Construction projects are more often than not plagued by poor performances such as delays, cost overrun, low productivity, construction wastes and compromised quality. Amongst the critical contributory factors of poor project performances, is the ineffectiveness of materials management occurring in the construction sites. Indeed, materials management is a very important component for construction projects. However, there are only limited numbers of research available regarding this topic. Thus, this research focuses its study on materials management, specifically in identifying the influential factors that affect materials management in the construction project activities. Literatures from books, journal articles and conference papers related to poor project performances and materials management have been reviewed. Consequently, this study sorted the salient influential factors and categorized them based on their specific group. Out of 47 factors identified, they are classified into 8 groups. They are (1) site condition; (2) planning and handling on site; (3) management; (4) materials; (5) supplier and manufacturer default; (6) transportation; (7) contractual; and (8) governmental interferences. In conclusion, this study contends that by identifying the influential factors affecting materials management, it will help construction players to avoid the occurrence of those factors and will minimize the negative impacts on the overall performance of construction projects. Hence, the handling-over of project will be according to schedule and not delayed by materials mismanagement.

Abstract. Material management is an important element in project management as materials contribute a major portion to total project cost. It also plays a key role because of the successes of every construction project rely on having proper resources. Thus, it gives implication on project performance. Despite the importance of material management to project performance, there are limited numbers of research available related to this topic. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify the effects factors of material management on project performance. Literature from books, journal articles and conferences papers related to this topic are reviewed. In conclusion, exploring the implication of material management towards project performance will benefit construction players in improving the efficiency of material management in order to minimize the impacts on construction projects performance.

Construction projects are plagued with the issue of poor project performance such as low productivity, wastage, time overrun, compromised quality and cost overrun. Research literature reveals that this issue occurs partly due to ineffective materials management. Nonetheless, the effective management of materials seems like a viable solution to enhance the performance of any construction projects. Despite its importance, not much literature has explored the influential factors for effective management of materials. Since the identification of factors is an essential step to recommend any improvement efforts, thus, this paper examines the influential factors for effective materials management. A questionnaire survey was conducted with practitioners from contractor organisations and 111 valid responses were obtained. Data was analysed using exploratory factor analysis via the IBM SPSS version 21 software. Results indicate that only 50 influential factors were relevant in Malaysian construction project and these were categorised into 8 specific components namely: management, purchasing, expediting, transportation, site storage and condition, supplier, contractual and governmental interference. Summarily, findings reported in this paper constitute part of a questionnaire development process for a research project undertaken to develop an effective materials management model for better projects performance. Thus, the outcome of this study may assist practitioners in decision making process by understanding the identified influential factors that contribute to effective materials management.

Effective materials management has a significant role in the success of any construction projects. Understanding the factors related to the management effectiveness may assist the decision-makers of construction firms to allocate resources in the best possible manner in managing materials when implementing construction projects. However, limited studies have explored and investigated the associated factors of effective materials management related to project performance, especially in the Malaysian construction industry context. Thus, this research paper aims to investigate the influential factors of effective materials management and their effects on project performance. A partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach was employed to analyse 202 pieces of data collected from a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that the effective materials management has a positive significant impact on project performance. The top three groups of factors that contribute to this management effectiveness are transportation, management, and purchasing; meanwhile, the most implied factors of the effective materials management are waste, cost and time of project performance. To increase project performance, more resources should be allocated to improve the transportation, management and purchasing components of materials management.