No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Construction industry is characterized in nature as complex, fragmented, dynamic and involves many parties therefore effective communication is essential to overcome these challenges. Many researchers found that the industry faces major challenge to ensure effective and successful communication throughout the lifecycle of the project which therefore resulted to project failure. Poor communication in construction industry had been addressed in previous research studies; however, this paper presents and examines the identification of causes and effects which lead to poor communication. Further investigations on previous literature were conducted to extract the causes and effects which contributed to poor communication in construction industry. Similarity technique was applied to avoid duplications in the identified causes and effect of poor communication. Using the frequency technique, from the 33 causes of poor communication it was found that the most dominant cause is lack of effective communication. Whereas, out of 21 effects from poor communication, it was found that highly repeated effect is time overrun. These findings will serve a good platform for further investigation on the relevancy of causes and effects to the local construction practitioners. Keywords:Causes; Effects; Poor Communication; Construction Industry. Article History:Received: 25 September 2017Accepted: 10 December 2017 1-IntroductionConstruction industry defers from other industrial sectors by its distinctive characteristics and structures [1]. It is an expandable and complex sector in which it develops over time to accommodate and shelter the rise of population number it also involves many parties from public and private sectors [2,3]. These characteristics have resulted in more complexity and challenge to produce effective, sustainable and acceptable quality products [4]. Amongst these challenges is poor communication among construction teams. Poor communication is described in this context as ineffective, unsuccessful, and deficient and lack communication process of project information which should be avoided in construction industry [5]. As the key aspect to construction project success is effective communication [6,7].Poor communication has many effects and consequences in construction industry such as cost overruns, time overruns, dispute and finally project failure. It was proven that unsuccessful communication leads to unproductive outcomes [4].Project Management Institute [8] investigated communication in organization specifically in construction projects and found that by adopting effective communication during the construction of the project it can help in meeting the stipulated goals and objective of the projects. It also found that highly effective communication can achieve better time and cost management in producing successful projects.Poor communication in the construction workplace can be either in large scale or small scale. Large scale forms between construction parties such as consultant, client and contractor. Ho...

Time Overrun is one of the most significant issues being faced by the construction industry today. There are various factors responsible for the time overrun which require serious attention to understand and address in order to achieve successful completion of projects on time. This is because time overrun has great impact to construction cost which can never be recovered. Thirty (30) large construction projects in Malaysia were identified facing Time Overrun during construction. Out of 30 projects, 17 (56.67%) projects were caused by 1-100 days time overrun, 5 (16.67%) projects in between 101 to 200 days, 5 (16.67%) projects 201 to 300 days whereas 3 (10%) projects were delayed for time period above 300 days. A structured questionnaire was conducted amongst personnel of project management consultants (PMC). The data was analyzed statistically to calculate the causes mean rank of time overrun. It also computed the level of agreement with Kendall"s formula. Dominating factors affecting time overrun are cash flow & financial difficulties faced by contractors, contractor"s poor site management, and inadequate contractor experience, shortage of site works and ineffective planning & scheduling. The results of this study will enhance the selection process of awarding construction job to the contractor.

A systematic study on the preparation of SnO 2 nanoparticles using a simple sol-gel technique has been conducted by varying reaction parameters such as concentration of ammonia, ammonia feed rate and reaction temperature. The tin oxide obtained was characterized by using FTIR, BET, XRD and TEM. Particles size was obtained in the range of 4 to 5.6 nm and the surface area was found to be between 76 to 114 m 2 g -1 depending on the reaction parameters. Meanwhile, the catalytic activity of SnO 2 was first time investigated for the hydrogenation reaction of styrene using ethanol as the solvent at 70°C and 1 atmospheric pressure. It is found that SnO 2 acts as a good catalyst in this hydrogenation process. The product conversions in the presence of catalysts prepared at different conditions were between 37 to 72%.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a new approach of construction design. It does not only facilitate the digital representation for designs but also provides all the necessary information for any project before it is constructed. Despite this advantage, the adoption of BIM in Malaysian construction is very low. Motivated by this, current study has focused on assessing current status of BIM implementation in Malaysian construction industry. It has also investigated advantages and disadvantages together with barriers to implementations of BIM and proposing effective strategies for enhancing the BIM implementation in construction industry. Investigation was done through survey where 150 questionnaire forms were distributed and 95 completed forms received back were analyzed with Average Index (AI) and Relative Importance Index (RII) method. Findings of the study revealed that the rate of BIM implementation in construction industry is very low. Major advantages of BIM are improved scheduling, improved drawing coordinated, controlling time and cost and singe detailed model. Enhanced collaboration, requires coordinated drawing, interoperability are the major disadvantages and limitations of BIM.Major barriers to low level of BIM implementation are lack of competent staff to operate the software, unawareness of the technology and non availability of parametric library. Provision of trial software, training of construction staff and introducing of BIM in university curriculum are very effective strategies in enhancing the implementation of BIM.

No abstract