Value management in Malaysia : past, present and future

Abstract

Value management (VM) encapsulate the other related terms such as value planning, value engineering, value analysis, and value review where it was used interchangeably. The introduction of VM can play vital roles as a specific management tool in putting together the problems encountered in the construction industry from the technical, managerial, and also human aspects. VM has been brought into the construction industry since 1960s to attain the best value for money. However, the level of acceptance, development and to what extent the applications are varies throughout the world. Particularly in Malaysia, VM was introduced since 1986 but the take up is relatively low by various stakeholders due to several reasons. Since it was introduced, not so much development in term of applications until recently, VM seems to be a new phenomenon within the Malaysia construction industry (MCI) when the government instructed mandatory applications for the public projects. With limited explicit, tacit and embedded knowledge, expertise, and experience, the VM applications seen to be received various feedback, which is yet to be discovered. This paper reviews relevant works on the development and applications of VM within the MCI. To achieve this, a thorough literature review and document analysis has been conducted on journal articles, conference papers, government circulars and guidelines, supported by an informal discussion with stakeholders in Malaysia. It reviews and synthesises the relevant and critical information and highlights major milestones to provide clear and better understanding of VM development in the past, current, and future applications. The future of its applications focuses more on the initiatives to promote the applications of VM. Several issues such as the awareness, knowledge, training, certification, procurement and focus toward to place VM ahead in the future are also discussed. The work described in this paper provides a sound foundation for the author to understand and explore further. This is part of the ongoing doctoral research which focuses on performance management of the VM studies based on the international practices.