BENCHMARKING THE PERFORMANCE OF MALAYSIA’S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Malaysia’s construction industry particularly the provision of public infrastructure projects faces various debatable issues of the government’s belt-tightening budget, abandoned public projects, shoddy workmanship, over-budgeted project procurement and unresolved debts in public project provision. The current global economic downturns as well as the fluctuation in the oil prices worldwide have exacerbated the situation. Thus, in materialising the efficiency, accountability for performance, productivity and monetary policy set in confronting those controversial issues, several actions have been undertaken by Malaysian government including strengthening approval procedures, restructuring the implementation process, enhancing viability through risk distribution, reinforcing the institutional and regulatory framework as well as increasing Bumiputera participation in public infrastructure projects. Yet, these endeavours seem not to be the best solution in tackling those problems. Hence, there is a need of benchmarking the performance of Malaysia’s construction industry especially the provision of public infrastructure projects by clearly stipulating the standard regular evaluation and audition through a performance measurement technique known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This paper provides a literature review of the philosophical, conceptual and functions of KPIs in improvising Malaysia’s construction industry performance. The literature will guide the development of KPIs for the assessment of public infrastructure project provision in Malaysia which forms the major part of the research undertaken.Benchmark, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Public Infrastructure Provision, Malaysia

THE PROVISION OF INFRASTRUCTURE VIA PRIVATE FINANCE INITIATIVE

The infrastructure delivery worldwide has recently shifted to a new paradigm where the government as the public procurer begins to rely on the private sectors’ sources in providing assets and services at no cost to the government. This revolution ensues due to the government’s dilemma in handling various globalisation issues of the belt-tightening government’s budget, the escalated world oil prices, pressure in confronting abandoned public projects, intention in reducing government’s financial burdens as well as increased taxpayers’ demand on the quality of infrastructure assets and services. Thus, in facing those problems whilst maintaining the control over the infrastructure, an alternative procurement approach known as Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has been introduced. Nevertheless, history has proven that not all infrastructure assets or services are amenable to PFI, indeed experience in other jurisdictions has suggested that in some circumstances infrastructure provided via PFI can lead to poor public accountability, a reduction in competition as well as the development of monopolies. With the facts that different countries practise distinguished concepts and philosophies of PFI for their infrastructure provision based on the nature of their construction industry as well as different countries necessitate diverse types of infrastructure for their nation’s development of their, the urgency of determining the principles of infrastructure to be provided via PFI is significant. Therefore, this study investigates the features and characteristics of infrastructure that is suitable to be provided via PFI with the particular references to Malaysia’s construction industry as Malaysia’s version of PFI emerges in unique forms e.g. DBFO (Design, Build, Finance, Operate), BOO (Build, Own, Operate), BOOST (Build, Own, Operate, Subsidise, Transfer) and BOL (Build, Operate, Lease). Although the Malaysia’s version of PFI is theoretically claimed as merely prompt in providing selected economic infrastructure for both physical assets and services, this study demonstrates that Malaysia’s PFI is also duly implemented for social infrastructures.Malaysia, Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Infrastructure.

Performance appraisal amongst contractors in construction project in Malaysia

Contractors are one of the important parties in completing a construction project as they directly involved in the construction works execution. Therefore, contractors’ performance should be monitored and assessed on a regular basis to ensure the success of the project, particularly by identifying the failures and shortfalls, as well as any delays and losses that might occur due to the poor productivity of the contractors. A systematic performance appraisal is one of the endeavors in ensuring that the contractors’ performance is as per the expectation of the stakeholders, particularly the client. Hence, this paper provides a review on the contractors’ performance appraisal practices in construction industry in Malaysia. Questionnaire survey on 214 respondents from construction industries, ranging from contractors to project managers, was undertaken where the results showed that contractors’ performance appraisal in a particular construction project is very essential as it drives the project towards the better improvement and ultimate success

Development of matter concept on submicroscopic level across ages

This study is conducted to understand the development of the matter concept on the submicroscopic level among students of various age groups (16-17 and 24-25 years). A qualitative study with descriptive design was implemented across the ages. A total of ten open-ended questions from Ujian Kefahaman Konsep Jirim Pada Aras Submikroskopik (SUKKJPAS) were used to collect the data. 604 secondary students and training institute teachers were chosen using random sampling for this study. The data then were analysed using descriptive study and content analysis. The finding shows that the development of the matter concept on the submicroscopic level among the students is moderate from the scientific explanation aspect and poor from the scientific drawing aspect. Majority of the students has a basic knowledge about scientific explanation and scientific drawing, in fact, the matter concept also has becomes better across the ages from scientific explanation. Hence, this study recommends the teachers to emphasize on generating a drawing during in giving explanation about chemical phenomenon or situation so that the students will have a better understanding and at the same time familiarize the students with the scientific drawing. Students on the other hands should be encouraged to adapt this concept in giving explanation about chemical phenomenon or situation

Understanding of the key performance indicators measurement amongst construction players in Malaysia

Construction industry nowadays is still synonym with high-profile problems such as cost of project increases, late project delivery, poor quality, abandoned projects and major defective works. Although construction project management has been used extensively in the construction industry, the complexity and dissimilarity of construction projects cannot be regarded as same practices. To meet the objectives of the construction management, strategic management techniques of which include the implementation of key performance indicators (KPIs), KPIs measurement amongst construction players is vital. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Malaysia among 150 construction players: private clients, consultants, contractors, suppliers and purchasers. Factor Analysis (EFA) is used to achieve the aim of this paper in appraising the understanding of the KPIs measurement in terms of definition, characteristics and advantages and disadvantages. Through the understandings of KPIs, it is expected that the findings of this paper could assist the respective construction players to improve their current practice in construction project management for better performance of construction industry in Malaysia

Causes of delay in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia

The drop-in oil price in recent years has seen the oil and gas projects affected negatively. Thus, most Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) companies are opting to optimise the project especially in terms of mitigating delays in construction to achieve the project expectation. Delay causes threat to a project objectives in terms of time, cost and quality. It is also a crucial element in deviating from the client's expectation in terms of productivity, safety and standards. This paper aims at examining the causes of delay in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia. A comprehensive literature review from various sources through books, conference proceedings, the internet, project management journals as well as oil and gas industry journals was made to materialise this paper. There were a few studies that related to this problem and shared a similar view with general construction projects, yet only a fraction of the factors was accepted due to the differences between the two industries. Other variances of the papers included on regional basis or on specific countries. The factors of these attributes were still accepted since it was still applicable to the oil and gas industry and there were not any major variances between countries. The paper has found that there are several significant factors that cause delays in the construction phase of oil and gas projects in Malaysia. The similarity of these delay factors can be grouped into six major groups, namely client, contractor, engineering, external, project and resources. This initial study is based purely on literature review, comparison of similar cases, cross referencing and critical judging. The causes of delay specific to the construction phase in oil and gas projects in Malaysia should be further researched with focus only in the Malaysian projects and industry players

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An overview of knowledge management (KM) issues for implementation in consultant firms in Malaysian construction industry

In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organisational resource. Thus, effective development and implementation of KM requires a foundation in several rich literatures. As a preparation for the competitive industrial nation, KM is an important countenance that should be the point of convergence for the industry players. This paper wishes to draw the attention on the current situation of KM practice, focusing on consultant firms in Malaysian construction industry. Questionnaires were distributed to about 200 respondents working in the industry, with the objective of appraising the KM implementation amongst consultant firms working in construction industry in Malaysia. This paper also gives the overview on KM definition, process, understanding and challenges in construction industry, besides the critical success factor of KM implementation. The literature is restricted on the recent KM study of 17 years research from 2000 to 2017. Finally, this paper proposes the conceptual ideas of relationship between KM process, KM understanding and KM challenges with critical success factor of KM implementation

Globalization and liberalization in the Malaysian construction industry

As a developing country, Malaysia has been gone through a lot of development works in the country. These activities give positive impact on the growth of the Malaysian economy. Globalization and liberalization have taken part in this growth by bringing in foreign direct investment (FDI) especially to the construction industry. As a result of the globalization and liberalization, the Malaysian government has signed free trade agreements (FTA) either the regional or bilateral free trade agreements. This paper which is undertaken via literature review aims at appraising globalization and liberalization in the Malaysian construction industry through the identification of the impacts of globalization and liberalization in construction industry by looking at the FTA signed by the Malaysian government from the perspectives of foreign contractors’ registration and project by foreign contractors. This paper shows the trend of the current foreign firm participation in the Malaysian construction industry of which the Malaysian government can promote various development programs for local contractors in giving positive competition to foreign firms in the Malaysian construction industry

Building Information Modelling (BIM): Contractual Issues of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Construction Projects

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an emerging technology that provides a platform for a comprehensive digital representation of a facility to be created by integrating data from design conception until demolition. In seeking the optimum use of BIM, a large degree of cooperation and collaboration among multi-disciplinary contributors are required for the digital data exchange and sharing process to be deployed. This situation, however, brings up new issues in delineating liabilities and limitations of contributors as the demarcation line of each contributor becomes unclear. In Malaysia, there is no known BIM-enabled standard form of contract that preserves the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the BIM projects’ contributors. Therefore, the present study attempts to investigate the issues pertaining to IPR in the context of BIM adoption in the construction project. Qualitative methodology involving literature review, analysis of existing IPR provisions and semi-structured interviews with the experts were conducted. The research identified two major issues related to IPR in BIM projects: copyright ownership of the BIM model and data infringement. This paper is substantial to deliver knowledge to the construction industry practitioners regarding the legal and contractual considerations in the adoption of BIM