IBS Definition and Benefits

The definition of Industralised Building System (IBS) is borrowed from Dietz (1971) as “a total integration of all subsystem and components into overall process fully utilizing industrialised production, transportation and assembly techniques”.

From Wikipedia, IBS is

Industrialised Building System (IBS) is a term used in Malaysia for a technique of construction where by components are manufactured in a controlled environment, either at site or off site, placed and assembled into construction works.[1]Worldwide, IBS is also known as Pre-fabricated/Pre-fab Construction, Modern Method of Construction (MMC) and Off-site Construction. CIDB Malaysia, through IBS Centre is promoting the usage of IBS to increase productivity and quality at construction sites [2][3][4] through various promotion programmes, training and incentives. The content of IBS (IBS Score) is determined based on the Construction Industry Standard 18 (CIS 18: 2010); either manually, web application or fully automated CAD-based IBS Score calculator.

Wikipedia Search 'Industralized Building System', available at

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialised_Building_System_(IBS)

The benefits of IBS are numerous and far reaching. Reduced construction time, better site management, reduced wastage are but a few of these benefits, that will ultimately produce better products for the population. Undoubtedly, with better productivity, quality and safety, IBS will contribute towards a better construction industry, as well as enhance the global competitiveness of Malaysian builders.

On the ever increasing demand of affordable housing, Malaysia faces pressure of production With lower cost and efficiency issues. This issues seems to be the lack of adoption of IBS into construction industry. The government realizes this and spared no expense to increase its adoption of IBS in the local construction industries.

Currently, the construction industry is still using labour intensive and low technology methods of construction. The intensive use of foreign unskilled workers and low technology equipment and out-of-dated construction methods, eventually caused low productivity and efficiency of work at construction site. As a result this has lead to unproductive practices and initially contributes to the later delivery of work.

Therefore, the challenge the Industrialised Building System (IBS) is to create a promising environment with the promise of improving productivity rate, lowering construction costs and meeting the growing demand for affordable housing. In other word, the awareness of current trends and latest construction technology and innovation is essential in order to survive in the competitive market.

The earliest IBS survey in Malaysia was conducted in 2003 where to study the awareness and usage of IBS in construction from the point of view from contractor G5 to G7. While the second part IBS survey continued in 2005 is to survey architects’ opinion and acceptance on IBS. The third review IBS survey was conducted in 2008 is to measure the acceptance of construction industry (class G7 – G4 contractors) towards IBS system. The IBS survey 2010 was focused on the G7 role in IBS system as they have the high capital catered for the project and affordability to use the IBS technology. Presently the objective of IBS Roadmap (2003 - 2010) has almost met the target deadline. The Roadmap was design by the IBS Steering Committee to ensure that the formulated IBS is applied to the construction industry in Malaysia. It also discloses the actions taken by the CIDB in ensuring the implementation of IBS in the construction industry.

The main problem in the construction industry is because of dependency on foreign worker in Malaysia (IBS Roadmap 2003-2010). The country is in a difficult situation where most of the foreign workers are usually unskilled labour dominates in the construction industry. This lead to other problems such low quality works, delays, wastages, social problems, diseases and etc. This discourage local workforce is to join the industry because of cheap foreign labour sources. Low awareness in occupational safety and health has created a dirty, difficult, dangerous (3D) image to the construction industry. However, the dependency on foreign workers by the Malaysian construction industry could be reduced by using industrialised building systems (IBS).

This is so because the prefabricated IBS components are mechanically installed using cranes at sites using only a minimal number of manpower. Besides requiring minimal labour, IBS offer better quality, increased productivity and faster completion; less wastage with safer and cleaner constructionsites. Through IBS, components are prefabricated off-site, leaving the construction sites tidier and cleaner.

Despite all the advantages and support from the government, early effort to promote usage of IBS in Malaysian construction industry is still very low compared to conventional methods. Although the members of the industry are open to the idea, a major portion of the industry stakeholders are indifferent. This is probably due to resistance towards change and insufficient information to support feasibility of change. Local contractors are reluctant to switch to the usage of IBS because they are at ease with the availability and relatively low cost of sourcing for unskilled foreign labour. The adoption in Malaysia is more towards client-driven rather than consumer driven as compared to developed countries.

The construction industry will swift to a very unhealthy condition, for example rely heavily on foreign workers, lack of technology and modernisation in construction techniques. Hence, the industrialisation of building construction method and the evolution of construction technology are inevitable and plausible.

Malaysia, CIDB (2003) has classified IBS into five categories, which are pre-cast concrete framing panel and box system, steel formwork systems, steel frame system, timber frame system and block work system. IBS is a construction process that utilizes techniques, products, components or building systems which involved prefabricated components and on-site installation.

According to CIDB (2003), only 15 percent of the local construction industry has used IBS in Malaysia. Nevertheless, despite the high initial investment outlay, some developers in Malaysia with sufficient economies of scale have taken proactive steps and invested in IBS, mainly in formwork and structure. According to these developers, IBS provided better and more consistent quality to their buildings, better site management with less dependence on foreign workers.

The IBS survey report for 2010 under the 4th review of the IBS awareness in Malaysia found out the followings:

• The use of system formwork (metal, aluminium and plastic) gained its popularity recently due to its flexibility (can be used in many projects, recyclable at many phase of construction and can be used in different types of design structure). System formwork is not dependent on economy of scale and commercially viability. Since the method of construction is not too different from the conventional, it can thus be easily used by the labour without additional training. However, one can argued that the use of the formwork system has a very limited impact on the reduction of foreign workers and not to replace wet trades at site. Malaysian G7 contractors should have enough capability and capacity to invest into adoption of more innovative systems. It was suggested that the government should focus on promoting IBS systems that can contribute to the fulfilment of its main objective which is reducing foreign workers. The use of timber structure should be promoted and the pre-cast and steel manufactures should be facilitated through appropriate incentives.

• According to Malaysian G7 contractors IBS offers improvement in quality, productivity and efficiency from the use of factory made products, thus reducing the possibilities of poor workmanship and lack of quality control. The quality of the final IBS products are normally much superior to the conventional work as the former are produced under rigorously controlled condition. Complex shapes and finishes can be inspected and any sub-standard components are rejected before it gets erected into the structure. IBS also as observed, provide high quality surface finishes where joints section is the only part to be grouted, eliminating the requirement of plastering.

• One of the obvious drivers to use IBS is a reduction of construction building time. IBS project has proven to complete faster compared to conventional construction project due to the usage of standardised components and simplified construction process. It has also proven to build faster since on-site and manufacturing activities are usually undertaken in parallel. It cuts down the duration of work and simplifies the processes by reducing onsite activities and number of trades.

• According to the Malaysian G7 contractors, IBS offers significant savings in labour and material cost, as the number of labour force required in IBS is far lower than those required in traditional method. It is however, necessary to emphasise that the workers still need to be imparted training and skill appropriate to IBS. It is expected such trained skilled worker in IBS would be much more quality conscious then the unskilled labour doing manual jobs in conventional construction. IBS also alleviates the issue of skills shortages in the construction industry since all the construction elements are fabricated at factory. IBS eliminate extensive use of carpentry work, bricklaying, bar bending and manual job at site.

• IBS in some ways could be a cheaper method of construction compared to conventional method. The savings could come from lesser number of workers. IBS can also be cheaper if one consider the whole life costing of the building. There are direct cost saving in material, construction over-head, while indirect cost saving occur due to faster delivery of building. Further, construction of prefabricated elements in IBS results in considerable reduction in the use of scaffolding, and other temporary support as compared to onsite construction.

• On the other hand, the limited take up among Malaysian G7 contractors on IBS relates to the sheer cost of investment and the inadequacy of market size. Since the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and global recession in 2008, it becomes apparent that large investments in central production plants are uneconomical. Relatively, high transport and overhead cost virtually eliminates the potential gain achieved through industrialisation. With the current low demand and low standardisation of IBS components, undoubtedly the initial usage of IBS will increase the total material costs of the projects even though ultimately it lowers the total construction costs in the longer term. As profit is the main motivation for contractors, an increase in take up rates will only materialise when the overall prices of IBS components are reduced.

• It is also observed that the lack of investment on heavy equipments and mechanise construction system due to high capital investment could hamper a move towards IBS. Heavy capital cost involves in IBS will result in an insufficient capacity for contractors to secure projects. Contractors hence require some form of government intervention and assistance such as award and provision of large scale projects that would justify the capital investment required to adopt and deploy IBS. Some contractors seek large design and building contract from the government. Large design and building contracts will enable the successful development of unique technical capabilities and present innovation opportunities in IBS, which otherwise would be almost an economically inappropriate choice.

• Lack of experience, lack of technical knowledge and lack of skilled labour are barriers to successful IBS adoption. Poor human capital development on IBS will not only affect contractors but will affect the whole supply chain. Familiarity with IBS concept and its benefits is vital to its success because IBS requires different approach in construction.

• Some G7 contractors invest in their own system and owned their prefabrication yard. Nonetheless, there is general consensus among practitioners that IBS needs mass production to achieve economic viability but currently in Malaysia, there is no assurance of continuity of production thus limiting interest on IBS. It requires volume and economy scale of production to produce IBS components. But despite the mandatory adoption in the public sector, there is still lack of support and slow adoption from private sector clients thus creating unbalance and unsustainable demand. This is because there is a lack of assessment criteria set by the approving authorities, policies and incentives to urge the developers and private sector clients to use IBS.

Ref:

Dietz, A.G.H (1971) as stated in Kong, Xi Haw (2009), Global Trends in Research, Development and Construction, proceeding of The International conference On Industrilised Building System (IBS 2003), CIDB

Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar, Zuhairi Abd. Hamid Maria Zura Mohd Zain, Ahmad Hazim Abd Rahim, Mohd. Khairolden Ghani, Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman, Taksiah A. Majid and Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad (2012), Drivers and Barriers to Industrialised Building System (IBS) Roadmaps in Malaysia, Malaysian Construction Research Journal, ISSN 1985 -3807, Vol. 9 (1)