Integration of design safety into curricula in the undergraduate programs: the academician perspective

The current and growing construction industry in the country has led to increasing of accidents related to construction workers. In an attempt to decrease accidents on site, the design safety concept is the most suitable measures to date. Though the impact is evident and potential benefits of its implementation are apparent, widespread application of this intervention in the Malaysia’s construction industry is currently lacking especially in the academic sector. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the integration of safety and health to the current curricula focusing on the engineering programmes and their perceptions towards design safety concept and its implementation. The types of design disciplines included in the research study were limited to academicians. A total of 72 respondents received via questionnaire and the responses were scored on a 5-point Likert Scale to express their level of agreement. The results show that the graduates are not equipped with adequate knowledge of safety and health legislation and regulations through the current curricula and disagree that the content of the programmes is adequate. Although majority agree on the positive effect of design safety towards accidents on site, there is still minority who believe that the concept has no significant effect towards site safety. However, this paper concludes that there is no major impediment from the academic sector on the implementation and integration of design safety concept to the undergraduate curricula. The implementation of design safety should be in a well organized structure for effective results towards zeroaccident as well as increases the designers’ value in the construction industry

Stakeholder's attitude towards construction worker's safety and health

The construction industry in Malaysia as in many other countries is considered one of the riskiest industries due to the high rate of accidents and their devastating consequences. The construction safety has been debated for centuries with numerous research on the methods, techniques and interventions in order to minimize accidents occurred on site. Safety and health performance is influenced by among other things, stakeholder's attitude towards the safety of the construction workers. The main objective of this research is to identify the attitude of the main stakeholders towards the duties and obligation of the designer, contractor and client in terms of safety and health. The respondents of this research are the designers, architects and civil engineers, contractors and others. A questionnaire was used as the main instrument on a Likert-type scale with a total of 97 respondents received. The research found positive results gain on the attitudes of the stakeholders towards the duties and obligation of the designers, contractors and clients. However, this does not diminish the importance of increasing the awareness on the duties and obligation of these stakeholders in terms of safety and health of the construction workers. Thus, the research suggests three recommendations for the future direction of implementing design safety in Malaysia, approach curricula in the universities, additional training programmes and awareness in terms of safety and health of the construction workers

A knowledge integration approach for design for safety body of knowledge (DfSBoK)

Design for Safety has been becoming increasingly important in the construction industry worldwide however it is limited in terms of integration into the undergraduate programmes curricula. Knowledge integration for Design for Safety is a necessity in order to instil a concept into the construction environment or culture. It is essential that the next generation of construction professionals learn about Design for Safety so that it can be incorporated into the culture of the industry. In order for a new concept to be successfully integrated into current Construction Designers programmes, the right and appropriate approach must be taken.. A primary focus of this paper was on the integration of the Design for Safety Body of Knowledge (DfSBoK) into undergraduate architectural and civil engineering degree programmes. Questionnaire was used as a method of data collection distribute to academicians from 26 universities that are accredited for the said programmes. The results, analysed by SPSS Statistics, found that academics are in agreement with both approaches, whether they are standalone or embedded in current courses. Despite the fact that the findings show that an embedded approach was a slightly higher approach that was preferred. In spite of this, this study suggest that a standalone strategy should be implemented because the academicians have a limited or nonexistent understanding of the concept in question. This finding significantly contribute considerably to the educational sector in overcoming challenges to incorporating design safety knowledge, namely for the architectural and civil engineering programmes respectively

Factors Contributing to Delay of Interim Payment in Civil Engineering Projects

Delay of interim payment remains a chronic problem in the Malaysian construction industry and has relatively increased in number in recent years. Other than causing conflict among the contracting parties, the impacts it brings could shatter the entire delivery chain. Thus, the unfavorable contractual behavior of the client is a matter of great concern that should be addressed by all parties involved to ensure satisfactory project performance. However, research has revealed that the factor causing it is not solely because of the client's faults but also caused by other factors. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the factors that lead to the occurrence of delay of interim payment in government-initiated civil engineering projects in Malaysia. The perceptions of civil engineer consultants and contractors were compared in relation to a list of factors derived from the literature review. The data were collected through an industry-wide questionnaire survey from 288 respondents. This research developed a list of 22 items that might influence the delay of interim payment based on four domains, namely project characteristics, quality of Standard Form of Contract (SFoC), external factors and participants and local attitude. The results found that the occurrence of delay of interim payment in civil engineering project is very high frequency. Correlation analysis performed revealed that the three major factors are positively correlated, namely project scope and design changes, ground uncertainty under the project characteristics domain, and bureaucracy in government agencies under the participants and local attitude domain. These results can help the project participants to better understand the relationship between the groups of factors and the delay of interim payment and encourage them to find solutions or implement mitigating actions to improve the outcomes of civil engineering project