A practical approach in clarifying legal drafting: Delphi and case study in Malaysia

Purpose - Legal drafting is one of the root causes for interpretation errors and misunderstandings in construction contracts. Moreover, most construction personnel do not have legally trained background. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine the feasible use and practicality of Plain English in clarifying legal drafting in Malaysian construction contracts. Design/methodology/approach - Two research approaches were adopted, namely, Delphi research and case study. The Delphi method was to elicit local experts' knowledge and consensus view on the given examples of restructured contract provisions. Next, an actual case study was conducted to examine and substantiate the research findings by critically reviewing the latest and revised standard form of contract for its Plain English usage. Findings - The Delphi research shows that all the restructured contract provisions were agreed by the local experts; whereas the case study reveals that significant changes and the acceptance of Plain English in most of the contract provisions. Originality/value - The research renders insightful references in clarifying legal drafting in construction contracts based on the empirical evidence and the use of Plain English from the Malaysian scenario. It also contributes into the resolution of contractual differences and conflicts caused by the misunderstandings or interpretation problems

Ocean renewable energy in Malaysia: The potential of the Straits of Malacca

The need for renewable energy is a global demand due to both the economic factors and the environmental concerns. Malaysian government has been supportive on the research and development in the renewable energies. Renewable Energy Act (2011) and Sustainable Energy Development Authority Act (2011) have been enacted to boost the industry of renewable energy. This paper presents the current status and future prospects of renewable energy in Malaysia with particular focus on the ocean renewable energy. Five types of ocean renewable energy were reviewed including tidal barrage, tidal current energy, wave energy, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) and salinity gradient power. The comparison of various types of ocean renewable energy has been made to present their recent technologies in electricity generation. Tidal current energy is identified as a preferable option particularly in the Straits of Malacca

Employing Data Warehousing for Contract Administration: e-Dispute Resolution Prototype

Although data warehouse is very practical for decision making, its application in contract administration is rather limited because of the complicated legal issues and the voluminous data involved. This research attempts to bridge this gap in two ways. First, conceptual models of data warehouse are developed to explain the contents and overall features of the system that were verified by 12 experts in Malaysia. Second, an electronic dispute resolution template, known as e-Dispute Resolution (e-DR), is prototyped by using a database tool based on the guidelines of contractual variations agreed by the experts. Subsequently, the prototype is evaluated by 16 professional quantity surveyors from an established consulting firm. The prototype was organized based on a systematic breakdown of issues and incorporated a Boolean keyword search feature. The results show that the concept of data warehouse is applicable to contract administration and is well received by practitioners. Overall, this article renders significant theoretical and practical contributions in which the resulting e-DR does not only lead toward more informed decision making but is also able to mitigate or prevent contractual disputes in the construction industry, where such a phenomenon seems to be inevitabl

An explanatory case study on cloud computing applications in the built environment

Fragmentation of practices is one of the key issues in the built environment. However, with advances in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), particularly cloud computing, the fragmentation of working practices can be potentially overcome. The technology could enhance communication and information flowin various stages along a project life cycle.Due to the increasing demands and the newly developed cloud computing applications, it is critical to review and identify the appropriate cloud computing applications in the built environment. A total of forty two cloud computing applications consisting of general cloud applications, Building Information Modelling (BIM), and project management cloud applications were selected and critically reviewed. A decision-making model was also developed to assist parties in selecting a suitable application. The explanatory case study has discovered numerous possible cloud computing applications in various disciplines, for example, Google Apps, Autodesk BIM 360, and Viewpoint are the applications with the most features. The findings contribute to creating a certain awareness and an insight to reduce the fragmented working practices in the built environment

Contractual practices between the consultant and employer in Chinese BIM-enabled construction projects

The management of building information modeling (BIM)-enabled construction projects is challenging and unstructured in nature, particularly in terms of contract administration. Even though previous studies have revealed various legal issues related to BIM, little is known regarding the contractual practices of BIM. Hence, this study was carried out to explore the contractual practices between the BIM consultant and employer in detail. An explanatory case study was carried out on four large BIM-enabled construction projects in China. The contractual practices differed from one project to another in terms of ownership and intellectual property rights of the BIM model, roles of the BIM consultant, liability of the BIM consultant in the event of errors and delays of the BIM model, and BIM-related costs and payments. Some of the interesting findings are as follows: (a) the employer shall retain the ownership and intellectual property rights of the BIM model, (b) the BIM consultant shall provide a warranty to ensure usability of the BIM model after project handover, (c) the BIM consultant shall pay for damages or losses if the BIM model fails to deliver, and (d) the costs of BIM implementation shall be borne by both contracting parties. This study provides a fresh, realistic insight on the development of plausible contractual practices between the BIM consultant and employer and the findings can be used to improve BIM contract protocols in future projects

Guidelines of Using Project Management Tools and Techniques to Mitigate Factors Causing Delays in Public Construction Projects in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Delays can be considered a common problem within public and private construction projects around the world but the problem is endemic in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) where massive public funds are lost every year as a result. Delays may have significant negative impact not only to the KSA public construction projects but also on its economic and social status. Although several studies have examined the factors influencing delays in public construction projects in KSA, little attention has been paid to how project management tools and methods have made any impact to the incidence of project delays. This paper aims to develop the mapping and the guidelines using the principles of Project Management, after reviewing the critical factors for delays in public construction projects in the KSA. A careful attention was given to investigate the critical factors that are causing delays in building projects within public sector in KSA and the current practices of project management applications in order to develop guidelines to effectively mitigate construction delays in KSA. This review paper reports the top critical factors associated with delays in construction projects in KSA. It also identify project management tools and techniques that if implemented properly have the potentials to address the main factors contributing to the occurrence of delays. Following this, a new guideline to utilize Project Management tools and techniques in addressing the identified delay factors is also provided here with the view to help practitioners to minimize the potentials of construction delays in the KSA public projects

The influence of social capitalism on construction safety behaviors: An exploratory megaproject case study

Health and safety issues are critical factors influencing the sustainable development of mega construction projects. The impact of social capitalism on health and safety activities has been widely discussed in sustainability domains; nevertheless, its influence towards workers' safety behaviors in mega construction projects remains largely unknown. To address this research gap, the current study aims to determine the influence of social capitalism on safety behaviors from a two-fold perspective between project managers and construction workers. An exploratory case study was adopted from a mega construction project in Tianjin, China. The results reveal that (a) the social network between project managers and construction workers manifests itself as close communication and contact, trust and emotional identification, common language, vision, and values; (b) project managers' management behaviors show stronger influences on construction workers' safety compliance behaviors, while their leadership behaviors show stronger influences on construction workers' safety participation behaviors; and (c) the practice of social capitalism promotes enforcement of commands and compulsory norms and plays a positive regulatory role on safety behaviors. These findings provide new insights into the use of social capitalism for improving safety behaviors and ultimately facilitate the attainment of the broader goal of sustainability in mega construction projects

Robust Optimization for Integrated Construction Scheduling and Multiscale Resource Allocation

This research investigates an integrated problem of construction scheduling and resource allocation. Inspired by complex construction practices, multi-time scale resources are considered for different length of terms, such as permanent staff and temporary workers. Differing from the common stochastic optimization problems, the resource price is supposed to be an uncertain parameter of which probability distribution is unknown, but observed data is given. Hence, the problem here is called Data-Driven Construction Scheduling and Multiscale Resource Allocation Problem (DD-CS&MRAP). Based on likelihood robust optimization, a multiobjective programming is developed where project completion time and expected resource cost are minimized simultaneously. To solve the problem efficiently, a double-layer metaheuristic comprised of Multiple Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) and interior point method named MOPSO-interior point algorithm is designed. The new solution presentation scheme and decoding process are developed. Finally, a construction case is used to validate the proposed method. The experimental results indicate that the MOPSO-interior point algorithm can reduce resource cost and improve the efficiency of resource utilization

Nexus of Inter-organizational Trust, Principled Negotiation, and Joint Action for Improved Cost Performance: Survey of Chinese Megaprojects

Drawing on the theory of relational governance, this study determined the nexus of interorganizational trust, principled negotiation, and joint action in cost performance. To this end, five hypotheses were formulated based on established management theories or principles of organizational studies. The study used partial least squares structural equation modeling to analyze the 248 valid questionnaires collected from the analyzed organizations involved in megaprojects. The results show that interorganizational trust has direct and indirect positive effects on improving cost performance. Principled negotiation and joint action can serve as multiple mediating roles between interorganizational trust and cost performance. Contractual governance also has different moderation effects on principled negotiation and joint action toward cost performance. In conclusion, this study contributes to the knowledge on interorganizational trust and its mediating effects on cost performance from the perspective of megaprojects. The results are generalizable to other projects with complicated organizational and working relationships

Technical Review: Analysis and Appraisal of Four-Dimensional Building Information Modeling Usability in Construction and Engineering Projects

Building information modeling (BIM) fundamentally requires the importation of a three-dimensional (3D) model with a series of repository data. Numerous studies have been conducted to clarify the philosophy of BIM and promote its adoption in construction and engineering projects. The primary contributions of this research to the construction engineering and management body of knowledge are the technical review, analysis, and appraisal of various issues concerning the usability of four-dimensional (4D) BIM. The research aims to determine the readiness and development of 4D BIM. A technical literature review was conducted of various BIM software websites, journal articles, brochures, and videos about required 4D elements. A comparative analysis was conducted to compare the technical (TECA) and project-planning functionality (PPFA) aspects of developing 4D models with features provided by available BIM software. This analysis yielded matrices that can be used to guide decision making on which BIM software to invest in. The results reveal that all of the software packages in their way serve the purpose of developing a 4D BIM model