VALUE MANAGEMENT STUDY TO THE MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Aini Jaapar 1
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Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, Shah Alam, 40450 Selangor, Malaysia

The significant contributions of this research are the discovery of current VM practices in Malaysia and the proposed practical VM Guidelines for the Malaysian construction industry. These are as a result of the mixed methodological approach of triangulated data collection and concatenated exploratory research employed. The development process of the proposed VM Guidelines included results from the data which emerged as a result of the mixed methodology design method of the quantitative results and the qualitative findings. Documents, literature reviews, surveys, interviews and observations were uniquely juxtaposed in a holistic blend to obtain the data desired in order to map out the landscape of VM field in the Malaysian construction industry. Keywords: concatenated exploratory research, Malaysian construction industry, mixed methodology design, value management.

INTRODUCTION
VM in the Malaysian construction industry is the main thrust and focus of this study. VM, is defined by this study as a multi-disciplinary, team orientated, structured, analytical process and systematic analysis of function which seeks best value via the design and construction process to meet the clients perceived needs. This article fundamentally signpost the component parts of the research on VM application in the Malaysian construction industry by using concatenated exploratory research using mixed methodology design. The significant contributions of this research were the discovery of current VM practices in Malaysia and the proposed practical VM Guidelines for the Malaysian construction industry. This is as a result of the mixed methodological approach of triangulated data collection and concatenated exploratory research employed. Internationally, VM has been recognised as an emerging paradigm that focuses on continuously increasing the value provided to the client and is widely accepted as an important tool in recent management of construction projects (Ellis, Wood et al. 2005). The construction industry is an important field for VM at the international level (Kelly, Male et al. 2004). VM is also critical to the success of projects as it provides a basis for improving value for money in construction (Ashworth & Hogg 2000). It also focuses on value rather than cost and seeks to achieve an optimal balance between time, cost and quality (Kelly, Male et al. 2004) as it provides a method of integration in the building process that no other management structure in construction can provide (Kelly & Male 1991). Hence, the functional requirements and seeks overall optimisation were explored accordingly (Shen 1995). This was
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ainijaapar@salam.uitm.edu.my

later endorsed by Liu (2003) who emphasises the importance of VM practice to the construction industry, as it has proven to provide significant benefits to clients if it is used correctly. As Malaysia progresses towards a developed nation status, the contribution of the construction industry in Malaysia towards the development process is of paramount importance. It is in this context that VM can be considered valuable as its application can lead to significant saving leading to better value and better functional completed construction projects. Although VM was first introduced to the Malaysian construction industry in 1986 (Jaapar & Torrance 2005) it has not yet become widely practiced in the Malaysian construction industry. However, a number of successful applications of VM in the Malaysian construction industry (Hussein 1998; Che Mat 1999; Karim 1999; Jaapar 2000; Sulaiman 2000; Che Mat 2002; Abdul Ghani 2002, Shamsuddin 2002; Tamim 2002; Sareh 2003; Yahya 2003; Jaapar & Torrance 2005, Che Mat 2006), calls for greater intervention and for positive steps to be taken to fully exploit VM in the industry.

Research Aims
The main purpose of this research was to discover and develop the application of VM for the future benefits of the Malaysian construction industry clients. Hence, the background of VM applications in Malaysian construction industry was investigated resulted in the development of prototype VM guidelines for practical application in the construction industry in Malaysia.

The Research Questions

The research is aimed at the key issue of how do we learn from projects that have implemented the concept of VM? The other important issues related to this research were identified such as what are the current developments of VM applications in the Malaysian construction industry? Whether its applications adhere to the accepted practices; how it is implemented and how to develop a sustainable and practical framework of VM suitable for implementation in the Malaysian construction industry?

The Objectives
The aim of this research is to determine the characteristics of VM applications in the Malaysian construction industry. Specifically, the objectives of the study is to investigate the current developments and implementation of VM applications; to determine whether VM in the Malaysian construction industry is implemented according to value methodology and to develop a sustainable and practical framework of VM in line with the needs of the Malaysian construction industry.

The Research Design

Research design is the entire process of connecting the empirical data to the conclusions of the research; starting from the conceptualised of the problem until the data collection, analysis and the reporting process (Yin 1994; Creswell 1998). The function of Figure 2 was to ensure that the evidence obtained by the research enabled the researcher to answer the initial question of how and what do we learn from projects that have implemented the concept of VM?; as unambiguously as possible (de Vaus 2001).

Phase 1 Literature Review: VM, Construction Industry, Client, Value, Decision Making

Develop Research Objectives

Collect VM documents

Clients Experience

Consultants Experience

Theoretical Framework

Phase 2

Phase 4 Phase 3

SURVEY 1
General Clients: Level of Satisfaction & General Awareness of VM

SURVEY 2
Experienced Clients & Professional Consultants: VM Implementation in Construction Projects

VM WORKSHOPS
Observations

Phase 5 VM Documents

Phase 6 Semi-Structured Open Response Interviews

Synthesis

Phase 7 Propose the Malaysian VM Guidelines

Phase 8 Validation for the proposed VM Guidelines by construction industry clients & consultants

Adjustments

The Prototype Guidelines of VM Application for the Malaysian Construction Industry

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Figure 1 Research Design

The concatenated exploratory approach (Stebbins 2001) has been employed due to the researchers cumulative expertise (Stebbins 2001 and Mason 2002) on past research experience and knowledge towards VM which was able to be capitalised by the research. This element was important as not much was known about the situation of VM in the Malaysian construction industry. The strength of the concatenated exploration adopted was that it provided a venue of opportunity for the researcher to push the development of VM toward increased methodological and theoretical rigour (Stebbins 2001) which was acquired through quantitative and qualitative approaches by using mixed methodology design to the maximum extent allowed. The exploratory approach also created a descriptive platform for the researcher to conduct extensive preliminary works to further describe the VM situation in the Malaysian construction industry. The descriptive approach focused on the events that are in process or have already taken place. It provided the research with greater familiarity and understanding platform towards the practice of VM in the Malaysian context before the research was able to design a rigorous and comprehensive methodology to produce the VM Guidelines. It also provides the research with a profile or descriptions on relevant aspects of VM from the perspective of the clients and their consultants. The results led to further investigation whether the application and practiced VM was consistent with the international practices and what could be learned from projects in Malaysia that had applied VM. This information was vital before even considering the VM implementation to the overall Malaysian construction industry, should the clients and their advisors consider the VM application for their future projects. By employing the exploratory approach towards the research, it was discovered that this research would have to adopt both types of qualitative and quantitative techniques of data collection to ensure that the methodology is robust and able to meet the research objectives. Both types of qualitative and quantitative techniques were triangulated whereby data were collected through the processes of two sets of questionnaires, observations, VM reports and interviews. The research used simultaneous methodological triangulation which is inductive and based on the qualitative foundation. The mixed-methodology design (Creswell 1994) was adopted throughout the research as it represented the highest degree of mixing paradigms for both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Initially, the simple intention to triangulate the findings ended up in the convergence of the results of the research leading to enhancement of study breadth and scope. Apart from mixing the method, it also linked paradigms to method as well as to combine the designs in all phases of study (Creswell 1994). Black (1999) stated that most studies employ more than one approach as the intention was to reflect on what are likely to be the most suitable tools to employ in resolving the research question at hand. The nature of this research corresponds more with having both of the approaches, qualitative and quantitative, to make the research more conclusive as they complemented each other by ensuring the emergent relationship between the concepts of the research was confirmed by the quantitative approach adopted, and vice-versa. Balnaves & Caputi (2001) and Nachmias & Nachmias (1992) highlighted that by combining the quantitative and qualitative methods, any phenomenon could be

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measured by objective observations as well as reports, together with interviews (Nachmias & Nachmias 1992) which could be combined with statistical information. They also emphasised that data gathering should be combined with information about the history of the subject under study and data from unobtrusive studies, such as observation should be combined with questionnaire and other self-reported data thereby, contributing to the descriptive research elements towards this research. It was concluded by Creswell (1994 p.185) in line with Greene et. al. (1989) that the other advantages of an integrated or mixed methods approach resulted in triangulated or converged findings, results would be more elaborated as well it would be able to inform each sector. Thus, the paradoxes or contradictions would be better discovered and able to ensure that the breadth of the inquiry was extended. The input from the quantitative and qualitative data was necessary as it provided the VM characteristics in the Malaysian construction project applications as well as it provided the details pertaining to VM applications in action.
Quantitative Literature Review Qualitative

Preliminary Survey 1

Observations of VM Workshops

Survey 2 Semi-structured Interviews

Analysis of VM Reports Proposed Malaysian VM Guidelines Piloting The VM Guidelines

Validation (and Application)

Figure 2: Triangulation Process of the Research On matters pertaining to the extent of interference with the research, according to Sekaran (2003 p. 127), the extent of interference by the researcher with the normal flow of work at the workplace has direct bearing on whether the study undertaken is a causal or correlational study. With that in mind, the research imposed minimum interference during the data gathering process as the survey questionnaires,
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observations and interviews were used to collect the relevant data pertaining to the level of VM applications and practices. Since it is a correlational study, all the related processes of VM were conducted without interference and in their natural environment where the works preceded normally thus the research setting were considered as noncontrived settings. The unit of analysis of this research were the individual clients and consultants whose construction projects with VM applications were the subject of these investigations.

BRIEF OUTLINE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

How VM is applied in the Malaysian construction industry and to what extend did its applications succeeded in implementing the value methodology? It was deduced that comprehensive coverage from the literature review in relation to VM, projects outcomes, the views from the clients and the consultants were required. To achieve the stated objectives, a preliminary survey was the answer (Winch 1990) to start with, together with a robust methodology which included the detailed questionnaire, semistructured interviews, observations and collected VM documents by using the research design stated earlier. Since the clients were the reasons of entry of the construction industry, it was important during the initial stage of the research to gauge what were the current levels of local clients satisfaction and their level of knowledge towards VM. From the preliminary questionnaire survey, related level of satisfaction was gauged and at the same time, their knowledge of VM was determined. As a result, projects in Malaysia with the application of VM were identified and added to the researchers list of VM documents previously collected. At the same time, the observations of live VM application were carried out to give an insight into how VM was practiced to ensure first hand experience and for greater understanding. The main objective of the observation was to gather primary data on its application for later analyses. The second postal questionnaire was sent to the expert clients and their professional representatives who were the registered professional consultants of the Malaysian construction industry. The outcome of the detailed survey resulted in the discovery of a few other VM practitioners, as well as the number of respondents who had gone through the VM process was identified. The subsequent process was a set of structured open response interviews to determine and confirm the characteristics of the current VM practices in the Malaysian construction industry. They were carried out with 38 randomly selected respondents of representatives of the clients and their representatives (10 clients, 6 architects, 6 engineers, 6 quantity surveyors, 6 project managers and 4 VM facilitators) who had stated that they had experienced the VM applications selected from each process of questionnaire surveys and observations conducted earlier. In order to add further knowledge on how VM is practised in Malaysia, the VM reports of projects were collected and analysed to ensure further details which could contribute to the proposed VM framework and to validate the respondents stated experiences.

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Apart from the process stated above, and the literature reviews conducted, VM documents and information were collected to give the insights towards its application in the Malaysian construction industry. Although the descriptions of some cases in the publications were not so comprehensive, the information aggregated by the documents was deemed to be adequate to reflect the overall picture of the local VM practice. The outcomes of the research processes contributed to the process for the construction of a VM framework of reference for guiding the undertaking of the VM process in the future. As to ensure the integrity and practicality of the proposed framework a validation process was carried out. This procedure was necessary to ensure that the proposed framework was feasible, practical, robust and capable of being applied in the Malaysian construction industry. The process included a piloting process were conducted by a panel of professional construction industry players consisted of the clients and consultants to ensure its integrity, feasible, robust and practical to be applied to the Malaysian construction industry during the final phase of the research. The focus is to ensure that the Prototype Guidelines of Value Management Application for the Malaysian Construction Industry (VM Guidelines) is developed based on empirical findings and interpretations as well as it reflects the synthesis of each of the phases.

Figure 3 The Value Management Guidelines for the Malaysian Construction Industry

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Figure 4 The Value Management Guidelines: The Road Map Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the results of the surveys, interviews, case studies observations and workshop discussions established the key themes of the framework. These were the processes which formed the main structured and content of the research.

CONCLUSION
As the knowledge and application of VM in Malaysia is not as sophisticated as in many other countries, an exploratory research design has been deemed appropriate in answering the research questions posed. Furthermore, a mixed methodological design that has utilised both quantitative and qualitative approaches has enhanced data collection and analysis. The method of research triangulation adopted in this study has adequately addressed issues related to the methodological rigour of research of this nature and has also addressed issues related to validity and reliability. Documents, literature reviews, surveys, interviews and observations were uniquely juxtaposed in a holistic blend to obtain the data desired in order to map out the landscape of VM field in the Malaysian construction industry. This study has shown that the Malaysian construction industry needs a better approach in project delivery. The data obtained and analysed show that the industry should adopt VM methodology in order to enhance efficiency and to deliver maximum value to its clients. It has also demonstrated the need for the construction industry to be more proactive in its stance and for better and innovative solutions to be integrated
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into the construction processes. The findings indicated that VM is still in an early stage of development in Malaysia. VM applications were found to occur and adhered to job plan methodology as discovered by Survey 1; confirmed by the observations; detailed by the Survey 2 respondents; elaborated and explained by the interviewees and validated by the VM documents. Its applications also resulted in cost savings, higher client satisfaction and better decision making process. The prototype VM Guidelines that have been developed can improve the future implementation of VM applications in the construction industry in Malaysia. This will not only help to improve the quality of service provided by the industry, but will also be a step towards engendering value-added services of a much higher standard.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH

The study has contributed towards better knowledge and understanding of the VM implementation in the Malaysian construction industry towards the enhancement of value for the clients and the consultants in the industry by making new interpretations leading to new evidence to the body of knowledge. The major contribution of this research is, to explore the concept of VM and its application in the Malaysian construction industry. In addition, it also contributes to the clients operations from a practical stand point in achieving better value for money for their procured construction projects. A system of VM application is specifically to be used as a reference to any client wanting to develop and implement the VM philosophy within their organisation. The most significant contribution of this research is the development of the prototype Guidelines of Value Management Application for the Malaysian Construction Industry (The VM Guidelines). This keeps to Shens (2004) proposal that, in order to promote VM applications in a country, an established set of VM guidelines and continuing government support are important for the progress and sustainability of VM. He strongly believed that the clients and the consultants would be more receptive and knowledgeable towards the concept of VM. It is hoped that the VM Guidelines which would be a significant outcome of this research and would be used in the future as a reference by the construction clients and their consultants interested to implement the VM concept within their organisations. To be able to improve the consideration of VM applications in the projects by using the proposed VM Guidelines, thus, the continuous support from the government can be enlisted.

REFERENCES
(Ashley, Lurie et al. 1987; Kelly and Male 1991; Nachmias and Nachmias 1992; Creswell 1994; Yin 1994; Ahmed and Kangari 1995; Norton and McElligott 1995; Shen 1995; Karim, Marosszeky et al. 1997; Creswell 1998; Hussein 1998; Black 1999; Che Mat 1999; Ashworth and Hogg 2000; Jaapar 2000; Sulaiman 2000; Balnaves and Caputi 2001; de Vaus 2001; Stebbins 2001; Che Mat 2002; Mason 2002; Shamsuddin 2002; Tamim 2002; Liu 2003; Sareh 2003; Yahya 2003; Abdul Ghani 2004; Kelly, Male et al. 2004; Shen 2004; Ellis, Wood et al. 2005; Jaapar and Torrance 2005; Jaapar, Torrance et al. 2005; Che Mat 2006; Jaapar, Torrance et al. 2007)

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