JTK Consult (JTK) was requested by Pantai Medical Centre to propose an overview of the current maintenance operations with a view to rationalizing the approach to meeting more closely patient care requirements and ultimately make the maintenance provision more responsive and economical. Pantai Ayer Keroh was identified as the pilot facility. The hospital had been operating for more than 30 years. A new block had been added in 2002 and additional facilities were reorganized to cater for patient needs.
Ever since the operations of the new wing took place, a steep rise occurred in the Energy Bill and the overall cost and responsiveness of the Maintenance Management regime was under question. These issues were a major concern and alternative solutions to mitigate the problems and to improve the efficiency of the hospital’s facilities was needed.
JTK conducted a preliminary overview of the management and operation of the existing facilities in operation in conjunction with the hospital maintenance team. Several weaknesses were identified and proposed improvements were highlighted in the following areas:
Maintenance
A full proposal for improvements were conceptualized and delivered to the client. This was to form the basis for an audit of all the PMC hospitals in the country.
Facilities Management
Datuk Ir Joseph M Rajaratnam :
Board Director
Datuk Ir Rajaratnam has over 50 years of experience in the engineering industry. He has worked in Malaysia and South Africa holding senior management positions in Jabatan Telekom Malaysia, Telekom Malaysia Berhad and Telkom South Africa respectively over the period August 1964 to June 2002. He was instrumental in establishing and developing staff training facilities and programmes for Telkom South Africa and while at Telekom Malaysia was intimately involved in developing new infrastructure facilities including buildings to house the growing Telcom business.
Since joining JTK Consult as Director, he has used his in depth understanding of the built environment garnered over several years of management and implementation of construction projects throughout Malaysia in supporting the JTK consultancy. Besides overseeing JTK projects, he also undertakes peer reviews and acts as a critique to ensure that our projects are not only delivered to the highest standards but also are appropriate for the requirements at hand and are technically sound.
Dr Kribanandan : Managing Director
Dr Kribanandan has a keen interest in design, materials technology and forensics in civil engineering. He has, over the years, built a wealth of knowledge and experience in value engineering, construction and technical risk management, concrete technology, forensic engineering, the appropriate use of NDT diagnostic tools, undertaking durability assurance audits and design life prediction for an entire spectrum of buildings and civil structures. He also often acts as an expert in dispute resolution.
Starting his career with Taylor Woodrow in the UK, he then spent three years in southern Africa working as a consultant to the Botswana Technology Centre where he focused on harnessing alternative and appropriate technologies for design and construction including considerations in Rain water harvesting, Ferro cement technology, Earth construction, and Passive solar design in projects ranging from housing and office buildings to product development for construction.
He returned to Malaysia in 1993 as technical manager and then director of Taywood Engineering, a subsidiary of Taylor Woodrow, covering Singapore and Malaysia. He was responsible for setting up and developing Taylor Woodrow’s unique Design and Technology consultancy in Malaysia and in this capacity delivered projects over a wide geographic area including in the UK, Middle East, Hong Kong, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. In 2001, following a management buyout, Taywood Engineering merged with JTK Consult and he assumed the role of managing director.
He is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE) UK and a member of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (MIEM). He represented Malaysia in the ISO Committee TC59/SC14 on Design Life of Buildings and chaired the local committee spearheading the implementation of this new standard. He was the founding president of the American Concrete Institute KL Chapter and has been on the steering committee for the conference series on durability of building materials and components (DBMC) which is held every 3 years since the 10th DBMC in 2007. He has published extensively and is the author of over 250 Technical Reports in various aspects of engineering.