8th MiCRA 2009

Salam and dear all, The 8th MiCRA Conference was successfully held on 9th-10th June 2009 at Universiti Sains Malaysia. During the annual meeting, Assoc. Prof Dr Hisham Arifin of UiTM was elected as Chair for Session 2009-10 and UiTM hosts the 9th MiCRA in 2010. The following is my address, in my capacity as Chair for the Sessions 2007-08 and 2008-09. Assalamualikum and dear all, Construction Innovation: Sustaining the Practice In the context of construction, the concept of innovation should be applied to the entire process of construction procurement and its supply chain, i.e. from initiating a facility to maintenance and re-furbishing the facility or its demolition and to re-build a new facility. In addition, innovation should be a two pronged effort: (i) to look at newer ways to the current ways of ‘constructing’; and (ii) to look at doing newer ‘construction’, be it in design, technology, physical construction on the site, labor, material, plant and equipment, management, concepts, etc and in newer ways of thinking about construction. The critical test on the outcome of innovation in construction should be whether the resulting newer ways of ‘constructing’ or newer ‘construction’ brings about benefits to key stakeholders in terms of time, cost and quality/performance; and to others a ‘better built environment.’ Furthermore, ideas and tangible outputs on innovation in construction should not be kept away from others. Such ideas and outputs should be given due recognition and reports on them should be published so as to create awareness and to encourage applications. Consequently, academics, researchers and practicing colleagues should double-up efforts and collaborate in initiating and sustaining the practice of construction innovation and in sharing research ideas, outputs and newer practices, the latter through conferences and publication. It is in the name of research collaboration and in publication that MiCRA was initiated in 2001, i.e. to enhance collaborations in construction research among academics and researchers, between academics, researchers and practitioners and through its annual conference, to recognize works done and to disseminate newer thinking on construction in Malaysia and elsewhere. Alhamdullillah, MiCRA has been able to sustain its existence. This year’s conference marked the 8th successive year that MiCRA has been able to stage its annual conference. To this end, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Universiti Sains Malaysia, its School of Housing, Building and Planning (HBP), the Dean of HBP Professor Mahyuddin Ramli, and to MiCRA’s 2009 Chair Dr Shardy Abdullah and his organizing committee members for agreeing to be this year’s host and to stage the conference successfully. Last but not least I would like to say many thanks to authors, presenters, participants and others for making MiCRA 2009 a success and hopefully to provide similar support to MiCRA for years to come. Wassalam. Professor Sr. Dr. Khairuddin Bin Abdul Rashid Chair, MiCRA (session 2007-08; caretaker chair, session 2008-09)