Time–cost relationship of public sector projects in Malaysia

Abstract

Earlier research by Bromilow in Australia found that the duration of construction period can be modelled by a time–cost formula expressed in the form of T= KC B , where T is the actual construction time in working days, C is the final cost of contract in millions, K is a constant characteristic of building time performance, and B is a constant indicative of the sensitivity of time performance to cost level. The aim of this paper is to identify whether such time–cost relationship can be extended to the building projects in Malaysia. Time and cost data from 51 public sector projects were collected to verify whether such a relationship holds in the Malaysian building industry. Regression analysis was used to compute the values of K, B and check how well the model actually fits. Analysis of these 51 projects identified that the best predictor of average construction time of public sector projects in Malaysia is T=269 C 0.32. The predicted time for a RM 1 million public project was 269 days. The time–cost relationship identified in this paper serves as a convenient tool for both project managers and clients to predict the average time required for delivery of a construction project.