Analysis of factors critical to construction project success in Malaysia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the principal factors that are critical to the success of a construction project in Malaysia, and determine their relative importance as perceived by different respondents. The findings of this study will provide the researcher with up-to-date information in formulating appropriate strategies to address the challenges brought about by human-related issues. The paper will only discuss the first part of the ongoing research based on the pilot survey. Design/methodology/approach - Following a thorough literature search, a total of 37 factors were consolidated and grouped into seven major categories. These factors were assembled into a questionnaire survey and distributed to clients, consultants and contractors. The respondents represent a wide range of professions, including those who are involved in design, construction, engineering, project management and quantity surveying. An analysis of the responses identified 15 factors to be accepted as critical to the success of construction projects. Findings - The results suggest a strong consistency in perception between respondents in recognising the significance of human-related factors such as competence, commitment, communication and cooperation towards the success of a construction project. These factors being the core element in relationship-based procurement reinforced the need and viability of such procurement methods to the Malaysian construction industry. Practical implications - The findings can be used to facilitate the analysis of performance of various procurement systems, as well as identifying critical elements crucial to the development of a relationship-based procurement in Malaysia. Originality/value - This paper captures the perception of construction participants regarding the critical success factors of construction projects in Malaysia and fulfils an identified need to study the critical elements vital to the development of a new procurement approach in Malaysi

Critical success factors for Malaysian construction projects: an investigative review

Construction projects play an important role in the advancement of a nation through infrastructure development that leads to economic growth. They are planned carefully to accomplish certain goals. However, not all the projects achieved the goals as per planned. Many factors contribute to the successes and failures, and it becomes an interesting arena for research. The primary objective of this paper is to outline the development trend of project success measurement globally and locally. The research method employed was to make selected reviews on critical success factors' (CSFs) literature and to compare international standards and progress in incorporating human behavioural aspects of project management to the situation in Malaysia. A somewhat similar pattern can be observed in Malaysia where the studies have departed from the usual criteria of time, cost and quality, to define project success in a more holistic way. However, the domestic industry has failed to respond to the emerging trend globally as there has yet been any widely published research on the importance of human-related factors towards project success. A consolidated framework of CSFs has therefore, been proposed in responding to the findings. This paper fulfils an identified need as there has been a dearth of research on the subject matter locally

Application of direct payment clause 30A.0 of the Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) standard form of contract (with quantities)

Conditional payment such as “pay when paid” or “pay if paid” can create negative chain effect on the parties in construction projects, resulting in delay on the completion of a project, adversarialism and may affect a contractor’s reputation. Asian International Arbitration Centre (AIAC) has launched a standard form of contract which is Construction Industry Payment Adjudication Act (CIPAA) compliance with the aim to reduce payment issues. The aim of the research is to identify whether the clause for “direct payment under CIPAA 2012” of the new AIAC standard form of contract can facilitate problems in direct payment. In achieving the aim of the research, five legal cases were analysed and thirty questionnaires forms were distributed. Legal cases analysis findings highlighted that the major reasons of the direct payment issue being referred to court is due to the validity of the direct payment agreement between the disputant’s parties. Based on the cases heard before CIPAA enactment, the findings show that out of the three cases, the disputants went to litigation because of the legality of direct payment agreements. Most of the agreements were made orally. For cases analysed after CIPAA was enacted, the findings show that the disputant parties do not opt for adjudication and that the main contractors try to mitigate their responsibilities to the employer. The results from the questionnaires distributed established that, the direct payment clause could be successfully adopted for future use of the industry. Eventhough the AIAC standard form of contract has been formally introduced to the industry, but it is not widely used. From the findings of the questionnaire, it shows that with encouragement and support from the industry, direct payment clause of AIAC standard form of contract have the potential in reducing payment issues in the future. With the remodeling of standard form of contracts that are available in construction industry to be CIPAA compliance, it is hoped that this move may scale down the prevalent payment issues in Malaysian construction industry

Enhancing the graduates’ employability and career development through building information modelling intensive training

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an emerging technological process which highly promotes a better collaborative working environment in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. It is essential that the Higher Education (HE) sector innovates its education system to integrate between different disciplines in the AEC industry to encourage the adoption of BIM. In conjunction with this, BIM Intensive Training was conducted for a selected number of final year undergraduate students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. They were assigned a real time construction project, utilizing BIM software applications for model authoring, model review, 4D modelling and project coordination. It was observed that the participants were able to overcome various challenges through information sharing and team collaboration. A BIM coordination workflow was produced during the training to assist them in organizing their work. Although their existing knowledge of BIM and their skills using the software applications were quite limited, they were capable in learning expeditiously as the assignment provided them with real-world problems. A year after the training, more than half of the participants agreed that the training had helped them to secure their employment and excel in their current involvements in BIM-based projects. However, due to the current scenario many firms are yet to embrace BIM, there are participants who could not utilize the training. Hence, the establishment of a dynamic and continuous collaboration between professionals and HE sector is the way forward in transforming the traditional structure of AEC industry into a more collaborative and technological approach

The propensity of building information modelling and integrated project delivery in building construction project

The Building Information Modelling (BIM) implementation is to create a centralised knowledge sharing resource that contains all the necessary design and operational information about the project. BIM is a collaborative approach and integrated project delivery to design and delivery embraced by various construction teams in the construction projects. In the context of the most suitable project delivery to be used, with regards to the use of BIM, the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach is highlighted as the best method which correlates building procurement of the design-to-construction business process through literature review analysis. IPD is developed as project delivery system that integrates people in effective collaborative approach between the key players in the project. IPD is going to be particularly beneficial for BIM because the contracts relation between the contractor, designers, consultants, constructors, sub-contractors and suppliers were binded and expressly determined at earlier stage. This relationship between these two subjects will helped the project team to achieve the project goals in terms of timely schedule, life cycle costs, quality and sustainability in construction project. Therefore, this study investigates on the propensity of the best methodology of project delivery system which can correlate with procurement adoption for projects adapt BIM concept. This is a descriptive study and the method used is based on review of the literature in relation to BIM and IPD. The analysis revealed that propensity of adopting IPD project delivery and the adoption of BIM are based on these factors: improve the communication, closer collaboration; liability and legal relationships are specifically determined, the best quality outcome; and lastly with reductions in design and construction period, it provides a cost effectiveness and a saving in overall construction period

Perspectives on issues and the application of the innovative procurement approaches for the Industrialised Building System (IBS)

Malaysia is making an aggressive effort of transformation to become a fully developed country. As one of the pillars for transformation, the construction industry has been undergoing a major reform with regard to the traditional method of construction. In recent years, the Industrialised Building System (IBS) has been promoted extensively with the government taking a lead with the practice. Studies showed that IBS has been able to expedite construction process, improve the time taken to accomplish a project, improve building quality, able to control cost and human resources, which in overall, raise occupational health and safety standard of construction. Despite, as most IBS projects were carried out under the traditional procurement method, the full benefits of IBS are somehow obscured. Several issues such as work delay, lack of communication and integration, lack of knowledge and increase in cost, which are synonymous to the traditional procurement method appear to outweigh the benefit of IBS. Hence, this research aims to suggest an alternative to the traditional procurement method with regard to IBS project implementation. The focus of this research has been on the challenges and innovative procurement methods most suited for IBS project. Two objectives were outlined: (1) to identify issues faced by client on current procurement method in IBS project; and (2) to identify the client’s perspective on innovative procurement method most suited for IBS project. Data for this research was collected through semi-structured interviews with five respondents from five major developers having experience in IBS project implementation. The results from the thematic analysis revealed that apart from the common issues which ascend from the sequential nature of the traditional procurement method, design integration issue was opined to aggravate the situation. Unanimously, respondents agreed that partnering is the way forward for IBS project implementation in Malaysian construction industry. This research contributes by providing important pointers for the local construction industry to move forward with IBS project implementation

Privileges of domestic servants: a one paid day off within a week proposal for domestic servants / Nur Hidayah Mhd Mustaffa … [et al.]

For decades, there have been numerous cases between domestic servants and the employers such as poor performance of the domestic servant and the severe cases where the employers abused the domestic servants. In Malaysia, various organizations such as TENAGANITA and Malaysia Trade Union Congress suggested that the government should implement a one paid off day weekly for domestic servants. Essentially, domestic servants are not recognized as workers and they do not enjoy the privileges and protections. Recently, the Malaysia government had announced that they intend to implement a weekly day off for domestic servants as compulsory. There are several interviews which have been completed to obtain this information. The target groups of interviewees chosen were the Ministry of Human Resource, the Deputy Director of Immigrant Sector of Immigration of Malaysia, the Commissioner of Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and the Program Director of TENAGANITA Sdn. Bhd. In this research, we may see that there are more advantages towards the domestic servants and employers when a one day off for domestic servants implemented

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

Critical success factors for Malaysian construction projects: An empirical assessment

Although extensive research has been undertaken on the critical success factors (CSFs) for construction projects, very little of this research contains information specific to the local context. While several local studies have been conducted within a similar research boundary, variables with growing importance in the literature, the human-related factors, have yet to garner much attention. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to gain a renewed understanding of the emerging trend of CSFs considered by various stakeholders in the local industry. This was achieved through a comparative study of 48 Malaysian construction stakeholders classified into three categories, namely, developers, consultants and contractors. The Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) on 46 factors suggests that the stakeholders favour a more balanced approach to CSFs. Apart from the 'hard' factors, there is a strong consistency among the perception of project stakeholders in recognizing the significance of human-related 'soft' factors. The analysis further reveals that the high scoring factors are mostly related to three major aspects: (1) project personnel; (2) commitment and communication; and (3) site management and supervision. Implementation of human-related factors will help to stimulate an atmosphere of trust among stakeholders amidst a widespread adversarial attitude in the industry

A conceptual model of partnering problem resolution process

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