1.

OVERVIEW OF CONSTRUCTION TEAM

In a construction project there are several parties involved in the completion of the project. These
parties can be from either the public sector or the private sector. The key parties are the owner/client, the
architect/engineer and the general contractor. Between these parties there are business agreements in the
form of contracts to complete the work in the project, such as: design, engineering, construction,
management and maintenance. It is crucial that project teams are structured properly from the outset, and
that team members are selected carefully to give the project the best prospect of success.

2. GOOD ATTRIBUTES FOR SUCCESSFUL CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Management Aspect
- Legally registered with the relevant authorities
- Management capability
- Site organisation
Qualification
- Knowledge of Malaysian Standards
Experience
- Experience in the region
- Length of time in construction industry
Expertise
- Expert in latest construction technology
- Knowledge of construction method
Technical Skills
- Correct working methods
- Competently handle machinery and equipment.
- Understanding technical knowledge
Health, Safety and Quality Policy
- Quality assurance
- Quality control
- Occupational safety and health administration rate
- Health and safety records
Financial Support
Resources
- Adequacy of labour resources
- Adequacy of plant resources
- Materials and substances used in the project
Past Work Performance
- Project cost, time and quality performance
- Contract cost overruns
- Contract time overruns
- Past record of conflict and disputes
- Failure to have completed a contract
Past Projects Completed
- Type of past project completed
- Size of past project completed
Organization
- Award received
- Size of the company
- Company image
- Age in construction work
Feedback from Previous Clients
- Client satisfaction
- Customer benefits in performance of end products
- Meeting customer needs
 3. CASE STUDY 1

Board of Directors

Project Board

Project Sponsor

Project Manager

Lead Consultant Main Contractor

Other Lead Sub-

Consultants Designer Suppliers
Contractors

Cost Architect Survey & Earthwork Materials

Consultant / Structural Engineer Piling Work Equipment
Quantity Infrastructure Engineer Sub-Structure Plants &
Surveyor M & E Engineer Super-Structure Machineries
Concrete & Brick Work
Finishing
 This case study entitled Selecting the Right Team for Construction Team will be based on
knowledge gained and observation made during internship at consultant company, WK & Partners Sdn.
Bhd. Besides, reference resources such as online journal (The Impact of Contractors Attributes on
Construction Project Success: A Post Construction Evaluation) and book (Project Management Body of
Knowledge PMBOK Guide Fourth Edition) also helped to conduct this case study.
Here is the company background. WK & Partners Consult Sdn. Bhd. (refer hereon as WKPC) is
established by a group of practicing engineers with a high commitment to provide excellent civil and
structural consultancy services to the clients. WKPC is registered with Board of Engineer Malaysia (BEM).
The associated team comprises of architects, civil & structural engineers, mechanical & electrical engineers,
quantity surveyors, landscape designers and town planners. The foundation of the company is to provide
the efficient structures customize design to the usage of the building.
Client plays a major role in selecting the right team at early construction stage. Five stages:

Client select lead consultant

Client should select engineering based company or organisation which already registered and got
approval from the relevant authorities to become lead consultant before involved in project construction.
Characteristics such as qualification, experience and expertise should be considered because usually
consultant also acted as design team and responsible in designing the assigned project. Client can use past
performance and project completed as indicators in selecting the right consultant team. Therefore, client
needs to search information on type and scale of the project completed by the consultant in the past 3 to 5
years and confirm whether completion of the project in time and cost or not. Client can evaluate
performance and competency of consultant before decided the best lead consultant for his construction
project.
For example, client, Berjaya Golf Resort Sdn. Bhd. had selected WK & Partners Consult Sdn. Bhd.
as main consultant for project Cadangan Pembangunan Kediaman Mampu Milik Di Atas Lot 36478, Jalan
2/155A, Mukim Petaling, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur. Type of development is residential (high
rise) block and its construction involves precast columns and beams structural systems. WKPC is chosen
due to excellent civil and structural consultancy services to the clients which cover wide range of
professional solutions to various structures. The specific area of professional experience includes precast
solutions with framing system to various buildings, structural steel works, industrial and institutional
building.
Besides, the design team comprises of senior civil and structural engineers who are expert in
industrialised building system, high-rise and precast structures as well as senior draughters who are
experienced in drawing precast structural layout and detailing. Moreover, there are various type and scale
of the project related to precast structure system and completed by WKNPC. A selection of completed
project such as Pan Asia logistic warehouse at Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas, Johore with a total build up area
of 80 000 m2 completed in 12 months, 6-storey B10 BBraun medical industries at Bayan Lepas, Penang
with total construction cost RM 19 million and Changi Airport Terminal 4, Singapore using precast
structure system with total construction cost RM 80 million. Based on the structured organisation,
experienced in precast structure, past performance and project completed made client had confident to
select WKNPC as main consultant for the project.

Client select main contractor

After selecting lead consultant, client can now focus to find main contractor. Sometimes, the
selected consultant will advise the client about the right contractors attributes which will lead to the
successful of the construction project. Contractor selection in Malaysia is always influenced by bid price
and financial soundness of contractor, but the industry often suffers project delivery delays caused by the
contractor. This common practice of selecting a contractor based on the lowest price bid has long been
evaluated by many researchers. According to them, a contractor bidding at a very low bid price who
eventually wins the tender may find the bid amount unsustainable to deliver the project successfully. Such
contractor often faces various project delivery problems, such as serious time and cost overruns, quality
problems and increased number of litigations.
 In conducted investigations of contractor selection practice in the construction industry and
researchers found significant findings that past work performance is the most reliable indicator in the
contractor selection process. Findings from the study suggest that contractor selection criteria seen as the
most important include project managers qualifications, experience on similar types of project, percentage
of previous work completed on schedule in the past 3 to 5 years, technical staffs qualifications and level
of experience. As can be observed, most of the criteria reflect past and potential performance categories.
The type of past project completed as having an impact on project success. This is because it is better to
select a contractor who has the requisite experience from a similar project type (Holt et al., 1994). Moreover,
contractor companies usually perform several construction projects at the same time. Thus, client should
know the present or current workload and number of project the contractor working on currently.
Financial support is one of importance criteria in contractor selection process as financial resources
show a company's credibility and reputation among clients and suppliers. It also indicates the strength of a
company in the market in terms of its capacity to carry out projects (Isik et al., 2009). Profitability and turn
over are the two most important indicators of the financial strength of a company. Poor cash estimation and
poor risk assessment are two of the major factors responsible for the failure of construction contractors
(Varun et al., 2011). Ibukun (2010) reported that inadequate attention to cash flow forecasting causes the
construction industry to be the largest sector of the economy facing bankruptcies. Hence, cash flow
forecasting and control are essential for the survival of any contractor during all stages of the work. In
addition, feedback from previous clients can be used as another indicator to evaluate contractors
performance. By notice of clients/regulatory bodies, level of satisfaction with the past workmanship quality
work and number of repeated subcontractor and suppliers who worked with the contractor previously.
For instance, as a main consultant, WKNPC had advised client, LS Piling and Construction Sdn.
Bhd. to select AME Construction Sdn. Bhd. to become main contractor for project Proposed Phase 1 Single
Storey Warehouse with Double Storey Office and Substation on Lot 7316 (Pt 3609), Jalan Klang-Banting,
Mukim Panglima Garang, Kuala Langat, Selangor. The selection of AME Construction Sdn. Bhd. to
become main contractor is influenced by age in construction work, size of company, awards received,
companys credibility and reputation among clients. AME Construction was incorporated in 1993 to
provide a specialized quality construction service to its customers. AME Construction Sdn Bhd is one of
the top construction company involved in the construction of purpose built buildings; mainly on factory
and warehouse buildings. There some recognitions received by AME Construction Sdn Bhd such as Highly
Commended Industrial Development Malaysia, The Sin Chew Business Excellent Awards 2014 and The
Best Company for Leadership Green Industrial Development Malaysia 2014.
Apart from strong financial support, AME Construction also offers an integrated service and
solutions to the client which based on their in-depth domain expertise and industry experience. The
company offers master plan developments, preliminary designs and layouts, financial consultations, site
selections and finalizations, design developments, schedule and costing developments, value engineering,
project site management, quality control, safety and health management, clients operation start up and
assistance, building maintenance, assets and properties maintenance, security, renovation works, and
facilities and properties management. These all good past performances shown by AME Construction made
client interested to deal with them as main contractor for the project.

Main contractor selects sub-contractor

Main contractor needs help from sub-contractor for various construction works from survey,
earthwork, piling, building sub and super structure until finishing of rooftop. Degree of experiences,
capabilities and competencies in construction technology, skills of technical staff, special qualification of
key personnel are the major criteria that influenced selection of sub-contractor. In order to improve overall
performance, sub-contractor need to improve time performance, establish long-term partnership with main
contractor and maintain a stable and well-trained workforce. Main contractor needs manpower to finish the
assigned project construction, hence main contractor will look for sub-contractor who can provide sufficient
labour resources (local and foreign workers). The ratio of owned major plant and equipment to the whole
plant and equipment required for construction is also seen as the favourable criteria as main contractor can
save cost and no need to select supplier for machinery purpose.
 Another issue that main contractor should consider when selecting sub-contractor is health, safety
and quality policy to promote the completion of a project without major accidents or injuries. Main
contractor should check general policies provided by sub-contractor such as availability of a quality
assurance and quality control program outline, availability of safety measures on site, health and safety
information chart for employee and availability of accident book and records, compilation of accidents
records, records of accident rate in past 5 years. The measurement of safety is mainly focused on the
construction period as most accidents occur during this stage. Ahmed et al. (1998) reported that variable
hazards, a transient work force, harsh operative environments, and strenuous physical tasks contribute to
poor safety performance in the construction industry. Accidents in construction may stop work in one area
of the job, lower work morale, and thus productivity will decline (Alfeld, 1988). In addition to human cost,
contractor profitability can be reduced due to machinery damage or material waste because of accidents in
the construction industry.
In a similar project Proposed Phase 1 Single Storey Warehouse with Double Storey Office and
Substation on Lot 7316 (Pt 3609), Jalan Klang-Banting, Mukim Panglima Garang, Kuala Langat, Selangor,
main contractor, AME Construction Sdn. Bhd. had selected sub-contractor, Geopile Testing Sdn. Bhd. to
carry out pile integrity testing on seven numbers of reinforced concrete piles of 200 mm sq. size. Geopile
Testing Sdn. Bhd. with its trained and experienced technical staff and state of the art equipment, is
committed to provide the foundation and civil engineering industry with a competent and professional pile
testing services. Main contractor was attracted to select this company due to adequacy of required
machinery such as Pile Integrity Tester Collector so main contractor can save budget on equipment rental
cost. The company offers technical staffs and key personnel with specialized qualification to conduct pile
integrity testing. In this case, field sheet for pile integrity testing is acknowledged by testing personnel and
client while test results are approved by test engineer. Main contractor wants to deal with Geopile Testing
company as sub-contractor because of expertise in piling testing field work, well-trained workforce and
sufficient testing equipment.

Sub-contractor hires labour worker

Many researchers agree that one of the most crucial elements for an organisation's success is the
human resource function (Belout and Gauvreau, 2004). Nguyen et al. (2004) concluded that people are
responsible for creating, managing, operating and utilising projects and play a decisive role regarding the
success or failure of a project. Thus, for sub-contractors to successfully deliver their project, they need to
provide qualified and skilled staff that has project management responsibilities and execution capabilities
during construction. According to Hartman et al. (2009), understanding technical knowledge enables use
of correct working methods to competently handle machinery and equipment. Sub-contractor should select
the experienced workers who are competent and specialized to conduct construction works. Selection of
workers should be according to their specialization and technical skills as different labour works required
different method to perform. Besides, sub-contractor can evaluate their workers past work performance
including frequency of previous failure to perform contract on time or fail to complete on time, project
participation in previous projects has been terminated and number of previous projects on Liquidated
Ascertained Damage (LAD) and attitude in correcting faulty work. Also, by notice about level of
satisfaction with the construction work and maintenance service done by workers during defect liability
period, number of defects and type of defects reported.

Contractor select supplier

In the construction industry, supplier is a very general term which refers to organisations
contracted as part of the delivery of a built asset. Traditionally, suppliers might have been considered to be
organisations contracted to provide physical supplies such as goods, materials, plants and machineries.
Contractor needs to collaborate with supplier who has continuous supply of required resources and can
deliver them safely and punctually to the site. On-site productivity can be affected by the availability and
suitability of the plant needed for construction activities (Wong et al., 2003). However, majority of plants
are available for hire as an alternative to ownership in the construction industry, hence many researchers
have not emphasised the ownership of plant and construction equipment (Harris and McCaffer, 1995).
4. REFERENCES

Alzahrani, J. I., & Emsley, M. W. (2013). The impact of contractors attributes on construction
project success: A post construction evaluation. International Journal of Project
Management, 31(2), 313322. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.06.006

Shukery, N. M., Amirudin, R., & Sofield, T. (2016). Level of Importance of Performance-based
Tender Evaluation Indicators. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 9(34).
http://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i34/100842

A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). (2008). Newtown Square,
PA: Project Management Institute, Inc.