Establishing a strategic framework of green procurement for the malaysian construction industry / Mohd Sallehuddin Mat Noor and Fadzil Hassan

Resource depletion has become the main issues in the last decades. The fact that world population increased into 7 billion in the year 2013, natural resources has become a crucial element in creating better quality of life through physical infrastructure development. In order to decrease the emission of carbon up to 20 percent in the year 2020, green procurement is believed to be one of the solution minimize the environmental impact through its nature of procuring service or product which can be controlled from the initiation steps until its demolition. The current problem in Malaysian construction industry is that it is at the junction in determining the growth of this sector. Megatrend in the global scale had influenced it through risk management, sustaining profitability, sustaining corporate social responsibility and growing bureaucracy, green procurement is believed to be the solution to the construction industry to grow steadily thus contributes to the nation’s economic and social growth. Most of the data that will be obtained are primary data, using document analysis, questionnaire and focus group that will be conducted to the respective bodies in construction industries. This research will be detailed up on its elements and the sub elements of the strategic framework within each element. It also will be tested in the real construction industry. Finally, this strategic framework will be validated to be used in the current industry. The anticipated finding is that to fill the knowledge gap by introducing a green procurement strategic framework for the industry restructuring a new type of procurement method

Challenges in Education and Training to Develop Malaysian Construction Workforce

Education and training have been central to the development of the Malaysian construction workforce. Notwithstanding the various initiatives introduced to promote education and training, critics are arguing that these have been ineffective. This paper critically reviews the phenomenon and identifies the causal factors. Throughout three key areas; (i) the context of the industry, (ii) the education and training provisions offered, and (iii) the challenges, meta-data analysis of literature was undertaken grounded on the concepts of strategic management ecosystems. Since it is crucial to ties several variable clusters in order to reach a comprehensive finding, the analysis was helped by the multi-layered thematic processes. The findings show that nine key factors at the construction industry level (external ecosystem), and two key factors in the education and training provisions (internal ecosystem) that are interrelated to each other have significantly affected the effectiveness of the education and training to develop the Malaysian construction workforce. These factors need to be addressed in a holistic and integrated manner to improve the predicament which resides in a public strategic management field. Aside from the context-centric findings, the paper posits for subsequent empirical exploration as validation is of concerned. However, it may open up education and training literature to recognised possible multidisciplinary research, education, and practice while addressing challenges such as law, government policy, and standards’ development

‘Let’s Collaborate’: Malaysian TVET-Engineering Institution and Industry Partnership

Strategic partnerships are the most important element in the automotive industry. The interaction between two or more parties is important in pursuing the successful planning and implementation of an education and training system in producing a competent workforce. Malaysia is one country that has adopted Public Private Partnership (PPP) as a procurement technique for delivering public sector projects. PPP, taken in its broadest meaning, refers to any arrangement between the public and private sectors for the delivery of public services. However, previous studies indicated that the collaboration between training institutions and industry is still at a weak level. The major constraints were including the failure to understand the work culture of the organization, inconsistency of mission and vision of the organization, and weaknesses of the governance system. Therefore, this study aims to propose a model of TVET-Engineering Governance Structure in Collaboration of Malaysian TVET- Engineering Institution and industry partnership. In this case, data were collected from 115 technologists in three different fields involved mechanical, electric and electronic and civil in Malaysia. Then, the data were analysed using the PLS-SEM 3.3.9 software via the algorithm, bootstrapping and blindfolding method. Through the PLS-SEM approach, this study focuses on the analysis of (a) convergent validity and (b) discriminant validity in which these two validities have six analyses; (i) external loading, (ii) composite reliability, (iii) average variance extracted (AVE), (iv) Fornell-Larcker, (v) cross-loading, and (vi) Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio (HTMT). Meanwhile, the structural model testing involves the analysis of (i) Multicollinearity (Inner VIF), (ii) Path Coefficient, (iii) R square (R2), (iv) size effect (f2), and (v) Predictive Relevance (Q2). At the end of the analysis, the model that has been developed is relevant to use because each phase meets the conditions that have been set in the PLS-SEM analysis. The result, the governance structure for TVET-Engineering for TVET-Engineering is important since it can contribute to intensifying the Malaysian TVET- Engineering Institution and industry partnership. TVET Institutions must play an important role in fulfilling the demands from the industry and developing innovative skills for students. Future research is suggested to test the model on a wider range of TVET respondents to see its appropriateness

Bibliometric analysis of review on curriculum reform of design history using CNKI database

There has been a significant gap in the comprehensive literature review of teaching reform of design history in the Chinese context. In order to bridge this gap, the literature bibliometric method is adopted to review the existing research on design history curriculum reform based on the CNKI database. A keyword review perspective was used to clarify the existing topics in this field, as well as the hotspots of research. Our results reveal that design history, industrial design history and teaching reform are the three main topics that Chinese scholars are more concerned with. As a specific discipline of design history curriculum, curriculum reform of industrial design history is the hotspot of existing research, and teaching reform is an influential research direction

Chinese industrial design from 1949 to 1979: The modernization foundation of Chinese design history

AbstractIndustrial design has been the main direction for the Chinese nation building since 1949, and is the centre of the modernization process of Chinese design history. In order to corroborate the timeline of Chinese modern design history and to reveal the real modernity of design history, this paper provides a perspective from physical evidence to corroborate the modern period of Chinese design history and to clarify the design works that can represent Chinese modern design. Based on this, 27 pieces of modern Chinese design works from the China Industrial Design Museum are selected as the corroborating objects for the case study, and the factors influencing the difference between Chinese and Western modernity are analyzed accordingly. The study concludes that Chinese industrial design from 1949 to 1979 can, to a certain extent, represents the historical direction of Chinese modern design history, and that the Chinese modern design style reflects the national characteristics of developing Asian countries. In addition, the context in which the modernity is located reflects a special modernity different from that of the Western world

Design of new energy vehicle exhibition space based on virtual reality technology

At present, although the new energy vehicle experience center presents a dynamic development trend of science, technology, diversity and innovation, the display and dissemination of the new energy vehicle industry and culture cannot be satisfied, resulting in the display function cannot be fully exerted. VR (Virtual Reality) display design is a new topic of audio–visual​ design with the popularization of VR technology and related computer application technology. This paper focuses on the realization and application of VR exhibition space design for new energy vehicles, and discusses the design principles that should be followed in VR exhibition space design for new energy vehicles and its practical significance to design communication. In this paper, a parallel 3D reconstruction method based on multi-view video stream is proposed. In this method, the mobile terminal and the server execute asynchronously, the terminal decodes the multi-view video stream in parallel, and the server performs feature extraction and stereo matching on the returned key frames. Finally, the calculated parallax is combined with the projection matrix to restore the 3D scene

Multi-scene design analysis of integrated energy system based on feature extraction algorithm

The specific analysis of a region’s energy needs to model and simulate various types of energy, quantify energy information, and clearly and intuitively reflect the energy situation and energy potential of a region. In this paper, according to the input attributes of various energy load forecasting models, the correlation degree of main control factors is analyzed, and the influence degrees of environmental factors on electric power, gas, heating and cooling loads are obtained respectively. Then, convolution neural network is used to extract the feature vectors of comprehensive environmental factors. Finally, according to the given feature vectors, the feature clustering models of various energy loads are established by using K-means clustering algorithm, and the load forecasting results of multi-energy systems are obtained. The errors between the predicted results of various energy loads and the actual load records in the study area are 1.105%, 1.876%, 3.102% and 2.834%, respectively. The load forecasting method based on feature clustering proposed in this paper can effectively extract the influence of different environmental factors on the load forecasting results, and get more accurate load forecasting results

Challenges in education and training to develop Malaysian construction workforce

Education and training have been central to the development of the Malaysian construction workforce. Notwithstanding the various initiatives introduced to promote education and training, critics are arguing that these have been ineffective. This paper critically reviews the phenomenon and identifies the causal factors. Throughout three key areas; (i) the context of the industry, (ii) the education and training provisions offered, and (iii) the challenges, meta-data analysis of literature was undertaken grounded on the concepts of strategic management ecosystems. Since it is crucial to ties several variable clusters in order to reach a comprehensive finding, the analysis was helped by the multi-layered thematic processes. The findings show that nine key factors at the construction industry level (external ecosystem), and two key factors in the education and training provisions (internal ecosystem) that are interrelated to each other have significantly affected the effectiveness of the education and training to develop the Malaysian construction workforce. These factors need to be addressed in a holistic and integrated manner to improve the predicament which resides in a public strategic management field. Aside from the context-centric findings, the paper posits for subsequent empirical exploration as validation is of concerned. However, it may open up education and training literature to recognised possible multidisciplinary research, education, and practice while addressing challenges such as law, government policy, and standards‟ development

The impact of preschool outdoor environment on children’s socio-emotional development

Children are involved in various forms of social interactions, experiences, and the setting of environments in outdoor play areas that support children’s socio-emotional growth. It is necessary because the environment leaves a memorable experience for children. Other than that, it is crucial for their training and physical coordination. In addition, children’s emotional and social skills were indirectly assessed. This paper intends to incorporate an outdoor environment in preschools to meet the socio-emotional developmental needs of preschool children. Preschools located in Peninsular Malaysia were considered to be discussed in this paper. Conducting interviews with four teachers from various types of preschools can provide an initial picture of the external environment development in preschools. Early experiences of external environment interactions and the presence of social interactions with teachers and peers in preschool often impact the children’s learning experience. Two conclusions from the research findings guide the discussion on how the relationships of the preschools’ outdoor environment can foster the preschoolers’ socio-emotional growth. First, they acquire social and emotional competence with a combination of different experiences through shared or solitary experiences. Second, it was found that a variety of outdoor games with engaging spaces that offer attractions imminently stimulates game-based learning in contributing to the socio-emotional competence of preschoolers