CURRENT SCENARIO OF QUALITY MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA

Issues with Construction Quality Management

Quality in construction industry is the performance of project duties in the delivery of products and services in a way that achieves the listed requirements and expectations of the client, design professional team and project constructor. Their duties and responsibilities according to the missions that players are expected to fulfill the completion of project overall activities identified by contractual agreement as well as applicable legislation and licensing requirements, codes, prevailing industry standards 15 and regulatory framework guidelines. Under Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP) in a period from 2006 to 2015 and done by CIDB, the issues of quality in construction project are high lightened. The highest standard of quality also elaborates in occupational safety and health, and environmental practices.

During the past ages, it have been indicated the problem in construction industry that the poor quality fulfilment or performance and productivity in conjunction to other industries (Alarcon & Ashley, 1992). One of the problems is noticed that poor quality control will generate a lot of problems in the construction project, and the circumstance is alike to getting worse. Poor quality management may lead to rework in consequent to increase the budget and delay the work. Most seriously, poor quality management, which include poor quality materials, workmanship, maintenance and management from start to end stage, cause building defect and failure even collapse (Nur Diyana, 2009). Two actual examples are Second Penang Bridge Ramp and Sultan Mizan Zaimal Abidin stadium. 

The case of Second Penang Bridge Ramp On June 2013, a tragedy that the Second Penang Bridge ramp, which connects Batu Kawan to Batu Maung, was collapsed during that bridge was still under construction. Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) on the 6th July 2013 had confirmed that there was procedural and technical negligence by the contractor in the Second Penang Bridge ramp collapse. DOSH director-general Datuk Ir. Dr Johari Basri said in an interview with the the New Straits Times (NST) reporter, Danial Saad that they have more or less completed the investigation and identified the shortcomings related to the contractor's negligence. It has been identified to be procedural and technical negligence by the contractor that had led to the incident. 

The contractor of the collapsed Second Penang Bridge ramp in Batu Maung did not register its workers with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Based on the interview by Bernama with the State CIDB director Ir Raslim Salleh from the joint-operation with 80 enforcement officers from Penang Immigration Department, Health Department, Seberang Perai Municipal Council and Volunteers of Malaysian People (RELA), initial investigations revealed that some of the workers at the construction site of Package 3A of the bridge intersection project were not registered with the board. He also added that under the CIDB Malaysia Act 1994 (Act 520), workers at construction sites must have Industrial Personnel Registration Cards or "Green Cards" to prove that they were registered with the CIDB.

 

The case of Sultan Mizan Zaimal Abidin stadium Another tragedy occurred in Kuala Terengganu in June 2009, the roof of Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin stadium had collapsed. According the investigated report, the committee, Ahmad mentioned that the collapse of the stadium’s roof was a no quality work which did not meet the specifications, safety or design factors and was not built correctly by the contractor. It was not only quality control no being implemented but also the weak of supervision as well as lack of skilled workers during the construction process which had led to the collapse. Besides, five workers had injured while they were dismantling the roof structure during the work to re-construction the stadium in February 2013 (The Star, 2013). The cost of repair was RM1.7 million and stadium collapsed result in damages around RM 15 million and RM 25 million which were bear by the contractor and there were incurred losses in the incident (Malaysiakini, 2013). There are undoubtedly that poor quality management will increase the extra cost to repair and rework.

Problem in implementing quality management system in construction 

Quality management system (QMS) plays a vital role in a construction project as a quality standard to ensure higher quality work. Insufficient quality may lead to poor productivity, as well as reconstruct and repair the defect. Besides, if the failure construction happened, those will loss of the company’s reputation and also further impact to loss in market share. Poor quality management may cause project late, over cost and endure from poor materials and workmanship. However, current problems of execution of QMS application in general are too complex of implementing and lack of knowledge in the ISO 9001 standard of quality. According to a study on Kuala Lumpur International Airport project application of quality management which conducted by 9 Mohammed (2008), some problems mentioned that lack of experience in execution of QMS, exceeding dependence on construction traditional management method, passive behavior towards on new way and misunderstanding of the QMS application. At the same time, Said et al (2009) discovered the problems of organization implementing QMS in Malayisa Construction Industry are lack of benefits’ consciousness of QMS and lack of exposure in application of QMS among labours.  

What Needs to be Done? 

As noted earlier. several efforts have been taken towards implementing quality management in public service organisations ir Malaysia. A lot of excellent ideas have been put forward by the central agencies through government circulars in the process of promoting quality awareness amongst civil service employees. Although much of these strategies are formulated based on the ideas of quality experts, their efforts will not succeed if the environment within the organisation is not ready and not conducive to foster the requisite changes. 

1. Getting Top Management's Commitment 

The most fundamental issue of any quality improvement programme is getting top management's commitment when implementing programmes. which is obviously a difficult task. However, if organisations have acquired top management's obligation to implement quality improvement programmes, part of the problems can be regarded as solved. A high level of commitment will help provide all the wherewithal needed for the implementation of TQM programmes effectively. Top management's commitment can be achieved through the following means: 

(a) discussing the importance of ‘quality' in every managerial meeting. Crosby (1984) suggested that issues on quality becomes the fixed agenda in those meetings; 

(b) organising seminars regarding the importance of quality, which involves all the top and senior management in the organisation; and 

(c) publishing articles on quality, especially on successful quality achievements within or outside the organisation in newsletters.

2. Changing The Management Style 

As noted earlier, the successful implementation of quality management efforts needs to encourage involvement and participation amongst employees. Involvement and participation will increase commitment amongst the staff. Therefore. to foster quality management successfully, management styles within public service organisations require drastic change. However, it is difficult to change existing styles overnight. To facilitate change, it is useful to expose managers in public service organisations to trailing programmes which focus on attitude change, gaining commitment and driving away fear of the consequences of new behaviour towards adopting the new way of management. Managers in these organisations must realise that. TQM can only succeed in a participative environment which requires full involvement of every individual in the organisation. With participative management, individual employees should be encouraged to express their opinions and allowed to contribute at all stages of work.

3. Create A Conducive Corporate Culture 

To foster quality improvement efforts. the corporate culture in the public service organisations must be appropriate and conducive to foster them successfully It is now generally accepted that the corporate culture shapes the way people act and interact and strongly influences the way things get done. Managing corporate culture in an organisation is not an easy task. This is because the existing culture which has often evolved over many years through a number of learning processes and hence deeply rooted in the organisation. may be difficult to change. The best approach in managing corporate culture is by taking and maintaining the good aspects of culture, and subsequently attempting change in the counterproductive aspects of behaviour. The most important issue that needs to be addressed here is that, managers in Malaysia's public service organisations must realise that if they want to succeed in improving the quality of their work, they must first nurture their existing corporate culture sufficiently for TQM to be implemented successfully. 

4. Resistance And Staff Commitment 

Another important aspect which is related to culture is people's attitudes. The success or failure of any quality improvement effort in an organisation is significantly influenced by the type of attitudes and beliefs which exist in them. According to Collard (1989:41), the issue of attitudes always emerges early in the introduction of any quality programme. As mentioned earlier, people are generally reluctant to change. To drive away fear and resistance towards change, the organisational culture must be driven towards participation and employee involvement in order to increase employee commitment in every quality management programme. Whatever attempts are undertaken, however, the most fundamental issue in overcoming resistance and gaining staff commitment, is to create a fear-free working environment and to encourage participation in decision making regarding job related tasks. 

5. Appropriate Education and Training Programmes 

It is important for organisations to provide appropriate education and training programmes amongst their employees to ensure that the quality improvement efforts are successful. With appropriate and sufficient training programmes, each individual in the agency would be able to understand the quality concept introduced and becomes better equipped with the necessary skills and techniques to implement the quality procedures within the organisation. Therefore, one of the best ways of getting people to become aware of the learning process is to start with their own experiences of learning (Smith 1990: 25). Another approach towards effective training is through action learning. As Tattersall (1989: 52) noted, action learning focuses on what the individual or group of people need to do to improve performance. He argued that the essence of the concept is that performance is a function of results achieved, not the level of knowledge possessed. To ensure success, public service organisations in Malaysia should encourage action learning amongst their staff. Through action learning, their employees, regardless of which level they are in, will benefit from the knowledge, skills and experience of individual participants in the improvement programmes in which they are involved. It is also believed that action learning will encourage team-working to function effectively. 

6. Recognising High Performance 

In many government departments and agencies, rewarding good performance is still not embedded in their organisational culture. Although the central body of Malaysia's public service provides several guidelines for awards, many of them still do not realise that job recognition will motivate public service employees to perform at consistently high levels. Rewards need not take the form of monetary awards. In fact, many quality experts do not encourage pecuniary awards. For instance, Deming criticised bonuses which are tied to individual performance. In Japan, recognition is generally given through prizes and competitions for either the most or the 'best' proposal and projects (Collard 1989: 46). "The Employee of The Month" scheme which was introduced by some government departments in Malaysia can be considered as one type of recognition of good performance, which many other government departments in the country could follow. Whatever the approach, recognising people's contribution will motivate and increase staff commitment towards performing their job. Therefore, management should realise and adapt their styles accordingly. 

7. Evaluate Every Quality Improvement Programme 

Finally, public service organisations in Malaysia should evaluate the achievements of every quality improvement programme which they have implemented. Proper measurement and evaluation of achievement is important to ensure that quality efforts meet their targets. 'Follow-up and follow through' of every quality improvement effort nwhich was suggested by MAMPU should be carried out by management in public service organisations. In measuring programmes' achievements, it is important to seek feed-back from relevant external and internal customers of the organisations' concerned. This feed-back will help improve continuously the performance of quality improvement programmes implemented. 

International Organization for Standard (ISO) in Malaysia

ISO is a worldwide federation of national standard bodies where each country is represented as an ISO members. For Malaysia, Department of Standards Malaysia (DSM), SIRIM (Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia) are the representatives to the ISO body.

The Department of Standards Malaysia (DSM) is mandated by the Government of Malaysia to function as the National Standards Body (NSB) as well as the National Accreditation Body (NAB) through the Standards of Malaysia Act 1996 (Act 549). DSM's vision is 'To lead the Nation to be an effective global player in Standards & Accreditation in consonance with Malaysia's Vision 2020'. To fulfill this vision, DSM has a mission 'To provide Credible Standardization and Accreditation of Conformity Assessment services in order to facilitate Malaysian products and services to be competitive globally; to support Government policy makers and regulators; and to advance quality of life of Malaysians'.

DSM promulgates and promotes standardization and accreditation as a means of:

· advancing the national economy;

· benefiting the health, safety and welfare of the public;

· protecting the consumers;

· promoting industrial efficiency and development;

· facilitating domestic and international trade; and furthering international cooperation.

The DSM appoints SIRIM Berhad as the agent to develop Malaysian Standards, and as agent for distribution and sale of Malaysian Standards. SIRIM is also directly responsible for the national standards of all products/services in Malaysia. SIRIM is als0 accredited with UKAS, JICA, and a few other countries’ national standard bodies.