Industrialised Building System Construction Research Articles

A Review of Current Issues in Industrialised Building System (IBS) for Construction Projects

In Malaysia, the concept of prefabrication is known as Industrialised Building System (IBS). In terms of cost, time, productivity, and quality, IBS is certainly beneficial based on previous local and international research. As part of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), CIDB's Construction 4.0 Strategic Plan 2020-2025, the Malaysian construction industry is being urged to employ innovative construction techniques. These initiatives illustrate the Malaysian government's commitment to addressing the IBS agenda. Even though numerous things have been done to enhance the IBS adoption in Malaysia, various issues have arisen to bring about delays, disputes, miscommunications, and payment issues affecting the IBS players. Thus, the primary purpose of this research is to identify current issues and assist policymakers and IBS players in mitigating those issues. The literature review was the first phase of the research, with the secondary data derived from relevant books, journals, articles, theses, dissertations, conference proceedings and reports. The second phase involved the collection of primary data, wherein the information was collected through a preliminary study. The research findings showed that IBS construction still faces challenges and issues when adopted by the industry, where four (4) out of five (5) interviewees stated that the primary integration issues are teamworkor collaboration and procurement. This paper aims to present a literature review and preliminary survey findings related to establishing pertinent integration issues and challenges.

Risk Mitigation in Industrialized Building System (IBS) Construction

To encourage IBS in the Malaysian construction sector, the government and the CIDB have introduced programmes and initiatives to enhance the adoption of the Industrialized Building System (IBS). The introduction of the Master Plan for Construction Industry (CIMP 2006–2015) creates the opportunity for the construction industry’s future in Malaysia. It has highlighted the importance of IBS and its environmental in the construction industry. This paper aims to recommend risk mitigation strategies in Industrialized Building System projects in Malaysia. The quantitative methodology involved the questionnaire survey and gives out to 146 IBS practitioners in Malaysia construction and only about 34% had responded to this questionnaire. It was found that many participants were implementing risk mitigation in the IBS project and adequate knowledge is essential in reducing risk on the IBS project. The risk factors that must be considered when implementing IBS construction are design, managerial, financial, safety and logistical factors which are design defects, poor understanding and monitoring skills in IBS construction, high material cost, poor safety scheduling, and difficulties transport IBS components. To address and overcome the risk factors, some risk mitigation strategies are proposed with the risk associated with the Industrialized Building System (IBS) projects. It is recommended that the implementation of the standardization of the IBS module, enhance the use of BIM in the IBS project, training and guidance to improve financial strategies, integrating the advanced Avs and Just-in- Time delivery is highlighted as risk mitigation strategies in IBS construction.

Pertinent Internal and External Issues in Industrialised Building System (IBS) Construction Business in Malaysia

Industrialised Building System (IBS) construction business has emerged as one of the potential business ventures as the Malaysian construction industry is in a constant need to shift from conventional method of construction to IBS adoption aligning to Construction 4.0 Strategic Plan 2021-2025 and The National Entrepreneurship Policy 2030 (NEP 2030). In line with boosting the IBS implementation, a brief exploratory study has been conducted to validate several IBS construction business issues among IBS contractors in Malaysia, internally and externally. From selected online databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science, 397 articles were extracted from the “Industrialised Building System (IBS) Issues in Malaysia” keywords. A set of semi-structured questionnaires was developed and pre-tested before flowing it to 25 respondents from different backgrounds in construction business related to IBS. Internally, it is discovered that the easy access to cheap labours, substantial start-up capital and ineffective IBS knowledge transfer among construction players are internal challenges that IBS contractors must endure. Concurrently discovered, IBS contractors are externally challenged by heavy Chinese-led and big boys construction project monopoly, government’s weak push for IBS technology, securing smooth payment delivery, and the unstable political climate in the Malaysian political scenarios. This paper aims to validate and outreach the challenges IBS contractors face internally and externally to strategize the business plan systematically.
 Keywords: Industrialized Building System (IBS), Issues in IBS Construction Business, Construction Business Issues, IBS Issues, Exploratory Study

The Framework of Factors for the Improvement of the Significant Clauses in the Standard Form of Contract for the IBS Construction Approach in Malaysia

The Industrialised Building System (IBS) was introduced over 10 years ago in Malaysia, with well-documented benefits and strong support from the government. Apparently, the adoption and implementation of IBS is still low and below the government target. When adopting IBS, construction players mostly face different issues and challenges, particularly on contractual aspects, which contribute to the low adoption of IBS in Malaysia. There is also a lack of provision in the significant clauses of the Malaysian standard contract form to fit the development of IBS to date. The aim of this paper is thus to establish a system of factors underpinned by Deming's Theory for the improvement of the significant clauses in the standard contract form for IBS construction in Malaysia. A multi-method approach was used to achieve its aim, including an extensive literature review, findings from the previous study via document analysis, preliminary survey, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. The research revealed that there are five significant clauses with important factors that can be improved in the existing Malaysian standard form of contract in relation to the IBS construction. The research also developed a framework that would be able to assist the policy and decision-makers in understanding what the improvement factors that need to be considered in the significant clauses in the standard form of contract in relation to the IBS construction. The research output (the framework) was validated by the prominent industry players on the practicality, suitability to its purposes for the related stakeholders. The developed framework would be able to accelerate the adoption of IBS construction in parallel with the initiatives (P3) in the Construction Industry Transformation Programme (CITP).

An Ability of WhatsApp Usage in Industrialised Building System (IBS) Construction Project

In this article, we discuss about WhatsApp application practise around project managers in managing IBS construction projects. The WhatsApp application offera great advantages, especially in collecting, managing information and data in a timely manner. Previous study highlighted effective communication become as a bridge between practitioners to share a knowledge, information and integration. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of empirical studies on how efficiencies of WhatsApp application overcome the communication barriers while managing distributed project teams on construction project. Thus this study seeks to explore communication performance perceived through WhatsApp application. The semi-structured interview methodology was used to gain in-depth knowledge from several project managers who have experiences in managing construction projects virtually through WhatsApp application. The finding from this study revealed that WhatsApp application has become an effective communication channel to overcome the barriers of communication while managing distributed teams and allowing timely information sharing.

Monetary and Non-Monetary Indicators of Cost-Benefit Analysis in Industrialised Building System Project: An Initial Conceptual Model

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is known as a construction system that consists of a combination of components manufactured either on-site or off-site then positioned and assembled into structures. Among the benefits of IBS construction includes labour cost reduction, support desirable environment, maximize efficient use of resources and waste minimisation towards sustainable construction. However, Malaysian construction industry still has a low take-up rate on IBS construction. Hence, to promote the project’s viability via IBS, ideally, the benefits of IBS are more reliable to be presented in tangible (monetary) value and intangible (non-monetary) basis rather than descriptive benefits. Therefore, Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) can be used in order to identify the soft issue or non-direct cost and elicits more transparency in IBS projects. This paper presents the conceptual review of the fundamental theory of CBA on the measurement of cost and benefits that can be converted as a weighing impact for an IBS project. An initial conceptual model known as CBA-IBS model is proposed as an approach that a decision maker can use to find the balance between the amount of effort invested in the initial cost of IBS construction and the realised revenues This study concluded that CBA is able to highlight the viability of IBS for construction in more comprehensive criteria of monetary and non-monetary benefits. This paper is a review of previous studies on monetary and non-monetary indicators of CBA that suit with IBS project. The study is supported by existing literature, primarily in the most recent research, which supports the indicators of CBA. From the literature reviews, sets of monetary and non-monetary indicators of CBA that related to IBS is obtained. The result of this study will provide novel ideas to optimize sustainable construction and prolong sustainability in design, financial, buildability, operation, life-cycle and environmental aspects. CBA-IBS model will be introduced as a theoretical basis for decision-makers in adopting IBS for their construction projects.

Intergration of Islamic Value (Work Ethics) in Construction Projects: The Malaysian Industrialised Building System (IBS) Case

Construction industry is the main sector in boosting Malaysian economy, in accordance with the vision of 2020 in making Malaysia as a developed industrial nation that is vastly moving and competitive. In accordance with this Vision 2020, a new form of contsruction method coined as Industrialised Building System or IBS has been the push factor by the Malaysian government in improving production and work quality adopting industrialised construction, prefabrication of components, and the use of mechanisation into the construction sector. However, there are still incumbent issues arising within this sector whereby the designing phase, the construction coordination phase as well as the groupwork integration phase are fragmanted from each other. Due to this fragmentation, there is limited form of communication or communication breakdown happens during the IBS construction among the concerned parties. Therefore, this study was carried out to identify the issue of communication breakdown during the construction phase while recognising Islamic work ethics in addressing this issue. This methodology applied in this study was Islamic qualitative approach. At the same time, this study also applied semi-structured interview as an instrument in collecting data from IBS experts apart from the reference from existing available literature reviews. Results obtained from this study shows that there are four Islamic elements of principles that are addressed as main criterion in addressing such issues which are; Good Deeds (Amal Saleh); Righteousness (Birr); Piety or Fear of God (Taqwa) and; Accountability.

The Mechanisation and Automation of the IBS Construction Approach in Malaysia

The objective of the main research is to investigate the current state of implementation of mechanisation and automation in the Industrialised Building System (IBS). The aim of this paper, however, is to provide an overview of the implementation of mechanisation and automation in the IBS construction approach. Questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the viewpoints among contractors and manufacturers of IBS to ensure the richness of the data collected. The results illustrated that although most respondents agreed on most critical issues in the implementation of mechanisation and automation, they were not ready to move forward. These responses were quite consistent across the professions.

Implication of Industrialised Building System (IBS) : The Case of Trade Contractors in Malaysia

To further enhance the efficiency, capacity and capability of the Malaysian construction industry, the government has been aggressively championing the use of Industrialised Building System (IBS). However, several studies have pointed out that the trade contractors are very concern with the increasing use of IBS in the country because it will reduce their business opportunities. Therefore, the research is dedicated to address issues faced by the trade contractors with the adoption of IBS. The objectives of this paper are to uncover the impact of IBS to the trade contractors and to suggest solutions to address issues faced by the trade contractors with the implementation of IBS. A fundamental of the methodology is to adopt multiple case studies approach. These projects adopted both conventional and IBS construction method. A number of 8 projects were selected. Interview sessions are conducted with trade and main contractors. Collected data is then modelled by using the combination of fuzzy theory set and simple multi-attribute rating technique. Main contractors’ input on several success factors that lead to the penetration of trade contractors in IBS is evaluated. Some degree of involvement of trade contractors in IBS projects is recommended. It is significant for the trade contractors to obtain skills for IBS approach besides their existing crafts. Furthermore, the trade contractors are suggested to register themselves as IBS components installer as this does not involve high investment capital or they can join the other companies to increase their technical and financial capacity. These findings will inform on numerous policy initiatives to manage the business sustainability of the domestic trade contractors, to improve construction methods, then to modernise and upgrade the construction industry within the country.

Economic Attributes related to Industrialised Building System in Malaysia

This paper aimed to determine the economic attributes related to the sustainability of Malaysian construction. The method for data collection is questionnaire survey, which collected from 50 respondents. The results showed that there are many momentous economical attributes identified, which are IBS offers long-term monitoring mechanism by using Life Cycle Costing in cost development, the thoughts of environmental-related products are always involved a huge financial burden up-front and more speed on Return-on-Investment of a project. Based on information gained, strategies to strengthen and promotes broader adoption of sustainability in IBS construction, in Malaysia was suggestedKeywords: Industrialised Building System (IBS); sustainability; attributeseISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i11.102

Industrialized building system - an innovative construction method

Industrialized building system (IBS) has been introduced in construction industry as early as 1960’s. The challenges facing our construction industry are due to shortage of skill labour and high cost of construction. Therefore, the concept of construction using IBS is proposed to reduce our dependency on intensive labor works and to reduce the cost of construction. However, the process of changing the traditional construction method to IBS has been delayed due to the reluctant to accept the changes and even resistant to changes. Therefore this paper presents the concept of Industrialized Building System, the scope of IBS, challenges and way forward to inculcate the use of IBS construction in Indonesia.

Conceptual Model of Contractor Satisfaction in the Industrialized Building System (IBS) Implementation

Most construction projects have been recognized as underperformance due to the increase numbers of delays, cost overruns and poor quality construction. The inability of contractors to meet clients’ expectation has been found as one of the main causes that contribute to the project failure. Alternatively, key players are encouraged to shift from the conventional method towards Industrialized Building System (IBS). Also known as prefabrication, previous researchers proved that IBS is able to minimize on-site works and increase the building quality in a controlled environment. However, the take up rate of IBS in Malaysian construction industry is still low as compared to developed countries basically due to incapability of contractors in mastering an advanced technology and their negative perceptions in IBS implementation. In addition, a limited subjective performance measurement, particularly to evaluate contractors' satisfaction level in implementing the IBS construction is still neglected. This is a review paper for an on-going research in examining contractor satisfaction levels on the IBS implementation and its attributes. The measurements are based on contractor perception instead of the typical approaches that solely concerned with objective measures (time, cost and quality). As a result, several attributes that integrate sustainability elements (economical, environmental, social, and institutional factors) are also determined. These attributes are then developed through systematic analysis to enhance the ability of IBS in improving contractors’ satisfaction. The developed framework is expected to help the project team in performing IBS projects more efficiently, ensuring the quality meet the standards and encouraging effective communication between participants. Moreover, the findings will be useful to assist contractors in enhancing competitiveness, increase company reputation and improve project deliveries to meet global challenges.

The State of Skilled Components Installers for Industrialized Building System (IBS) Construction in Malaysia

In an IBS construction, the role of the contractor is shifted from a builder to an assembler on the site. Therefore, this requires the contractor to be prepared technologically with IBS knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, the number of skilled IBS installers in Malaysia is still low even though the system has been implemented for a long time. This research is carried out to find out whether the existing number of IBS installers matches existing needs. Primary data has been collected through interviews with construction workers at an IBS construction site in Penang Island in order to get the contractor’s feedback regarding this issue. Meanwhile, secondary data has been collected from government agencies to establish the number of existing IBS installers and the number of IBS projects within government projects. The results from this study indicate that not all types of IBS’s skill sectors have a shortage of skilled workers. However, there is a critical shortage of precast concrete installers.

Economic Attributes in Industrialised Building System in Malaysia

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is world wide responding to sustainable construction. In order to be competitive in this current trend, local construction players have to take this advantages and shift their paradigm from conventional construction to IBS. This paper therefore, aimed to determine the economic attributes related to the sustainability of Malaysian construction. The main tool used for data collection is questionnaire survey collected from 50 respondents. The results showed that there are many momentous economical attributes identified related with sustainable and IBS, which are IBS offers long term monitoring mechanism by using Life Cycle Costing in cost development, the thoughts of environmental-related products are always involved a huge financial burden up-front and in term of financial investment, IBS offers more speed Return-on-Investment of a project. Based on information gained strategies to strengthen and promotes broader adoption of sustainability in IBS construction, in Malaysia was suggested.

Mechanisation and Automation of the IBS Construction Approach: A Malaysian Experience

The objective of the main research is to investigate the current state of implementation of mechanisation and automation in the Industrialised Building System (IBS). The aim of this paper however, is to provide an overview on the implementation of mechanisation and automation in the IBS construction approach. Questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews were conducted to collect the viewpoints among contractors and manufacturers of IBS to ensure the richness of the data collected. The results illustrated that although most respondents have agreed on most critical issues in the implementation of mechanisation and automation, they were not ready to move forward. These responses were quite consistent across the professions.