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In the Malaysian construction industry, the Bumiputera contractors held special benefits, among others, a special policy on the allocation for participation in public projects. However, failure amongst Bumiputera contractors in delivering the project according to specifications has become an issue for the Government and there is a need to address the issue. There are various ways to improve the contractor's performance, among other initiatives are training and development and thus it is essential to look into these aspects to find a solution to the problem in the construction industry. The scope of this paper is limited to Bumiputera contractors attending training programs by PKK. Questionnaire surveys were distributed to a sample of 350 Bumiputera contractors physically and online. 269 questionnaires were received, covering five different regions in Malaysia. This paper analyses four (4) major aspects which are significant in addressing the impact and importance of training towards contractors' development and organizational performance concerning the industry requirement. Subsequently, a list of elements related to each aspect is ranked according to importance based on the survey which is important to be included in designing the training and development modules for contractors. All the findings lead to the establishment of a preliminary framework of training and development. Among the major recommendations is toconduct a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) to find the best direction for content and structure in the Bumiputera contractors' training and development programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of design and innovation through NPD process can be a good platform for Malaysian SMEs to enhance their competitiveness. However, less study has been conducted to examine how the process has been implemented by SMEs. NPD process requires a proper planning and commitment from the company. Managing the NPD process by utilized design as a source of innovation will improve the quality of the product. But, many of the SMEs not utilize the potential of design and innovation as their sources to gain competitiveness. Therefore, there are gaps on how the process has been conducted by SMEs such as how they implementing, managing and who are the parties should be involved in the process. The objective of this paper is to explore the process of new product development conducted by small and medium manufacturing industries (SMEs) through design and innovation in creating added value to a product, based on an empirical study covering product, furniture, and automotive manufacturing industries in Malaysia. A mixed-method was applied consist of 450 respondents for questionnaire survey and 12 selected participants from different group's namely industrial designers, marketers, and decision-makers. The results reveal the positive effects of managing design and innovations in the industries are important to improve product value and to enhance company performance through product development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aims of this paper is to identify a key dimension of knowledge transfer component to improve construction organization performance. It investigates the effectiveness of present knowledge transfer practices currently adopted by the Malaysian construction organizations and examines the relationship between knowledge transfer factors and organizational factors. A survey among 151 respondents including a different contractor registration grade was employed for the study. The survey shows that a seven-teen (17) factors known as creating shared awareness for information sharing, communication, personal skills,individual attitude,training, organizational culture, information technology,motivation, monitoring and supervision, service quality,information accessibility, information supply, socialization process,knowledge tools, coaching and monitoring, staff briefing and information sharing were identify as a key dimension for knowledge transfer success. This finding suggest that through improvement of each factor, the recognition of the whole strategic knowledge transfer process can be increase thus helping to strengthen the Malaysian construction organization for competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to determine the factors that contributing to occupational safety and health (OSH) performance in the manufacturing industries in Malaysia through the result of reliability test and mean values of proposed constructs. The constructs proposed for this study are based on the "leading" indicators to measure OSH performance in the manufacturing industries instead of "lagging" indicators that to some extend create complacency among the industries which do not have any accidents or faced at low risk. The study adopted the non-proportional purposive sampling methods involving thirty Registered Safety and Health Officers of manufacturing industries. The 140 items questionnaire is developed based on a five-point Likert scale. The constructs are management commitment, management engagement, employees' OSH behavior, safety climate and OSH management system. The reliability test is performed to check on the internal consistencies among the construct in measuring the OSH performance for the manufacturing industries where by the mean values representing the agreement on the constructs. SPSS version 25.0 is used in the data analysis and the results are as follows: The reliability and mean values results of the constructs are as follows: management commitment (ƛ=0.955, x̅ =4.39), management engagement (ƛ=0.941, x̅ =3.15), employees' OSH behavior (ƛ=0.781, 4.7), safety climate (ƛ=0.967, x̅ =4.07) and OSH management system (ƛ= 0.983, x̅ =4.05). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is known as a tool for collaboration among construction organisations in generating and managing data across the construction lifecycle. Despite from the advantages of engaged from BIM (i.e; reduce the number of clashes within the construction process, improve the building visualization, and shorten the planning period), most ofthe contractor's organisations are still hesitant to deploy the technology. The aim of this paper is to comprehend the challenges in adopting BIM across project phases. A semi-structured interview was conducted through eight respondents from contractor's organisations which adopt BIM. The interview data were recorded and analysed using ATLAS.ti software. As a result, the finding demonstrated eight (8) substantial challenges in adopting BIM including staff resistance, selection of software and hardware, lack of knowledge an information of BIM, lack of data of return on investment of BIM, implementation cost and benefits, lack of demands from the clients, lack of supply chain buy-in, and lack of standards-policy makers. Meanwhile, another ten (10) challenges for instance training and education, culture change, ownership and intellectual property, contractual agreement, authenticity, product liabilities risks, legal uncertainties and affection to the business environment are remarked as least challenges revealed by the participants. In spite, two (2) additional challenges which are not mentioned by the previous researchers were disclosed by the participants which are trustworthiness and organisation's politic. On this balance, all the challenges grouped into six major elements; people, software and hardware, cost, product, standard, and others. Thus, it is expected that the finding shall bring significant and knowledge for the construction practices to understand the challenges in adopting BIM across construction projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]