Nurshuhada Zainon

Dimensions of information technology infrastructure flexibility in improving management efficacy of construction industry perspective: A conceptual study

As technologies change rapidly, improved information technology (IT) products and services are released daily throughout the world. This phenomenon gives tremendous pressure on organization managers to plan, implement and adopt new technology solution in accommodating such changes. Thus, one of the most significant current discussions is IT infrastructure flexibility. Most of the studies in IT infrastructure flexibility have been carried out across industries; however less attention has been paid to measure flexibility of IT infrastructure in construction industry. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual understanding on how IT infrastructure flexibility responds in changing the business demand by exploring the dimensions that could be used to measure IT within construction industry. The study is based on textual reading in a range of recently published works, of which majority of them are from 2000 to 2010. The findings will provide potential variables about each dimension in measuring IT infrastructure flexibility, indicating factors that can be used for future development of an IT infrastructure flexibility maturity model. In this context, the maturity model will be useful for construction organisations to determine where they are. It also offers a benchmark for assessing different organisations for equivalent comparison.

Are green offices better than conventional?: Measuring operational energy consumption and carbon impact of green office in Malaysia

Purpose Global warming and climate change is one of the biggest issues facing humanity in this century; its effects are felt on the highest peaks of Mount Everest to the low-lying islands in the India Ocean. This century marked the highest amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted, breaking records of the past 650,000 years, and we have pushed the climate to “a point of no return”. Much of the climate contribution has been linked to humanity’s thirst for higher living standards and lifestyle, which has led to higher consumerism, depletion of earth’s resources, production of massive waste and carbon emissions. Fast forward from the sustainability agenda of Brundtland set in 1987 and the increasing demand for energy consumption to cater for the current global inhabitants, many “green” efforts have been taken by the building industry to reduce the overall environmental impact. This purpose of this study is to compare energy performance of a conventional office building with a green certified building. Design/methodology/approach This paper tries to bridge the performance gap by comparing measured operational energy consumption and carbon emission of Green Building Index (GBI)-certified office buildings in Kuala Lumpur, to determine whether “green buildings” are performing as intended in reducing their environmental impact. Findings This paper highlighted and compared operational energy consumption and carbon emissions of a GBI-certified office with a conventional office building in Malaysia. The paper also discusses the performance gap issue and its common causes, and aims to compare predicted energy and operational energy performance of buildings. Originality/value Initiatives such as “green” or “sustainable” design have been at the forefront of architecture, while green assessment tools have been used to predict the energy performance of a building during its operational phase. There is still a significant performance gap between predicted or simulated energy measurements to actual operational energy consumption. The need to measure actual performance of these so-called “green buildings” is important to investigate if there is a performance gap and whether these buildings can perform better than conventional buildings. Understanding why the performance gap occurs is a step in reducing actual and predicted energy performance in buildings.

Integrated Earned Value Gantt Chart (EV-Gantt) Tool for Project Portfolio Planning and Monitoring Optimization

Abstract Project portfolio management (PPM), as a way to manage multiple projects, is becoming a key managerial skill needed by most organizations, especially those engaged in multiple projects concurrently. These multiple projects usually have different characteristics and functions, yet most existing project portfolio theories do not provide an efficient planning and monitoring tool at the operational level. This research aims to integrate the two most efficient planning and monitoring tools—namely, earned value analysis and the Gantt chart to develop a new PPM tool named earned value Gantt chart (EV-Gantt) for portfolio planning and monitoring. EV-Gantt was tested through scenario analysis and a pilot run using a portfolio of real cases. Results show that EV-Gantt performed satisfactorily in resource allocation, systematic reporting, and monitoring enhancement. A standard operating procedure was developed to facilitate implementation of the EV-Gantt tool by engineering managers.

THE CHALLENGE OF LABOUR SHORTAGE FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

In line with the principle of sustainable development, construction projects ought to be developed to bring benefits across all aspects, namely economic, social, and environmental. One the other hand, being a complex, fragmented and schedule driven industry, construction projects are frequently subject to problems that constrain their execution. Since construction is a labour intensive industry, the shortage of labour has become the crucial risks that hindering the construction project in achieving sustainability. This paper, in reviewing the concept of sustainable construction, also addresses the influential factors concerning the labour shortages in the construction industry and discusses how these challenges can be managed in producing sustainable construction labours.