Industrialised Building System (IBS) construction: Measuring the perception of contractors in Malaysia

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is the term coined by the industry and government in Malaysia to represent the adoption of construction industrialisation and the use of prefabrication of components in building construction. The construction industry has started to embrace IBS as a method of attaining better construction quality and productivity, reducing risks related to occupational safety and health, alleviating issues for skilled workers and dependency on manual foreign labour, and achieving the ultimate goal of reducing the overall cost of construction. Despite acknowledging its benefits, contractors are still not rapidly embracing IBS. The aim of this paper is to highlight part of the IBS survey report to measure the perception of contractors in Malaysia in the adoption of IBS in construction. The most important drivers for contractors to use IBS are for achieving high quality, gaining speed of construction, minimising on site duration, demand from client, and addressing skill shortage. The research also reveals that the main attribute to the lack of contractors embracing IBS are rarely purely technical in origin. They are more related to the organisational strategy and soft issues which underpin the capability of organisation to successfully implement IBS. This led to the identification that IBS is best handled as a holistic process and it requires a total synchronisation on construction, manufacturing and design processes. Factor such as Top-Down Corporate Vision, Early Decision to Use IBS and Early Assemble of Project Team are critical to the success of IBS.