BCA partners industry and universities to groom leaders to drive sustained transformation in the built environment sector

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

 BCA also pilots new voluntary Maintainable Design Appraisal System to assess building designs' degree of maintainability

Singapore, 29 May 2019 - The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has partnered the built environment industry and academia to develop a new iBuildSG Leadership Engagement and Development (LEAD) framework to support leadership development within the sector. BCA is also working with the industry to pilot a new, voluntary Maintainable Design Appraisal System (or MiDAS in short) from May this year. These were announced at the BCA Awards 2019 ceremony by Minister of State for National Development and Manpower, Mr Zaqy Mohamad. More than 2,000 industry guests were present to celebrate the built environment sector's achievements.

iBuildSG Leadership Engagement and Development (LEAD) Framework

The iBuildSG LEAD framework is an initiative under the Construction Industry Transformation Map to develop leaders within the workforce who can drive sustained industry transformation efforts. Targeted at young emerging leaders, to potential and existing C-suite leaders, the framework aims to build leadership capability and capacity at various levels:
(i) At the industry level, the framework builds collective stewardship and develops networks for leaders to foster strong collaboration across the construction value chain.
(ii) At the firm level, the framework supports firms in developing talent and growing their leadership pipeline so each firm has the bench strength to grow domestically and abroad.
(iii) At individual level, the framework helps industry practitioners build up their competencies to advance the sector, and recognises those with outstanding contributions.

There will be three leadership building platforms within the framework, anchored by two bespoke structured programmes, LEAD Horizon Programme and LEAD Milestone Programme (see Annex A (opens in new tab) (43kB .pdf) for details on each platform). BCA will partner the Singapore Management University (SMU) as the anchor institution for both the Horizon and Milestone Training Programmes. SMU's strengths in industry collaboration and management skills will enhance the participants' leadership competencies in these areas. In addition, BCA will collaborate with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) on a technical track within the LEAD Horizon Programme to run an innovation bootcamp. To complement the above, a third platform, Insights@LEAD comprising a series of events and initiatives will further thought leadership and provide opportunities for co-creation through alignment and collaboration across the LEAD community.

"SMU is delighted to partner BCA to launch two bespoke structured training programmes under the new iBuildSG LEAD framework. These Programmes aimed at the middle level leaders and enterprise leaders in the Built Environment sector represent a fusion of experiential and interactive learning, facilitated by experienced SMU faculty and industry leaders. We are confident that our programme participants will value the many real-life case studies, practice-driven approach to teaching and networking opportunities. With expertise in delivering tailored and industry-specific programmes, SMU's Executive Development presents a robust offering that will well address the needs of leaders and senior executives who are tackling today's challenges," said SMU President, Professor Lily Kong.

"SUTD is pleased to promote leadership in innovation by design in partnership with BCA through the new iBuildSG LEAD Framework. Leveraging SUTD's unique strength in design innovation and active learning pedagogy, we look forward to equipping the participants with essential knowledge and skills to take on tomorrow's challenges and stay future-ready. The training programme designed for BCA can be incorporated into SUTD Academy's ModularMaster programmes, which can in turn lead to Master's programmes, thereby providing a pathway for participants to up-skill themselves as desired," said Professor Chong Tow Chong, SUTD President.

Maintainable Design Appraisal System

As part of the initiatives to uplift the Facilities Management (FM) sector - a key focus under the Real Estate Industry Transformation Map - BCA brought together the industry, unions, and other public agencies to form a Tripartite FM Implementation Committee (FMIC) to develop, oversee, and review the implementation of the sector's transformation plans. FMIC identified Design for Maintainability (DfM) as a key pillar in transforming the FM sector. DfM is the practice of integrating operations & maintenance considerations into project planning and design to achieve effectiveness, safety, and economy of maintenance tasks.

BCA has worked with the industry and two tertiary institutions - SUTD and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) - on a new, voluntary Maintainable Design Appraisal System (MiDAS), which assesses the degree of maintainability of building designs from the lens of labour efficiency and cost-effectiveness of downstream maintenance regimes. Through MiDAS, BCA aims to:
(i) Foster greater collaboration among designers, developers, and FM practitioners to deliver better and more maintainable designs;
(ii) Promote holistic sustainability by considering not only environmental aspects but also economic and social through reducing costs and reliance on manual labour for building maintenance;
(iii) Enable designers and developers to make more informed design decisions upfront and take a life-cycle view of the development - including considerations for not only initial capital expenditure but also operating expenses.

MiDAS will be piloted in about 10 public and private projects including the new Surbana Jurong Campus, Ascendas Singbridge's integrated development, Ascent, and PSA's new office building at Pasir Panjang.

To raise awareness of the importance of DfM and help the industry keep abreast of good DfM practices - including safe maintenance access, use of appropriate building materials and adoption of technology - to enable efficient maintenance activities downstream, BCA collaborated with industry stakeholders and government agencies to put together a set of DfM guides. The guides, which are available on BCA's website, are customised to different building types, specifically residential buildings, non-residential buildings and municipal infrastructure (see Annex B (opens in new tab) (43kB .pdf) for more details).

Built Environment Leadership Award

At this year's BCA Awards, local builder, Tiong Seng Contractors (Private) Limited, emerged as the top winner of the Built Environment Leadership Award - clinching the pinnacle Platinum Star. Tiong Seng has maintained the Platinum status for the past five years, demonstrating their strong leadership, excellence and innovation in Singapore's Built Environment industry. They have continued to push the boundaries for building innovations, their latest being the in-house developed and patented Prefabricated Prefinished Volumetric Construction solutions which incorporate advanced ultra-high performance ductile concrete (UHpDC). UHpDC has up to five times the compressive strength of normal concrete, making robust yet slimmer concrete panels for efficient transportation, construction lifting and installation works.

Mr Hugh Lim, BCA CEO said, "Over the past twenty years, BCA has worked with our partners to develop the industry and shape the Singapore skyline. The industry has built up much expertise and some have even brought the strong Singapore brand representing quality and sustainability beyond our shores. I congratulate all the award winners for their outstanding achievements and look forward to continue our work with the industry to transform our sector, offer good jobs for Singaporeans and change the way we build Singapore."

This year's BCA Awards saw 536 accolades given out to project teams, developers and practitioners for their outstanding achievements in delivering exemplary projects and upholding best practices in areas of safety, quality, sustainability, productivity and universal design.

Annexes

Annex A - iBuildSG LEAD framework (opens in new tab) (43kB .pdf)

Annex B - DfM and MiDAS (opens in new tab) (43kB .pdf)

Annex C - Built Environment Leadership Award (opens in new tab) (213kB .pdf)

Related

Portable document format version of the media release is also available (opens in new tab) (213kB .pdf).