Advances in Environmental Biology

Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(5) April 2014, Pages: 1868-1872
AENSI Journals
Advances in Environmental Biology
ISSN-1995-0756
EISSN-1998-1066
Journal home page: http://www.aensiweb.com/aeb.html
Key Factors for Integrated Project Team Delivery: A Proposed Study in IBS
Malaysian Construction Projects
1
Nawi, M.N.M., 2Osman, W.N. and 3Che-Ani, A.I.
1,2
School of Technology Management and Logistic, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia.
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), 43600 Bangi, Selangor
Malaysia.
3
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received 28 February 2014
Received in revised form 19
April 2014
Accepted 23 April 2014
Available online 25 May 2014
Key words:
Industrialised Building System (IBS),
Integrated
Team
Approach,
Fragmentation Issue
ABSTRACT
The existence of Industrialized Building System (IBS) in Malaysian construction
industry was started in 1960s. However, the participation of contractor to get involved
in the IBS project is currently poor. The previous researchers have identified that one of
the main barrier for IBS implementation is because of lack of information and
communication among stakeholders involved during the design stage of project life
cycle. Accordingly, an integrated team approach was suggested by the construction lead
report such as Latham Report 1994 and Egan Report 1998 which were challenge the
current industry to migrate from the traditional fragmented approach towards integrated
practice. In this research, will focuses on the process of identifying the key factors for
the successful integrated team practice. Although the status of this research is still at the
initial stage of progress however it is significantly important to be discussed for the
further improvement that can be made in the future.
© 2014 AENSI Publisher All rights reserved.
To Cite This Article: Nawi, M.N.M., Osman, W.N. and Che-Ani, A.I., Key Factors for Integrated Project Team Delivery: A Proposed
Study in IBS Malaysian Construction Projects. Adv. Environ. Biol., 8(5), 1868-1872, 2014
INTRODUCTION
The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, in collaboration with various
organisations representing the construction industry, has developed the Construction Industry Master Plan
(CIMP) that identified and recommended measures to address these problems and challenges [6]. Thus, the
Malaysian construction industry has been urged to use innovative construction techniques, and to shift from the
traditional practice of brick and mortar systems to an Industrialised Building System (IBS) of construction, or
Offsite Manufacturing/ Offsite Construction as it is more commonly known in the others countries. The
importance of IBS was highlighted under the Strategic Thrust 5: Innovate through R&D to adopt a new
construction method in the Construction Industry Master Plan 2006-2015 [7] which has been published as
means to chart the future direction of the Malaysian construction industry [7]. This initiative has been
recommended based on some analysis of IBS from others countries, such as UK government commissioned
reports which have proposed IBS as an important contributor to progress in the construction industry [14,3,4].
Numerous studies [28,23,30,16] show that IBS offers a lot of benefits to adopters in terms of cost and time
certainty, attaining better construction quality and productivity, reducing risks related to occupational safety and
health, alleviating the lack of skilled workers and dependency on manual foreign labour, and achieving the
ultimate goal of reducing overall cost of construction whole life performance and profits. Based on these
benefits, the government of Malaysia recognised an IBS as one of the strategies in the National Construction
Industry Master Plan which aimed to speed up the delivery time, and to build affordable and quality houses.
Problem Statement:
Despite well-documented benefits and strong support from the government, the take-up for IBS was not as
high as anticipated [18,34]. Low labour costs in Malaysia could perhaps be the root cause of the problem
[18,23]. Although members of the industry are open to the idea, a major proportion of industry stakeholders in
the private sector are indifferent, perhaps due to resistance towards change, and insufficient funds and
information to support the feasibility of change.
In an attempt to understand the poor diffusion of IBS, some researchers [18,23,29] have investigated the
barriers to effective IBS implementation in construction. One of the main barriers of IBS implementation in the
Malaysian construction industry is related to poor integration among stakeholders during the design stage
Corresponding Author: Nawi, M.N.M., School of Technology Management and Logistic, Universiti Utara Malaysia,
06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia.
E-mail: [email protected]
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Advances in Environmental Biology, 8(5) April 2014, Pages: 1868-1872
[27,28,23,19]. This central issue specifically can affect the various stakeholders in the IBS value chain: either,
manufactures, designers, local authorities, contractors, suppliers or clients. Many industry-led reports [13,14,25]
have all called on the industry to change from its traditional modus operandi and perform better through
processes and team integration.
As a response to that challenge, and consistent with needs of the construction industry, this research,
therefore, investigates what are the key factors are required for a design and construction team that responsible
for the design and construction of a project, to achieve a fully integrated team approach.
Need for the research:
The need for the research comes from both practical and academic perspectives. From the practical
perspective, the construction industry still faces the following problems:
 Egan [13] highlighted the importance of supply chain collaboration and set the target that 20% of
construction projects (by value) should be undertaken by integrated teams and collaborative supply chains by
the end of 2004, rising to 50% by end 2007. However, in reality the industry as a whole is still highly
fragmented. The adversarial culture still prevails in the industry.
 There is a lack of appropriate guidance for IBS Malaysian construction practitioners to understand the key
issues of good integrated design and supply chain such as partnering, concurrent engineering (CE) and supply
chain management (SCM) and how they can achieve continuous improvement [15.6]. A lack of integration is a
primary problem of IBS although there will investigative in another initiative such of this is not been
implemented in IBS.
From the perspective of academic research, currently, most of the research in Malaysia is based on
promoting the benefits of IBS [18,20,33] but has not provided specific guidelines of how it could be
implemented and improve integration, in particular.
Research Aim and Objectives:
This research aims to address the gaps in knowledge that exist on how the various (multidisciplinary) teams
either on or off site that are responsible for delivering a project can be integrated early during the IBS design
stage.
Objectives:
The specific objectives of the research are to:
a) review the existing practices of IBS project delivery;
b) identify the key factors that significantly influence the effectiveness of integrated teams;
c) validate the key factors through an industry-based case study IBS Malaysian project.
Research Target and Scope:
This research is focused on the multidisciplinary project delivery team that is responsible for the design and
construction of an IBS project. This is because most confrontations among the various (multidisciplinary)
project team members become problematic at the implementation stage where designs are translated into reality.
On other hand, the design phase is considered critical because the decisions made at this stage have high a
degree of influence towards the eventual project cost. Therefore, this research is targeted at design and
construction team leaders at project, organisational and functional levels. The research findings and conclusions
provide an understanding of key factors that influence the effectiveness of early involvement of manufactures
and contractors within an IBS construction project. Such knowledge is necessary for achieving any meaningful
improvements in how the IBS design and construction project delivery team works together as a single unit. The
research is conducted within the scope of design delivery team (early stage such as briefing and conceptual
design) of the IBS project. This is the team responsible for the management of the design and construction of the
IBS project.
Research Process and Methodology:
The underlying principle of this section is to describe the philosophical background that has been adopted
and adapted in this research. This section presents a brief description of research approach, design and method
for data collection.
According to Philiphs and Pugh [31], research is processes of finding out something you don‟t know and as
a systematic and methodical process that increases knowledge [1]. On the other hand, research methodology is a
systematic and orderly approach taken towards the collection and analysis of data [8].
Selecting an appropriate research methodology is very important for defining a research problem and
addressing the questions to be explored [35]. It embraces the overall approach of the research. Therefore, it
requires the logic of a research strategy/ philosophy which is embedded in the links between ontology (what
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counts for reality), epistemology (what is the relationship between the enquirer and the unknown) and
methodology (how do we know the world, or gain knowledge of it) [12,17].
Research Approach:
The research approach is defined as the knowledge claims, the strategies, and the method that contributes to
the study [10]. The approach depends on research inquiry and it could be a quantitative or qualitative inquiry in
order to undertake the study. For example, qualitative case study is an approach to research that facilitates
exploration of a phenomenon within its context using a variety of data sources [3].
As the aim of this study is more descriptive and exploratory in nature with „what‟ and „how‟ questions as
guides, it can be classified as a mix method study (combination of quantitative and qualitative approach).
Research Design (Case study):
Robson [32] suggested that research design in social sciences should typically consist of choosing one of
three methodologies; a survey, experiment or case study. Through the literature review, [24] concluded that
there are four main methodological approaches to investigate team interaction: experimental direct observation
and naturalistic direct observation; research interview; research questionnaire; and documentary evidence. Yin
[35] highlighted that when the phenomenon under study is not readily distinguishable from its context, case
study is considered the appropriate method to apply. According to him, a case study design should be considered
when: (a) the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why” questions; (b) you cannot manipulate the
behaviour of those involved in the study; (c) you want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they
are relevant to the phenomenon under study; or (d) the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and
context. Since the aim of this study is more investigative and requires in-depth information to answer the
questions of „what‟ and „how‟, the case study approach is considered as an appropriate approach for this study.
Therefore, in this study, the survey and case study methodology will be adopted for the purpose of the research
for this study. It is because the approach fits well with the problem of the research as well as achieving the
research aim and objectives.
Methods for Data collection:
Creswell [10] asserted that within a case study approach, there are four main methods of data collection
namely; observation, interviews, documents and audiovisual materials. Previously, Yin [35] had listed six types
of qualitative data which includes; documentation, archival records, interviews, direct observation, participationobservation and physical artefacts.
Fig. 1: Flow diagram of research process.
For the purpose of this research, a document review, interview and questionnaires, will be deployed as data
collection techniques. In the primary stage, however, literature (document) review is very critical and
necessitates in providing the sound basis of the inquiry especially in developing initial conceptual framework.
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This process will be conducted in the entire of research. Document review will be complementing the semistructured interviews and the questionnaires. It is hoped that the document review will give a way to triangulate
data collection techniques. Documents of various types will be collected and analyzed, including government
reports, case study report project or published information about the team integration.
Structured and semi-structured interviews will be adopted in this study for the primary data collection in
order to gain insight into the views and opinions of the respondents. The respondents will be represented by
different professionals that involved during the design process in IBS projects in Malaysia. The overview of the
research process is presented in the figure below.
Conclusion:
Problems associated with fragmentation in the traditional construction process such as isolation of
professionals, lack of co-ordination between design and construction, and as it is carried out in a sequential
manner, has impacts on construction performances such as lack of integration, wastage, low productivity and
efficiency. The approach towards team integration is looked as a significant strategy to solve this disintegration
issue. Numerous of research either in relational contracting or procurement, partnering, constructability, supply
chain management, or concurrent engineering advocates that integrated multidisciplinary design team approach
probable can improve integrations within construction players. Therefore, this paper has described the main
points of the research background. It emphasised the research problems and literature review covering overview
on current situations of IBS in the Malaysian construction industry and provides some information on integrated
project team. In addition, the paper explained the research aim and objectives, scope of the research, and
justified the proposed research methodology. It is hope this research will contribute to the existing knowledge
either on IBS, integration and construction industry as well.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support by the Ministry of Education and Universiti Utara Malaysia
for providing the funding under FRGS Grant Scheme (s/o code: 12928).
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