Exploring the Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic on the Construction Industry: Quantity Surveyors' Perspective

The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is denoted as a global threat to human and the environment. The impact of the outbreak on the social and economic wellbeing of individual, industries, nations, etc. is alarming. Every industry and parastatals have a bite of the setback brought by the Covid-19, in which the construction industry is not exempted. Thus, the needs to devise or embrace appropriate methods in the construction industry are increasing because of the social distancing, work-from-home approach, etc. during the Covid-19 period. To explore the situations of Covid-19 in the construction industry and the possible means of ameliorating the menace globally, two international workshops were conducted virtually to elicit firsthand information from quantity surveyors. The workshops adopted the systematic value management approach comprising information, function analysis, creativity, and evaluation phases. Quantity surveyors were mainly engaged in the workshops because of their indispensability at all phases of the construction process. In total, 23 and 20 quantity surveyors majorly from twelve country members of the PAQS and the ICEC attended the two workshops. Based on the extensive information shared, 169 functions for tackling the Covid-19 in the construction industry were generated with verb and noun phrases. Five essential functions namely enhance technologies, digitalize procurement, improve cashflow, avoid dispute, and enhance cooperation were deduced from the list of functions proposed by the participants. At the second workshop, series of creativity tools such as brainstorming, Scamper, and comic association were used to generate 215 ideas that could be used to satisfy the five essential functions. Out of 215 ideas, the participants finally recommended 28 most important ideas for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic in the construction industry for implementation, including innovative technologies, governmental support, contractual issues, management, cross-regional online training, etc.