UITM ICPM JAN 2010: 2010

Understanding on the key words in this paper is important in order to develop a better vision at the end. Innovation is defined as a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries. It may refer to incremental emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations (Wikipedia, 2010). Meanwhile, management is defined by Wikipedia (2010) as the acts of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives efficiently and effectively. It comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. Finally, Information Technology (IT) is defined as “the use of electronic machines and programs for the processing, storage, transfer and presentation of information” (Bjork, 1999).

Based on the three definitions, what can be concluded in order to understand the objective of this coursework is the vision of adopting innovation, which also known as changes in the planning, organizing, and controlling (management) of the information within the construction industry including contractor, client, consultant and construction related company.

The innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in current situation have resulting in many advantages. As written by Rivard (2000), the purpose of Information Technology (IT) is to facilitate the exchange and management of information and has a lot of potentials for the information process component of the construction industry. He also suggested the two most important areas of future research are the implementation of computer-integrated design and construction as well as the development of new tools to support concurrent design and to assist designers in the conceptual stages.

Current condition, in my point of view which is referring to the small and medium construction company in Malaysia, is the utilization of Information Technology (IT) is minimal comparing with the bigger company. This is due to cost at the beginning in adopting innovation and management in Information Technology (IT), knowledge and exposure towards such useful tools. This is some of the barrier for middle and small construction company to adopt such technology. This is also agreed by Rivard, (2000), saying that the adopting a new technology always involves significant investments.

Nevertheless, most of the small and medium construction company in Malaysia over look on the wide range of benefits that they may get from the adoption of innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in their company. As listed down by Rivard, (2000) the advent of Information Technology (IT) has been both beneficial and detrimental. Based on his research conducted on the year 2000 in Canada on “The impact of information technology on the Canadian architecture, engineering and construction industry” it is found that, Information Technology (IT) has raised productivity in most business processes and particularly in general administration, design and project management. The main benefits achieved by the use of Information Technology (IT) is an increase in the quality of documents, an increase in the speed of work, a better financial control, better communications, simpler and faster access to common data as well as a decrease in the number of mistakes in documentation.

Conversely, the benefits of Information Technology (IT) come at a cost since the complexity of work, the administrative needs, the proportion of new operations and the costs of doing business have all increased. Furthermore, the continual demand for upgrading hardware and software, the high investment costs and the greater know-how required from the staff are perceived as important obstacles to a greater use of Information Technology (IT).

A hope in the nearest time is meant to be for small and medium class Construction Company where they will notice the wide range of benefits that they may get from the adoption of innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in their company. It cost a lot at the beginning but innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) really helps them in increasing their competitive advantages value by increasing the competencies with other company, lead in achieving operation effectiveness by promoting time saving, fast Information delivery, higher accuracy such as in calculation, estimation and drawing preparation, large data storage by introducing digital and paperless data storage and promoting efficient working space. Other than that, it also give advantages on certain area in cost and money saving by reducing human resources input such as in delivery and information sharing and reduce space allocation especially in Project Filing System and Fast Data Sharing.

To conclude, innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) have successfully being implemented in developed construction company and construction industry, nonetheless, exposure towards small and medium company is still lacking. In order to help them to gain benefits in the adoption of Information Technology (IT) in their company, education and knowledge should be shared by player in the industry in order to help them to taste the benefits that they may obtain.

Information Technology (IT) service provider also may take a role by providing low cost services in order to help them to take a right step to manage their information effectively. By support from players within and out of the industry, both will get wider benefits in the future. A positive competitive environment will be build, more profit will me make as well as effectiveness in operating the business in the construction industry. This is the vision of me towards the innovation and management of Information Technology (IT) in the construction Industry.

Prepared By:

Noor Sahidah Binti Samsudin

2009310803

M.Sc in Integrated Construction Project Management

References:

H. Rivard, (2000), “A survey on the impact of information technology on the Canadian architecture, engineering and construction industry” ITcon Vol. 5 pg. 37 – 56, Concordia University, Canada

Bjork B.-C. (1999). Information Technology in construction: domain definition and research issues, International Journal of Computer Integrated Design and Construction, SETO, London, May 1999, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 3-16.

www.wikipedia.com

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=159683970724579&comments

Monday, October 4, 2010

Innovation of Product and Services by Paint Suppliers

by:

Azi Izwani Nor Hamzah

2009520721

Msc. in Integrated Construction Project Management

Innovation needs to be clear understand by parties involve in construction because it can takes many form. In (Blayse and Manley, 2004) which excerpt from (Slaughter, 1998) she defines innovation as follows;

“Innovation is the actual use of a nontrivial change and improvement in a process, product or system that is novel to the institution developing the change.”

As state in Oslo Manual from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Innovation can be either ‘technical’ or ‘organisational’. Technical innovation involves either ‘product’ or ‘process’ innovation, whereas organizational innovation includes changes to structure, introduction of advanced management techniques, and implementation of new corporate strategic orientations (Anderson and Manseau, 1999).

Therefore, innovation can simply describe as improvement or the changes for the respective area. The process will gives positive benefits to the surrounding involvement. Innovation will create new value to the related production.

In construction industry, innovation can be incorporated for different stages which also involve many parties. Project management will help to manage the wide range of area in construction industry. According to (Tan, 2005), the stages are business plan, market research & data collection, feasibility study, design process, cost factor, tender documentation, construction, maintenance, sales and marketing and financing. Based on the various stages, activities and people involvement is also in bigger scope of area.

For that reason, this paper will discuss on a small scope of area which is material supplier innovation in their product and services. The innovation will relate to technical innovation for their product and services. The material suppliers for this paper will based on paint suppliers which among the popular in Malaysia. The scope may small but the innovation is clear and gives positive improvement to user and their business.

For the last 10 years, paint suppliers, painters or contractor will used catalogue or some kind of card that contains various colors for paint to consult their customer. Based on the catalogue or card, customer or client will choose their color paint that suitable with their purposes. All the information about the material will be describe verbally support with the documentation.

Nowadays, with IT application, they improve the services and also the product. Catalogue is still remaining but some changes or improvement also done by them especially in term of presentation to attract client for the product. In other words with IT application, they can expand their business to the wider area.

With IT, many others features can be add and share with clients around the world. This also becomes one of their market strategies. In line with modernization, rather than promote and introduce their new products and services the company also used their web site to show their social activities and it will help their business growth. It gives better impression towards their company not only among clients but also people outside the construction area.

Types of paint are also increase nowadays to suite with the clients’ requirements and nature environments. Paint that resistant to the weather is something command now because suppliers produce more attractive product such as, surface paint that can be clean if they have any dirties element such as children color painting or food. The surface can be cleaned without gives any effects to the paint surface.

Sustainable types of paint are also produced by suppliers to make it more environmental friendly. As an example, Dulux produce a low Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paints help reduce health risks and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

From the innovation for their products and services, nowadays client can chose and create their own color of paint because they have produce a machine for mixing the color paint. The paint will be exclusive create for the client and it affordable. The machine usually located at hardware store and easy to operate.

More attractive in their innovation of products and services is customer also can try to paint the area that they wanted to do so in the web site. The customer only need to take picture of the area and download to the website and start to paint on it by choosing the color that they want to apply to the real surface. This will helps customers to visualize their idea and will contribute to the success of their objectives. By experienced this services personally, it have advantages and disadvantages.

One of the advantages for this service has been mentioned above which help to visualize the result based on the color chosen. This also contribute to others basis objective of project management which are to meet up the cost, time and quality.

The triangle of project objectives

Customer can save their cost by seeing the result of the color choice first before invest some money for it. This will help unsatisfaction after done the panting. Nevertheless it also has disadvantages because some of the colors effects in the web will be slightly differ with the reality which after applied to the real surface. This issue needs to be considered before do the final decision.

Time can be save when something is well planed such of this services, because the color chosen likely have been tested first for their suitability and eliminate any changes after or during work paint. Quality of work will be increase because reduce mistake. Pre paint work on the real 2d surface in the web site also can contribute to the effective and efficiency in working.

Besides all the advantages, it also has the disadvantages because the color of paint in website may slightly differ from the real. This may be because of technical features impact such as the brightness or level of contrast that have been set. The result still can be reefers by customer because it only minor differences.

The innovation of web site services also can be implementing for other suppliers such as tiling or for kitchen renovation services or event other part of construction suppliers. The same basic ways can be incorporated with, which clients take picture of the area want to do the work and upload to the web site. Suppliers prepare some choice of design and client will try on it.

This innovation of services will helps clients evaluate their idea based on the result before the designers or suppliers explained and gives further consultation on it. By doing this, it may increase clients’ participation in term of design requirement which suite with their needs.

From such innovation for this service, it will gives opportunity to the client play around with the various types of design that have been prepared. In advance innovation for the website services like this, in future maybe client can create their own idea and suppliers or contractor will gives comment on it based on their specialty and experiences. This service may exclusively design for the clients that really hired the contractor or suppliers to deliver the design. By implements such innovation like this, the business will be globalize.

Innovation may easily do for the simple or small things or organization because it seems to be simpler than the bigger or complex ones. Small changes or innovation can contribute and create the bigger effect and impact in the future.

References

-Anderson, F. and Manseau, A. 1999: A systemic approach to generation in conatruction/transmission/use of innovation in construction activities.

-Slaughter, E.S. 1998: Models of construction innovation. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management.

-Blayse and Manley, 2004: Key influences on construction innovation.

-Tan,2005: Successful Project Management in Malaysia,Asia Pacific Media & Publications Sdn. Bhd.

Application of ICT in the Construction Industry

Application of ICT in the Construction Industry

Done by: Ida Marlina Mazlan

Student ID: 2009214222

This paper is designed to find out the adaptation of Communication and Information Technologies (ICT), in the Malaysia construction industry, which focuses on the E-construction services that are promoted by the Malaysia Government.

ICT refers to the information and communications technology or information and communication technology that is related to information technology (IT). However, ICT focuses on the role of communications in modern information technology, that would consists all technical means used to handle information and aid communication, including both computer and network hardware as well as necessary software. In short, ICT consists of IT as well as telephony, broadcast media, and all types of audio and video processing and transmission.

Emerging technologies offer new solutions to the construction industry, improving processes, enabling automation and effective decision-making mechanisms and changing current ways of work. The construction practices available now are commonly limited in applying ICT. Most practices would only benefit from IT product such as computer in most of the job site application, such as surveying application, equipment control, the installation and fabricating construction product. The results of a pilot survey carried out during the preparation of the IT Strategy Plan for the Construction Sector indicates that the most common tools used are Microsoft Office tools, followed by AutoCAD.

Malaysia is known as a fast developing country and having stable economic, technology and infrastructure growth. The Public Works Department director-general Datuk Seri Prof Judin Abdul Karim had once urged that the construction companies should adopt ICT to enhance their capabilities. He also added that there is an awareness regarding the benefits of ICT but these interests are often limited by the cost of investment needed to apply ICT. There are also situations whereby when the company had already implemented ICT into their business, they could not afford to upgrade the system due to a higher cost. From here, it can be concluded that the concern has never been about how to implement ICT in a business; it is always about the cost.

Our construction industry is rather slowly adopting ICT technology especially when it comes to setting Stand-alone applications for bookkeeping and 2-dimensional drawings are GPS and internet technology are still only incidentally applied. The Malaysia Government first started introducing ICT to the public in the 6^th Malaysia Plan. Evidently, today, the public has benefited from ICT; one of the examples is the ability to pay bills online, from home. The construction industry is slowly benefiting from adopting ICT in their daily activities. Information and communication technology (ICT) has a significant role to play in transforming the project visions and ideas into physical reality, from facilitating the creation and modification of building plans to expediting the review and approval process. A strategic thrust for the construction industry, it will bring significant improvements to the industry, enhance its efficiency in several areas such as knowledge sharing, not to mention improve the industry's image.

The construction industry needs a single point of access to all information relevant to the industry that is able to meet the knowledge requirements of all the stakeholders in the industry - contractors, suppliers, clients/developers, regulatory authorities, professionals, academia, students, financiers and the general public. This is inline with the Government’s Knowledge Economy Master Plan, which was launched in 2002. Following these needs, a single point of access was created by CIDB E-Construct Services Sdn Bhd under the Malaysia Government; http://www.cidb.gov.my/v6/, whereby a communication tool is designed to meet the needs of the stakeholders and the public. It offers a range of information, which are mostly limited to members only, such as tender information, recent projects awarded, information on registered contractors, market information and articles on international projects, laws and technical issues, land and soil information, training programmes, etc. The website is designed to be easily accessible and user friendly to encourage users to fully utilize the information and services offered in the website. This is similarly done in Singapore, with a website named Corenet. Facilities for soliciting customer's feedbacks, medium for exchange of ideas, experience and knowledge through structures discussion forums in specific areas are provided. Following this, currently, almost all municipal councils owns a website whereby all the submission requirements are visible and easily accessible.

IT now offers more than just a communication tool as the construction industry becomes more technologically advanced. More opportunities are expected to arise to the local construction software industry in both public and private sectors. In the long run, IT is hoped to increase efficiency and productivity, and reduce cost. The Government has made this easier for companies that wish to adapt ICT in their companies by having a well developed ICT infrastructure, the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) that companies can fully take advantage of. The promotions available is to encourage companies to utilize the use of technology aims to achieve higher adoption of technology in the construction community. Increase in demand will in turn create more opportunities for the local construction software industry.

The IT strategy plan has been designed by SIRIM which stresses on a formulation relating to a strategic plan in adopting ICT in order to heighten the productivity and competitiveness of the construction industry. One of the initiatives being carried out is the online planning submission and building plan approval at the local authorities. Following this, the CIDB is currently developing an online tendering system, which aims to automate and enhance its tendering process using Internet and the Web as the communication medium.

In conclusion, it has been identified that the main cause of practices in the construction industry haven’t fully adopt ICT into their daily activities is because of the financial constraints to adopt, maintain and upgrade ICT. However, having said that, it is evident that the Malaysia Government is very eager in promoting the application of ICT in the construction industry with providing promotions; for example, having various tax-incentives, and providing a well-developed infrastructure, the MSC, to support the growth of the ICT industry. It is now, up to the people related to the construction industries to take advantage of the services provided.

References:

Betts. M., (1999) Strategic Management of IT in Construction. Blackwell Science, UK.

Rogers, E.M. (1995) The Diffusion of Innovations (4th edition) Free Press, New York

Attila Dikbaş, Raimar Scherer (2004) eWork and eBusiness in architecture, engineering and construction: proceedings of the 5th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling in the Building and Construction Industry

Frank Harris, Ronald McCaffer, Francis Edum-Fotwe (2006) Modern construction management, Wiley-Blackwell

www.cidb.gov.my

INNOVATION & MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

By : Afifuddin Husairi Bin Hussain (2009121853)

Management science is art and science and it dominated by major advances that respond to the perceived limitation of methods existing at that particular time. These advances usually represent a break with traditional norms and involve the introduction of new concept of innovation. These innovations are usually based on the new tools and technologies available in that period. Henry Ford’s mass production techniques (Brinkley, 2003), Toyota’s lean production system (Ohno, 1988) and WalMart’s pionerring use of information technology to revolutionize the management of retail stores (Skater, 2003) are good example of these innovation.

Construction industry is an industry which appears ripe for reaping the improved in information technology. The industry is sometimes described as the world largest but here this great industry locked into its craft of information technology. The construction industry seems ripe but the missing ingredient still need to emerge to find our own innovation and management of IT application in the construction industry.

Design, by definition, is to creat and work out the structure of form of something, by making a sketch, outline, pattern or plans. It a fundamental, purposeful human activity involving functionally, meaning, expression and aesthetics (Coyne et al., 1990). Our understanding of design as a process and our ability to model it are, however still limited (Gero, 1991). The objectives of research into design are to obtain a better understanding of design, and to examine how useful tools such IT can be used to aid human designers in the design process. CAD (Computer Aided Design) does not really aid design; in reality Computer Aided Drawing (Lawson, 1997). Therefore, new innovations need to improve this ‘Computer Aided Drawing’. It should be provides a powerful mechanism to visualized the design, construction and operation, and to integrated with many other aspect of process, such as structural analysis, cost planning and control, construction planning, performance prediction and facility management. It should be multi-dimensional computer model that will visualized the entire design and construction process, enabling users to see and stimulate the behavior of project throughout its life cycle.

With the advancement of information technology, communication and collaboration in project are much easier (Issa et al.,2003). Many innovative technologies are shaping the business process o construction companies in order to be faster, more specialized and focused. Among these technologies, mobile computing and interoperability have further enhanced the development of e business. Mobile computing is configured by highly distributed and interconnected mobile devices prefigured by mobile phone and personal digital assistants (PDAs). In essence, mobile computing has enabled a flexible connectivity among project participants. The connectivity is potentially restorative to the fragmentation to our construction industry, uniting us with each other. This eliminates the need for data re-entry and re-formation which has been the major cause of errors and inefficiency. On the other hand, with the innovation and management of the IT as playground of ideas, construction as an industry in the digital age bring issues of products, distribution and installation into the central stage across the whole development construction life cycle.

Although knowledge management is not a technology, the need of knowledge management for innovation and management of it in construction industry is driven technologies such as internet. It can be augment and facilitated through the application of IT. As put by Koulapoulos and Frappaolo (1999), technology will not replace the value of and need or face-to-face communications, but can assist in broking the owners of tacit knowledge and facilitating the creation of people based network. For example, workflow, decision support and visualization will facilitate cognition and intuition by our minds and brains; the information search and retrieval systems and intelligent agents etc. will facilitate internationalization and apprentices; document management system and portals etc will enhance externalization or mentoring in knowledge management, and group wise, emails etc will facilitate intermediation or the communities of practices.

As mentioned, management is an art and science. One of the main challenges faced in the construction industry today is how to improve innovation and management and integrate this into a comprehensive system using application of IT. Implementation problems of these new innovation of technologies have always barrier in adopting them, however while in the past the main problem was cost, it is now more organizational and human issues that stand in the way of taking full advantage of the benefit of innovation and management of it in construction.

Three key innovation and management of IT in construction industry have been highlighted. With the new modern era, this is widespread recognition that construction industry must embrace new way of innovation if it is to remain competitive and meet the need of industry demand.

References :

Coyne R.D., Rosenman M.A., Radford A.D., Balachandran M. Gero J.S (1990), Knowledge-Based Design Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts.

Gero, J.S (1991), Artificial Intelligence in Design 91, Butterworth-heinemann Ltd, First international conference on artificial intelligence in design , Edinburgh.

Lawson Bryan, How Designers Think – The Design Process Dennystified. Architectural Press, Oxford, 1997

Issa R R A, Flood I and Caglasin, G (2003) A survey of E Business Implementation In The US Construction Industry, ITCon, 8(2003), pp. 15 – 28

Koulapoulos Thomas M. and Frappaolo Carl (1999) Smart Things To Know About Knowledge Management, Capstone, USA

Brinkley, Douglas : 2003, Wheels for the world : Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Process, 1903-2003, Viking Press

Ohno, Taiichi : 1998, Toyota Production System, Beyond Large Scale Production, Productivity Press

Skater, Robert : 2003, The Wal-Mart Decade:How A New Generation Of Leaders Turned Sam Walton’s Legacy Into The World’s #1 Company, Portfolio

INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Innovation and Management of IT in Construction Industry: Project Collaboration Platform

IT is defined broadly as “technologies dedicated to information storage, processing, and communications” Ang et al. (1997), that is, a combination of hardware, software, telecommunications and office equipment to transform raw data into useful information for speedy retrieval. In recent years, the construction industry in Malaysia seems to be using the Internet as much as other industries. In line with the National IT Agenda, which was formulated in 1996, the Malaysian Government has been aggressively promoting IT and its application in every sector including the construction industry. The Mid-Term Review of The Seventh Malaysia Plan 1996-2000 reported RM152 million (US$40 million) investment in IT from the construction sector in 1995 but there was a sharp decline in 1998 where investment in IT from the construction sector was at RM48 million (US$12.6 million).

Malaysia was connected to the Internet in 1990 when the Internet Service Provider (ISP) JARING was launched by MIMOS Berhad. In 1996, Telekom Malaysia launched the country’s second ISP, which is TMNet. (Rahmah, 1999). In addition, various portals targeting the construction industry such as Icfox, Binaonline.com, Buildcom.net and Construction Asia have emerged in recent years.

The construction sector, in 1997, contributed 10.6% to the national GDP, second only to the services sector (11.06%) with the manufacturing sector a close third (10.1%). However, this sector suffered a contraction of 23.0% and 5.6% in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Efforts to revive the sector helped it to turnaround in 2000, contributing RM6,996 million (US$1,841 million) which is 3.3% of the national GDP (Eighth Malaysia Plan, 2001).

Currently, the total contracting firms registered with CIDB are in the region of 41,500 firms (CIDB, 2001). The registration of contractors are divided by category, starting from G1 for contractors qualified to tender for works not exceeding RM100,000 (US$26,317) to G7 where there is no limit to the value of work that the contractors under this category are eligible to tender (G6 contractors are allowed to tender for works not exceeding RM10million in value only). For the purpose of our survey, we are only focussing on the G7 contractors, which number 1,643 companies. Development companies registered with the Real Estate and Housing Developer Association are in the region of 800 companies. The professional firms that are involved in this sector that are registered with the various professional boards amount to about 3,083 firms. The professional firms include architect firms, town planning firms, engineering firms, quantity surveying firms and valuation firms.

To support such construction process, the stakeholders will utilize IT to simulate, analyze, and evaluate the expected performance of the facility design, the design of the facilities delivery process including design and construction schedule and the design of the organization carrying out the process. These simulations, analyses, and evaluations should be based on an integrated model describing the designed facility, organization, and process. The simulation, analysis, and evaluation results should then be visualized so that the results make clear what the tradeoffs are between optimizing the facility, organization, and process design for a particular discipline vs. the overall project for the wide range of criteria typically found on construction projects. IT should also support automation of the generation of the input for simulation, analysis, and evaluation and automate the simulations, analyses, and evaluations as much as possible. Eventually, IT will support the optimization of a project’s design from the perspective of multiple disciplines.

IT also needs to cover the design of the product include facility, project scope, the project organization carrying out the design and construction, and the process to carry out the project. These scope called ‘integrated POP design’, where POP stands for product, organization, and process. As the examples illustrate many decisions involve tradeoffs between product, organization, and process design. The reason for making the product, organization, and process of a project in the main scope of IT is that project stakeholders can decide what to build, who should build it how, and when to build it and the product, organization, and process design are the independent variables on a project. These decisions then lead to a particular performance of the integrated POP design with respect to cost, safety, and other project criteria. These performance predictions provide the yardstick to evaluate the relative and absolute merits of a particular design. Such an integrated POP design requires the modeling of the systems and components that make up the product, the actors, teams, task assignments, and other organizational aspects, and the activities that comprise the design, construction, and operations processes. The activities provide the main glue between the product design and the organization, since each component of the product design leads to one or several activities for its design, construction, and operation, and each actor or team in the project organization is assigned to one or several tasks.

There is another software that have innovate the construction industry but not available in Malaysia that is Building Information Models. These types of models support the exchange of data between software tools to speed up analysis cycle times and reduce data input and transfer errors. Their set-up, testing, and use cannot typically be financed on a project basis, but rather requires corporate funding. For example one innovative engineering company has been employing about 10% of its engineering staff in its R&D group to make their software and design methods based on product models and to learn how to use product model information other project participants produce to their benefit. When successfully deployed, the ability to reuse project data to do more work with the same budget or the same work with far less budget should provide a competitive advantage that is more sustainable than that gained from visual models.

As a conclusion, from this platform it is possible to construct a scenario or vision of how IT may enable construction products and processes to be more competitively procured in the future. This vision is currently informing ongoing research and innovation within IT for construction. It has a relevance to research much more widely in building and construction. Researchers in many of the other areas covered might look to examine this vision to identify the extent to which it informs and influences in Malaysian construction industry.

Rahmah Hashim and Arfah Yusof (1999). Internet in Malaysia [online]. Interasia. Available from:http://www.interasia.org/malaysia/hashim-yusof.html [accessed 27 March 2001]

Construction Industry Review 1999/2000 (2001). Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Wan Suhana Abdullah Saimi

2009185923

INNOVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF IT IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

ZAKIRIN BINTI ZAKARIA

2009566291

Msc. in Integrated Construction Project Management

The innovation and management of the construction industry is increasingly predicated on technology driven investments in information technology (IT) and this is expected to be even more so in the future.

Information Technology (IT) plays a vital role in the sustained growth of a business. IT is defined broadly as “technologies dedicated to information storage, processing, and communications” Ang et al. (1997), that is, a combination of hardware, software, telecommunications and office equipment to transform raw data into useful information for speedy retrieval.

There have been regional studies, Valida et al. (1994) studied IT use in 230 business organizations, mainly in Malaysia, and concluded that IT use conferred a competitive advantage. Thong and Yap (1995) developed an IT adoption model for small business, and found that the companies with innovative CEOs had a more positive attitude to IT use. In Singapore, Ang & Koh (1997) explored the relationship between user information satisfaction and job satisfaction by Usage of Information Technology in Construction Firms; Malaysian Construction Industry developing two constructs to measure the relationship and found the two satisfactions to be correlated.

Nowadays, IT is moving innovative in term of using the internet. Malaysia was connected to the Internet in 1990 when the Internet Service Provider (ISP) JARING was launched by MIMOS Berhad. In 1996, Telekom Malaysia launched the country’s second ISP, which is TMNet. (Rahmah,1999).

The feeling is that the Internet users have increased manifold in the last few years and that Internet is being widely used in daily dealings in the construction industry. However, information on the actual level of Internet usage in the construction industry is still lacking. Internet has made a major impact on the way business is conducted including the construction industry. As such, the Construction Industry Development Board, being a national body to spruce up the construction industry, should ensure that firms in the construction industry provide opportunities for their workers to be trained in the skills of information technology. Training should not only concentrate on general knowledge in using the Internet, e.g. emails and information search only, but also to upgrade the Internet skills to include e-bidding and e-meetings in an effort to fully utilise the potential of the Internet. (Lim et. al, 2002)

Meanwhile, for UK construction industry, they are also achieving innovation and management in IT by using a term “Accelerating Change”. The ‘Accelerating Change’ report acknowledged, however, that deriving the maximum benefit from introducing IT solutions would not be easy. The widespread adoption of innovations such as e-procurement, IT enabled supply chain integration and virtual prototyping would require the construction industry to transform its traditional methods of working and its business relationships. The construction industry has not benefited from the advantages that many other industries have realised through effective use of information technologies. (The UK Construction Industry, 1994)

In particular, while many construction companies have implemented niche solutions at the functional level (for example HR, Finance, Procurement and/or Project Management), few have pursued integrated cross-organisational applications such as ERP and ‘virtual’ integration. This tactical approach to IT has often resulted in investment neither providing value for money nor the modern technology platforms necessary to gain competitive advantage in the modern business age.

In the cement industry, Cemex, the world’s third largest cement company has been widely recognised as a strategic innovator through the use of technology to deliver ‘just in- time’ cement. Compared to the previous situation where customers were required to order days in advance and were then provided with a four hour delivery ‘window’, Cemex has created business processes that enable same-day service and free unlimited order changes as standard operating procedure.

The company also equipped its trucks with transmitters and receivers connected to a GPS (global-positioning satellite) system, thereby providing its headquarter’s computer systems precise, real-time data about the location, direction, and speed of every vehicle in the Cemex fleet. Today, Cemex can use its computer system to triangulate this information against order destinations and mixing plants, all the while taking traffic patterns into account, to enable highly efficient delivery processes. Today, Cemex is undoubtedly the best performing large company in the cement industry and has expanded its technology-enabled model to the United States, Indonesia, the Philippines, Latin America and elsewhere. Its financial performance is the envy of the industry.

Innovation as a strategic priority is ranked far down in importance for most of our respondent organisations and IT is not considered to play a significant role in strategy realization by a majority of finance function respondents, a view supported by the fact that only one-third of IT Directors feel that there is alignment between the IT function and the overall business strategy. (The UK Construction Industry, 1994)

Today, practically all project information is entered into software tools or generated by computer programs and is represented in the many different formats used by the many disciplines involved in a project. The software tools tend to be general purpose tools like spreadsheet and text processing software or specialized, discipline-specific tools like mechanical CAD programs or cost estimating software. The formats commonly used to represent information in construction include text documents, 2D and 3D drawings, schedules in bar chart and other formats, various diagrams and charts, tables, etc.

This use of IT is typical on projects. Because decisions are mostly based on personal and human interpretations of information generated by many engineers from many disciplines the decision process and resulting actions and results are not consistent and repeatable from meeting to meeting and project to project. As a result it is difficult to predict the outcome of the current design and construction process, and IT contributes little to predict the outcome of projects more reliably. (Martin et. al., 2004)

In conclusion, the proposed IT is to provides a holistic view of IT implementation in construction and offers significant contributions to current body of knowledge on IT in construction. The use of IT in construction is extending beyond the stage of piecemeal application for improving the efficiency of discrete operations by individual organizations to an advanced stage where IT is applied strategically in commercial enterprise, government agencies and professional institution. From strategic point of view, IT has the potential to change the landscape of the construction industry.

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