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A strategy for improving construction projects


sustainability through value management
approach

Article in International Journal of Applied Engineering Research · January 2014

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 9, Number 24 (2014) pp. 28377-28385
© Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com

A Strategy for Improving Construction Projects


Sustainability through Value Management Approach

Nawi, M.N.M.1,a, Jalaluddin, S.M.F.W.S.2,b, Zulhumadi, F.3,c, Ibrahim, J.A.4,d,


Baharum, F.5,e
1, 2, 3 & 4
School of Technology Management and Logistic,
UUM, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia.
5
School of Housing, Building and Planning, USM, Penang, Malaysia
a
nasrun@uum.edu.my, bsyedfahmi@uum.edu.my, cfaisal@uum.edu.my,
d
jafni@uum.edu.my, efaizal_baharum@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract

Currently, many construction developers are shifting their business toward


green building. Towards green building, the key elements of sustainability
should be early considered and integrated during the design stage.
Unfortunately, most of the construction projects especially in Malaysia are
still implement the traditional design and construction process. This traditional
construction process has been widely criticised for its fragmented approach
for project delivery and its failure to form effective teams. Due to that
problem, a number of issues have recently arisen such as reworks, time delay,
rising costs, lack of communication and coordination, and wastages. This
paper through literature review aims to highlight the potential on how Value
Management approach can assist the design and construction process in order
to minimise the fragmentation issue towards sustainable building in the future.

Keywords: Sustainable Building, Value Management, Team Integrated


Practice, Design and Construction Process.

Introduction
In general, construction industry refers to a wide range of activities, such as civil and
structural engineering construction projects such as building work, bridges, dams,
hydraulics, airports, sewerage treatment facilities and demolition activities. Whereas
the construction process itself requires a lot of activities starting from the
establishment of the client’s brief or customer requirements to eventual construction,
erection or installation, and life-cycle operation and maintenance. The overall process
28378 Nawi, M.N.M. et al

needs an alignment and must be complied with the environmental policy for the
protection of future generations.
According to World Commission of Environment [1] sustainable development
is defined as the process of meeting basic needs of the public and promoting the
balance of environmental protection, economic development and social development
for better life without compromising abilities of future generations. On the other hand,
practice activities contribute to the sustainable development is called sustainable
construction. These may consist of processes which enhance the quality of life and
customer satisfaction, offer flexibility and potential to cater for user demand changes
in the future, provide and support desirable natural and social environment and
maximise the efficiency of resources use [2, 3].

Current Scenario in Malaysian Construction Industry


In attempt to develop a sustainable development in construction process, the
Malaysian government has taken the initiative of implementing a new or modern
construction method called Industrialised Building System (IBS). IBS (which also
known as offsite manufacturing in UK construction industry) is a construction
technique in which components are manufactured in mass production under a
controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a
structure with minimal additional site works [4, 48]. Similarly, Hassim et al, [5] stated
that the industrialisation process is essentially an organisational process-continuity of
production implying a steady flow of demand; standardization; integration of the
different stages of the whole production process; a high degree of organization of
work; mechanization to place human labour wherever possible; research and
organized experimentation integrated with production. The benefits that can be gained
by implementing the system are reduction in the construction duration, decreasing
cost, labour and wastages on site, and minimizing the effect of risk [5, 6, 7]. These are
among the reasons why a lot of countries such as Sweden, Holland, Norway, Japan,
including Malaysia have chosen to use the IBS in their construction industries [8].
IBS in Malaysia has a long history where it has been introduced over 40 years
ago. Although it has a well-documented benefits and strong support from the
government, the velocity of IBS implementation and usage are still considerably slow
and behind the government target. Investigation made by researchers identified that
one of the main barriers of IBS implementation is related to the poor integration and
communication among stakeholders involved during the design stage [6, 11, 8]. This
barrier relates to the problem of fragmentation that has been well criticized by
previous authors thus contributed to the issues of delays, increased lead times,
increased costs and late supply of materials [12, 13, 14].
Therefore, this paper will discuss on how Value Management as a part of the
collaborative or integrated team working approach particularly for the design and
construction of a project; can assist in order to overcome the problem of lack of
integration and communication during the design stage of Malaysian IBS construction
project.
A Strategy for Improving Construction Projects 28379

Current Practice of Malaysian IBS Design and Construction Process


Currently, most of the IBS project developments in Malaysia are still based on the
traditional approach [21, 22, 23]. The process starts by the client firstly specify their
requirement for the development. The architect, after that translates the requirement
into the architectural design which is then given to the structural engineer to
determine the structural integrity by delivering structural analysis and design. The
outcome, in a form of structural design combined with architectural design and
specification are passed to the quantity surveyor to carry out building cost estimation
and determine the bill of quantity. Subsequently, all these documents are passed to the
main contractor who will then take the responsibility to erect the building structure
and liaise with the manufacturer. This conventional approach is known as ‘over the
wall’ syndrome and is shown in Fig. 1 [24]. This practice tend to make each party to
work in an isolation and do not allow the manufacturers and contractors to be
involved in the design stage thus creates problems for whole the supply chain process
(such as delays, late supply, etc) and constructability related issues. As highlighted by
Blismass and Wakefield [25], this traditional design process is unsuitable to Offsite
Manufacturing (or IBS construction) and poses a substantial barrier to its adoption. In
addition, this method also has been heavily criticised as one of the main hindrances
towards an effective communication and integration between the design and
construction team in the IBS project [26, 7]. As mentioned by Mendelsohn [28], the
reality of construction is that probably 75 percent of the problems encountered in the
field are generated in the design phase. As a result, the issue of fragmentation among
various functional disciplines will arise during the IBS project development process.
It will create problems such as prevalence of costly engineering changes, design
iterations, rework and unnecessary liability claims, the lack of communication
between each of the disciplines involved in the development process, lack of true life-
cycle analysis of the project and also constructability, supportability and
maintainability issue are considered late in the process [29]

Figure 1 Over the wall syndrome

Previous researches have continuously addressed the problems related to


fragmentation within the construction industry which separate the design process from
28380 Nawi, M.N.M. et al

construction [30, 19, 31, 50]. Furthermore, the designers usually work in isolation
during the design process either in conventional or precast projects which is far
removed from the contractor, who will eventually be responsible for carrying out the
construction of the project, and sometimes from each other. This poor performance
has been blamed on the adversarial relationships between parties in the construction
process.

Figure 2 An integrated project team

The Need for Value Management Approach


As highlighted before, the traditional construction delivery process is the root cause
for the problems of fragmentation as it is carried out in a sequential manner thus leads
to time delays [13, 14, 16], poor communication, conflicts and misunderstanding
between design consultants and contractors [12, 15, 17]. Following these problems,
many industry-led reports [36, 34, 37] have all called on the industry to change from
its traditional modus operandi and perform better through increased collaboration as
part of the integration element (refer Fig. 2). Recent follow-up reports [35] and [31],
challenged the construction industry to create a fully integrated service capable of
delivering predictable results to clients through processes and team integration.
Implementation of integrated practice approach can create a lot of benefits such as;
could bring together various skills and knowledge, and removes the traditional
barriers towards an effective and efficiency delivery of the project [39, 40, 42]. Team
integrated approaches such as VM has received very encouraging response from the
industry and also the Government of Malaysia. The Malaysian government is
applying the value management in public management and adopted VM methodology
in the implementation of program project management. Further to this, the Economic
Planning Unit circular dated 29 December 2009 has specified that all government
projects worth RM50 million and above must go through a value management
exercise. According to the circular, failure to comply with this circular may result in
rejection of an application.
VM is a style of management dedicated to guiding people and promoting
innovation with the aim to improve overall project performance [43]. It has been used
successfully to increase numbers of construction projects to achieve value for money
and to satisfy clients’ needs [44]. It is a powerful methodology due to its ability to
A Strategy for Improving Construction Projects 28381

influence thinking, to quickly bring about change, to identify the basic functions and
to unify a group of strong individuals into one collective whole [46]. It is a structured
approach to establish what value means to a client in meeting a perceived need by,
clearly defining and agreeing the project objectives and establishing how they can
best be achieved [43, 49]. [44] defined VM as ‘a proactive, creative, problem-solving
or problem-seeking service, which maximises the functional value of a project by
managing its development from concept to use through structured, team-oriented
exercises which make explicit, and appraise subsequent decisions, by reference to the
value requirements of the clients.’
In the Value Management workshop, it considers contractors’ role early in the
design thus results on more constructible design and greater amount of cost savings,
labour savings and less substance wastages [45, 46]. Through an early involvement of
construction knowledge and experience approach can reduce the likelihood of
creating designs that cannot be efficiently built, thereby reducing design rework,
improving project schedule, and establishing construction cost saving. For example,
early involvement of contractor (ECI) has been selected as a contract delivery strategy
towards integrated team and becoming more popular for a number of major
construction projects especially in infrastructure [47].
Contrast to the traditional construction practice, Value Management team are
demanded to work together in concurrently either in making a decision process or
when trouble arises throughout of design, fabrication, and construction phases. On the
other hand, the product delivery process has also been integrated to reduce the number
of distinctive parties to a single all-inclusive party [46]. The several separate and
phased processes involved have also been merged into system capable of delivering
the same product in a single process. This approach indirectly will help the
construction stakeholders such as contractors and designers to fulfil the client needs
towards green and sustainable building in future.

Conclusion
This study highlights Value Management as a strategic team approach in order to
enhance the sustainability level in the Malaysian Government construction project.
Successful transitions from conventional to integrated team working approach
however requires some transformation in the current construction design process for
overcoming the prevalent barriers when implementing this approach. The results from
the previous studies proved that Value Management team created an opportunity for
early conflict resolution, incorporation of constructability, manufacturability,
maintainability, safety and risk analyses at an early stage of project. This practice has
been recognised that significantly contributed to the enhancement level of
sustainability and the overall project performance.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support by the Ministery of Education
Malaysia and Universiti Utara Malaysia for providing the funding under RAGS Grant
28382 Nawi, M.N.M. et al

Scheme.

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