Barriers of Life Cycle Costing on Construction Consultant Practice in Malaysia

Abstract

Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is deliberately known as a vital tool of construction process to optimise the whole life cost from the cradle to grave. LCC also considered as an important factor for a project to meet the equilibrium point of its strategic objectives. In order to implement the LCC, the procedures must undergo certain framework that enables comparative cost assessments to be calculated over specific duration and take account to relevant economic factors of initial, maintenance, operational, salvage value, discount factors, refurbishment and disposal costs. The aim of this paper is to appraise the benefits and barriers of Life Cycle Costing (LCC) practised in the construction industry of Malaysia among the consultant team. The objectives of this paper to explore the benefits and barriers of LCC faced by consultant team in construction projects. To comply with research objectives, a questionnaire survey and interview conducted among the consultant team in Malaysia. 57 participants responded for the survey conducted in this research. From the results, it appears that the implementation of LCC among the professional design team is still limited. Most of the consultant teams had a good knowledge on the processes of analysing LCC, the parameters to be included but still at minimal phases of implementing overall LCC procedures. The lack of reliable data of LCC founded as the main barriers in the Malaysian construction industry. Most of the respondents agreed that the benefit of LCC is the best way to consider the impact of all costs rather than only initial capital costs.