Construction Productivity Improvement towards achieving the Malaysian Vision 2020

Construction Productivity is an important issue for a nation trying to achieve developed status by 2020, as emphasized by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), the leading agency steering the direction of the Malaysian construction industry. The target set for the construction industry to contribute 5% of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in year 2020 – up from the 2.6% for the year 2006 is a challenge. This is stated in the Malaysian Construction Industry Manual Plan (CIMP) 2006-2015, been published by the CIDB. Malaysia must look beyond applying the capital investment as a major contributor in achieving this target. A more productive and efficient usage of the resources has to be developed and practiced. A good management practice is a must in achieving the best performance. Besides, the issue of relying heavily on the foreign labour for manpower has to be addressed. With the introduction and application of technologies in planning and scheduling, system and work processes, together with a good management skill would help in solving the problem. The writer has seen the need for more research related to the construction productivity in Malaysian construction industry, as only limited data are available. The basic productivity rates for different trades of works is to be established by gathering the actual data from site works, and this can be used for a benchmarking. For this research, the data was gathered from various water supply projects in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau in Sabah. The data were analyzed and tabulated, and compared with the published data available from overseas. In establishing the qualitative values on the perspective and awareness of the construction personnel in Sabah to this issue, a questionnaire survey and direct interviews were conducted on various levels of work categories from project manager, resident engineer, designer, site agent, site supervisor and others, and the results were analyzed and tabulated. The factors that greatly influence the construction productivity performance was also discussed based on the direct interview and from the writer’s own site experience. The monitoring of the actual works through the time study and work sampling, as a case study for this research works were carried out. The results will alert the readers on the actual practice, and highlight and give opportunities on the vast room that is still available for improvement. The importance of construction productivity improvement cannot be denied and must be taken as a priority on any construction site through out Malaysia. The work output can be increased tremendously with the same amount of resources. Improving construction productivity is one of the most practical ways to make the Malaysian construction industry competitive within the region and hence, world widely, and indirectly will meet the set target of the vision 2020 to be a developed nation.