Potential Growth Of Ibs And Recommendations

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

From the research and findings, the researcher has gathered beneficial information concerning the Industrialized Building System (IBS) and also general overview of the current situation in Malaysia. According to Malaysia’s IBS Roadmap 2011 – 2015, the Cabinet sanctioned the IBS Roadmap 2003 – 2010 as the Blueprint towards open building and industrialization of the construction industry on 29 October 2003. Development efforts, some with the alliance with private sector were performed in the last few years. Nevertheless, the adoption of IBS, specifically in the private sector, remains low. Challenges and opportunities have been identified through stakeholder views and secondary research to gain a deeper insight into the perception towards IBS.

According to the respondents, the main reason that the consultants, contractors, developers still prefer conventional method of construction is due to the relatively cheap and abundant supply of foreign labour from neighbouring country such as Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and so on. The rate of labour in Malaysia is cheap compared with, for example, Finland in which the rate of labour is ten time higher.

In addition, the implementation of IBS at this stage in which there is no scale of economy would be very expensive for contractors, especially those from the lower classes, as they do not have adequate capital funding to afford the use of IBS. Also, as a result of the failures of the "closed system" in the past, they do not want to risk their particular companies with the use of a comparatively new system especially when they are still unfamiliar with the systems. Besides, the failure of technology transfer also results in the low response of IBS in the Malaysian market. For example, before the proper guidelines being laid down by CIDB, there were no standards for the contractor and consultants to follow and abide. Furthermore, contributing to this scenario is poor industry practice that includes poor planning and manufacturer driven.

According to one assistant director of Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) Perak commented, "IBS is not favorable for the current industry due to the new technology implied. Contractors, engineers, technical personnel do not possess sufficient knowledge of the technology, especially at the critical jointing area between precast units where leakages often happen if correct method of installation is not carried out, for instance in the bathroom area whereby the joint must be properly sealed and waterproof".

Generally, from the findings can see that most of the construction parties are still practicing conventional construction method as they have been used to the system. They resist IBS and unable to adapt themselves to the new technology may due to lack of knowledge required. CIDB has sponsored and conducted several seminars concerning IBS throughout the year; however the seminar has not received positive feedback from contractors, consultants.

The limitation of this study is that, due to the time and financial constraints, the study had to be based on a survey population covering Penang and Klang Valley only. Also, out of 100 questionnaires sent, 47 were returned giving a response rate of 47%. The non – responses may due to lack of interest, lack of resources or policy of company not to participate in surveys. Non – response such as this would, however, not hinder the result of the survey. Rather, it does imply that those responses received and analyzed are of intrinsic interest, coming from a cross – section of willing participants.

5.0 Potential Growth of IBS and Recommendations

From the survey, Industrialized Building System (IBS) is not widely used is because of the construction industry still prefer the relatively cheap supply of foreign worker to perform the labour intensive activities and all the expense of quality, speed and environment. Some of the respondents also felt that IBS is dependent upon and influence by many aspects of the housing situation such as land use, density, volume, environment condition, user needs, continuity of demand and labour.

In addition, most of the respondents also responded that the cost is higher. This may due to low incentive from government to support IBS and also not many suppliers available in market. Lack of knowledge and experience among the construction parties also stop the utilization of IBS in the project. Further, there is also lack of awareness about IBS around education areas and some of the universities and colleges do not include IBS as one of the study material.

The commitment and cooperation between the public and private sectors is supreme in ensuring the successful implementation of building industrialization. Also, if the demand for labour remains the same and the supply decrease, construction cost will increase and eventually pass on this cost to the home buyers. Therefore, the industrialization of building construction technique and the development of construction technology are inevitable and conceivable.

Respondents had given their suggestion towards the implementation of Industrialized Building System (IBS) in Malaysia in this study. One of the steps which must be taken in direct IBS industry is through the development and enhancement the way of identifying targeted market for IBS. As such, the CIDB should take the inventiveness to build up detailed market selection which will ease the identification of targeted market as well as offer support in addressing the needs and enquiry of potential local construction companies who wish to venture to IBS. The selection matrix could be based on the followings:

Chances of securing project

Level of risk, ranging from security risk to infrastructure risk

Business environment

Funding – whether the projects are government funded, multilateral agency funded or privately funded

Besides, the respondents also felt that government play an important role in encouraging the implementation of IBS. The government should establish new rules and regulation to support the IBS. For example, the government should prepare a training course for professionals and construction workers as IBS required skilled workers. Government should provide grants to assist, encourage design team to design friendly use of IBS and making sure the enforcement of policy as if government just designs the encouragement policy without enforcing, then it is no point. In addition, the government must promote more on IBS. They must make sure that at least there is a small portion of building construct using IBS in every project.

Furthermore, the respondents also suggested that the R&D centre for IBS should develop in different location and encourage the involvement of students in R&D about IBS. More courses about IBS around education should be promoted to increase professional particular positions. Training should be provided and companies should send the potential employee to the training to get more knowledge concerning the implementation of IBS. Construction parties can also meet up to exchange their different views and opinions.

From a wider viewpoint, there is a good level of willingness among industry and government to take things forward. Nevertheless, there is disinclination among companies to take the risks, which is primarily related to the unstable market and this may lead to lack of investment. In this context, the contractors might need to regard as generating an IBS "economic cluster" to enhance the industry by establishing a partnership between the government and the private sector where and when it is needed. This approach will help to create a new environment within which IBS can boom in a much shorter time. Economic clusters refer to all essential components which are needed to get IBS off the ground. This could include:

Develop and promote Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Promote design and manufacturing as the core of the industry

Develop new materials and technologies for IBS

Develop SMEs to create specialized supply chain to the core business

Facilitate a joint venture with semi – government bodies or government – linked companies to build up housing applying IBS systems and joint ventures between local and international IBS contractors

IBS should not be seen as a intimidation to conventional construction techniques. The failure of IBS to enter into the market because of the misconception that it will ultimately substitute the conventional sector, at the same time as it in fact should work closely concurrently in promoting best practices in construction. The sharing of best practices between the approaches is crucial for continues successful development of both construction technique.

6.0 Conclusion

A research survey has been carried out to determine the perceptions of Industrialized Building System (IBS) and the fundamental causes for the current poor perception of the system in the Malaysian construction industry. Based on the study performed, the following conclusions can be made:

Industrialized Building System (IBS) in Malaysia is perceived to be a system of construction that able to provide benefits of safety, speed and quality to the construction projects.

IBS, nevertheless, is not seemed to be a system that able to reduce cost compared with conventional in-situ construction method. In fact, IBS proposals are frequently rejected exclusively on the basis of cost.

There is a strong indication which many construction parties are reluctant to change to the IBS method of construction. Thus, most of them will not recommend the utilization of IBS in their future projects.

The essential grounds for the cold response of IBS are as follow:

Resistance to change

It is human nature to resist change from the familiar one to a new way of construction method like IBS.

Conventional construction (cast in-situ) method is still attractive

Construction industry personnel are still confident with the conventional construction (cast in-situ) method which is relatively cheaper, reliable and flexible technique of construction

The perception of a state of failure in IBS technology transfer

A large group of the construction industry feels that the technology transfer in IBS is a failure. The construction parties declare that there are inadequate of IBS guidelines and unclear standards for IBS.

The perception of high cost in the implementation of IBS

The high cost of IBS may due to the lack of the economy scale in IBS projects and business monopoly by the small number of IBS producers in Malaysia

Most of the people are of the opinion that the present promotional campaigns and seminars organized by the CIDB are still not really effective and the present incentives given by the government to promote IBS are still inadequate.

There are strong suggestions to call for more effective seminars and training programs for IBS designers, workers, supervisors and more incentives from the government for applying IBS in the projects.