Critical Constructability Principles for Girder Bridge Construction in Malaysia

Implementing constructability concepts in a project can bring many benefits such as reduced project cost & duration, enhanced project quality, and improved site management. There were numerous research on the constructability concept since its introduction in late 1970. However, there are limited studies that identified the critical constructability principles for infrastructure projects. This study identified the critical design stage constructability principles for girder type river bridge construction in Malaysia. Based on extensive literature review and unstructured interviews with the experts in bridge construction, 54 constructability principles were identified. Questionnaires were distributed to professional engineers and G6 & G7 contractors in Malaysia to rate the 54 constructability principles in term of their importance or impact in enhancing the constructability of bridge construction based on 5-point Likert scale. The received 143 responses were analysed using factor analysis which is a data reduction tool of SPSS. Varimax method of orthogonal approach was adopted for factor rotation. Factor analysis had helped to generate 11 principal components or critical constructability principles. Cronbach’s Alpha reliability test also indicated good reliability of the questionnaire scale. The identified critical constructability principles can provide guidelines to the construction practitioners at the design stage to enhance the performance of bridge construction

Constructability Research Trends: A Review and Future Directions

Implementing constructability concepts in a project can bring many benefits such as reduced project cost & duration, enhanced project quality, and improved site management. There were numerous research on constructability concepts since its introduction in late 1970. However, there are limited contemporary literature to review the research on constructability in a structured way. Therefore, this paper aims to review the literature with respective to the constructability concepts. The trend of constructability development, limitations of current research, research gaps and future direction will be briefly presented. Constructability development internationally will be discussed first before the limitation of the constructability research conducted in Malaysia are presented. The literature review reveals that the constructability research in Malaysia are still limited. Apart from building projects, there is a need for more constructability studies with respect to infrastructure projects. The trend of constructability development had moved towards the use of quantitative models. For future direction, quantitative models related to infrastructure projects in Malaysia can be developed. There is a potential of the quantitative models to be embedded with Building Information Modelling (BIM) so that automated assessment is made possible

Literature Review on Green Cost Premium Elements of Sustainable Building Construction

Despite evidence that sustainable construction practice has numerous environmental, economy and societal benefits, many construction practitioners have failed to support sustainable construction practice due to perceive higher initial cost known as “green cost premium” when compared to traditional construction practice. Hence, the factors of green cost premium that are commonly cited as a crucial barrier toward sustainable construction practice must be investigated. Based on the analysis of the existing literature (e.g.: conference paper, journal article), there are 27 factors, that classified into seven elements, that contribute to the cost differential. However, few studies have been conducted on green cost premium in developing countries. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap and is expected to contribute to the discussion on green cost premium to improve sustainable construction implementation

A Study of Transaction Cost within the Supply Chain Network in Malaysia Construction Projects

— Construction industry of Malaysia is a complex and confronts with serious issues of cost overrun. Construction supply chain which involves multi-layered supply network carries lot of potential for conflict and additional costs involving additional transaction cost. To tackle this issue, the primary aim of this study is to identify component of waste in transaction cost within multi-layered supply chain network in Malaysian construction industry. The qualitative research approach is adopted to achieve the research objectives of this study. The data were collected through semi-structured interview from five (5) quantity surveyors working with a contractor firm situated within Klang Valley region. The implication of the finding implies that the identified data are crucial in eliminating waste in transaction cost

A conceptual model to improve building commissioning in construction projects: Case studies of a public institution of higher learning in Malaysia / Kho Mei Ye

Commissioning is a systematic process of ensuring all building facility systems perform interactively in accordance with the design documentation and intent. Commissioning begins with planning and includes design, construction, start-up, acceptance and training, and should be applied throughout the life span of the building. Commissioning is usually misunderstood as a process performed after the completion of construction. Nevertheless, in the Malaysian construction industry, there are many different perceptions on building commissioning. This discrepancy on the interpretation of building commissioning by consultants and contractors as compared with the available definitions of building commissioning has led to misunderstanding of building commissioning concept in the Malaysia context. This problem is further aggravated when contractors and consultants presume that unattended problems in the beginning of a project can be mended in the commissioning phase. As such, questions will arise on whether this interference of unattended problems at the beginning of a project life-cycle will affect the planned commissioning and the timely delivery of the project. Building commissioning is the key to quality assurance in more than one way as it prevents problems from developing, anticipates and regulates system interactions, and implements a systematic method of meeting the buildings mechanical, electrical, and control requirements. However, detail research on project commissioning is relatively small in comparison to other research areas of project management such as project planning, control, success measurement, and risk assessment. This study aims to explore the current scenario of building commissioning in the Malaysian construction industry. To achieve this research aim, the objectives of this study are defined as: 1) to redefine the scope and understanding of building commissioning from the contractors’ and consultants’ perspective; 2) to identify problems during commissioning and the relationships of these problems with other phases of the project life-cycle; 3) to determine the underlying causes of identified commissioning problems; 4) to measure the importance of building commissioning and its effect on project completion by using Earned Value Analysis; and 5) to develop a conceptual model to improve building commissioning for construction projects in the public institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Case studies from a public institution of iii higher learning in Malaysia were selected, as the current process of building commissioning for buildings construction on campus for public institutions of higher learning is generally inefficient. The conceptual model aims to provide a better understanding on building commissioning for the Malaysia context and by eliminating this unattended problem, the planned duration for commissioning will not be affected and indirectly will aid the improvement of building performance. This study also intends to generate a guideline for the construction practitioners on the common activities of building commissioning that needs to be planned even during the construction stage

Risk of late payment in the Malaysian construction industry

The purpose of this study is to identify the underlying causes of late payment from the contractors' perspective in the Malaysian construction industry and to recommend effective solutions to mitigate late payment problems. The target groups of respondents in this study were Grades G3, G5, G6 and G7 contractors with specialization in building works and civil engineering works registered with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) in Malaysia. Results from this study were analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS 15.0). From this study, it was found that respondents have highest ranked five significant variables out of a total of forty-one variables which can caused late payment problems: a) cash flow problems due to deficiencies in client's management capacity (mean = 3.96); b) client's ineffective utilization of funds (mean = 3.88); c) scarcity of capital to finance the project (mean = 3.81); d) clients failure to generate income from bank when sales of houses do not hit the targeted amount (mean=3.72); and e) poor cash flow because of lack of proper process implementation, delay in releasing of the retention monies to contractor and delay in the evaluation and certification of interim and final payment (mean = 3.66)

The development of conceptual model for improving sustainable building construction implementation

Ongoing discussion about sustainable building construction problems such as high initial cost caused by ―green cost premium‖ supported by long-term and uncertain of return on investment (ROI) as well as long-term and low profitability, lead to passive involvement of construction practitioners to construct sustainable building even many benefits are well documented. Previous research finding revealed that, most of the construction practitioners are not willing to spend more just to implement sustainability in their project and some of them has no long-term interest in operating or leasing the buildings. Hence, the question arises on ―how can this issue be resolved?‖. Therefore, this study presents a conceptual model aiming at reducing the initial cost of sustainable building construction project with the hope that this will encourage construction practitioners to invest in sustainable building construction project. Based on the analysis of existing literature (e.g.: conference paper, journal article) there are 19 cost reduction methods, that classified into six elements:technical approach, motivation, design management, project team characteristic, practical approach and management innovation. As there are limited studies conducted on methods to reduce sustainable building construction cost, the authors decided to gather an information on methods to reduce initial project cost not limited to sustainable building construction and in various industries. The components of this conceptual model were constructed based on theories and empirical evidence relating to cost reduction at which, the authors combine and conceptualized them into input-process-output (IPO) model to produce the proposed conceptual model of this study. At the end of this stage, the authors found 9 constructs with 2 associations

Literature Review on Green Cost Premium of Sustainable Building Construction

Despite evidence that sustainable construction practice has numerous environmental, economy and societal benefits, many construction practitioners have failed to support sustainable construction practice due to perceive higher initial cost known as 'green cost premium' when compared to traditional construction practice. Hence, the factors of green cost premium that are commonly cited as a crucial barrier toward sustainable construction practice must be investigated. Based on the analysis of the existing literature (e.g.: conference paper, journal article), there are 27 factors, that classified into seven elements, that contribute to the cost differential. However, few studies have been conducted on green cost premium in developing countries. Therefore, this study attempts to fill this gap and is expected to contribute to the discussion on green cost premium to improve sustainable construction implementation

Rethinking Value Management (VM) Integration within the Strategic Phase of Construction Project Value Chain

This is an attempt of rethinking Value Management (VM) integration within the strategic phase of the Malaysian public construction project value chain. Currently, such strategic VM integration is not evidenced by any value study. The earliest existing VM study intervention, namely Value Assessment (VA), only takes place after the Government approves the project budget. The budget approval activity demarcates that the project has reached the ‘decision to construct’ point at the end of the strategic phase. This indicates a vacuum of VM integration within the strategic phase of the project value chain. This conceptual study is conducted through retrieving literature review and obtaining consultation from VM experts in the public sector. First, the study has verified the vacuum of VM integration within the strategic phase of the Malaysian public construction project value chain. Secondly, in responding to the vacuum, this study identifies the opportunity of integrating VM within the strategic phase. Ultimately, two (2) opportune VM study interventions within the strategic phase are determined. This finding describes the value studies’ characteristics in terms of the study timings, main study objectives and the issues addressed by the respective VM study interventions