An innovative mobile application for construction programme managers

Construction programme management is a complex and information-intensive environment. The construction programme management team requires access to construction information in real-time and when needed. The current increasing use of mobile devices offers an opportunity to meet this need. The efficient management of construction programmes is one of the major factors for improving stakeholders’ satisfaction. An innovative tool is needed in accessing the right information at the right time, especially when spontaneous and urgent decision-making is needed. To this end, the innovative use of a mobile device in delivering information and services to the management team in real-time and based on their current context offers significant benefits. This paper discusses context-aware computing, the enabling technologies for geolocation and the development of a prototype, mobile, context-aware application for construction programme management. The prototype system developed is based on the findings from an earlier study of user requirements which showed that the ability to provide relevant information and services at an appropriate time and at the most appropriate location has the potential to improve the monitoring and control of construction programmes. The prototype system demonstrates the provision of context-specific information and services to construction programme managers using a mobile device. The benefits and limitations of the proposed approach are discussed and conclusions drawn about the potential impact of enhanced information delivery for the efficiency of the construction programme managers

An overview of OSH management systems in the water service project

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Management System is a part of the management system that facilitates the management of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) risks. The water services industry is a high-risk industry that deals with complex engineering construction, chemical use, water supply and people. The increasing number of accidents and fatality, including those derive from risk-injury and work-related disease requires organisations to implement OSH Management System. This paper reviews the OSH Management System in the water services in Klang Valley. The finding shows that there is a need for OSH Management System due to the high impact towards the stakeholders and third parties, such as consumers, environment, authority and the top management. This paper concludes the reason on why OSH Management System is very important in relation to the lack of awareness towards safety, health and environment in the workplace area

Building Information Modelling (BIM) implementation for highway project from consultant’s perspectives in Malaysia

In today’s world, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is not a new term in the construction industry. Although BIM has been adopted in the AEC industry for a few decades now, the BIM implementation cultivation pace between developed countries and developing countries such as many European which considered as BIM leaders and some Asian countries has still shown significant differences. In Malaysia, there are several remarkable building projects with BIM utilization but very limited in road and highways project. Despite BIM capabilities in facilitating designers during design stage, BIM implementation are still considered unfavourable within the highway design consultants in Malaysia. Many firms seem reluctant to migrate from their traditional 2D drafting centric design process to BIM design process due to several reasons such as high cost in software investment, inadequate knowledge and expertise on BIM and lack of promotion from the government or relevant authority. Although BIM can benefit the project throughout its life-cycle from preliminary to operation and maintenance stage, the coordination and integration during design stage can contributes to positive impacts in progressing towards efficient construction documentation and construction stage. BIM 3D integrated modelling during design stage (conceptual and detailed design) are deemed to facilitate a highway project in terms of optimization through early visualization, design for constructability, road safety enhancement, reduce error and time consumption during construction and early clash detection. Therefore, this paper is intended to gather preliminary outlooks and views from the present practitioners in the highway industry on challenges encounters by consultants using the current traditional design practices, BIM capabilities in transforming the current design approach and BIM adoption barriers in Malaysian highway industry. Series of interviews were conducted with the professionals involved in highway projects especially during the design stage and based on the findings from the interviews conducted, all highway design consultants from various disciplines are aware on how BIM can tackle the challenges of current traditional design practice with 3D modelling approach and collaborative working environment. Although the results showed that highway consultants are willing to migrate to BIM workflow, cost and lack of expertise, urges from government and understanding on BIM are among barriers which hinder the BIM adoption in highway industry

Building information modeling (BIM): exploring level of development (LOD) in construction projects

Level of Development (LOD) is a protocol to address the basic guidelines information of Building Information Modeling (BIM). LOD is created to identify specific content requirements of a BIM model elements at a given time. It is used to reduce the problem of inadequate information needed in projects. This paper aims to explore the implementation of LOD in projects using BIM in the construction industry. In order to do so, the definition, purposes and content of each level of LOD had been identified based on past literature. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with BIM consultants from the public and private sector. The findings revealed that the implementation of LOD is varied depending on the requirements of construction players. From the use of LOD, it helps construction players to get the information that they need for a specific purpose in various project phases. The use of LOD in projects using BIM shows the capability and the level of understanding of construction players in using BI

Application of building information modelling (BIM) in design and build (D&B) projects in Malaysia

Design and Build (D&B) is one of the most suitable types of project delivery method that are being used to implement BIM. However, there is a lack of documented evidence to show on how BIM is being implemented in D&B project. This paper aims to explore the current practices of BIM in D&B projects in the Malaysian construction industry. A literature review was done to explore on application of BIM in construction projects and D&B project concept. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews with construction players were conducted as a primary data for this paper. The interviews were conducted with construction players that are currently involved and have experiences in D&B BIM projects. The findings revealed that the BIM process in D&B projects is much similar with activities in conventional D&B project. The differences were by the used of BIM software, the process of developing project design into a 3D model and the involvement of BIM related designation in the project. In addition to that, the process of BIM in D&B has been highlighted in this paper

Effective criteria for selecting delay analysis methodologies for construction project in Abu Dhabi

This paper examines the effective criteria to determine the capable delay analysis methodologies by the contractors for the construction's claim in Abu Dhabi. The previous research was argued that 50% of the construction projects in UAE encounter delays and are not completed on time. Selecting the delay analysis methodology is a significant part of the claim process. Numerous delay analysis techniques used in the UAE, and constitute several factors. Thus, the selection practice is more significant to identify the delays. Contractor's analyst consumed exaggerated time and effort to show their right using delay analysis methodologies (DAMs) and submit this as an extension of time claim, demanding to make the most of their benefits. The aim of this study contains exploring the selection of the delay analysis methodologies by the contractors for the construction's claim in Abu Dhabi. In this regard, five case studies were selected on the basis that they represent examples for application of the delay analysis methods and techniques for the residential building. The respondents were selected from five projects and the interviews were held with the Contractor of each project. The collected Qualitative Data was analysed manually by using Thematic Analysis. The study found that the effective criteria for determining the delay analysis methodologies lie in its acceptance in court and as per contractual requirements. Furthermore, the factors influence the selection of the effective criteria for determining the delay analysis methodologies are the acceptance of the selected delay analysis method /technique, realistic results and accuracy of the delay analysis method /technique. However, the findings from this study become more important, if more studies are conducted to extend the exploring of the different delay analysis methodologies used by the contractors for the construction's claim for wide range of projects in Abu Dhabi

An overview of contract documents for building information modelling (BIM) construction projects

Building Information Modelling (BIM) enables close collaboration among project stakeholders to visualize what is to be built in a simulated environment by identifying any potential design, construction or operational issues. Despite the fact of its welldocumented benefits, the extensive integration of BIM throughout the project lifecycle remains sporadic. The conventional contracts used in the Malaysian construction industry were established before the development of BIM. As BIM becoming ingrain in the delivery process, the inadequacies of these existing contracts have become visible. This paper presents a review of recent studies through a procurement approach of BIM to establish the contractual context by addressing the commercial considerations and probable legal risks of professionals in Malaysia and other countries. This paper also outlines the reasons why the implementation of BIM will foster the evolution of integrated contract delivery methods

The readiness of public universities in adopting industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0) from a construction management perspective

There have been four major Industrial Revolutions that have developed human lifestyles. Currently, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, (IR 4.0), is taking place in major industries with current students and graduates requiring new talents and skills to become a future-proof workforce. However, current tertiary education is not yet fully equipped to deal with IR4.0 concepts. This results in the low awareness of IR4.0 among students and graduates where they are not yet ready to enter an IR4.0 workspace. This is especially so in construction management education. Hence, the aim of this research is to improve existing construction engineering education by including IR4.0. This research is based on data collected from a survey by questionnaire responses from construction management undergraduate and postgraduate students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam. The findings show that these construction management students agreed that challenges such as the traditional construction management curricular structure and the lack of IR4.0 facilities hindered the implementation of IR4.0 in construction management education. Therefore, recommendations such as the collaboration of industry experts with universities and students to enable the adoption of IR4.0 into project-based learning were discussed. In conclusion, this study hopes to help both universities and students to be prepared for the integration of and benefits from, implementing IR4.0 in construction management education

Validation of model content through a building information modelling-based contract administration

Purpose: This paper presents a case study exploring the extent to which the BIM contract language supplements the existing contract system employed in the Malaysian construction industry. The following categories of BIM-based contractual issues were assessed: collaboration strategy and facility management-BIM in the construction process. Design/methodology/approach: The intention of this research was to explore BIM execution within the D-B procurement system. Hence, qualitative research was conducted since this study aimed to attain a thorough comprehension of the examined phenomena, whereby the researcher attempted to explore the respondents’ perceptions and opinions regarding the topic discussed in this study and aimed to discover new thoughts and individual views. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with relevant BIM project team members followed by project document reviews using data triangulation Findings: The analysis results have answered the research question, whereby the findings from the case studies suggest that BIM-based construction projects that it is crucial to include collaboration and communication amongst construction stakeholders as a key concept to ensure an effective BIM execution. It can cause construction stakeholders to possess high efficiency in communication, which surpasses the level in traditional practice. Research limitations/implications: The initial coding framework was based on data from a literature review and condensed different possible risk factors into categories based on previous respondents’ experiences. However, this method only provides one viewpoint and interpretation within the context of the study, which means there may be discrepancies between the authors' understanding and actual experiences of the respondents. Practical implications: This study was analysed to find the practical implications of implementing BIM, especially those concerning the development of a contract form which represents the integration of BIM and facility management (FM). Moreover, in order to pick up the industry’s perspective on the recommended approaches, a document study was performed. Originality/value: There is a significant impact on the manner project stakeholders collaborate and the possible contractual challenges arising due to any disagreements that occur. Thus, it is imperative to understand BIM’s functionality, and how it helps a project, which can possibly enable the vital foundations forming the applicable contractual context. Nonetheless, limited investigations have been conducted and most did not examine industry-wide trends in validating BIM content models by critically aligning BIM functionality with various contractual, consequently contributing originality of the present paper

The user requirements for building maintenance management systems in Malaysian public universities

Representing almost 50% of the total turnover of construction activities, building maintenance investment is huge all over the world. In facilities management activities, building maintenance is also regarded as a common function. This paper emphasises the current user requirements for building maintenance management in Malaysian public universities. Starting with semi-structured interviews, information gathered focuses on different aspects of building maintenance practice to identify the main user requirement issues. The areas of study are to justify the objectives of maintenance departments and examine the processes of maintenance reporting and verification and other associated tasks. In this study the applications and contributions of Information Technology (IT) facilities in maintenance practices are reviewed. Finally, the development of user requirements by using the interface design concept is explored. It is envisioned that, in the future, good building maintenance practices will become the norm in Malaysia so that users will extract maximum benefits from their buildings and facilities