Developing a Holistic Project Time Management Framework Utilizing Fundamental Supply Chain Management (SCM) Tools to Overcome Delay in Malaysian Public Sector Building Projects

Abstract

Project delays have been an incessant dilemma worldwide and also for the Malaysian public sector projects. Past three Malaysia Plans (RMK8, RMK9, and RMK10) have experienced ridiculously high delay rates. Surprisingly, these poor delivery records have not led to much research on the topic locally especially those concerning past Malaysia Plans. Beyond that, despite “blame-games” being a common picture when delay occur, past studies hasbeen short of detecting their latent contributorsto make delay easier to manage. Condemnations targeted on the industry have encouraged “calls for change” and many proposed Supply Chain Management (SCM) as the way to go about. SCM has been proven to reduce delays nevertheless, level of applications are still very poor and past studies lackedholistic approach. This paperpresents an on-going research aimed at developing a holistic project time management framework utilizing fundamental Supply Chain Management (SCM) tools to overcome delaysin Malaysian public sector building projects. Data collections wouldinclude qualitative methods in form of expert opinion interviews and also a series of focus group sessions towards gathering vastly experienced industry practitioner to contribute towards the development of final research framework. The ultimate outcome is expected to provide a holistic guide on utilizing wide-range SCM tools towardsmitigatingvarious facets of delay contributors and with proven success from pastSCM tool applications leads to a cautious optimism that it could benefit project time performances in Malaysia as a whole.