Time-cost relationship of public sector projects in Malaysia

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 = KCB, 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= 269C0.32. 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.