Today I made a surprise visit to a project - the PJ Trade Centre, Selangor, Malaysia.PJ Trade Centre is located somewhere near Bandar Manjalala and Mutiara Damansara, Kepong. Access to the project is through the LDP and Sprint Expressway (Penchala Link), as well as the NKVE and North-South Expressway.
The project is surrounded by townships such as Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Bandar Utama and Mutiara Damansara.
The project is surrounded by townships such as Taman Tun Dr. Ismail, Bandar Utama and Mutiara Damansara.
PJ Trade Centre features 4-blocks of office towers and "boutique office" with conference facilities and broadband-enabled fibre-optic backbone, all within a a 2.5 acres land with some 1,860 car parks. Every office unit has its own washroom and pantry. The Ground Floor (at Plaza Level) will have F&B outlets and Food Court.
Construction works began about one year ago and the progress of the works are excellent. The project should be completed on time, some time in 2008 and 2009. There are 4-blocks of office towers and Block A and B should be completed earlier.The project developer is Tujuan Gemilang Sdn Bhd (TGSB) which is largely owned by Tan Sri Mustapa Kamal's family. The executive director of TGSB is Mr Peter Chan who has vast experience is property development.
Many skeptics are of the opinion that the project would be slow and the risks are high due to their observed perception that Mustapa Kamal's public vehicle MK Land's project are poor paymaster.
Surprisingly, I interviewed the main contractor for the project, Syarikat Pembinaan LAL Sdn Bhd and I was told that TGSB is not only a good paymaster, but an excellent paymaster. Not only they are excellent paymaster, but the management and their consulting team are passionately driving the project ensuring that the works are of good quality and that the project would complete on time.
Many skeptics are of the opinion that the project would be slow and the risks are high due to their observed perception that Mustapa Kamal's public vehicle MK Land's project are poor paymaster.
Surprisingly, I interviewed the main contractor for the project, Syarikat Pembinaan LAL Sdn Bhd and I was told that TGSB is not only a good paymaster, but an excellent paymaster. Not only they are excellent paymaster, but the management and their consulting team are passionately driving the project ensuring that the works are of good quality and that the project would complete on time.
You can see from the photo on the left - the construction team led by Syarikat Pembinaan LAL Sdn Bhd are highly motivated group of people whose key management emphasis are on quality of the products and services and are managed by a strong project management team led by senior managers who are competent in project management methodologies applying the system approach to project planning and implementation.First and foremost, the project site is "delightedly" clean and well organized. If you look at the photo each of the constructed floor are so clean and tidy.
The safety nets are well placed. The quality of the structural finishes are more than reasonably good. It truly impressed me.
More to my surprise as I passed by a notice board and saw some pictures of some workers with the caption: ANUGERAH KUALITI PJTC.I was informed that every 3 (correction) month the project team consisting of the management of TGSB, the consultants and Architects and the Main Contractor and all the project staffs would nominate various specific classes of workers from various trades and particular workers who had carried out their work in total conformance to the quality standard specified.
The winner of the Quality Excellence Award for the group trade category will receive RM1,000 and the individual trade workers nominated will receive between RM200-300 each.
It was far more surprising to know that the person who is the driving force behind the implementation of the project quality system is Tan Sri Mustapa Kamal himself.
The cash prizes are sponsored by TGSB and apart from the prizes, the workers will be treated to a grand dinner held at the project site after each month award presentation.
No wonder the workers are so highly driven to perform their tasks with such diligence. There is great passion shown by Mustapa Kamal and his son as is observed by their regular and diligent attendance to the project affairs. I was told that Mustapa's son will always enquire about the prompt payment to the contractor and will see to it himself, that the contractors are paid before the due date. With the dynamic leadership provided by Peter Chan, I observed that the consultant team and the contractor have cultivated a good working relationship unlike most of the other construction projects where we find that the consultant team often act like policemen and CIA agents, trying hard to make life difficult for the contractor such that they could derive some personal gains, seeking personal glory and self-promoting. At the same time we also observed the poor attitude of the contractors towards the management of quality control and weak project management. This is largely due to the inaptitude of the bosses and senior managers who are more concern with maximizing profits by providing low quality materials for the works and engaging subcontractors who are incompetent and inefficient.
I had been passionately doing research for more than 15 years of project management and quality management systems implementation in Malaysian companies and had conducted studies and observations of more than 100 companies and government and government related agencies from the construction and engineering firms. Clearly, Malaysian companies hardly had the competencies of project management (or should I say, they even lack the basics of project management) and hardly had any insights to the philosophy of quality management system even though many are ISO 9000 certified companies and institutions. However, contrary to the empirical truth, many of these companies rather choose relative truth, believing that they are adequate and competent in project management, being complacent and too easily satisfying themselves with mediocrity.
I observed that in PJ Trade Centre there is good partnership relationship management between the project Architect, the Interior Design Consultant, the Structural Consulting Engineers and the Consulting Quantity Surveyor together with the main contractor. They truly treated everyone within the project as partners, with Mustapa Kamal and his son, TGSB and Peter Chan providing leadership that ensures a unified focus on the mission to an ultimate destination - the successful completion of the project with a high quality standard of product and deliverables which would adequately and delightfully satisfy the customers and end users.
Ironically organization such as DiGi who publicly declared themselves as partners with their contractors as can be viewed in their website. However, I was an observer in one of their meeting between their management and contractors, and what I see is contrasting to what was claimed to be their core ideology. I hope they can prove me wrong when I had the chance to attend another, if ever invited.
The winner of the Quality Excellence Award for the group trade category will receive RM1,000 and the individual trade workers nominated will receive between RM200-300 each.
It was far more surprising to know that the person who is the driving force behind the implementation of the project quality system is Tan Sri Mustapa Kamal himself.The cash prizes are sponsored by TGSB and apart from the prizes, the workers will be treated to a grand dinner held at the project site after each month award presentation.
No wonder the workers are so highly driven to perform their tasks with such diligence. There is great passion shown by Mustapa Kamal and his son as is observed by their regular and diligent attendance to the project affairs. I was told that Mustapa's son will always enquire about the prompt payment to the contractor and will see to it himself, that the contractors are paid before the due date. With the dynamic leadership provided by Peter Chan, I observed that the consultant team and the contractor have cultivated a good working relationship unlike most of the other construction projects where we find that the consultant team often act like policemen and CIA agents, trying hard to make life difficult for the contractor such that they could derive some personal gains, seeking personal glory and self-promoting. At the same time we also observed the poor attitude of the contractors towards the management of quality control and weak project management. This is largely due to the inaptitude of the bosses and senior managers who are more concern with maximizing profits by providing low quality materials for the works and engaging subcontractors who are incompetent and inefficient.
I had been passionately doing research for more than 15 years of project management and quality management systems implementation in Malaysian companies and had conducted studies and observations of more than 100 companies and government and government related agencies from the construction and engineering firms. Clearly, Malaysian companies hardly had the competencies of project management (or should I say, they even lack the basics of project management) and hardly had any insights to the philosophy of quality management system even though many are ISO 9000 certified companies and institutions. However, contrary to the empirical truth, many of these companies rather choose relative truth, believing that they are adequate and competent in project management, being complacent and too easily satisfying themselves with mediocrity.
I observed that in PJ Trade Centre there is good partnership relationship management between the project Architect, the Interior Design Consultant, the Structural Consulting Engineers and the Consulting Quantity Surveyor together with the main contractor. They truly treated everyone within the project as partners, with Mustapa Kamal and his son, TGSB and Peter Chan providing leadership that ensures a unified focus on the mission to an ultimate destination - the successful completion of the project with a high quality standard of product and deliverables which would adequately and delightfully satisfy the customers and end users.
Ironically organization such as DiGi who publicly declared themselves as partners with their contractors as can be viewed in their website. However, I was an observer in one of their meeting between their management and contractors, and what I see is contrasting to what was claimed to be their core ideology. I hope they can prove me wrong when I had the chance to attend another, if ever invited.
Does any company had the interest to invite me to carry out studies and system observation in their project?
2 comments:
from PJDC site team,
Dr.
we are very happy that our effort toward the persistence of project management is being hightly appreciated and praised especially from a no nonsence guy. We are no the best but we are getting better day by day. Oh! by the way, our award is implemented monthly and not very 3 months
lalpjdc,
I will make the corrections.
I didn't praise...I saw and commented accordingly.
Post a Comment