Preliminary survey on the root causes of mishandling materials occurrence at construction sites in central region Malaysia

Abstract

A crucial issue has been perceived as construction waste generation, which negatively affects the effectiveness of construction project and its environmental impact. The key objective of the current research is to identify the root causes of mishandling materials at construction sites. A well-structured questionnaire was designed based on the 33 root causes of mishandling materials identified. The developed questionnaire was distributed to 28 highly experienced in Malaysian construction industry experts. The collected data was analysed by using mean score analysis. There are nine crucial root causes with a mean value greater than 3.70. The top identified root causes are lack of management commitments towards educating workers about safety, wrong handling of materials, lack of supervision, poor management, inappropriate storage leading to damage and mismanagement of materials. These initial findings will assist construction practitioners in addressing these root causes to reduce the material construction waste generated on construction sites.