Pearce, 2012). The main raw material for rubber glove industry is latex.The steady easing in the price of latex since April 2011 and currently inactive price appeared to be favorable to the glove manufacturers. Top Glove has ventured upstream into rubber plantations to secure a stable latex furnish. Meanwhile, Kossan Rubber is concerning on the niche market that might get better margin, Supermax is putting effort on downstream distribution network and Hartalega is creating more nurtures on its innovation technological of the production lines. So, the bargaining power of su ppliers might be low as the results of effort that the glove manufacturers have putted.Furthermore, the bargaining power of buyers refers to the pressure the buyers can exert on business by force down the price, demand higher quality or more services and play competitors off against each other in term of the expense of industry profits. Strong buyers can pressure sellers to lower the prices for the products, meliorate products quality or strain better services. As mentioned just now, the substitutes for the rubber glove is low as the industry is dominated by the main six players. So, the bargaining power of buyer is tentatively low as well.It is because there is not much alternatives the buyers can choose to purchase. The buyers for glove industry are mainly as doctors or science laboratory users. Lastly, intensity of rivalry explains to the extent to which trues within an industry put pressure on other competitors and line their profit potential. High intensity of rivalry mean s competitors aggressively other competitors target and aggressively determine products. The industry leader for rubber glove industry is always Top Glove where Hartalega is the worlds largest artificial glove manufacturer.There is a high intensity of rivalry in the rubber glove industry. For instance, on the topic of labor costs with respect to the monthly minimum wages to be RM 900 in peninsular Malaysia and RM800 in Sabah and Sarawak, OSK Research Sdn Bhd. analyst Jerry Lee noted that Top Glove Corporation Bhd. might be the most impacted and Hartalega Holdings Bhd. is the least affected due to its innovation in automating its production lines. On this issue, Top Glove might be affected due to the ineffectiveness of handling the labor issue.It may affect its image of industry leader. As a conclusion, the threats of new entrants is high, threat of substitutes is low, bargaining power for both suppliers and buyers are low and there is high intensity of rivalry. So, the rubber glov e manufacturing industry is attractive and still can earn good profit the 5 forces can be managed well by the relevant unfluctuatings in the industry. 4. Operating Environment The operating environment describes the conditions, entities, events, and factors that surrounding the organization that will affect the choices and activities.A profligate involve to depend on the operating environment because it will affect the organization in acquiring the needed resources or in term of profitability. The factors are the firms competitive position, the composition of its customers, its reputation among suppliers and creditors and its ability to attract qualified employees (Pearce, 2012). A firms competitive position explains the position of the particular firm in the relevant industry. It can be the leader industry or just a colleague in the industry.By accessing the competitive position of the firm, the organization able to more accurately forecast both its short and long term growth a nd its profit potential. Hartalega is the worlds largest synthetic glove manufacturer where Top Glove is the industry leader in rubber glove industry. Although Hartalega is not the industry leader but it acquires sufficient resources and technology in generating more high quality gloves with its new automated production lines and glove removal system. And they are expert and have improved in R&D development.The high efficiency production lines enable Hartalega to produce 40,000 pieces of gloves per hour per line, the highest among the industry where the glove removal system is capable of removing not only latex but also nitrile gloves up to a speed of 30,000 pieces of gloves per hour. These technologies make Hartalega to get going the worlds largest synthetic glove manufacturer. Customer profile is the firm analyzes and identifies what type of the customers that the company served, what gracious of customers they have and etc.The traditional approach of this factor is to segment t he customers in term of geographic, demographic, psychographic and buyer behavior information (Pearce, 2012). This can allows the company to know the call for of each segment with ease and then pay their necessarily. The products that Hartalega offer are examination, surgical, laboratory, Clean Room Packed Class 100, Food Grade and so on. They also provide synthetic gloves to latex sensitive users from proteins that may cause allergic reaction.Basically, the customers that Hartalega served are generally on the foreign market where Hartalega export their products to overseas to gain high profit. Medline, the largest manufacturer and distributor of healthcare supplies and services in US, is one for the two major customers of Hartalega. The next factor is the firms reputation among their suppliers. Firm regularly relies on its suppliers for financial support, services, resources and equipment. It is clearly seen that suppliers play an important role in determining an organizations success or not.Hartalega has a strong reputation as the highest quality and concluding cost manufacturing business of nitrile gloves has enabled the firm to boost their sales every year. The financial support and resources that can be acquired from their suppliers are significant to the organization itself. Although the raw materials for produce the glove have increased which is latex, but Hartalega still can manage to handle the situation by adjusting the price for the gloves. And the buyers can accept the adjustment in price that Hartalega made.That means the increase of price in raw material by the suppliers still can be acceptable by Hartalega and their buyers. Moreover, the reputation of the company does affect the reliability for their creditors. If the reputation of the organization is low, then the creditworthiness of the firm might be affected. That mean if the company is currently influence by negative rumors or news, in all probability the firms market share will be aff ected. Hartalega was affected by negative news which state that Hartalega was causing water and air pollution near Taman Suria, Batang Berjuntai in 2010.However, Hartalega has successful dismissed allegations of pollution where The Department of Environment (DOE) has claimed that Hartalega is complied with the Malaysian environment regulatory standard. This might affect the reputation and the creditworthiness of Hartalega and might caused the market share decrease in this particular time frame. Other than that, Hartalega Chairman, Kuan Kam Hon claimed that Hartalega recorded revenue of RM931. 1 million, representing a significant 27% jump from RM734. million in the previous financial year while profit after tax increased to RM201. 4 million compared with RM190. 3 million for the last fiscal year. That means the company are currently gaining profit and they are able to implement a dividend policy which pay off out minimum of 45% of the companys annual net profit as dividends to the ir shareholers. These few conditions showed that Hartalega are doing well in their business and able to earn profit in the industry. Lastly, the ability of the firm to attract capable employees is one of the components for the operating environment.The attention for the pitying capital within the organization is brisk for the organization to develop competitive advantage so that the organization can compete with their competitors. The organization involve to determine whether their workers or staffs are capable, skillful and experience or not. The more effective the management of human capital, the more easier the firm to achieve success in the industry. Hartalega has implemented a competitive remuneration portion to their employees in order to recruit and retain performance centric individuals.They adopted several training programmes to advertize professional development and develop leadership skills among their employees such as Supervisor Development Programme and Group Lea der Apprentice Programme. This programme is to invite talented students to nab the necessary skills and knowledge in manufacturing rubber gloves. The qualified students are able to become permanent workers for Hartalega. 5. Internal Analysis Value chain analysis is to understand how a business creates customer value by examining the contributions of different activities within the business to that value (Pearce II, J.A. , & Robinson, R. B. , Jr. , 2013). The value chain includes the primary activities and support activities. Primary activities involve inbound logistics, operating theatres, outbound logistics, merchandising and sales, and service. Support activities involve general administration, human resource management, seek, technology, and systems development, and procurement. First is inbound logistics. Hartalega adopted the spherical supply chain management for their company with the raw materials, components, and parts from all over the world. Latex plays an important i n the Hartalega Company.Research analyst said the latex price rise soon. This situation will affect the Hartalegas profit decrease. In the operations, Hartalega has high efficiency production lines. Hartalega from a beginning of a one line operation grow into a sizeable company of 43 production lines. They produce over 8 meg gloves annually. Hartalega is the highest speed production line in the industry. They can produce 40,000 pieces of gloves per hour per line. They never decrease the quality of gloves even though they produce the gloves at such high speed.Their programmable logic controls measured and acquired every tiny parameter. It is communicated to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system and later fed to the Data Management system for trending and other analytical auditing. Third is outbound logistics. Customer can buy the product through the internet. Customers can order their products, make request and register to receive materials on some pages. Customers n eed to fill in their name, address email address and phone number only and submit to the Hartalega, and then Hartalega will deliver the product which is already order by customer to the ustomer. If the customer orders a gift online and they want Hartalega sent it directly to the recipient, customer need to submit the recipients address. In the marketing and sales, Hartalega is the largest producer of indemnity quality nitrile gloves in the world. They have good reputation as produce the nitrile gloves at the highest quality and lowest cost. It helped the Hartalega Company increase their sales during the year under check. Nowadays, many companies do their business in China and India. Hartalega also do their business in China and India.It is because these countries have high world figures. Demand from existing customers grows and Hartalega also try to attract new customers. Next is service. Hartalega receive some complaint about ammonia gas and chemic waste pollution. The Departme nt of Environment (DOE) already checks the Hartalegas pulverisation and cleared glove manufacturer Hartalega Holdings of allegation pollution. Selangor DOE director Che Asmah Ibrahim said that Hartalega Holdings has compliance with the rule and regulation and they no need close the factory. General administration or management is one of the supportive activities.Profit margin of Hartalega has decrease compared with the previous financial year. Although their profit margin decreases, they also concord the highest margins in the sector globally. Although margins contract slightly, it is because of this foresight that we still achieved an absolute increase in our bottom line on year on year basis. Second supportive activity is procurement. Procurement is a part of inbound logistics or buying activities. Hartalega adopted the global supply chain management for their company with the raw materials, components, and parts from all over the world.Global supply chain management help the c ompany compete all over the world and befuddle company a competitive advantage. Company also can lower the supply chain cost if adopt the global supply chain management. Next is human resource management. Hartalega has implemented a competitive remuneration package to their employees in order to recruit and retain performance centric individuals. They also become the number one company for talent, they not only in the glove manufacturing sector but in the manufacturing sector large.Hartalega has provided several training programmes to advance professional development and develop leadership skills among their employees such as Supervisor Development Programme and Group Leader Apprentice Programme. This programme is to invite talented students to learn the necessary skills and knowledge in manufacturing rubber gloves. The qualified students are able to become permanent workers for Hartalega. Last is enquiry and development. Hartalega Company is focused on look into and development (R&D). They highly focused on research and development because they want to ensure day-and-night product innovation.Research and development helps the Hartalega increase the barrier to entry. It is because the characteristics of synthetic nitrile, which needs careful R&D to ensure similar consistency to natural rubber gloves in terms of softness and elasticity. Besides that, R&D also helps the Hartalega successfully reduced raw material example per unit and do not decrease the product quality. They also have raised the bar with their mingled inventions and have far surpassed the industry due to their engineering capabilities in their manufacturing processes.Therefore, Hartalega highly focused on research and development because R&D helps Hartalega to benefit from maintaining the product quality at lower unit production costs, increases the barrier to entry, and the ability to reduce prices without affecting margins. Value chain analysis can helps Hartalega found the dexterity an d weaknesses. First strength from Hartalega is company adopt the global supply chain management and it help the company lower the supply chain cost and give company a competitive advantage. Second is high efficiency production line.Third is customer can buy the product through the internet. Fourth is good reputation at the highest quality and lowest cost and it helping the Hartalega increase their sales. Next is Hartalega has provided several training programmes to encourage professional development and develop leadership skills among their employees. It helps Hartalega attract new employee and help their existing employee become more talented. Superior success in R&D activities leading to product innovative is strength from Hartalega. On the other hand, Hartalega also have some weaknesses.First is Hartalega receiving some complaint about ammonia gas and chemical waste pollution. Although Department of Environment said that Hartalega Holdings has compliance with the rule and regulat ion and they no need close the factory but it also influence the reputation of Hartalega. Another weakness is profit margin of Hartalega has decrease compared with the previous financial year. 6. Strategy Formulation TOWS Martix Strengths 1. Global supply chain management 2. High efficiency production line 3.Online purchasing 4. Good reputation 5. Training programmes 6. Strongly R&D Weaknesses 1. induce compliant influence reputation 2. Profit margin decrease Opportunities 1. Industry recognition 2. Global hospital suppliers and industrial laboratory 3. Synthetic glove a) Strengths- Opportunities (SO) 1. Market development (S3, S4, O2) 2. Product development (S6, O2) b) Weaknesses-Opportunities (WO) 1. Concentrated growth (W2, O2, O3) Threats 1.High latex price 2. Government regulatory 3. High intensity of rivalry c) Strengths Threats (ST) 1. change (S6,T3) d) Weaknesses- Threats (WT) 1. Vertical desegregation (W2, T1, T3) a) Strengths-Opportunities Strategy (SO) SO strategy is using the firms internal strengths to take advantage of out-of-door opportunities. It is the most favourable situation which allows the firm to faces several environment opportunities and has numerous strengths that encourage pursuit of those opportunities (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). 1.Market development (S3, S4, O2) Hartalega have a good reputation as produce the nitrile at the highest quality and lowest cost in the world and online purchasing. The main buyers for Hartalega are doctors or laboratory users. Therefore, Hartalega can use their main buyers as one of their company strengths to take advantage to global hospital supplies and industrial laboratory market. Hartalega able to offer the highest quality, lowest cost and at the same time they can provide variety types of gloves to hospitals and industrial laboratory.Besides that, customers around the world also can easily and convenience to make an order directly for the company website, this is because Hartalega had prepare d the online purchasing method for their customer and business partners. These will make more and more hospitals and industrial laboratory around the world recognize and use Hartalegas gloves. On the other hand, this method can help Hartalega to increase their sales and profit as well. 2. Product development (S6, O2) Hartalega is expert on their research and development (R&D).Therefore, Hartalega can use this strength to develop more different types of gloves to attract more customers from global hospital supplier and industrial laboratory market. In addition, due to them expert in R&D, they not only focus the needs of the hospital and industrial laboratory, but also can try to satisfy the need for other different customer in order to help Hartalega to increase their market share also. So, they can come out different types of qualities of the product to fulfil different groups of the customers need. ) Weaknesses-Opportunity Strategy (WO) WO strategy is to improve company internal we aknesses by taking advantage of external opportunities. A firm faces an impressive market opportunity but is constrained by weak internal resources (Pearce & Robinson. 2013) 1. Concentrated growth (W2, O2, O3) Hartalega can increase their production of synthetic gloves and expand more into global hospital supplier and industrial laboratory market. This is because the costs of raw material to produce synthetic glove is cheaper than latex (Hartalega, 2012).Therefore, Hartalega can major expansion of synthetic gloves to global hospital supplier and industrial laboratory market will help them substantial cost savings to counter price competition and overcome the profit margin (Hartalega, 2012). So, Hartalega can avoid the high rises of latex price. By avoiding fluctuation of latex price, their profit earned will be more stable and able to increase the profit too. c) Strengths-Threats Strategy (ST) ST strategy is using the firms strengths to avoid or reduce the impact of external threats .A firm that has identified several attain strengths faces an unfavorable environment (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). 1. Innovation (S6, T3) As mention on above, R&D is the strength for Hartalega. Therefore, Hartalega can use this strength to create the barrier to entry. R&D can help Hartalega successfully to reduce raw material employ per unit and maintain the product quality and increase the barrier to entry. So, Hartalega can offer the cheaper price to their customer compare with their competitors such as Top Glove.Hartalega also keep on focusing on their R&D in order to develop more different types of innovation product and try to slash down their competitors and become the leader in the rubber glove industry. d) Weaknesses-Threats Strategy (WT) WT strategy is a en garde tactics aimed at reducing internal weakness and avoid external threats. This is the least favorable situation, with the firm facing major environment threats from a weak resource position (Pearce & Robinson, 2013 ). 1. Vertical Integration (W2, T1, T3) Nowadays, the price for one of the raw material to produce glove which is latex is keep on rising.This situation was affected Hartalegas profit to decrease. Therefore, Hartalega can benchmark other companies product and make a comparison on how other competitors performs their product activity effectively. This is useful to Hartalega to improve the management control. The objective of benchmarking is to identify the best practices in performing an activity and learn how to down the costs of the raw material, less defects, or other outcomes cerebrate to excellence achieved (Pearce & Robinson, 2013). Hartalega can apply backward vertical integration to control their raw material price.For example, Hartalega can follow its competitor which is Top gloves has ventured upstream into the rubber plantation to secure a stable latex supply. 7. Recommendation A competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors gained by offering consumers greater v alue, any by means of lower prices or by providing greater benefits and service that justifies higher prices. (Riley, 2012) Differentiation is one of the most practical ways in which Hartalega can gain advantage over other competitors in the rubber gloves industry.Differentiation can be achieved by Hartalega through high quality, efficient low cost manufacturing of gloves. Hartalega is barrack to continuously enhance their flexibility and efficiency in their production process scheduling, saving more time, employees efforts and the companys money. Besides that, Hartalega needs to ensure all operations from the top to bottom must(prenominal) run efficiently by adopting programmable logic controller able to the monitoring of the operation automatically and promote continuous production that help in increase production and minimize cost.Hartalega should focus on customers satisfaction because it had placed a lot of emphasis in R&D to produce a wide and diversify range of high qualit y and value-added glove products in order to fulfil the expectation of their customers. The company also collaborates closely with related government agencies and Ministries to keep itself abreast of the latest development in rubber research technology. Hartalega also can uses state-of-art technology and efficient automatic glove manufacturing machine to obtain the highest yield and to perch as one of the most cost-effective and highest quality producer in the industry.With all these advantages and strategies, Hartalega is able to compete and stand out in the industry. For the Goods and Service Design, Hartalega can print instructions and methods of wearing gloves on the packaging. Besides, Hartalega can focus on detailed product design such as creating innovative glove with functions and agreeableness features for all type range of gloves use in surgical and clinical practice and operation.In addition, Hartalega products packaging must provide with its product outlook and descrip tion that meet the preferences of their customer across different countries and cultures. Concerning fluctuation price on raw material, Hartalega needs to find multiple sources of raw materials to avoid high fluctuation of cost on raw materials. Therefore, Hartalega is recommended to invest more and expand their own rubber plantation acreage, this would reduce their dependency on raw rubber from other suppliers.Hartalega has to maintain and enhance its products and operation quality endlessly, therefore, Hartalega always needs to audit their operation and the product quality control to ensure low / no defects in their production based on the Six Sigma and Total Quality Management procedure. On the other hand, Hartalega needs to review foreign countries Acceptable Quality Level to improve in their companys quality management system (Bheda, 2010) Perhaps, Hartalega needs to adopt total quality management or R&D on high quality latex to ensure producing high quality products that meet their customer expectation.In conclusion, each key analysis and discussion on Hartalega manufacturing operation will help in understanding and makes improvement from each operation processes based on the studies of latest operation management system. With this, Hartalega will be able to maintain or strengthen each of its manufactures operation and its products positioning in the world market.