The Adoption of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) Concept for Maintenance Procurement of Green Buildings in Malaysia

Green building practices play an important role in achieving sustainability, especially in the construction industry. Green buildings are built to minimise the impact on the environment while reducing the impact of the building on the occupants. Unfortunately, the focus is on building green rather than in its maintenance. Correspondingly, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a tool that has been promoted for its simplicity and the advantages of maintaining a delivery system. It assures the maintenance effectiveness of each industry, such as improving project quality, reducing waste, reducing production costs, increasing hardware accessibility and enhancing organisational support conditions. Meanwhile, procurement is considered to be the key to strengthen the maintenance operation of the construction industry. This study adopts the TPM concept for the maintenance of green buildings in Malaysia and aims to present the TPM concept for the maintenance of green buildings, and to establish the best procurement to adopt TPM for the maintenance of green buildings in Malaysia. This study has employed a qualitative approach where face-to-face and telephone interviews have been adopted. Interviews have been conducted with seven prominent respondents who possess more than 5 years of experience in green building maintenance. Content and thematic analyses have been used to analyse the data that are collected from the interviews; findings show that most of the respondents agreed that TPM could be adopted in the maintenance of green buildings. It has also been identified that for a public project the most appropriate procurement method is the facilities management contract whereas for private project the most popular procurements for green building maintenance are the lump sum contract, out-tasking contract and term contract. The results of this study provide practitioners with a new insight into the impromptu creation of a total productive maintenance concept that could improve the current building maintenance sector

A Preliminary Framework for Preventing Disputes in Different Stages of Building Construction Projects

The upward trend of dispute claims and occurrences throughout different stages has detrimentally affected the outcomes of construction projects. Building upon two major themes from a systematic literature review (SLR) study, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to further group the extensive causes and strategies into several meaningful groups using the Statistical Social Package Science (SPSS) software. Questionnaires were used and issued to three main stakeholders (clients, consultants, and contractors) in the Klang Valley area. This paper presents the PCA findings, which have led to the development of a framework to prevent disputes in different stages of building construction projects. The PCA findings have narrowed down the major contributors of disputes to “Contract-related causes” and “Time-related causes”. PCA analysis has also shown that the three key themes of “Quality-related strategies,” “Business relationship-related strategies,” and “Productivity-related strategies” were the most effective ways to reduce disagreements. It is important to highlight that the findings related to the causes of disputes during the planning stage consistently align with those of a prior study. This underscores the importance of ethical conduct, particularly during the planning phase and, more specifically, within the tendering process

Dispute avoidance procedure: observing the influence of legal culture towards a workable legal system

It is pertinent to specifically conduct research on the viability of introducing dispute avoidance procedure (DAP) for construction industry due to the lack of research in this area, as most of the current research covers various issues within dispute resolution procedure and management field. The objective of this study is to examine the future of DAP in the Malaysian construction industry by looking into the perceptions of the construction industry players. Data were collected through interview of selected respondents and analyses to reveal patterns to help formulate a viable DAP mechanism. NVivo software has been used to manage and organise complete interview transcripts and facilitate data analysis process for this study. This study reveals that the existing DAP mechanisms are not viable for the Malaysian construction industry at present, mainly due to the issue of costing. Thus, a modified version of DAP was formulated to promote a viable mechanism. This study suggests that the structural elements of a viable DAP mechanism could be in the form of an 'involvement of top management' from both contracting parties (without the involvement of any third parties) who are decision makers or persons with financial authority, and the process is through 'discussion and negotiation'. In essence, this study captures the legal culture and trade usage of the industry which assisted the formulation of a viable DAP mechanism

A Qualitative Study On the Doctrine of Privity to Circumvent Its Effect On Subcontractor’s Payment Claim

In common law jurisdictions, the doctrine of privity has been criticised by the judiciary and academic commentators, particularly the second rule of doctrine, which states that a person who is not a party to the contract cannot sue on it to obtain promised performance, although the contract has been formed with the intention to benefit him. In certain circumstances, this rule may produce unfair and injustice result to the third party of a contract, as it prohibits the third party from enforcing the right to get benefits conferred on them. The doctrine of privity becomes relevant in the context of tendering procedures when subcontractors, who are not direct parties to the main construction contract, are involved. Hence, the aim of this paper is two-fold: to highlight the difficulties of the existing legal mechanism associated with privity rule and to suggest possible ways to circumvent the effect of the doctrine of privity on subcontractors’ payment claims in the Malaysian construction industry. By adopting the socio legal research approach, the impact of the doctrine of privity, the difficulties of the existing legal mechanisms, and the need for a possible law reform were examined. The findings were also validated by conducting semi-structured interviews with five construction law experts. Among others, the findings showed that enhancement to the existing legal mechanisms and statutory intervention can effectively circumvent the privity rule and protect the subcontractor’s right for the payment claim

The proper ways of assessing damages for defective building works

Damages are one of the remedies available for a breach of contract. In these circumstances, defective building works constitute a breach of contract by the contractor. This article discusses the proper ways of assessing damages for defective building works. The article reveals three (3) possible measures of damages for defective building works. Whether to award reinstatement cost, diminution in value or loss of amenity/solatium, the essential requirements for the proper assessment of damages are the intention of the owner to remedy the defects and the reasonableness of the intention, and the reasonableness of the remedial works itself. This article suggests how the ‘intention’ and ‘reasonableness’ can be tested by using several questions of fact

A revisit on the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR in Malaysia construction industry

The current dispute resolution procedures available in the Malaysian construction industry are mainly litigation and arbitration. In addition, the alternative dispute resolutions (ADR), namely mediation and adjudication, have also been introduced as the other methods for resolving disputes. The objective of this study is to examine the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR available in the Malaysian construction industry. The aim of this paper is two-fold: to report the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR, and identify the attributes of successful implementation of both mechanisms based on the perceptions of the Malaysian construction industry players. From the jurisprudence point of view, this study looks into the law as it is, in relation to the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR, by showing how those findings can be used to explain why improvement is needed to promote a successful and well received dispute resolution and ADR, and what lessons can be learnt, towards the formulation of a more viable methods for the Malaysian construction industry. NVivo software has been used to manage and organise the complete interview transcripts and facilitate the data analysis process for this study. Literature review reveals a continuous development of dispute resolution and ADR in the Malaysian construction industry, while, globally the industry has not only embraced ADR but also spearheaded the development of innovative forms of dispute avoidance mechanism. The findings of interviews show that locally, apart from litigation, the common types of ADR are arbitration, mediation and ad hoc mechanism. The findings also lead to the discovery of the following attributes: faster, less procedural, cost effective and enforceable; regulation and government’s support; professionalism and ethic; training; and facility, that may promote a successful implementation of dispute resolution and ADR in Malaysia

A revisit on the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR in the Malaysian construction industry

The current dispute resolution procedures available in the Malaysian construction industry are mainly litigation and arbitration. In addition, the alternative dispute resolutions (ADR), namely mediation and adjudication, have also been introduced as the other methods for resolving disputes. The objective of this study is to examine the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR available in the Malaysian construction industry. The aim of this paper is two-fold: to report the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR, and identify the attributes of successful implementation of both mechanisms based on the perceptions of the Malaysian construction industry players. From the jurisprudence point of view, this study looks into the law as it is, in relation to the current practice of dispute resolution and ADR, by showing how those findings can be used to explain why improvement is needed to promote a successful and well received dispute resolution and ADR, and what lessons can be learnt, towards the formulation of a more viable methods for the Malaysian construction industry. NVivo software has been used to manage and organise the complete interview transcripts and facilitate the data analysis process for this study. Literature review reveals a continuous development of dispute resolution and ADR in the Malaysian construction industry, while, globally the industry has not only embraced ADR but also spearheaded the development of innovative forms of dispute avoidance mechanism. The findings of interviews show that locally, apart from litigation, the common types of ADR are arbitration, mediation and ad hoc mechanism. The findings also lead to the discovery of the following attributes: faster, less procedural, cost effective and enforceable; regulation and government's support; professionalism and ethic; training; and facility, that may promote a successful implementation of dispute resolution and ADR in Malaysia

Development of alternative dispute resolution in the Iranian construction industry

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and development of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods in the Iranian construction industry. ADR methods were developed to acquire suitable solutions. From the research findings, despite the existence of laws for ADR methods, ADR has not been developed in Iran, and the infrastructures are not available for its development. Therefore, the Litigation process remains the main method of resolving disputes. If ADR is developed, it can be effective in resolving disputes in the construction industry and yield positive results. The potential of binding methods of ADR for dispute resolution in the construction industry is about 2.25 times that of non-binding methods. Mixed Method and Concurrent Triangulation Strategy have been used to carry out the investigations. The qualitative data collected for this research was through semi-structured interviews with 30 experts, and the quantitative data was collected through questionnaires with 112 experts