An integrated approach to enhance sustainability in industrialised building systems

Building prefabrication is known as Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) in Malaysia. This construction method possesses unique characteristics that are central to sustainable construction. For example, offsite construction enables efficient management of construction wastage by identifying major causes of waste arising during both the design and construction stages. These causes may then be eliminated by the improvement process in IBS component's manufacturing. However, current decisions on using IBS are typically financial driven and hinder the wider ranged adoption. In addition, current IBS misconceptions and the failure of rating schemes in evaluating the sustainability of IBS affect its implementation. A new approach is required to provide better understanding on the sustainability potential of IBS among stakeholders. Such approach should also help project the outcomes of each levels of decision-making to respond to social, economy and environmental challenges. This paper presents interim findings of research aimed at developing a framework for sustainable IBS development and suggests a more holistic approach to achieve sustainability. A framework of embedding sustainability factors is considered in three main phases of IBS construction; 1) Pre-construction, 2) Construction and 3) Post-construction phase. SWOT analysis was used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in the IBS implementations. The action plans are formulated from the analysis of sustainable objectives. This approach will show where and how sustainability should be integrated to improve IBS construction. A mix of quantitative and qualitative methodology was used in this research to explore the potential of IBS in integrating sustainability. The tools used in the study are questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Outcomes from these tools lead to the identification of viable approaches involving 18 critical factors to improve sustainability in IBS constructions. Finally, guidelines for decision-making are being developed to provide a useful source of information and support to mutual benefit of the stakeholders in integrating sustainability issues and concepts into IBS applications

Characteristics of Procurement Methods in Malaysia – Comparing Design-Bid-Build, Design-Build and Construction Management

Design-Bid-Build (DBB) or commonly known as Traditional method is the earliest and most prevalent procurement method used in Malaysian construction industry. Design-Build (DB) and Construction Management (CM) procurement methods were later introduced in Malaysia as an endeavour to satisfy and accommodate the increase in project complexity and the need for avoiding drawbacks of the Traditional methods. Each procurement method has different nature and possesses certain characteristics. Therefore, this study was carried out to ascertain and compare the characteristics of these three procurement methods that are implemented in building construction projects in Malaysia. A questionnaire survey was conducted among architects, consultants, contractors and owners or developers to elicit their feedback on the characteristics which were categorised into time, cost, quality, complexity and flexibility, degree of involvement and responsibility allocation and technical expertise. The findings indicated that only DB method almost fulfils all the characteristics under the six categories, whereas, DBB methods garnered agreement only for certain characteristics under time, cost, complexity and flexibility and technical expertise categories. Meanwhile, the only CM method’s characteristics that satisfy agreement from the respondents are the often used of fast track approach and lack of certainty in price. This study concludes that when a procurement method is adopted for a construction project, not all the features or characteristics will turn out as expected. There are many factors that contribute and are influential on the success in procurement methods that are worth for further investigation

CO2 Emissions Forecast in Precast Concrete Production

With increasing demands regarding a detailed estimation of environmental impacts of materials in new construction projects, this research was intended to produce a forecasting model of CO2 emissions in precast concrete production using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Due to its capability to correlate non-linear and non-unique problem, ANN has received increasing attention for forecasting applications in recent years. Prior to the model development, a set of questionnaire was distributed to several precast concrete plants all around Japan to obtain data regarding indicators which are generally influential to CO2 emissions in the production. From 107 plants, the result of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that ordinary Portland cement, coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, heavy oil, kerosene, and electricity were considered to be significant indicators and further used as inputs in developing the CO2 emissions model. A three-layer perceptron with backpropagation neural network approach was proposed to train the network. The different number of hidden neurons, distribution of data sets, learning rate, and momentum were tested to minimize the error between actual and forecasted outputs. The model with 51 hidden neurons using a set of 0.1, 0.9 and 0.3 for learning rate, momentum and initial weight, respectively produced the best result. Indicated by the MAPE value which is less than 10%, this newly developed model shows an excellent accuracy for forecasting the CO2 emissions in the future. It was also validated by the result of sensitivity analysis that the developed model generated a negligible impact on the CO2 emissions due to variations of the six significant indicators

Editorial Preface

It is a great pleasure that we present the 11th special issue with a number of 7 of the International Journal of Integrated Engineering (IJIE). This edition features the latest findings and research in the areas related to Mechanical Engineering and its application. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the enthusiastic and vigorous support and contributions from the Editorial Board and Reviewers of IJIE for taking time and effort to review the manuscripts.  As no manuscript is accepted or rejected without careful reading by experts in a particular area to which the paper is related. The experts have maintained a high standard of scholarship and we believe the readers of this Journal deserves. It is our hope that this fine collection of articles will be a valuable resource for International Journal of Integrated Engineering (IJIE) readers and will stimulate further research in the area of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering.  We strongly encourage authors to submit their articles and readers to provide feedback.  In order to access the online version of this issue along with archived editions please visit our website http://penerbit.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie/. We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed manuscripts in IJIE and those who are awaiting their manuscripts for publication in subsequent issues

Editorial Preface

It is a great pleasure that we present the 11th regular issue with a number of 6 of the International Journal of Integrated Engineering (IJIE). This edition features the latest findings and research in the area of Civil and Environmental  Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. We would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the enthusiastic and vigorous support and contributions from the  Editorial Board and Reviewers of IJIE for taking time and effort to review manuscripts.  As no manuscript is accepted or rejected without careful reading by experts in a particular area to which the paper is related. The experts have maintained a high standard of scholarship and we believe the readers of this Journal deserves. It is our hope that this fine collection of articles will be a valuable resource for International Journal of Integrated Engineering (IJIE) readers and will stimulate further research in the area of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing  Engineering.  We strongly encourage authors to submit their articles and readers to provide feedback.  In order to access the online version of this issue along with archived editions please visit our website http://penerbit.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie/. We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed manuscripts in IJIE and those who are awaiting their manuscripts for publication in subsequent issues

Editorial Preface

It is a pleasure to present the first special issue of mechanical engineering for the year 2019. All manuscripts received by the editors were examined by referees instructed to evaluate the papers by the significance and novelty. There are 30 papers published in this issue came from various countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and industry. Most of the papers discussed in the aspect of mechanical engineerings such as welding technology, computational fluid dynamic, materials and industrial engineering. Many thanks to all contributors and reviewers for their participation in making this issue can be realized

Editorial Preface

The 11th regular issue, number 8 is presenting the latest findings and research in the three major engineering field, namely, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. The chief editors really appreciate support and contributions from the Editorial Board and Reviewers for making the process of selection of articles rigorous and meeting the high standard of scholarship that had been set. There are 31 articles were selected to be published in this issue, which reflects the niche of IJIE. Hopefully, the articles will provide additional information and contribute to the development of the engineering field. The chief editors strongly encourage authors to submit their articles and readers to provide feedback. Any comment for improvement is really appreciated.  Please visit IJIE website http://penerbit.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie/ to access the online version of this issue along with archived editions. The chief editors also would like to thank all the authors who have contributed manuscripts in IJIE and those who are awaiting their manuscripts for publication in subsequent issues

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

The implementation of persuasive technology principles in mobile application development: a qualitative study

Preceding studies of persuasive technology have mentioned several benefits on the implementation of persuasive design features of the Persuasive System Design (PSD) model such as creating users' engagement and acceptance and continuous usage. However, available literatures have not sufficiently address the implementation of these design principles particularly in the context of mobile application development as compared to system development. Furthermore, there are low numbers of discussion that have relate the implementation of these design principles towards the achievement of the persuasive system developed. Hence, this study was conducted to qualitatively explore the way persuasive design principles were implemented as well as the mobile application development process followed in three different levels of mobile applications' attainments. Within this study, seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with the involvement of fifteen (15) Android mobile applications in the area of utilities category. These mobile applications were then categorized into successful, partially successful and less successful categories based on their numbers of mobile application downloaded for three consecutive years which is from 2013 until 2015. The results from the content analysis conducted have shown that the mobile applications of the successful category have implemented a lot more persuasive design principles as compared to the other two categories. Moreover, it is also found that all of the mobile applications of the category had follow a more detailed process of mobile application development with the emphasizing on product introduction to the users. A model of the implementation of persuasive design principles in mobile application development was then proposed based on the findings gained from this research. The results from this study have provided contribution to the body of knowledge by leveraging the domain of persuasive technology studies particularly in mobile application development