WCS - 2017

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/16967

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Browsing WCS - 2017 by Subject "Barriers"

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    Construction industry investment challenges: barriers for SME expansion
    (Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2017-06) Sriskandarajah, I; Hadiwattege, C; Sandanayake, YG; Ramachandra, T; Gunatilake, S
    This research concentrates upon the requirements for expanding Small and Medium (SME) contractors into the level of large scale contractors and barriers for such. Adequate assets are a key requirement for succeeding in construction business. Construction companies have many physical and impalpable assets. Given the SMEs fulfil required asset levels, with proper management, it is possible for SMEs to expand over time and achieve the goal of becoming large scale organisations. However, improving the grades should not focus only upon turnover, yet various other resource and management requirements need to be met. In order to identify the exact requirements of SME to large scale conversion, necessary asset level changes and barriers for such conversions were required to be analysed. A quantitative approach was taken in collecting field data and the data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Contracting organisations were considered as the unit of analysis and data were collected from 205 units with a response rate of 76%. The research reveals the necessity of improving annual turnover, P&E, and staff assets of SMEs in reaching the large-scale organisation level. In doing so; management issues, lack of finance and motivation, and employees with insufficient knowledge and skills are the critical internal challenges. The external barriers were identified as: high cost of capital, inadequate financial structure, changes in the government policies and the political unrest, and lack of information. Thereby overcoming the identified barriers will enable SME expansion, which will increase construction industry investment complementing the economic development.
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    Sustainable facilities management (sfm): a review of practices and barriers
    (Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2017-06) Sabrina, NF; Ramachandra, T; Gunatilake, S; Sandanayake, YG; Ramachandra, T; Gunatilake, S
    Practicing sustainability helps Facilities Management (FM) professionals to re-position themselves from traditional FM to strategic support function. However embracing sustainability is a challenging task as FM scopes are firm specific and integrating sustainable practices are puzzling. Yet, incorporating sustainability into FM practice has a great potential and FM professionals are identified at the forefront in delivering sustainability. However, only few FM professionals are able to embrace the sustainability concept into their operations due to various reasons such as; lack of capability, knowledge and skills, financial support and support from government being the major barriers as per theory. Hence, this paper focusses on identifying current FM scope with possible sustainable practices and explores the existing barriers to practice sustainable facilities management (SFM). A critical literature review was carried out into materials published in referred journals, conference papers and books etc. The findings revealed that, FM scope could be expanded among 15 support services among which building services and management, and real estate management were most commonly cited. In addition, SFM practices were identified in terms of achieving economic, environment and social sustainability. Accordingly, economic sustainability contains 2 strategies and 8 practices whileenvironment sustainability and social sustainability consist of 3 strategies and 11 practices, and 4 strategies and 15 practices respectively. The review further indicated that 32 barriers existing to practice SFM. This showcase that FM professionals need to focus on identifying firm specific FM scope and its sustainable practices by improving their capabilities.