Narimah Kasim

Best practices of Building Information Modelling (BIM) implementation in design phase for construction project

Implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) was expected to bring improvement in current practices of Malaysian construction industry. In the design phase, there is a lack of a ready pool of skilled workers who are able to develop BIM strategic plan and effectively utilise it. These create boundaries for BIM nature in Malaysian construction industry specifically in the design phase to achieve its best practices. Therefore, the objectives of this research are to investigate the current practices of BIM implementation in the design phase as well as the best practices factors of BIM implementation in the design phase. The qualitative research approach is carried out through semi-structured interviews with the designers of different organisations which adopt BIM in the design phase. Data collection is analysed by executing content analysis method. From the findings, the best practices factors of BIM implementation in design phase such as the incentive for BIM training, formal approach to monitoring automated Level of Detailing (LOD), run a virtual meeting and improve Industry Foundation Class (IFC). Thus, best practices factors which lead to practices improvements in the design phase of project development which subsequently improves the implementation of BIM in the design phase of Malaysian construction industry.

Potential Of Light Pipes System In Malaysian Climate

Light-pipes system are simple structures that allow the transmission of daylight from the outside to the inside of a room. It is a practical application in many buildings where daylight cannot reach due to building design and limited facade to placing windows. Since roof is the element directly exposed to the sunlight, light pipes system could be introduced. This paper examines the illumination levels obtained using light pipes system under Malaysia climate conditions. A light-pipe system that was installed in a test room located in Batu Pahat. Indoor illuminance distributions and concurrent outdoor illuminance were monitored at a 30 minutes interval for 5 days. The results indicated that the amount of daylight penetrated into the building are varied with less than 150lux in the early morning and late evening, and maximum at over 350lux in the noon and early afternoon. The average internal illuminance levels offer by light pipe system met the MS 1525:2007 recommendation for application in Malaysian buildings. These findings indicated that the light pipe system has a potential as a tool for introducing daylight indoors in Malaysia.

The Potential of Context-Aware Computing for Building Maintenance Management Systems

The increasing awareness of the importance of a proper building maintenance management system becomes the main contributing factor for the development of facilities management worldwide. Various building maintenance management system tools become necessary to remain competitive. The widespread use of mobile devices envisions a growing market for new applications in building maintenance. It is well-understood that the use of mobile technologies is critical in building maintenance as the right information needs to be delivered to the right person, at the right time, and at the right place. However, existing building maintenance applications only support the delivery of static modes of information (such as building data and checklists); the information is pre-programmed and is thus not able to take into account the users varying contexts. Building maintenance applications could be made easy and responsive to users wishes if they were context-aware. This paper discusses the key issues in building maintenance management systems and their potential for the use of context-aware computing. Findings show that many building maintenance management systems are complicated and only slowly being adopted in Malaysia. In conclusion, it was found that context-aware building maintenance systems have the potential to simplify the process and increase the usage of computerized maintenance management systems.

A guideline for strategic capabilities enhancement to support sustainable facility management practices

Facility managers can have a major influence on the sustainability agenda through operational and strategic management functions during the post construction phase. Sustainable practices in facility management can bring substantial benefits such as reducing energy consumption and waste, while increasing productivity, financial return and corporate standing in the community. Facility manager should be empowered with the necessary knowledge and capabilities at the forefront in facing sustainability challenge. Despite the potential, facility management practices have yet to embed sustainability ideas holistically. The lack of capabilities and skills and the existing knowledge gaps are believed to be among the barriers. Capabilities are vital to foster the competency of an organisation. To support sustainable practices, facility managers need to be empowered with the necessary knowledge, capabilities and skills. This paper aims to develop a guidelines for strategic capabilities to support sustainability in facility management practice. Starting with a total of 10 critical strategic capabilities factors identified from previous questionnaire survey, the authors conducted an interview with 7 experts in facility management to assess the perceived importance of these factors. The findings reveal a set of guidelines for the enhancement of strategic capabilities among facility managers by providing what can be done to acquire these factors and how it can support the application of sustainability in their practice. The findings of this paper are expected to form the basis of a mechanism framework developed to equip facility managers with the right knowledge, to continue education and training and to develop new mind-sets to enhance the implementation of sustainability measures in FM practices.Facility managers can have a major influence on the sustainability agenda through operational and strategic management functions during the post construction phase. Sustainable practices in facility management can bring substantial benefits such as reducing energy consumption and waste, while increasing productivity, financial return and corporate standing in the community. Facility manager should be empowered with the necessary knowledge and capabilities at the forefront in facing sustainability challenge. Despite the potential, facility management practices have yet to embed sustainability ideas holistically. The lack of capabilities and skills and the existing knowledge gaps are believed to be among the barriers. Capabilities are vital to foster the competency of an organisation. To support sustainable practices, facility managers need to be empowered with the necessary knowledge, capabilities and skills. This paper aims to develop a guidelines for strategic capabilities to support sustainability in fa...

A guideline for interpersonal capabilities enhancement to support sustainable facility management practice

Facility management is the key phase in the development cycle of an assets and spans over a considerable length of time. Therefore, facility managers are in a commanding position to maximise the potential of sustainability through the development phases from construction, operation, maintenance and upgrade leading to decommission and deconstruction. Sustainability endeavours in facility management practices will contribute to reducing energy consumption, waste and running costs. Furthermore, it can also help in improving organisational productivity, financial return and community standing of the organisation. Facility manager should be empowered with the necessary knowledge and capabilities at the forefront facing sustainability challenge. However, literature studies show a gap between the level of awareness, specific knowledge and the necessary skills required to pursue sustainability in the facility management professional. People capability is considered as the key enabler in managing the sustainability agenda as well as being central to the improvement of competency and innovation in an organisation. This paper aims to develop a guidelines for interpersonal capabilities to support sustainability in facility management practice. Starting with a total of 7 critical interpersonal capabilities factors identified from previous questionnaire survey, the authors conducted an interview with 3 experts in facility management to assess the perceived importance of these factors. The findings reveal a set of guidelines for the enhancement of interpersonal capabilities among facility managers by providing what can be done to acquire these factors and how it can support the application of sustainability in their practice. The findings of this paper are expected to form the basis of a mechanism framework developed to equip facility managers with the right knowledge, to continue education and training and to develop new mind-sets to enhance the implementation of sustainability measures in FM practices.

The desirability of Integrated Influential Factors (IIFs) Model of internal stakeholder as a panacea to project completion delay in Yemen

ABSTRACT In Yemen and other developing countries, many construction projects experience extensive delays by exceeding their initial completion time thereby leading to several reported effects which among others include: cost overrun; litigation; arbitration; failure; and abandonment. Although variability in prevailing conditions warrants influential factors causing such delays to differ among countries, an oft-cited approach implemented to mitigate these effects is enhancing the collaboration of stakeholders in construction project delivery. While this approach is overwhelmingly applauded by researchers, there however exist scant studies focusing on how effective project internal stakeholder integration can potentially impact prompt construction project delivery particularly in developing countries. This study as such, seeks to propose an Integrated Influential Factor (IIF) model of internal stakeholders with a view to reduce delay in construction project delivery. Data was collected from 301 respondents based on the influential factors divided into 7 categories of internal stakeholders. Findings from analysed results (using IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS SEM Version 23) were used to develop the Integrated Influential Factors (IIF) Model of Internal Stakeholder in Yemen Construction Industry. The proposed model was validated through construction industries expert opinion which inform that sincere and concerted effort towards effective management of the studied factors could not only stem down their adverse effect on project completion delay but equally enhance construction project implementation if the model is tenaciously implemented.

Capability challenges of facility management (FM) personnel toward sustainability agenda

The industries business play a significant role to contribute toward economic growth in develop and developing country. However, they always face serious problems such as time overrun, waste generation, and cost overrun during their operation and maintenance. Traditional practice is found unable to control that situation. These challenges accent the need for practitioners to rethink and improve their process management. This show that industries business has major potential when applying sustainable development by focusing on three pillars (economic, environment, and social). By adopting sustainability, it can reduce energy consumption and waste, while increasing productivity, financial return and corporate standing in community. FM personnel are most suitable position to lead organizations toward sustainability implementation. However, lack of skill and capability among FM personnel to achieve sustainable goal had become barrier that need to overcome. This paper focus to identify capability challenges of FM personnel toward sustainability. A multiple researches were conducted and data were gathered through literature review from previous studies.The industries business play a significant role to contribute toward economic growth in develop and developing country. However, they always face serious problems such as time overrun, waste generation, and cost overrun during their operation and maintenance. Traditional practice is found unable to control that situation. These challenges accent the need for practitioners to rethink and improve their process management. This show that industries business has major potential when applying sustainable development by focusing on three pillars (economic, environment, and social). By adopting sustainability, it can reduce energy consumption and waste, while increasing productivity, financial return and corporate standing in community. FM personnel are most suitable position to lead organizations toward sustainability implementation. However, lack of skill and capability among FM personnel to achieve sustainable goal had become barrier that need to overcome. This paper focus to identify capability challenges of...

Housing decision making methods for initiation development phase process

Late delivery and sick housing project problems were attributed to poor decision making. These problems are the string of housing developer that prefers to create their own approach based on their experiences and expertise with the simplest approach by just applying the obtainable standards and rules in decision making. This paper seeks to identify the decision making methods for housing development at the initiation phase in Malaysia. The research involved Delphi method by using questionnaire survey which involved 50 numbers of developers as samples for the primary stage of collect data. However, only 34 developers contributed to the second stage of the information gathering process. At the last stage, only 12 developers were left for the final data collection process. Finding affirms that Malaysian developers prefer to make their investment decisions based on simple interpolation of historical data and using simple statistical or mathematical techniques in producing the required reports. It was suggested that they seemed to skip several important decision-making functions at the primary development stage. These shortcomings were mainly due to time and financial constraints and the lack of statistical or mathematical expertise among the professional and management groups in the developer organisations.

Information Technology as a Viable Strategy for Improving Material Management Practices in SME Construction Projects Performance

Success of any construction projects is related to its timely projects completion within budget, time and quality. Traditional materials management practice has been identified as a major issue in small and medium enterprises (SME) construction companies in most developing countries. Understandably, a key issue identified in the traditional practices is the lack of IT adoption in materials management practices. It is on this note, the paper seeks to explore factors affecting IT adoption for effective materials management in the Nigerian SME construction companies. Secondary sources such as past projects, journals and internet are the main source of data for this study. Data thus collected were studied and evaluated with the aim of articulating existing knowledge on how the materials management practice is carried out in SME construction projects. The significant findings of this study provides a generic overview of IT adoption within the context of SME and can assist SME and policy makers to towards formulating legislation for enhancing IT adoption in SME for an improvement of materials management practices towards sustainable projects performance and established profitable relationship with client’s and create competitive advantange.

Construction waste generation in Malaysia construction industry: illegal dumping activities

Nowadays development of construction in Malaysia has been effect to the increasing of construction waste. Additionally, the production of construction waste from construction projects has given negative impact to the environment especially in illegal dumping activities. The increasing number of illegal dumping activities from construction projects in Malaysia gives a sign that Malaysian construction waste management needs to be concerned. To date, a comprehensive criterion for construction waste management, particularly for a construction project in developing countries is still not clearly defined. Therefore, construction waste management in Malaysia needs further research. The objectives of this paper are to explore illegal dumping activities, and discuss the contributory factors of illegal dumping activities. Hence, this research conducted an interview with expertise in the area of construction waste management in order to scrutinise illegal dumping activities in Malaysia. The data from semistructured interviews were analysed by content analysis. Findings from this research will help to find out the strategies to reduce the illegal dumping activities. The final result also expected to increase the awareness and better solution for reducing illegal dumping activities in construction projects among construction players.