Indicative Level on The Determinants of Tangible and Intangible Cost Elements in Industrialised Building System (IBS) Projects

Abstract

Construction industry contributes to the economic growth output in Malaysia by an improvement in wider economic activity, variety tools and technologies. One of the prominent tools or systems includes the adoption of Industrialised Building System (IBS) for construction. Industrialised Building System (IBS) is defined as a construction made of components manufactured either on or off site, then positioned and assembled into the structures. In Malaysia, IBS is not a new initiative. The government has launched many initiatives to encourage the practitioners towards IBS implementation, however the rate on the IBS usage is still low. The construction stakeholders are concern on the cost factors as the main issue of its low adoption. It is often neglected that IBS constitutes intangible cost or non-monetary benefits of its adoption, thus, the purchase or initial cost cannot be overemphasized. Hence, this paper aims to identify the tangible and intangible cost elements and analyse the indicative level of its importance toward the IBS construction. Questionnaire survey is used as the research approach where the survey involved 73 nos. of IBS contractors registered in the Perak, Malaysia as the research scope. The data is analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 22. The results revealed that the most significant component of IBS tangible cost is material cost, followed by Transportation Cost, Plant and Machineries Cost, Profit and Overhead, Labour Cost, Verification Cost, Maintenance Cost, Demolition Cost, Functional and Testing Cost, and Energy and Operational Cost. While the most important intangible cost elements is Wastage, followed by Time, Durability and Efficiency, Quality of Components, Sustainable, Levy exemptions, Tax Incentives, and Design. The study recommends that introducing a cost-effective capital would be able to boost the involvement of IBS contractors in the usage of IBS construction.