Essay Sample on Overview of the Construction Industry

The construction activities started during the British administration in Malaysia. During that period, contractors could be in small groups or individuals working under the supervision of engineers or architects. After independence, the contractors were family-dominated characterized by apprenticeship systems, clannish, thrifty, and paternalistic. The construction industry is significant in the development of a country's economy. The construction industry provides its support through forward and backward linkages with other industries (Ibrahim et al., 2010). The industry further provides jobs for citizens. Malaysia started investing in and developing the construction industry since its independence. In Malaysia, the construction industry has been divided into four subsectors. The professional construction service subsector is comprised of engineering services, cost controllers, architects, and building control agencies. The onsite construction subsection comprises site preparation, building installation, construction machinery rental, and construction of complete buildings. Manufacturing of the construction subsection comprises building components and product suppliers. The fourth subsection comprises services in real estate. The main parties involved in construction include site supervisors, engineers, contractors, and safety officers. The suppliers and manufacturers have a significant role in ensuring the success of the construction.

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Overview of the selected company

UEM Sunrise is a listed company in Malaysia. The company operates in the construction industry where it has emerged to be a leading property developer. The company was incorporated on August 20th, 2008. The company is experienced in the development of property mainly in commercial development, sprawling townships, high-rise residential, and mixed-use developments. UEM sunrise has constructed various commercial, integrated, and residential developments in Malaysia (Samsuri & Sarif, 2018). Some of these constructions include Radia, Forest Heights, and Mont Kiara. UEM Sunrise owns Cyberjaya urban development named Symphony Hills. The company has extended its presence into Singapore and Australia. UEM Sunrise has further extended to South Africa, Canada, and Vancouver. UEM Sunrise acts as UEM Group and Khazanah Flagship Company in property development and investments in real estate. Khazanah a Malaysia government investment holding company owns UEM Group.

Inbound Logistics

Inbound logistics include movement of finished inventory or materials from the supplier to a purchasing organization. Inbound logistics support a business's efficiency through the delivery of products, materials, and spares required for its operations. Inbound logistics comprise transportation and collection of shipments, warehousing, and inventory management. Good transportation results to supply chain efficiency. UEM Sunrise established an on-going relationship with their suppliers. The company is further equipped with an efficient SC system to monitor and control their raw materials. The organization can utilize the information system in providing the section of the value chain more productive. A WMS is among the information systems that help in managing the information collected in the supply chain. The WMS is designed to optimize and support warehouse functions and management of the distribution center. WMS helps in facilitating management of the companies’ daily operations including planning, staffing, controlling, directing, and organizing. The system further helps in keeping track of the available resources and the movement of raw materials into the company warehouse. The WMS is used to increase the origination's visibility in its inventory at any location or time. The WMS is used to manage a company supply chain from the wholesaler or manufacturers to its warehouse (Zunic et al., 2018). Often, companies use the system together with other integrated systems such as the TMS or the inventory management system. The WMS system can be used to improve productivity and efficiency at the WMS supply chain. The WMS can be used by UEM Sunrise to configure for their raw materials. Implementation of the system can help the company in reducing labor costs, decreasing errors in shipping, and collecting raw materials and improving responsiveness and flexibility in the company. The system can further help in improving inventory accrual. The WMS can help the company to manage its systems operations using real-time information. Real-time information helps an organization to track current information such as shipments, receipts, and orders.

The company can further integrate the Electronic Data Interchange in its inbound logistics. The system helps in the management of buyer-supplier relations. The EDI facilitates inter and intra organizational integration by the use of machine-generated documents. The documents are generated by the computer because of their electronic nature. The documents do not require a person to key in the data of the transactions (Tuñón et al., 2007). The EDI eliminates errors that may occur when a person is typing data or information. The system reduces cost and time spent in the processing of data. The EDI can be profitable for UEM Sunrise through improving the speed of business cycles, reduced human error, and low operating costs. The system reduces the operating expenditure through the reduction of costs used to purchase papers, reproduction, and printing of the documents. The system allows automation of activities, therefore, reducing the amount of time and labor incurred by the company in the processing of documents. Human error can be reduced in the company through the use of the system. Human error can occur when recording data during inbound logistics. The transaction is enhanced by the use of the system.

The company can further use the ERP to manage the knowledge and information of all of its operations. The systems help in the management of purchases, sales, accounting, production, cost management, human resource, and quality management. The ERP facilitates communication between various sections of the company enhancing efficiency and exploitation. Information is transmitted electronically saving errors, time, and costs. This is achieved through the integration of hardware and software that automate back-office functions within the organization (Chofreh et al., 2018). The system provides a connection between the segments of the value chain to improve the organization's productivity. This is achieved through data collection and manipulation, where data collected from the organization is used to understand the operations done. This helps the organization decide on the amount of inbound to receive. Through the data, the organization can determine the number of customers who require certain services and products, thus making it easy to confirm the amount to be received at a certain time. This allows the organization to receive enough amount for it to handle and not cause an overflow of resources.

Operations

UEM Sunrise has comprehensive programs to help the company offer quality in every aspect of their projects. The management programs help the company to ensure quality from the planning and designing to the specifications and building. UEM Sunrise selects the quality materials and skilled personnel to carry out the construction. The PMIS provides data and information for the employees to have a similar insight of facts. The PMIS system is a cheap method to gather data because it only has to be done once. The system is key in the operation stage because it helps in eliminating information modification. Different people can have a different interpretation of the project's information. The information system improves performance during construction. The PMIS system defines the project and program: quality, scope, and time. The PMIS will help UEM Sunrise in defining the team roles (Dhawale, 2016). The contractors and engineers have well-defined roles. The system manages contracts, commitments, permits, and approvals. It communicates and guides collaboration best practices using document management, workflow diagrams, and policies. The basic information found in the PMIS includes project goals and project location.

The BIM software is another form of Information System that UEM Sunrise should implement in their operations. The system can convert 2D designs into 3D designs. The model can rotate a structure to help in viewing it from all angles. The system further is used to zoom elements of the structure. BMI Software can be useful in the operations of the UEM Sunrise when designing the structure (Saeed, 2013). The system helps in evaluating and determining omissions and potential errors in the design. The software allows the constructor to design freely and create naturally a desirable design. The errors can be corrected on the design to ensure a perfect final structure.

UEM Sunrise can further use decision support model in its operation. The DSS involves acquiring knowledge from previous operations. This consists of accessing data stored in the organization using the information system, then analyzing the different operations that had been implemented in the past (Turban et al., 2010). This helps the management decide on the most effective operation to be performed in the current time. This means that the data in the past is useful in the present, thus relevant. This also means that the information system helps improve the operations implemented in the organization and improve productivity. The decision support system can help the management at UEM Sunrise to identify with various past designs and decide on how to modify them or create new designs.

Outbound Logistics

UEM Sunrise outbound logistics involves handover of the residential houses to their buyers. ERP can also be utilized in the UEM Sunrise to permit outbound logistics to the clients. This is accomplished through joining of equipment and programming that computerize back-office capacities inside the association. The framework gives an association between the worth chain sections to improve the profitability of the whole association. This is accomplished through information assortment and control, where information gathered from everywhere throughout the association is utilized to comprehend the tasks done. This enables the association to settle on the measure of inbound to get. Through the information, the association can decide the number of clients who require certain help and items, subsequently making it simple to affirm the sum to be gotten at a specific time (Chofreh et al., 2018). This permits the association to get the sum that is sufficient for it to deal with and not cause a flood of assets. Data is recorded for the individuals who will receive residential homes or buildings.

The database management system (DBMS) includes a system used to gather, manipulate, store, retrieve, and manage data in the database. The database involves data collection that is used to hold data organized for use in an organization. Transactions and customer history are essential data to the organization since they provide a clear illustrates of the progress of the organization. This includes the organization's customer care ability and the organization's ability to meet its objectives. Through the information collected in the database, the organization can make decisions that will be focused on increasing the productivity of the organization and improve the organization's progress. The DBMS provides a connection of the data between the sectors in the value chain.