KUALA LUMPUR, 12th July 2019- The construction industry is one of the oldest trades in the world and it continues to shape our daily lives in more than one way. Virtually all other industries depend on the construction industry for accommodation and construction is vital in determining how society lives, works and plays. Therefore, it is safe to say that the world’s population depends on construction to maintain a healthy and sustainable way of life. Despite being one of the most highly needed industries in the world, however, the construction industry remains tied to old practices which causes it to experience low productivity and high inefficiencies.

With Malaysia welcoming a new political government, the country’s construction landscape went through a tremendous change. The 2019 Budget presented in the new Parliament on 2 November 2018 projected the construction sector to expand moderately at 4.7% in 2019. Despite that, however, according to McKinsey Global Institute’s digitization index, the construction industry is one of the least digitized industries in the world due to underinvestment in digitization, innovation and capital.  Many key industry players are keenly aware of the pressing need to improve productivity in construction work. With these statistics in mind, are Malaysian contractors aware of some of the problems surrounding the construction industry and what can be done to solve them?

According to Speedbrick Solutions, one of the many problems commonly faced within the construction industry is that contractors often face disorganization in contracts and claims management. This, in turn, leads to payment issues as well as disputes and litigations. Time is also a factor here because the disorganization in contracts and claims management means that contractors do not have instant automated access to the data which informs them of payment deadlines. By the time they realize that they need to seek payment, too much time would have elapsed for them to take legal action. This ultimately results in the abandonment of the project. In Malaysia, about 90% of construction projects experience non-payment, under-payment or late payment due to the mis-management of contracts and claims. The other  problem frequently faced by the Malaysian construction industry is inefficient supply chain management. Currently, most contractors use Excel spreadsheets for material spending management- a highly manual and inaccurate process.

Those are just two of the problems currently faced by Malaysian construction players. These inefficiencies, in turn, impact the productivity levels of the industry, further increasing the need for digitization as was underscored by Minister of Works, Tuan Baru Bian in his keynote address at the SICA Forum last year. By embracing digitization, Malaysia will be one step closer to achieving its target to increase its gross domestic product per worker to RM 62,000 in 2020 from the RM 40,242 per worker in 2017.This will propel the country’s construction industry towards gaining prominence on the global stage by next year.

Recognizing this and with the rise in expensive mega projects as well as the dawn of the Fourth Industrial revolution (IR4.0), the construction industry needs to rethink old practices and embrace new technology to match the speed and efficiency of an increasingly digitized world. On that note, Speedbrick Solutions advises industry players to embrace digitization in order to achieve peak productivity.

Twitter