Case Studies on Sustainability Factors for Industrialised Building System (IBS)

This paper presents the outcomes of a case study to test the ability of the Guidelines for Sustainable Construction of Industrialized Building System (GSCIBS). An assessment on the implementation of IBS related guidelines in real projects contributes towards the improvement of these guidelines and ensure the significance of the decision tools in promoting sustainability. In addition, the process involved when using the GSCIBS also demonstrated how the guidelines can be used to assist designers when making a selection with regard to sustainability. Three case projects were selected based on their characteristics (location, accessibility of information, building construction, IBS project with high impact to community and high percentage IBS Score). The projects were categorized as non-residential buildings. Semi-structured interviews and documents’ review were conducted to gather information from the respondents. In total, there are eleven (11) respondents who participated in the case study analysis. The confirmation by the industry participants shows that the guidelines are applicable and suitable to be used in Malaysia. The literal replication was achieved and provides strong evidence that the number of case studies is appropriate. The participants’ comments and suggestions were taken into account in synthesising the project outputs. As a result, the GSCIBS are significant in improving sustainable deliverables of IBS application

Project Delays in the Malaysian Public Sector: Causes, Pathogens and the Supply Chain Management Approach

The inability to complete a project before its deadline has been a severe dilemma in Malaysian public sector projects. Despite initiatives introduced by the government to improve performance, few positive outcomes have been achieved due to inappropriate implementation and a lack of contemporary approaches. Past methods in delay studies have also fallen short in identifying the underlying causes of delays; thus, delay has remained an incessant phenomenon. Thus, this study was conducted in an attempt to shed light on the current delay scenario, taking the “pathogen” approach in identifying the very root of the causes of delay in an effort to propose a way forward for its mitigation via a contemporary approach known as Supply Chain Management (SCM). The research design that was adopted involved three stages. The first stage was an identification of factors that cause delay, whereby six industry experts with a minimum of 20 years of experience were interviewed to gain their insight on this matter. Then, the factors were grouped into pathogens and pathogen sub-categories using a concept taken from other prominent research that took a similar research approach. The third and final stage involved matching beneficial SCM tools that were carefully selected from a literature review that had the potential to overcome each of the delay pathogens and pathogen sub-categories. The conceptual framework, as concluded by this research, provides a thorough overview of the delay factors, pathogens, and pathogen sub-categories, as well as the available tools via SCM that could be used to overcome these issues. It is anticipated that this framework will lead to better time management in future Malaysian public sector construction projects

Developing A Holistic Project Time Management Framework Utilizing Fundamental Supply Chain Management (SCM) Tools to Overcome Delay in Malaysian Public Sector Building Projects

Project delays have been an incessant dilemma worldwide and also for the Malaysian public sector projects. Past three Malaysia Plans (RMK8, RMK9, and RMK10) have experienced ridiculously high delay rates. Surprisingly, these poor delivery records have not led to much research on the topic locally especially those concerning past Malaysia Plans. Beyond that, despite “blame-games†being a common picture when delay occur, past studies has been short of detecting their latent contributors to make delay easier to manage. Condemnations targeted on the industry have encouraged “calls for change†and many proposed Supply Chain Management (SCM) as the way to go about. SCM has been proven to reduce delays nevertheless, level of applications are still very poor and past studies lacked holistic approach. This paper presents an on-going research aimed at developing a holistic project time management framework utilizing fundamental Supply Chain Management (SCM) tools to overcome delays in Malaysian public sector building projects. Data collections would include qualitative methods in form of expert opinion interviews and also a series of focus group sessions towards gathering vastly experienced industry practitioner to contribute towards the development of final research framework. The ultimate outcome is expected to provide a holistic guide on utilizing wide-range SCM tools towards mitigating various facets of delay contributors and with proven success from past SCM tool applications leads to a cautious optimism that it could benefit project time performances in Malaysia as a whole

The Roles, Challenges & Improvement of Project Manager in Project Financial Management in Building Development in Penang, Malaysia

Project Manager holds roles and responsibilities to ensure the success of construction projects for his organisation. And one of the roles is to ensure the well-management of Project Financial Management in his organisation. Recent research has identified project cost overrun has been a major issue in construction industry. These project cost overrun cases have been repeating and have reduced the profit and revenues of the project owners. Therefore, it comes across the researchers mind of what the project managers who work for developer companies have been doing in order to overcome repeated cost overrun cases in the near future project developments. Hence, the set objectives of the research are: 1) To identify the important roles of Project Manager in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia, 2) To identify challenges faced by Project Manager in Financial Management of building project development in Malaysia. 3) To identity solutions to overcome such challenges faced in Financial Management in building project development in Malaysia. However, due to time constraint, this research is limited and carried out in Penang, which is the second-smallest state in Malaysia, with strong population growth and has undertaken numerous construction projects in Malaysia. The research methodology used for this study is qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews are used as research instrument for the data collection for this research. An overall of six interviews had been conducted with highly experienced Project Managers in Penang construction industry who has the knowledge and experiences in the Financial Management of building development. The data from the successful interviews are then been analysed using content analysis method in which the data collected are categorized into groups in table forms. From the findings, the respondents had defined the Project Financial Management relating to three main aspects. Four (4) out of six (6) respondents are having moderate involvement and two (2) respondents are having high involvement in the Financial Management in building development in Penang. The research findings had also identified five (5) major roles of project manager in Project Financial Management. Furthermore, five (5) major challenges of project manager in Project Financial Management were also identified. Finally, research findings also identified four (4) major solutions to overcome the challenges faced by project manager in Project Financial Management. Ultimately, this research is anticipated to create awareness of the important roles of Project Manager in Project Financial Management to mitigate the cost overrun issues in construction projects

Collaborative Supply Chain Management (SCM) Tools for Improved Teamwork in Construction Projects

Fragmentation or the separated working environment has been a major hinderance to effective collaboration among construction industry players and these has been mainly blamed upon the wasteful conventional working practice. Supply Chain Management (SCM), which hold tightly on the notion of collaboration being among its most important enabler and has also proven to contribute to many important elements of an effective collaboration such as better trust, transparency, knowledge sharing, pain-gain sharing etc.; has therefore been promoted to overcome the problem via numerous Collaborative Tools it has to offer. This paper presents part of an on-going research aimed at using SCM Tools to overcome delay and definitely collaboration is an aspect that needs improvement. After conducting a comprehensive literature reviews on past proposal and applications, a number of SCM Collaborative Tools have been identified, elaborated and discussed in this paper; which is expected to serve as a guide towards adopting SCM into construction project practices and thus, achieve the benefits it has to offer. Some of them have been applied in major projects and experienced success hence, deserve more appreciation by the construction world

e-Procurement in Malaysian construction industry: benefits and challenges in implementation

In this paper, the benefits and challenges embedded in Electronic procurement (e-procurement or ePerolehan) are highlighted. Specifically, the benefits of introducing e-procurement for tendering and online registration of businesses and companies in Malaysia was emphasized.The study highlighted E-procurement advantages such as cost reduction, improved efficiency in government business with the aid of internet-based information and communication technology.The study concluded with recommendations to policy makers to pay more attention to the availability of infrastructure such as information technology for a better E-procurement implementation

Review of Material Supply Chain Management during Pre-construction Phases in Malaysia

Construction materials play significant role in construction industry which therefore requires fully attention when creating project plan. Materials form a large part in total cost of construction project. The absence of materials when needed is one of the main causes of loss of productivity in a worksite.Current materials management practices in the construction industry are performed on fragmented basis with many problems faced when managing material supply chain, especially during pre-construction phases. These problems are the main root that causing performance-related problems such as delay in material ordering and receiving, low productivity, cost and time overrun, conflict and disputes. Thus, this paper reviews and discusses the activities and problems faced in material supply chain management during pre-construction phases. It also reasons out on the potential of SCM to be the way forward for improving problems of construction industry (i.e. material supply chain management).A series of in-depth literature review was conducted towards digging the relevant points towards achieving the aims of this paper.In the end, it was clear that material supply chain practices at pre-construction phases are still at below optimum level and that SCM literatures strongly support of it being the potential saviour