Identification of the potentials and barriers of adopting standard method of measurement for mechanical and electrical services in Malaysia

Abstract

Building services is an important subsector of the Malaysian construction industry, accounting for about 40 percent of the total cost of buildings. Unfortunately, cost management and procurement process of Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) services have not received due attention from the practitioners’, as bills of quantities (BoQ) are still produced in lump sums and provisional sums, making it difficult to get realistic and useable cost information from past projects. This paper reports part of a larger and ongoing research work and its purpose is to provide a generic identification of the potentials and barriers of using Standard Method of Measurement (SMM) for M&E services. The paper is based on comprehensive review of literature which includes journal articles; conference papers; text books and web trawl. Highlights on global usage of SMM were made and current practice in the country identified. Interestingly, the potentials of adopting SMM for preparing BoQ for M&E services has been identified as: reducing ambiguities in design; reduce tender cost; ensure commonality in tenders; reduce contract risk; the coding system in SMM will allow ease of application of computer; and it will ensure conformance of BoQ with standard forms of contract. However, the barriers preventing quantity surveyors from measuring M&E services includes: inadequate knowledge of M&E technology; traditional practice which regarded M&E as specialist technical area and therefore not often measured; non – completion of M&E services design before tender; non – involvement of specialist contractors during design and late involvement of M&E services consultants. The paper concludes that there is need to develop and encourage consultants to use SMM for M&E services measurement and courses of action by which the barriers could be overcome by the industry stakeholders were suggested with emphasis on the need to address the knowledge gap among professionals and ensure early involvement of specialist contractors.