Soft-scape Construction Specification In Malaysia: Comparison Between Government And Private Sectors

Transcription

1 Soft-scape Construction Specification In Malaysia: Comparison Between Government And Private Sectors Jasasikin Ab Sani, Noriah Othman Abstract Since the construction activities involve the process products, the definition of quality stard in construction might not be much different to definition on quality stard for other processes products. Therefore, the quality stard in lscape construction is a continuous process of fulfilling the specific requirement that is adequate agreeable to all stakeholders. It can be summarized that the quality stard in relation to the lscape construction industry can be defined as a document, containing sufficient technical specifications to be used consistently as rules guidelines to ensure that works conform to the project requirements. This paper reviews the status of stards specification in Malaysia. Stard Specification documents from related government agencies selected private company in Malaysia had been collected for comparison. Comparison has been made on every item in quality stard from three parties involved to identify the similarities differences. Keywords Soft-scape Construction, Stard Specification I. INTRODUCTION Quality stard is vital to achieve quality in soft-scape constructions. The absence of/or unreliable quality stard may lead to the failure in quality control. Quality of soft-scape constructions will be achieved when the execution of works material conform to quality stard. This paper reviews the status of quality stards in Malaysia. The study has found that there are several quality stard documents from different sources have been used as references for quality management in lscape construction. Available soft-scape quality stard from government agencies selected private company in Malaysia have been collected for analysis. Comparison has been made on every item in quality stard from three parties involved to identify the similarities differences. II. QUALITY STANDARD Stard can be divided into three categories. Reference [1] categorized stard as international stards, regional stards national stards. International stard is developed to provide a basis for international such as the ISO stards. International stard is a stard for activities to achieve competitiveness to be recognized at international level. International stard is important for the achievement competitiveness access to the global markets [2]. Regional stards however are developed for specific geographic region national stards are developed for the of specific nation. Most of the nations have their own national stard organization. In Malaysia, SIRIM Berhad has been established as a national stard organization, American National Stard Institute (ANSI) in the USA British Stard Institute (BSI) in the United Kingdom [3]. Reference [4] divided stard into two types, the consensus stard the regulatory stard. Most international stards fall under the consensus stard. The consensus stard is based on general mutual agreement among the interested parties [4]. Reference [5] concluded that consensus stard is developed through a formal, the development of such stards include designers, producers, consumers, corporate government purchasing officials, regulatory authorities whereas the regulatory stard is obligatory to the governing bodies. Compliance to the stard is compulsory to all firms under the control of this specific agency. More often, these stards become regulatory when reference is made within the government regulation [5]. A.S. Jasasikin is withkulliyyah of Architecture & Environment Design, International Islami University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. (phone: ; jasasikin@gmail.com). O. Noriah is with Faculty of Architecture, Planning Surveying MARA University of Technology, Shah Alam, 40450, Selangor, Malaysia ( noriaho@yahoo.com). 480

2 TABLE I TYPE OF STANDARDS Type of stard Purpose Example International Stards Regional Stards National Stards Basis for international Stard for specific region Stard for specific country ISO European Stard SIRIM/ANSI/BSI Stard is a basis of quality achievement. Quality can be achieved through the of the stards. Quality in general is one of the aims of stardization [6]. The degree of quality can be determined through the level of the process or to the related stard. The study has found that specifications are crucially related to the achievement of the quality. Many literatures suggested that specifications are part stard document in quality control. Reference [7] suggested that preparing a fully detailed specification is needed in order to establish quality stard. Specification is needed to cover the qualitative item of the project [8]. Specification is simply defined as a written material about products, systems procedures specific to the project [9]. The ISO defines specifications as a concise statement of a requirements to be satisfied by a product, a material, or a process indicating, whenever appropriate, the procedure by means of which it may be determined whether the requirements given are satisfied [1]. In AIA document A , paragraph 1.1.6, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) defines specification as the specifications are that portion of the contract documents consisting of the written requirements, equipment, systems, stards workmanship for the work, performance of related services [9]. Certain basic criteria are needed for specification to serve its purpose as quality control document. Reference [10] suggested that these criteria include technical accuracy adequacy, definite clear stipulation, fair equitable requirements; a format that is easy to use during bidding construction as well as effective for legal enforceability. III. QUALITY STANDARD OF SOFT-SCAPE CONSTRUCTION Reference [11] claimed that high quality construction project includes the following features; ease in understing the drawing, low level of conflict in drawings specification, economics of construction, ease of operation ease of maintenance energy efficiency. This is because the quality of project built by the contractor is directly related to the quality of plans specification. In construction, reference [12] suggested that product quality is derived from the reliability of all the supplied to the site including their hling, storage protection on the site, whereas process quality is derived from the reliability of a procedures skills of builders in producing a product in accordance with design specification. In lscape construction particularly the softscape, product quality process quality refer to quality of soft-scape works. The quality of soft-scape is achieved by the physical quality of trees, shrubs turfs in term of health sizes, the sizes, the soil, fertilizer a proper hling of these, whereas the soft-scape work quality may refer to achieving quality in the installation technique, sequence of work as well as the maintenance after planting. IV. LANDSCAPE CONSTRUCTION QUALITY STANDARD IN MALAYSIA Unlike ANSI in USA BSI in UK, SIRIM in Malaysia have never established any lscape stard as there is no application from interest parties. Lscape construction activities in Malaysia generally executed based on the specifications tabled through contract document for every specific project. There are two types of lscape projects in Malaysia; government projects private projects. As the contract of government projects awarded to contractor through government s contract documents, the execution of all work are bond to the of the Stard Specification stipulated in related contract documents. Unlike Government s projects, private project are not obligated to follow government s stard specification in their contract documents. Private projects owners in Malaysia normally produce their independent sets of contract document for their projects. The study found that there are two types of stard specifications are used in lscape government contract in Malaysia; stard specification produced by Public Works Department (PWD) stard specification produced by National Lscape Department (NLD). Malaysian Public Works Department (PWD) or Jabatan Kerja Raya Malaysia (JKR) is a government department in Malaysia which constructs maintain public infrastructure in Malaysia such as federal state roads, government buildings, electricity, water many more. This agency is under the Malaysian Ministry of Works (MOW) [13]. PWD has established stard specification for their stard Contract Document. Stard specification for soft lscape stipulated under Section N.4. The National Lscape Department (NLD) under Ministry of Housing And Local Government was officially set up on 1st January Since then, the department was entrusted with the responsibilities of lscaping greening the whole country. Based on the approval by Economic Planning Unit (EPU), the National Lscape Department set the pace to provide services in monitoring establishing national lscape development for the nation [14]. In 2008, NLD has established a National Lscape Guideline second edition which is the refined edition of the first National Lscape Guideline established by Lscape 481

3 Unit under Jabatan Perancangan Bar dan Desa in 1995 [14]. The guideline cover all areas of lscape construction to be used as a refference for implementation of lscape project under the Gorvernment of Malaysia. Guideline for soft lscape is stipulated under section 4. The guideline consist of ten (10) headings related to implementation of soft lscape construction as follows: Method of plant selection Transportation of plant to site Preparation of site nursery Site clearance Preparation of soil mixture Preparation of planting hole Planting method Staking Mulching Treatment method of planting hole The National Lscape Department guideline has been used as a stard lscape specification in Contract Document for lscape project under jurisdiction of NLD since its establishment. Stard specification produced by PWD will be used when the project is awarded as a construction project with lscape work as a sub-component of the project. Stard specification produced by NLD however will be used when the project is solely categorized as a lscape project. It is not an obligatory to any private project to use stard specification from any one of the above in their contract documents. Private project may produce a new stard specification to be used in the contract document. One example of stard specification produced by Punt Garden Sdn Bhd (PG) has been selected to represent stard specification from private sectors. Reference [15] is one of the pioneer lscape consultant companies in Malaysia located at Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur. The company has been producing Stard Specifications in contract document for almost all the private lscape project awarded to them as a consultant. Table II shows that content structures from three parties are different in terms of number of headings sub-heading, title of heading sub-heading. Stard specification from NLD consists of the highest number of headings however stard specification prepared by PG consists of the highest number sub-headings with six (6) headings. Stard specification from PWD consists of nine (9) heading with one (1) to seventeen (17) sub-headings. TABLE II SOFT-SCAPE STANDARD SPECIFICATION CONTENT: COMPARISON BETWEEN NLD, PWD AND PG NLD PWD PG 1. Introduction 1. General 1. General requirement 2. General requirement 2. Classifications characteristic of plants 3. Soil sample 3. Size of plants 4. Soil Contents 5. Planting/planting methods 6. Plant 7. Natural vegetation 4. Hling transplanting 5. Soil mixture, soil chemical fetilizer 2. Earthwork grading 3. Soil material 4. Plant planting operations 5. Grass operations 6. Turfing 6. Maintenance work 7. Football playing field 8. Turfing 8. Relocation protection of existing trees 9. Pest control management 10. Maintenance 9. Maintenance of plants turf Headings Subheadings Source: [13], [15],[16] The comparison of three specifications has showed that the sequent selection of heading name are different consist of different description. However, there are similarities in the meaning of descriptions. To make a comparison on the availability the absent of the contents, the study has combined restructured the heading to represent all headings from all three specifications. The list of eleven restructured headings are as follows: General requirement Soil sample Soil Planting/planting method Natural vegetation 482

4 Turfing Pest control management Maintenance Relocation protection of existing trees Football playing field Earthwork grading TABLE III SOFT-SCAPE STANDARD SPECIFICATION HEADING: COMPARISON BETWEEN NLD, PWD AND PG No Topics NLD PWD PG 1 General requirement 2 Soil sample 3 Soil 4 Planting/planting methods 5 Natural vegetation X 6 Turfing 7 Pest control management X X 8 Maintenance 9 Relocation protection of existing trees 10 Football playing field 11 Earthwork grading = available, x = absent X X X X X X From eleven restructured heading, three heading are not included in stard specification produced by NLD PWD, four headings are not included in stard specification produced by PG. The comparison shows that 2 stard specifications have not included Natural vegetation, Pest control management, Relocation protection of existing trees, Football playing fields Earthwork grading in their documents. The descriptions of the same topics are also different between all stard specifications. Example of the different descriptions on the same topic is shown in Table IV: TABLE IV OF THE TOPIC: COMPARISON ON SOIL MIXTURE PREPARATION BETWEEN NLD, PWD AND PG Topic NLD PWD PG Soil mixture Ratio of soil mixture must be 3:2:1, i.e. 3 parts of loam, 2 parts of organic 1 part of s. Soil mixture for ground planting backfill shall be in the ratio of 1:3, i.e. 1 part of soil or organic to 3 parts of black earth. Planter box soil mixture shall be in the ratio of 1:2:3, i.e. 1 part of s to 2 parts soil or organic to 3 parts black earth. SOIL MIX A for use in tree pits, ground level shrub turf planting areas shall comprise the components listed below, which shall be mechanically cultivated to the correct proportions, prior to placement on site or backfilling. Topsoil : 50% S : 20% Soil Conditioner: 15% Organic Compost: 15% ( 4 types of soil mixtures all together) 8 sub-headings under the topic ( the most comprehensive descriptions) Table IV concludes that there is inconsistency in descriptions of the topic from all three stard specifications. With eight (8) sub-headings, Stard specification from PG however covers wider area more comprehensive. Stard specification produced by PG has different content ratio of soil mixture with additional of soil conditional in soil mixture components. PG has also included four different types of soil mixture in their documents. 483

5 V. CONCLUSION In Malaysia, soft-scape specifications seem to be inconsistent in many aspects to be used as legal documents in quality control. Therefore there is a need to study the status of current soft-scape specification in Malaysia in order to establish reliable quality stard for soft-scape construction. The inconsistency or variability in lscape construction stard specification in Malaysia has weakened the role of it in managing the quality of the project. REFERENCES [1] S. M. Spivak F.C. Brenner, Stardization essential: Principles practice. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, [2] G. Ofori, Implementing environmental management system in construction: Lessons from quality systems. Building environment 37, 2002, pp [3] I. Roziya, Evaluating the quality stard of Soft-scape in Malaysia, Master Thesis, University Putra Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, [4] A. B. Badiru, Industry s guide to ISO John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995 [5] National Research Counsil, U.S. (1995). Stard, conformity assessment trade into the 21 st century. National Acedemic Press, [6] BSI (BS 3936): Part 1: 1992, Specification for trees shrubs. British Stard Institute, [7] J. F. Woodward, Construction project management: Getting it right first time. Thomas Telford, [8] J. Hinze, Construction contracts, second edition. McGraw Hill, 2001 [9] R. Liebing, The construction industry, processes, player practices. Prentice Hall. Inc., 2000 [10] J. S. Cliff M. Richard,Construction management fundamentals. McGraw-Hill Profesional, [11] D. Arditi H. M. Gunaydin, Total quality Management in the construction process. International Journal of Project Management, 1997, pp [12] G. Atkinson,Construction quality quality stard, the European perspective. E & FN Spon, [13] Jabatan Kerja Raya Malaysia, Malaysia, [14] JLN, Mengenai Jabatan lskap Negara, Jabatan Lskap Negara, Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan, 2005, Retrieved June from [15] Punt Garden SB, Stard specification in contract document, [16] JLN, Specification for soft-scape works, Bahagian Pembangunan, Jabatan Lskap Negara, Kementerian Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan. Malaysia,