Faizatul Akmar Abdul Nifa

An IPD framework for sustainable design in UUM campus development

The growing number of users in a university campus calls for a more sustainable approach in the design of infrastructure and facilities available on campus. To date, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) has approximately 25,000 users on campus which includes students and staff. With the second largest international student population among Malaysian universities, it is imperative that the campus development to be at par with international universities especially in the matters of sustainability. This paper reports part of an on-going research for developing a framework for JPP UUM which strengthens the efforts of sustainability in the development of UUM campus. Through a number of pilot interviews, a framework for integrated project delivery is derived from themes identified in the insights of various functions within JPP UUM. It is concluded that a more proactive approach from the campus management is needed to ensure all components in the framework to come together for sustainable efforts to succeed.

Process innovation in partnering: A framework for aligning organizational cultures in the Malaysian construction industry

Partnering has been formally introduced in the Malaysian construction industry since the year 2009 as a measure to cure the industrys many diseases. Although the Public Private Partnership Unit (3PU) and the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia has proposed their own models for partnering, these models do not address the need for similarity in organizational cultures among partnering organizations to ensure partnering success as suggested by several studies. In response to this challenge, and consistent with the requirements of the construction industry to perform better in terms of innovation and productivity, this paper aims to propose a framework for enabling the partnering process which meets the needs of different organizational culture within the Malaysian construction industry. The framework is based on the findings from a recent postgraduate study on the engagement of Malaysian construction firms in partnering practices. The findings concluded that although the government has made the effort in introducing partnering, the industry has not fully embraced this method due to dissimilarities in organizational culture among firms involved and several partnering enablers are yet to be present in the industry.

Building Sustainable Design Performance Through Integrated Value Management Practice

Maintenance management is a combination of all technical and administrative actions, including supervision actions, intended to retain an item in or restore it to a state in which it can perform a required function. Value management is a proactive, creative, problem-solving service, utilizing a multi-disciplinary team-oriented plan of attack to make explicit the client’s value system using functional analysis to discover the relationship between time, cost and quality with the aim of maximizing the overall operation of an establishment. Both of them are interrelated with each other for improving building performance. Alas, lack of a thorough review of design and specification has thus created so many faults and defects during the conception and construction stages in which resulted later in high upkeep costs. For overcoming that issue, this paper will explore the potential of VM approach during the conception phase of bringing on a perfect (fewer defects) design specification of a building. The standard procedure of VM methodology practice which has involved a multidisciplinary project stakeholders in order to avoid the issue over design and unnecessary maintenance costs will be concluded as well.

Challenges and opportunities of disaster education program among UUM student

“Disaster education” is a new area and concepts in the field of education in Malaysia. UUM students are less exposed to Disaster education compared with students in the other country. Nowadays, there have been significant increases in the frequency of the disasters. The goals of this research are given knowledge for UUM student to prevent, prepared and more aware of the future disaster. Providing UUM students with disaster education is one of the steps towards the creating of the culture of prevention and preparedness within each other. The aimed of this study on “Disaster Education” is for reducing vulnerabilities to natural hazards and makes people more aware of the natural disaster. The importance of disaster education is for reducing disaster and achieves safety of human for sustainable development among university students. Based on these literature findings, the questionnaires were conducted among UUM students to explore the challenges and opportunity of Disaster Education Program among UUM students. The objective of this research is to present the questionnaire findings on challenges and opportunities of disaster education among UUM students is related to the disaster knowledge factors. A comprehensive list of challenges and opportunities for disaster education program among UUM students is identified from this research.

Project scope management through multiple perspectives: A critical review of concepts

Project scope management is a main function in project management process. Moreover, it is a critical function because any changes or modifications in scope will cause extra cost on the total project development expenses. In addition, scope management ensures the successful management of other key project management areas, including time, cost, and quality. There are six main steps in scope management process namely; plan the scope, collect the requirements, define the scope, create work breakdown structure (WBS), validate scope and control the scope. These processes been highlighted in different scale in project methods and standards.

Building information modeling (BIM) in Malaysian construction industry: Benefits and future challenges

Building Information Modeling is an innovative technology coupled with process and human interactions. BIM has been used by the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry in developed and developing countries including Malaysia. The reason for having BIM in practice triggered by the Director of Public Works Department (PWD) in 2009; who urged construction companies to adopt ICT to enhance productivity and efficiency. This paper aims to explore the BIM implementation in Malaysian Construction Industry. A literature review was carried out to explore on existing BIM implementation that includes definitions, BIM applications, BIM benefits and BIM future challenges. The data collected from various sources such as books, journal articles, conference papers and material available on the Internet, which related to BIM. The review highlights on several BIM benefits regarding financial, better information, communication and coordination, respond to complexity, improved visual, improved sustainability, improved safety and also create service’s or business’s opportunities. Nevertheless, implementing BIM is not without challenges although it gains attention from many countries. Some issues regarding culture, technology, process and policy for the construction stakeholders, organizations and policymaker have been raised to take up the challenges for effective BIM implementation.

Planning for post disaster recovery: Lesson learnt from flood events in Kelantan Malaysia

As the frequency of disaster occurrence increases, the world cities today are getting more difficult in terms of the management of the event. One of the most discussed issues today is the management of the post-disaster recovery that involves several stages such as the planning, management of multiple stakeholders, restoration, reconstruction and delivery. It is important to note that input from related stakeholders is necessary to make the right decision during this most critical period. In the process of building back after a disaster, it is important to ensure the newly constructed infrastructures are built to be more resilient and able to withstand a certain level of disaster recurrence. Elements of disaster risk reduction should be incorporated in the planning, redesign, construction and the operation of the built environment. In Malaysia, the disaster management has been the responsibility of the Disaster Management and Relief Committee that consists of agencies at the central, state and local levels. This is to ensure that all aspects are being considered and to be more effective in managing the situation.As the frequency of disaster occurrence increases, the world cities today are getting more difficult in terms of the management of the event. One of the most discussed issues today is the management of the post-disaster recovery that involves several stages such as the planning, management of multiple stakeholders, restoration, reconstruction and delivery. It is important to note that input from related stakeholders is necessary to make the right decision during this most critical period. In the process of building back after a disaster, it is important to ensure the newly constructed infrastructures are built to be more resilient and able to withstand a certain level of disaster recurrence. Elements of disaster risk reduction should be incorporated in the planning, redesign, construction and the operation of the built environment. In Malaysia, the disaster management has been the responsibility of the Disaster Management and Relief Committee that consists of agencies at the central, state and local level...

The views of practitioners on Malaysian partnering policies for PPP/PFI projects

The challenges currently faced by the Malaysian construction industry could be attributed to the industry being multifaceted in nature and comprised of firms forming ‘temporary organizations’ whereby failure in aligning objectives within the team may cause friction, and further creating challenges to project implementation. In response to these challenges, CIDB has identified and recommended partnering as a method to overcome the current problems within the industry. It is crucial that the policies in place should facilitate the practitioners so that the full potential of partnering to overcome the many problems in the Malaysian construction industry can be fully utilized. This paper describes the findings of an exploratory qualitative research to identify if the current policies in place are serving as an enabler for effective partnering or a deterrent to the adoption of partnering by the practitioners in the Malaysian construction industry. It is determined that apart from issues identified from literat...

Collaborative procurement for developing a sustainable campus

It is particularly challenging to achieve sustainability in campus universities, where a high volume of users and activities has made it more imperative to promote green buildings that reduce energy and water consumption while having a minimal carbon footprint. At present, the frameworks for sustainable campus have seldom focused on the project procurement method which would improve construction team integration in developing the physical aspect of campus development. Therefore, in response to that challenge, this paper investigates how the delivery team, responsible for the design and construction of a project, can be integrated to work together more efficiently and more using the collaborative procurement method known as partnering. This paper reports part of a previous research and sets the base for ongoing research on the critical factors in partnering for sustainable campus development. The outcome or result of this study will meet and support the requirement for construction, maintenance, and operation process for universities towards sustainable building/campus in the future.

Key factors of readiness in the implementation of Industrialised Building System (IBS)

Although IBS has been introduced since the 1960, and many advantages that have identified for the implementation of IBS in Malaysia, yet the level of implementation of IBS still did not achieve the government target. Previous studies have been conducted to identify the factors that contribute to the lack of the implementation. From the previous studies, mostly the barriers of IBS implementation are rooted within the several semi-structured lack of readiness among industry players. The interview participants for this study are from the multidisciplinary IBS practitioners. This paper discusses the identified readiness with the objective to determine what the key factor of readiness in IBS implementation is and how far the factors influence the IBS activities. From the finding, the readiness factor was divided into three main factors which are knowledge, ability and planning.