INDUSTRIALISED BUILDING SYSTEM (IBS)

Transcription

1 INDUSTRIALISED BUILDING SYSTEM (IBS) DEFINITION, CONCEPT AND ISSUES Zuhairi Abd Hamid Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar Zulkefle Ismail Ani Saifuza Abd Shukor Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad Taksiah A. Majid Faridah Ismail

2 Copyright Published in 2011 by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) MAKMAL KERJA RAYA MALAYSIA IBS Centre, 1 st Floor Block E, Lot 8, Jalan Chan Sow Lin Kuala Lumpur MALAYSIA Copyright 2011 by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) All rights received. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored and transmitted in any form, or by any means without prior written permission from the editors. The views expressed in the papers are of the individual authors. The editors are not liable to anyone for any loss or damage caused by any error or omission in the papers, whether such error or omission is the result of negligence or any other cause. All and such liability is disclaimed. The reader should verify the applicability of the information to particular situations and check the references prior to any reliance thereupon. Since the information contained in the book is multidisciplinary, international and professional in nature, the reader is urged to consult with an appropriate licensed professional prior to taking any action or making any interpretation that is within the realm of a licensed professional practice.

3 LIST OF EDITORS Zuhairi Abd. Hamid Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman Universiti Sains Malaysia Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Zulkefle Ismail Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Ani Saifuza Abd Shukor Universiti Teknologi MARA Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad Universiti Teknologi MARA Taksiah A. Majid Universiti Sains Malaysia Faridah Ismail Universiti Teknologi MARA LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Ahmad Tarmidzi Haron University of Salford Ahmad Hazim Abdul Rahim Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Ani Saifuza Abd. Shukor Universiti Teknologi MARA Angela Lee University of Salford Faridah Muhammad Halil Universiti Teknologi MARA Faridah Ismail Universiti Teknologi MARA Fazli Jahaya Universiti Teknologi MARA Janidah Eman Universiti Teknologi MARA Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Maria Zura Mohd. Zain Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Mohd Sufian Hashim Provenholding Sdn Bhd Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman Universiti Sains Malaysia Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad Universiti Teknologi MARA Mohamad Zain Hashim Universiti Teknologi MARA Mohammed Arif University of Salford Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi University of Salford Mohd Rofdzi Abdullah University of Salford Mohd Khairolden Ghani Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad Universiti Sains Malaysia Mohd Hanizun Hanafi Universiti Sains Malaysia Mustafa Alshawi University of Salford Nadira Ahzahar Universiti Teknologi MARA Rohana Mahbub Universiti Teknologi MARA Siti Hafizan Hassan Universiti Teknologi MARA Taksiah A. Majid Universiti Sains Malaysia Zuhairi Abd. Hamid Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Zulkiflee Abdul Samad Universiti Malaya Zulkefle Ismail Universiti Islam Antarabangsa ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Elias Ismail Noraini Bahri Rofizlan Ahmad Maria Zura Mohd. Zain Helmi Aizat Ahmad Fuad Natasha Dzulkalnine Construction Industry Development Board IBS Centre Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) University of Salford Universiti Malaya Universiti Sains Malaysia Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Universiti Teknologi MARA Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Politeknik Sultan Idris Shah Construction Industry Development Board Pusat IBS, CIDB Pusat IBS, CIDB Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Construction Research Institute of Malaysia Construction Research Institute of Malaysia

4 CIRAIC 2009 PROCEEDING EDITORS: Hamimah Adnan Zulkiflee Abdul Samad Fadzil Hassan ABOUT THIS BOOK One of the main themes that have emerged from the Industrialised Building System (IBS) research during the past five years is the perspective view of the IBS players and the role of Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) to educate the construction industry. The content of this book is contributed by Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) s researchers and researchers from various universities. This book shows not only the historical roots of IBS but also the expansion of the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM), manufacturing and Integration Team Approach. Much of the content has been derived from deep literature review, quantitative approach, in-depth interviews with key industrialists across all the construction and manufacturing disciplines and proper analysis of results. Many examples have been given, but it is important to remember that there is no one correct answers to the application of IBS in the construction industry. I trust that this book will stimulate the readers interest to give serious consideration on the application of IBS on future projects in which they are involved. Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman Universiti Sains Malaysia

5 TABLE OF CONTENTS No Introduction 1 1 IBS: Revisiting the Issues on Definition, Classification and the Degree of 3 Industrialisation 2 IBS in Malaysia: The Current State and R&D Initiatives 14 3 Experiences and Lesson Learnt on IBS Construction in Malaysia 25 4 Off-Site Construction Industry: The Common Pattern 35 5 IBS: A Review of Experience in United Kingdom and Malaysian Construction 41 Industry 6 Exploring the Level of Knowledge in IBS System Among the Contractor in 50 Penang 7 A Study on the Trend of the Use of IBS Components and the Setting Up of IBS 56 Manufacturing Factories in the Malaysian Construction Industry 8 Conceptual Spatial Site Selection for One Stop Centre for IBS Manufacturing 67 Plant in Pulau Pinang 9 Understanding the Management and Integration of Supply Chain Concepts: 78 Driving Malaysia s Construction Projects Through IBS 10 Integration of Issues and Problems of Construction Supply Chain Management in 87 IBS 11 An Integration Team Approach for Improving Sustainability in the IBS 97 Malaysian Construction Project Index 104

6 INTRODUCTION By Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar 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. IBS is defined as a construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site work. The fundamental idea of IBS is to move on-site wet trades to the manufacturing floor. It consists of precast component systems, fabricated steel structures, innovative mould systems, modular block systems and prefabricated timber structures as construction components. Parts of the building that are repetitive but difficult and too time consuming and labour intensive to be casted onsite are designed and detailed as standardised components at the factory and are then brought to the site to be assembled. The onsite casting activities in IBS utilise innovative and clean mould technologies. 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. Apart from this, it offers minimal wastage, fewer site materials, a cleaner and neater environment, controlled quality, and lower total construction costs. The book covers the fundamental vision for IBS as seen by the practitioners and academia in Malaysia. It depicted the issue of definition, classification of IBS, lesson learnt on building concept from local and international practices, and different approaches to the understanding and use of different concept in IBS. It also examiners the concept of supply chain and integration in IBS and highlight current readiness level of contractors and potential factors of IBS site selection manufacturing. This book is significant for new adopters to learnt and adopts best practices and to avoid pitfalls in the implementation. Paper 1: Kamar et al. revisit the issue of definition, classification and degree of industrialisation of IBS. The clarified concept of IBS and the definition provided for this study provide a basic understanding for the concept and will drive research, innovation and implementation strategy forward. Further, the concept of open system is the long term and systematic approach toward a positive development of building industry. The introduction of open will not only reengineer our construction process but will transform the way of doing business in construction. It allows openness in IBS supply chain where builders can bid for lower price of components. It encourages participation from manufactures and assemblers to enter the market, thus reducing the price of IBS components. Paper 2: Azman et al. studies the off-site pattern in United State, United Kingdom and Australia and identifies the status pattern of off-site in Malaysia which is currently in the hybridisation stage. The study of pattern construction industry is vital in order to classify the level of the achievement in construction industry. While in the US, UK and Australia have achieved the modular building standard but Malaysia is still in the initial state to achieve it. Paper 3: Kamar et al. review the experience of IBS implementation in United Kingdom. The paper syntheses literature on policies and current state of adoption in the United Kingdom compares it to the state in Malaysia and finally provides recommendations as the way ahead for the industry. Paper 4: Azman et al. studies the potential factors for sites selection of IBS plant. The conceptual approach is to apply six criterion factors such as road characteristic, proximity from the new potential development area, population census, and proximity from the existing infrastructure, topography and land-use suitability. Paper 5: Nawi et al. discuss fundamental issue during the design stage of construction life cycle. The paper looking into the development of new concurrent engineering model for the life-cycle design and construction project is an initiative to improve the level of communication and coordination among the construction players particularly on IBS projects. Paper 6: IBS construction in Malaysia started almost 40 years ago with the completion of the Tuanku Abdul Rahman Public Housing Estate or commonly known as the Pekeliling Flats. For the last five decades, the construction industry has been experimenting with various prefabricated construction; being lead by various precast concrete solution providers. However so far, no proper compilation on IBS best practices was published for current and future reference. Based on the authors vast experiences in IBS, Hashim and Kamar compiles

7 the experiences and lesson learnt on IBS construction in Malaysia. The compilation is a significant document for new adopters to learn and adopts best practices in IBS and to avoid pitfalls in the implementation. Paper 7: Abd. Shukor et al. established the definition and explored the understanding and purpose of SCM. The presented literature and evidence have shown that the characteristics and the nature of the construction industry supply chain constitute the main challenge to the implementation of SCM on a wider scale. Future empirical studies should extensively examine these areas, especially the integration of supply chain players with the procurement process and its implementation. Paper 8: Zuhairi et al. highlight the current scenario of IBS adoption. A number of implementation snags are identified as potential hurdles to the implementation of IBS. Paper 9: Azman et al. study the trend of using IBS components and identify the factors required for the setting up of IBS manufacturing factories in the Malaysian construction industry. Paper 10: Hassan et al. investigate the level of knowledge in IBS among contractors registered in Penang Island. The paper scrutinizes the drivers as well as the level of knowledge and understanding of IBS from the perspective of the contractor who implements IBS at the project level. Paper 11: Shukor et al. examine integration issues and problems on the supply chain management of IBS. The paper reports the dominant problem in the supply chain of IBS, including strategic procurement and support argument, identifying that supply chain and procurement could be the cause of many problems in the process and implementation of IBS.

8 1 IBS: REVISITING THE ISSUES ON DEFINITION, CLASSIFICATION AND THE DEGREE OF INDUSTRIALISATION Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar, Mustafa Alshawi, Zuhairi Abd. Hamid, Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi, Ahmad Tarmidzi Haron and Mohd Rofdzi Abdullah Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) INTRODUCTION IBS is a technique that uses pre-fabricated components or off-site installation, where project clients and developers can gain benefit from many ways. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) of Malaysia has published a definition for IBS and its classification which has been widely used as common understanding by researchers and practitioners in Malaysia (CIDB, 2003; CIDB, 2007; Hamid et al., 2008; Kamar et al., 2009; CIMP, 2007b). The definition and classification are as follows: Definition IBS is a construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site work. Classification Pre-cast Concrete Framing, Panel and Box Systems Steel Formwork Systems Steel Frame System Prefabricated Timber Framing Systems Block Work System However, the move towards industrialisation of construction industry is a global phenomenon and not merely a local or isolated initiative. The definition and classification need to be evolved and incorporate with global views and understanding. The definition and classification of Off-site Construction (OSC), Modern Method of Construction (MMC), Off-site Manufacturing (OSM), Off-site Production (OSP), pre-assembly and prefabrication are worth to be examined. It gives us a different perspective and enriches our understanding on IBS concept as whole. Numerous descriptions of the IBS concept have been highlighted by local researchers and all of the definitions stressed on pre-fabrication and mass production. The term and classification were often misinterpreted as a system limited only for construction of buildings. It can be defined as an approach or process used in making construction less labour-oriented and faster as well as fulfilling quality concern (Shaari and Ismail, 2003). The broader view of IBS is about the changing of conventional mindset, championing human capital development, developing better cooperation and trust, promoting transparency and integrity (ibid). Firstly, the paper will revisit current definition and classification on IBS. Secondly, it will review other terms to describe IBS in the literatures. Thirdly, the conceptual definition and classification will be developed and finally, the paper reviews IBS and its relation to a degree of industrialisation. With the issues of global competitiveness, productivity and quality, global industry players are revisiting IBS as a tool in achieving better performance. IBS should provide clear understanding on its etymology and classification. REVISITING CURRENT IBS DEFINITION The paper revisits the definition of IBS from 20 literatures of local and international researchers from The definitions are listed on the following Table 1.The following analysis has been derived from Table 1: In general IBS definitions have been classified into two categories: IBS as a method, approach and process IBS as a product, system and technology

9 Fifteen authors have defined IBS as a method, approach and process. On the other hand, only five (5) authors defined IBS as a product, system and technology and these include the definitions from notable international researchers (Sarja, 1998; Warszawski, 1999) From the table, the definitions consist of six (6) different characteristics of IBS; industrialised production, transportation and assembly technique, onsite fabrication, mass-production, structured planning and standardisation and integration While almost all literatures mentioned an offsite technology or factory production as an important attribute for IBS, definition by CIDB (2003), Chung (2006) and Shaari and Ismail (2006) highlighted onsite technologies in IBS All definitions cover at least 2 or 3 characteristics of IBS. Definition by Chung (2006), however, covers 5 out of 6 characteristics listed on the table The definition by CIDB Malaysia (CIDB, 2003) which has been widely used in Malaysia has not covered the aspects of mass-production, structured planning and standardisation and integration in its definition. Those characteristics, however, are essential as highlighted by other researchers Regardless of the terms, the idea of IBS is the same which is to move some effort away from the construction site to a more controlled environment of the manufacturing floor. The paper, however, suggests that the new definition on IBS should consists of both the process and system point of view, as well as all six (6) characteristics highlighted on the table OTHER TERMS USED TO DESCRIBE IBS Many different terms are used to describe industrialised construction and prefabrication. Pre-assembly, prefabrication, Modern Method of Construction (MMC), Offsite Construction (OSC), Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) and Offsite Production (OSP) are terms in common use at various times in the literatures. The following Table 2 highlights the definitions to describe the industrialisation of construction industry:

10 Table 1. List of Definition of IBS

11 Table 2. Other Terms Used to Represent Industrialisation in Construction Modern Method of Construction (MMC) is a term adopted in the UK as a collective description for both offsite based construction technologies and innovative onsite technologies. The former represents prefabrication and manufacturing technology and the latter includes techniques such as thin-joint block work and tunnel-form construction (Goodier and Gibb, 2006). In definition, MMC includes both industrialised and non-industrialised innovation. Non- industrialised innovation is the use of innovation method that has been seen in other industries including carpet reinforcement, metal shutters, core jump systems, double jumping cores, edge protection systems and service walls (BURA, 2005). The paper concludes that not all MMC is IBS, but all IBS is under MMC. IBS in definition is a process in which component are manufactured, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works both off-site and on-site (CIDB, 2003). Offsite and manufacturing technique is essential to IBS but onsite IBS method can be used in the form of in-situ pre-cast system using steel formwork (ibid). Thus, the paper concludes that all offsite is IBS, but not all IBS is offsite. The other term used to describe IBS is prefabrication. Prefabrication is a manufacturing process generally taking place at a specialised facility, in which various material are joined to form a component part of final installation (Tatum et al., 1986). Some prefabrication can be done onsite (onsite fabrication). Offsite construction however, is a description of the spectrum or part there of which are manufactured or assembled remote from building site prior to installation in their find position. In this family, Offsite Construction (OSC), Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) and Offsite Production (OSP) are largely interchangeable terms which refer to that part of the construction process which is carried out away from the building site, such as in a factory or sometimes in specially created temporary production facilities close to the construction site (or field factories) (Goodier and Gibb, 2006). While, the components maybe are assembled onsite and offsite, preassembly literally means to assemble before and covers the manufacture and assembly (usually off-site) of buildings or parts of buildings earlier than they would traditionally be constructed on-site (Gibb and Isack, 2003). Thus the offsite can be divided into preassembly and onsite assembly. The relations are best shown in the following Figure 1.

12 ESTABLISHING A WORKING DEFINITION OF IBS From the above list of definitions the more generic definition of IBS can be derived as the following: IBS is an innovative process of building construction using concept of mass-production of industrialised systems, produced at the factory or onsite within controlled environments, it includes the logistic and assembly aspect of it, done in proper coordination with thorough planning and integration Figure 1. IBS and Other Terms to Describe Industrialisation in the Method of Construction IBS CLASSIFICATION Just as the definitions, IBS has a various different classification which is based on material, process and system. Table 3 shows the classification of IBS, building system, MMC and OSM. For further exploration of and discussion between researchers in this field, a generic classification for IBS is derives as the followings: Frame System (pre-cast or steel) Panellised System Onsite fabrication Sub-assembly and components Block work system Hybrid System Volumetric and Modular System The classification is based on CIDB s IBS classification which is well known in Malaysia, with an important addition of hybrid and volumetric (modular) system. Both are essential systems in MMC s classification. Onsite fabrication term is used to replace steel formwork system. This is to move away from the prefabrication image of formwork system at site. The precast concrete framing, prefabricated timber framing system and steel framing system is combined under the term frame system for simplicity reason. This term is also used in MMC s classification. Roof truss, balconies, staircases, toilets, lift chambers are classified under sub-assembly and components. This is a move to promote in-fill and skeleton concept which is an interesting concept in open system. It is hoped that IBS classification can be standardised in the future in order for IBS to be accepted by practitioners as a primer construction method.

13 Table 3. Comparison of IBS-MMC Classification IBS AND THE DEGREE OF INDUSTRIALISATION Industrialisation is a part of a wider modernisation process through the development of modern methods of production and technology system, mainly factory production where work is centrally organized, production operations are mechanized and are focused on mass production (Lessing, 2006). The degree of industrialisation is an indicator to measure the level of industrialisation adoption. It also represents the maturity of IBS adoption. The degree of industrialisation is shown in Figure 2: Prefabrication is a manufacturing process generally taking place at a specialised facility, in which various material are joined to form a component part of final installation (Tatum et al., 1986) Mechanization comes in whenever machinery is employed to ease the work of the labour Automation is a situation when the tooling (machine) is completely taking over the tasks performed by the labour Robotics comprises the ability of the same tooling which has the multi-axis flexibility to perform by itself diversified tasks. This allows the mass-customization concept. Reproduction implies that research and development of innovative processes are truly capable of simplifying the production process To be successful in IBS, we need to move away from prefabrication towards the level of mechanisation, automation, robotics and finally reproduction. Prefabrication can be as high as mass-production of components in factory to as low as using steel formwork onsite. If one still practices prefabrication and the government still encourages the use of low technology solution, the evolution of industrialisation could be static and the effort to promote mass-customization could be jeopardised. Mass-customisation concept and open system as highlighted in IBS Roadmap (CIDB, 2003) can only be adopted through automation (Richard, 2005). IBS practitioners need to continuously search for new strategies as well as new technologies to increase the degree of industrialisation. The government and the policy makers should find solution to assist the industrial revolution and eventually stop promoting low-tech onsite prefabrication which gives little benefit to the practitioners.

14 Figure 2. Degree of Industrialisation (Richard, 2005) This degree or level of industrialisation is also associated with the scope of work in the construction process or life cycle. As compared to the traditional method, the prefabrication scope of work involves more planning. On the other hand, the prefabricated scope of works is less than the mechanisation approach in term of tasks involved. The tasks covered by mechanisation which integrate the architectural work (painting, ducting, finishing) are done in factory earlier before the mobilisation to site. While prefabrication is the process of joining the components of panels and this becomes an element of building, the mechanisation level is applied to the process in the factory by machine. The automation level utilises the programmable machines like robotics to perform the tasks including the computerised tools for planning, design and operation. The role of manufacturing in the project life cycle is increased with the degree of industrialisation. Above all, when industrialisation is concerned, the earlier a decision is made the better so the production team can plan to schedule the work of prefabrication. In the prefabrication, mechanisation and even automation degree of industrialisation, one can change the design in planning phases. This is because the prefabrication can start during the planning and execution stage of the project life cycle. But for robotics and reproduction, the design shall be determined as early as the conceptual stage. By understanding the degree of industrialisation, one can plan the IBS project cycle and accommodate its manufacturing element as early as the conceptual phase of the project. One can also understand the risk of IBS where, any late change on design within the implementation stage can present a disaster to the whole project. CONCLUSION IBS is the term to represent the prefabrication concept in Malaysia. The term is invented to move away from the typical paradigm of prefabricated systems. This paper proposed the definition, classification and its relation to other terms used to describe industrialised construction and finally discussed IBS and its degree of industrialisation. IBS definition should incorporate all six (6) characteristics from existing definitions which are industrialised production, transportation and assembly technique, onsite fabrication, mass production, structured planning and standardisation and integration. IBS should be seen as innovation in construction. The innovation agenda has been promoted in the UK under the MMC and offsite construction s umbrella. It is imperative that IBS is seen as an evolution of construction using new and innovative techniques rather than a revolution. The classification of IBS should be expanded to cater the scope of volumetric (modular) and hybrid construction. IBS is not to be seen as a threat to traditional methods. Both methods should be able to work in tandem and improve their processes collectively. The sharing of best practice between the two approaches is essential for the continued successful development of both construction sectors. IBS should move up the degree of industrialisation from prefabrication to reproduction through innovation. The mass-customisation concept which is vital to open building system agenda can only be achieved through the adoption of automation in the level of industrialisation The more advanced IBS is in the level of industrialisation, the more roles IBS has to be involved in project life cycle. The reproduction level of industrialisation will involve the whole project life cycle from planning to maintenance. IBS can be seen as a solution to the whole project life cycle if only, it can achieve reproduction level of industrialisation The generic definition and classification had been proposed in this paper to engage positive debate into it and to obtain constructive reaction from practitioners and researchers. It is hoped that the definition and classification will enhance our understanding of IBS.

15 REFERENCES Abdullah, M. R. and Egbu, C. (2009) Industrialised Building System in Malaysia: Issues for Research in a Changing Financial and Property Market In BuHu 9th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC) (Eds., Alshawi, M., Ahmed, V., Egbu, C. and Sutrisna, M.) Salford, United Kingdom, pp Abosaad, H., Underwood, J. and Boveny, S. (2009) Towards an Information System Representation of OSM in Facilitating the Virtual Prototyping of Housing Design In BuHu 9th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC) (Eds, Alshawi, M., Ahmed, V., Egbu, C. and Sutrisna, M.) Salford, United Kingdom, pp Badir, Y. F., Kadir, M. R. A. and Hashim, A. H. (2002) Industrialised Building System Construction in Malaysia Journal of Architectural Engineering, 8 (1), Badir, Y.F., Kadir, M.R.A. and Ali, A.A.A (1998) Theory of classification on Badir-Razali Building system classification. Bulletin of Institute of Engineer, Malaysia, October BURA (2005) Steering and Development Forum Report: MMC Evolution or Revolution, British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) Report, London, United Kingdom Chung, L. P. (2006) Implementation Strategy for Industrialised Building System (IBS) In Unpublished MSc Thesis Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bharu, Malaysia, pp CIDB (2003) IBS (IBS) Roadmap Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2003b) IBS Survey A Survey on the Usage of Industrialised Building System in Malaysian Construction Industry, Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2007) IBS Digest at Malbex in IBS Digest, Special Issues on 24th Malaysian International Building Exposition (Malbex 2007) September 2007 CIDB (2007b) Construction Industry Master Plan Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur Dietz A. G (1971) Dwelling house construction, MIT Press, Cambridge Esa, H., and Nuruddin, M. M (1998) Policy on Industrialised Building System Report on Colloquium on Industrialised Construction System, Kuala Lumpur. Gibb, A. G. F. (1999) Off-site Fabrication - prefabrication and pre-assembly, Whittles Publisher, Glasgow, United Kingdom Gibb, A. and Pendlebury (2005) Buildoffsite: Glossary of Term Buildoffsite UK Gibb, A. G. F. and Isack, F. (2003) Re-engineering through pre-assembly: client expectations and drivers Building Research and Information, 31(2), Goodier, C. and Gibb, A. (2006) Buildoffsite: Glossary of Term DTI and Buildoffsite Hamid, Z. A., Kamar, K. A. M., Zain, M. Z. M., Ghani, M. K. and Rahim, A. H. A. (2008) Industrialised Building System (IBS) in Malaysia: The Current State and RandD Initiatives Malaysian Construction Research Journal (MCRJ), 2 (1), Haron, N. A., Hassim, S., Kadir, M. R. A. and Jaafar, M. S. (2005) Building Cost Comparison Between Conventional and Formwork System: A Case Study on Four-Story School Buildings in Malaysia American Journal of Applied Sciences, 2 (4), Hassim, S., Jaafar, M. S. and Sazali, S. A. A. H. (2009) The Contractor Perception Towers Industrialised Building System Risk in Construction Projects in Malaysia American Journal of Applied Sciences, 6 (5), Hong, O. C. (2006) Analysis of IBS for School Complex In Unpublished BEng Thesis Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bharu, Malaysia, pp Junid, S. M. S. (1986) IBS Proceedings of a UNESCO/FEISEAP Regional workshop, UPM Serdang Kamar, K. A. M., Alshawi, M. and Hamid, Z. A. (2009) Barriers to Industrialised Building System (IBS): The Case of Malaysia in BuHu 9th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC) (Eds., Alshawi, M., Ahmed, V., Egbu, C. and Sutrisna, M.), Salford, United Kingdom, pp Lessing, J., Stehn, L. and Ekholm, A. (2005) Industrialised Housing: Definition and Categorisation of the Concept in Proceedings IGLC-13 Sydney, Australia July 2005 Lessing, J. (2006) Industrialised House-Building - Concept and Processes in PhD Thesis Department of Construction Sciences Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden Majzub (1977) Modular housing systems used around the world. International Journal of Housing Science, Vol. 1 Marsono, A. K., Tap, M. M., Ching, N. S. and Mokhtar, A. M. (2006) Simulation of IBS Components Production In Proceedings of the 6 th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (APSEC 2006) Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 5 6 September 2006 MIGHT (2004) Industrialised Building System (IBS): Greater Efficiency for Greater Capacity in FUSION (Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology) Issues 8 Oct 2004

16 Nawi, M. N. M., Nifa, F. A. A., Abdullah, S. and Yasin, F. M. (2006) A Preliminary Survey of the Application of Industrialised Building System (IBS) in Kedah and Perlis Malaysia Construction Industry, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) NAO (2005) Using modern methods of construction to build homes more quickly and efficiently National Audit Office, London November 2005 Pan, W., Gibb, A. G. F. and Dainty, A. R. J. (2007) Perspectives of UK housebuilders on the use of offsite modern methods of construction, Construction Management and Economics, 25 (2), Parid, W. (1997) Global Trends in Research, Development and Construction Proceeding of the International Conference on Industrialised Building System IBS 2003) Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia Kuala Lumpur. POSTNOTE (2003) Modern Method of House Building In POSTNOTE Number 209, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, London, United Kingdom Rahman, A. B. A, Omar, W. (2006) Issues and Challenges in the Implementation of Industrialised Building System in Malaysia. Proceeding of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (ASPEC 2006) 5-6 September 2006 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Richard, R. B. (2007) A Generic Classification of IBS in Open Building Manufacturing- Core Concept and Industrial Requirement (Eds., Kazi, A. S., Hannus, M., Boudjabbeur, S. and Malone, A.) VTT Finland and Manubuild Consortium, pp. 23 Richard, R. B. (2005) IBSs: reproduction before automation and robotics Automation in Construction, 14 (2005), Ross, K. and Richardson, D. (2005) Achieving Best Practice in Modern Method of Construction In Client Report EEBPH EST Peter Thomson, 11 February 2005 Sarja, A (1998), Open and Industrialised Building, International Council for Building Research, E and FN Spoon, London Shaari, S. N. and Ismail, E. (2003) Promoting the Usage of Industrialised Building System (IBS) and Modular Coordination (MC) in Malaysia Construction Industry in Engineers (Board of Engineer Malaysia) March 2003 Thanoon, W. A., Peng, L. W., Kadir, M. R. A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S. (2003) The Essential Characteristics of IBS In International Conference on IBSs Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 2003 Tatum, C. B. (1986) Constructability improvement using pre-fabrication, pre-assembly and modularization In Technical Report No. 297 Stanford University, California, US. November Trikha, D. N. (1999) IBSs Prospects in Malaysia Proceedings World Engineering Congress, Malaysia Warszawski, A. (1999) Industrialised and Automated Building Systems, E and FN Spon, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.

17 2 IBS IN MALAYSIA: THE CURRENT STATE AND R&D INITIATIVES Zuhairi Abd. Hamid, Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar, Maria Zura Mohd. Zain, Mohd Khairolden Ghani, Ahmad Hazim Abdul Rahim Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) INTRODUCTION With its current level of quality, productivity, safety and excessive reliance on unskilled foreign workers, the state of the local construction industry is not in line with future development of Malaysia (CIDB, 2003a). This, together with the social problems associated with foreign workers, further aggravates the situation (Gue, 2007). As such, the Industrialized Building System (IBS) is a new trend introduced to promote systematic construction process and to reduce the dependency on foreign workers. Despite all the plausible advantages, early effort to promote usage of IBS as an alternative to conventional and labour intensive construction method has yet to greener a good response. CIDB (2003b) reported that construction project using IBS in Malaysia only stands 15% in the year But the completed project using IBS in the year 2006 only 10% (CIDB, 2007b) less than one - third of total construction project (using at least one IBS product) in year 2006 (CIDB, 2007a) as compare to forecasting IBS project of 50 % in 2006 and 70% in year 2008 (CIDB, 2003a). Relatively, the low labour cost in Malaysia is the root cause of the problem (CIDB, 2007a). Although the members of the industry are open to the idea, a major portion of the industry stakeholders are indifferent, perhaps due to resistance towards change and insufficient information to support feasibility of change. The adoption in Malaysia is towards client-driven and the development of factory-like buildings (TESCO, Giant, Carrefour etc) tends to have higher adoption of IBS than landed properties and small commercial units (CIDB, 2007b). In this case, it has proven that it is difficult to introduce new technologies and method due to relation of such adoption with people perception. Perhaps, the industry is still lack of empirical data and research subjects on the issues of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Change Management. It is considerable to the Research and Development (R&D) institutions and local universities have to provide the industry with relevant information to support the decision making process. Despite these barriers, IBS is still predicted to lead Malaysian construction industry towards nation modernisation and globalisation. PROBLEM STATEMENTS Prosperity and high economic growth in Malaysia have created a high demand for construction activities. As a consequence, this has attracted a huge number of foreign workers into this country to take up employment on site as unskilled labour doing manual jobs. Total foreign workers rose from 4% of total employment in year 1990 to about 10.7% in 1997 and 9% in year As at July 2004, there are about 1.3 million registered foreign workers, constituting 12% of total employment in the country (MOF, 2005). The Annual Labour Force Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics, revealed that the number of foreign workers has increased to 1.1 million in year 2000 compared to about 136,000 persons in the early 1980s. Latest immigration statistics indicate that the number of legal foreign workers in Malaysia rose to 1,359,632 workers as at July 2004 (MOF, 2005). The majority of foreign workers are from Indonesia, averaging 66.5% of total foreign workers, followed by Nepal (9.2%), Bangladesh (8.0%), India (4.5%) and Myanmar (4.2%), as shown in Table 1. In year 2001, male foreign workers accounted for 66% of total foreign workers and they dominated all major sectors, except services (MOF, 2005). As such, the contribution of foreign workers to construction industry is significant. According to Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, 69% (552,000) out of total 800,000 of registered workers as at June 2007 is foreign workers (CIDB, 2007c). It was undoubtedly a shocking result for the construction observer. According to the report from the Department of Immigration Malaysia, foreign workers represent a comparative moderate percentage 44% of total workforce in construction industry (depicted in Table 2) in year Despite unskilled labour contributions, the country is in a difficult situation with a host of problems such low quality works, delays, wastages, social problems, diseases and etc. Foreign workers are usually unskilled when they first arrived in Malaysia and this impacted the productivity and the quality of the construction industry (CIDB, 2007a). To exaggerate the situation, local workforce is also reluctant to join the industry because of the issues of low wages combined with low emphasis on occupational safety and health has created an image of

18 dirty, difficult, dangerous (3D) industry. As such, the state of the local construction industry is not in line with future development of Malaysia (CIDB, 2003a). IBS is a new trend introduced to promote systematic construction process and to reduce the dependency on foreign workers. Nevertheless, a number of implementation snags identified as being potential hurdles to the implementation over the issues of supply demand, economic volume and general readiness. Among all, cost and budget constrain along with the low labour cost (foreign) in Malaysia is the root cause of the problem (CIDB, 2007a). Despite those barriers, IBS is still predicted (or to be enforced) to lead Malaysian construction industry towards nation modernisation and globalisation. Table 1.Composition of Foreign Workers by Country of Origin (%) (MOF, 2005) Year Jan-July 2004 Indonesia Nepal Bangladesh India Myanmar Philippines Thailand Pakistan Others Total Table 2. Percentage of Foreign Workers to Total Construction Workforce (MOF, 2005) August 2006 Local Workforce 224, , , ,704 Foriegn Workers 231, , , ,853 Total 456, , , ,557 Percentage of Foreign Workers 51% 49 % 48% 44% IBS DEFINITIONS To date there has been no one commonly-accepted or agreed definition of IBS. However, there are a few definitions by researchers who studied into this area previously were found through literature. Rahman and Omar (2006) defined IBS as a construction system that is built using pre-fabricated components. The manufacturing of the components is systematically done using machine, formworks and other forms of mechanical equipment. The components are manufactured offsite and once completed will be delivered to construction sites for assembly and erection. Parid (1997) defined IBS as a system which use industrialised production technique either in the production of component or assembly of the building or both. Lessing, et al. (2005) defined IBS as an integrated manufacturing and construction process with well planned organization for efficient management, preparation and control over resources used, activities and results supported by the used of highly developed components. Trikha (1999) defined IBS as a system in which concrete components prefabricated at site or in factory are assembly to form the structure with minimum in situ construction. IBS was also defined as a set of interrelated element that act together to enable the designated performance of the building (Warszawski, 1999). Esa and Nurudin (1998) defined IBS as continuum beginning from utilizing craftsmen for every aspect of construction to a system that make use of manufacturing production in order to minimize resource wastage and enhance value end users. Junid (1986) defined IBS as process by which components of building are conceived, planned and fabricated, transported and erected at site. The system includes balance combination between software and hardware component. The software element include system design, which is complex process of studying the requirement of the end user, market analysis and the development of standardize component (Junid, 1986). Chung and Kadir (2007) defined IBS as a mass production of building components either in factory or at site

19 according to the specification with standard shape and dimensions and transport to the construction site to be rearranged with certain standard to form a building. All the above definitions emphasized on prefabrication, off-site production and mass production of building components as the main characteristic of IBS. The focal of discussion in the study synergizes the key concept of IBS as defined as follows: A construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works (CIDB, 2003a). DEVELOPMENT OF IBS IN MALAYSIA IBS in Malaysia has begun in early 1960 s when Ministry of Housing and Local Government of Malaysia visited several European countries and evaluate their housing development programme (Thanoon et al., 2003). After their successful visit in 1964, the government had started first project on IBS aims to speed up the delivery time and built affordable and quality houses. About 22.7 acres of land along Jalan Pekeliling, Kuala Lumpur was dedicated to the project comprising seven blocks of 17 storeys flat there are 3000 units of low-cost flat and 40 shops lot. This project was awarded to Gammon/ Larsen Nielsen using Danish System of large panel of prefabricated system (CIDB, 2003b). In 1965, the second housing project initiated by the government of Malaysia, the project comprising a 6 block of 17 storeys flat and 3 blocks of 18 storeys flat at Jalan Rifle Range, Penang. The project was awarded to Hochtief/Chee Seng using French Estoit System (Din, 1984). Among the earliest housing development project using IBS was Taman Tun Sardon, Penang. IBS pre-cast component and system in the project was designed by British Research Establishment for low cost housing in tropical countries. Nonetheless, the building design was very basic and not considering the aspect of serviceability such as the need of wet toilet and bathroom (Rahman and Omar, 2006). Between 1981 and 1993, Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor (PKNS) a state government development agency acquired pre-cast concrete technology from Praton Haus International based on Germany to build low cost house and high cost bungalow in Selangor (CIDB, 2003b). The usage of steel structure as part of IBS, first gained attention with the construction of 36-storeys Dayabumi complex that was completed in 1984 by Takenaka Corporation of Japan (CIDB, 2003b). Today, the use of IBS as a method of construction in Malaysia is evolving. Many private companies in Malaysia have teamed up with foreign expert from Australia, Netherlands, United State and Japan to offer precast solution to their project (CIDB, 2003b). In addition, more and more local manufacturers have established themselves in the market. Pre-cast, steel frame and other IBS were used as hybrid construction to build national landmark such as Bukit Jalil Sport Complex, Lightweight Railway Train (LRT) and Petronas Twin Tower. It was reported that at least 21 of various manufacturers and suppliers of IBS are actively promoting their system in Malaysia (Thanoon et al., 2003). Nevertheless, the government of Malaysia still feels that the usage of IBS is still low despite the plausible potential. From the survey conducted by CIDB of Malaysia in 2003, the usage level of IBS in local construction industry stands at 15% (CIDB, 2003b). The total registered IBS contractors in Malaysia stand for 1,993 in year 2007 (Table 3 and 4) and registered IBS manufacture in Malaysia until 2007 is 138 producing 347 IBS products available in the market shown in Table 5. Evidently that most of locally developed products are based on traditional materials such as reinforced concrete and the most innovative materials are based on imported technology (CIDB, 2007b). There is no mandatory requirement on any certification or accreditation of components, companies or installers in place. Whilst, there is no empirical data, there is some anecdotal evidence suggests that there has been sporadic dumping of sub-standard foreign products in Malaysia (CIDB, 2007b). A mechanism to ensure IBS products marked to an acceptable standard must be introduced in the manufacturing process. Testing of components, verify and certify them will limit only safe and acceptable IBS panels are erected and thus CIDB will lead this roles. Table 3. Registered IBS Contractor (Active) in Malaysia (CIDB, 2007b) NO GRADE SPECIALTIES TOTAL 1 B 01 Buildings and Industrial Pre-casting Work 28 2 B 02 Buildings and Industrial Steel Structure Work B 12 Aluminium, Glass and Steel Work B 15 Roofing and Steel Cladding Works B 19 Special Framework 11 GRAND TOTAL 895

20 Table 4. Registered IBS Contractor (Active) in Malaysia (CIDB, 2007b) GRED NUMBERS G7 334 G6 52 G5 83 G4 42 G3 191 G2 76 G1 71 TOTAL 849 Table 5. Registered IBS Manufacturer and IBS Products available in Malaysia (CIDB, 2007b) NO Material Manufacturer Product Local Foreign Unknown 1 PC Panel,Frame, Box Steel Frames/Panel Components 3 Systems Formwork Timber Frames TOTAL IBS ROADMAP The endorsement of IBS Roadmap in Malaysia by the cabinet on 29 th October 2003 expressed seriousness of the government and the urgency of IBS implementation. It is a blueprint of total Industrialisation of construction industry towards achieving Open Building by the year The roadmap is a comprehensive document that divided the IBS programme into the five main focus areas that reflect the inputs needed to drive the programme, each beginning with M. They are Manpower, Materials, Management, Monetary, and Marketing (CIDB, 2003a). The inputs are then divided into its elements and the activities to be implemented for each element were then identified and included into the time span of the roadmap in order to achieve the mission within the stipulated time-frame. About 109 milestones are set to be achieved in year The content of this roadmap is focused towards achieving the Industrialisation of the construction sector and the longer term objective of Open Building Systems (OBS) concept. The key elements of the roadmap are as follows: To have a labour policy that gradually reduces percentage of foreign workers from the current 75% to 55% in 2005, 25% in 2007 and 15% in 2009, To incorporate IBS/MC in professional courses for architects, engineers and others, To incorporate syllabus on IBS/MC in architecture, engineering, building courses in local universities, To enforce Modular Coordination (MC) by local authorities through Uniform Building By- Law (UBBL), To develop catalogue of building components and standard plans for housing To develop IBS Verification scheme, To enforce utilisation of IBS for 30% of total government project (building) in 2004 and gradually increasing to 50% in 2006 and 70% in 2008, To introduce buildability programme for all private building and enforcement from 2008, To provide tax incentives for manufacturer of IBS components, To offer green lane programme for users of standard plans (designed using standard IBS Components and MC), To start vendor developing programme, training and financial aid, To abolish levy for low, low-medium & medium cost houses; and to set 50% levy reduction. One of the important milestones in the roadmap is the introduction of Modular Coordination (MC) concept. MC is a concept of coordination of dimensions and space where buildings and components are dimensioned and positioned in a basic unit or module known as 1M which is equivalent to 100 mm. The system allows

21 standardization in design and building components (CIDB, 2007a). It will encourage participation from manufactures and assemblers to enter the market, thus reducing the price of IBS components. In essence, MC will facilitate open Industrialisation which is the prime target of the roadmaps. The proposed enforcement of using MC through Uniform Building By-Law (UBBL) would encourage the adoption through standardization and the use of IBS components. However, until the end of 2007, the UBBL have yet to be amended to include MC regulations (CIDB, 2007b). Another important step taken by the government of Malaysia is to introduce incentives for IBS adopter. The exemption of the levy (CIDB levy % of total cost of the project according to Article 520) on contractors that implanted some kind of IBS in 50% of the building components was introduced effectively from 1 st January In the first half of 2007, 24 residential projects qualified for the levy exemption. It is a very small percentage of total 417 residential projects during that period (CIDB, 2007b). It shows that awareness among developers and contractors on the levy exemption is still very low. IBS Centre established in 2006 at Jalan Chan Sow Lin, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur will be one-stop centre of IBS related programmes initiated by CIDB, provide the training and consultancy on IBS and showcase IBS technology through the demonstration project. The obligation to implement IBS strategies and activities from this centre serves concurrent both to improve performance and quality in construction, also to minimize the dependency of unskilled foreign labours flooding the construction market. IBS ROADMAP MID-TERM REPORT The IBS Centre has published IBS Roadmap Mid-term report to study the current status of IBS adoption in Malaysia on October 2007 (CIDB, 2007b). The report has highlighted the followings concerns: High rise development and factory-like building tend to have higher adoption of IBS than landed properties and small commercial units, Whilst there is no empirical data, there is some anecdotal evidence, suggest that there has been sporadic dumping of sub-standard foreign IBS product in IBS, At presents, common practice shows manufacture of IBS components are involved only after tender stage of the value chain. IBS need to be addressed in the design stage to be successful adopted, There is yet any certification or accreditation of components companies and installers in place, Smaller contractors view IBS as threats and not as opportunities, Lack of integrated action plan to implement the IBS Roadmap, It seems that most locally developed products based on traditional materials such as reinforced concrete and that most using innovative materials are based on imported technology, Until year 2007, vendor development programme have not yet been performed, Until year 2007, the certification of product and installers have yet to be implemented, The adoption of IBS in Malaysia is client driven, Only 54 out of 109 IBS Roadmap milestones have been achieved until year 2007, The contractor only use IBS as alternative option, either explicitly or through challenging time and quality requirements, demanded by clients. THE BARRIERS TO IBS ADOPTION IN MALAYSIA Clearly, the benefits offered by IBS are immense and plausible. Notwithstanding these achievements a number of implementation snags were identified as being potential hurdles to the implementation of the roadmap. These include the following which have been identified by IBS Steering Committee (Hussein, 2007): Development of standard plans and standard component drawings for common use, Apprentice and on-the-job training in the area of IBS moulds, casts and assembly of components, IBS testing and evaluation programme, Vendor development programme, Readiness of designers and consultant practices, quality control, production of standard components in the field of IBS. In a meeting of Malaysian IBS Steering Committee held in early 2006 the following concerns were raised (IBS Steering Committee, 2006): Poor implementation of IBS projects by government agencies, High cost of IBS components, Low standardization of components and design solutions,

22 Poor IBS Knowledge Management & Human Capital Development workers, contractors, designers, clients, etc., No centralized IBS R&D Centre, No specialized resource centre for IBS, No dedicated assessment and certification system for IBS products, manufacturers & installers, Initiatives by too many parties as coordinator. The two main reasons for the low adoption of IBS in Malaysia as stated in Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP ) are as follows (CIDB, 2007a): Lack of integration in design stage: IBS manufacturers are currently involve only after design stage. This lack of integration among relevant players in design stage has resultant in need for plan redesign and additional cost to be incurred if IBS is adopted. Poor Knowledge: Client and approving authorities have poor knowledge of IBS compared to architects and engineers. Familiarity with IBS concept and its benefits is vital to its success because IBS requires different approach in construction. According to IBS Roadmap Mid-Term Review, there are three barriers in implementing IBS in Malaysia (CIDB, 2007b): Lack of support and understanding from construction professionals due to lack of professionals trained in IBS perhaps due uncoordinated and incomprehensible training awareness and syllabus. Misunderstanding and misinterpreting regulation and red-taping in getting approval from authorities. Perceive customer perception in terms lack of flexibility, leaky accommodation, unfamiliar materials etc. The barriers of IBS implementation in Malaysia can be summarized and categorized in several themes, standardization and quality issues, issues in consumer perception, issues in professional perception, process and supply chain, technology, training and education, finance and costing, incentive and communication issues. THE WAY FORWARD Realizing the implementation of IBS is still to make headway, CIDB through its research arm, Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) has taken the initiative from the problem identified earlier and continued to conduct three series of workshops session with the industry between 2006 and After a lengthy deliberation with the stakeholders, it was concluded that the factors contributing to the delays of IBS implementation and other issues related to IBS are as follows (CREAM, 2007): IBS is not popular among design consultants, Lack of knowledge among designers, The need for mindset change through promotion and education, The stakeholders face a chicken and egg dilemma, Lack of support and slow adoption from private sector, Proprietary systems make it hard to be adopted by designers, Poor quality products available in Malaysia, Joints are not standardised making it hard to design as the design will have to be fixed to a particular manufacturer, Lack of push factor for authorities and responsible government bodies by laws and regulations, The professionals in Malaysia is lack of technical knowledge about IBS components, Volume and economy of production in scale IBS components, Monopoly of big boys, limiting opportunities to other contractors, Low offsite manufacturing of construction components available in the market, Require onsite specialized skills for assembly and erection of components, Lack of special equipments and machinery which hampered work. Need more local R&D, support services, technologies and testing of IBS components, Mismatch between readiness of industries with IBS targets by the government, Lack of involvement from Bumiputera contractors as an erectors or manufactures, To consider IBS design for energy conservation and earthquake design, Insufficient capacity building for contractors to secure project in construction (G1-G7), Sustainability of construction industry, government to lead during downturn.

23 The inadequacy of corroborative scientific research undertaken to substantiate the benefit of IBS system as mentioned in Kadir (2005) and Thanoon et al. (2003) require a new approach to be taken on board. As highlighted in the Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP) the role and functionality of R&D in Strategic Thrust 5: Innovate through R&D to adopt new construction method, it is pertinent to R&D to path (or lead) the way of promoting better adoption of IBS in Malaysia. The establishment of Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) initiated by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia should be seen as very significant development in the structure of R&D, which was previously at very formative stages rather organizationally ad-hoc and often confusing. CREAM can be assigned a task of managing the IBS research (CIDB, 2007a). The R&D themes and topics for IBS identified through series of workshops organized by CREAM are aligned to the requirement of IBS Roadmap (CIDB, 2003a). The initiatives in IBS though lead by CIDB, participative from contractors, consultants, universities, companies and research institutes are critical. The obligation to implement IBS serves concurrent both to improve performance and quality in construction, also to minimize the dependency of unskilled foreign labours flooding the construction market. It is a daunting task as 2010 is just around the corner. The process and mechanism to achieve the target depend on the integration and acceptance of the players towards IBS. Three years ahead will be a challenging one. A strategic approach will be the way forward. As the R&D arm for CIDB, CREAM s R&D output will geared towards industry s application and requirements. CREAM shall take the following actions as a pre requisite to expedite the success of the roadmap implementation with respect to R&D in IBS (Hamid et al., 2007): A long term and strategic approach of conducting research on IBS shall be established. Involvement of universities, companies, organizations and research institutes right from the onset of any IBS R&D projects. Participation and inclusion of IBS in JKR building design, i.e. JKR IBS Design must be incorporated in its Rekabentuk Bangunan Piawai for government quarters, schools and government administrative offices. (CREAM will discuss this matter further with JKR on any issues related to R&D). Malaysian standard joints for IBS (wet or dry) must be designed and made available for use by the industry. CREAM initiatives to lead Centre of Research Excellence (CORE) on IBS and act as One Stop Centre for R&D are critical as this moves will consolidate the effort to centralize and able to identify issues and problems first hand from the industry. The formation of R&D laboratory and acts as CORE for IBS is urgent and CREAM should initiate and take the lead. CREAM is to apply for a double deduction status foundation to expedite participation from private entities as they will also in return be benefited in getting tax rebates when contributing research fund to the industry. Open Building System (OBS) must be competitive in terms of cost, performance and quality as compared to proprietary system and conventional methods in order to be sustainable in the construction market. Not reinventing the wheel on R&D but to focus on IBS applied research. Soft issues related to IBS such as marketing, social impact, involvement of Bumiputera contractors in vendor development programme as highlighted in the roadmap should be taken on board right at the early stage. A complete comprehensive study on IBS solutions encompassing the entire value chain will ensure its success. These shall include verification, validation and certification of process on IBS components, fabricator, factory, erector and related skills of specialization. A technology transfer model via knowledge management and benchmarking analogy to adapt European Union (EU), Japan and Singapore best practices in implementing IBS will add value and expedite the implementation process. A comprehensive study on Business Process Re-engineering, Change Management and Total Quality Management (TQM) that can be agent of chance to transform Malaysian construction industry. A combination of integrated approach and long term strategic partnering among stakeholders tackling specific agenda on IBS 5M strategies are the way forward. A well coordinated planned R&D themes and titles discussed in previous section have to be implemented simultaneously with all players mentioned earlier in synergic and strategic way.

24 REFERENCES Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) (2007a) Construction Industry Master Plan(CIMP ). Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB). Kuala Lumpur. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia (2007b) IBS Roadmap Mid Term Report (Final report), 2007, IBS Centre (unpublished), Malaysia Kuala Lumpur. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia (2007c). Malaysian Construction Outlook Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB). Kuala Lumpur. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia (2003a) IBS Roadmap , Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia (2003b) IBS Survey, Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur. Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) (2007) Workshop Report, Workshop on Aligning R&D Themes and Titles to the Requirement of Construction Industry, 21 st -22 nd April Avillion Village Resort, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan. (draft report) Chung, L. P.& Kadir, A. M. (2007) Implementation Strategy for Industrialised Building Systems. PhD thesis, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru. Din, H. (1984) Industrialised Building and Its Application in Malaysia, Proceeding on Seminar on Prefabrication Building Construction, Kuala Lumpur. Esa, H. and Nurudin, M.M. (1998) Policy on IBSs. Colloqium on Industrialised Construction Systems, Kuala Lumpur. Gue, S. S. (2007) Bridging the Gap Between R&D and Construction Industry. Keynote address at Construction Industry Research Achievement International Conference. Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC).Kuala Lumpur. Hamid, Z., Kamar, K. A. M, Mohd. Khairolden, G., Maria Zura, M. Z., & Ahmad Hazim, A. R. (2007) Strategic Planning for R&D on Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM), Kuala Lumpur. (draft report). Hussein, J. (2007) Industrialised Building Systems: The Challenge and The Way Forward. Keynote Address at Construction Industry Research Achievement International Conference. Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC). Kuala Lumpur. IBS Steering Committee (2006) Minute meeting of IBS Steering Committee. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur (unpublished), Junid, S.M.S. (1986) IBSs. Proceedings of UNESCO/ FEISEAP Regional Workshop, Universiti Putra Malysia (UPM), Serdang. Selangor. Lessing, J., Ekholm, A., and Stehn, L. (2005) Industrialised Housing-Definition and Categorisation of the Concept. 13 th International Group for Lean Construction. Sydney, Australia. Ministry of Finance (MOF) (2005) Economic Report Malaysia (2004). Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. (Unpublished) Parid, W. (1997) Global Trends in Research, Development and Construction. Proceeding of the International Conference on IBS (IBS 2003). Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur. Rahman, A.B.A, Omar, W. (2006) Issues and Challenges in the Implementation of Industrialised Building Systems in Malaysia. Proceeding of the 6 th Asia-Pasific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (ASPEC 2006). 5-6 September Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thanoon, W.A.M., Peng, L.W., Abdul Kadir, M.R., Jaafar, M.S. and Salit, M.S. (2003) The Experiences of Malaysia and Other Countries in Industrialised Building Systems in Malaysia. Proceeding on IBS Seminar. UPM, Malaysia Trikha, D.N. (1999) Industrialised Building Systems: Prospect in Malaysia. Proceeding of World Engineering Congress, Kuala Lumpur. Warszawski, A. (1999) Industrialised and Automated Building System, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, E & FN Spon.

25 3 EXPERIENCES AND LESSON LEARNT ON IBS CONSTRUCTION IN MALAYSIA Mohd Sufian Hashim 1 and Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar 2 PKNS Engineering and Construction Berhad, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 1 Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia 2 sufian@pecb.com.my INTRODUCTION 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. IBS is defined as a construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site work (Hamid et al., 2008; CIDB, 2007; CIDB, 2005 and CIDB, 2003). It consists of precast component systems, fabricated steel structures, innovative mould systems, modular block systems and prefabricated timber structures as construction components (CIDB, 2003). Parts of the building that are repetitive but difficult and too time consuming and labour intensive to be casted onsite are designed and detailed as standardised components at the factory and are then brought to the site to be assembled (CIDB, 2003). The onsite casting activities in IBS utilise innovative and clean mould technologies (CIDB, 2007; CIDB, 2005 and CIDB, 2003). In the Malaysian context, the classification by the CIDB is widely used and well understood by scholars and practitioners. CIDB has classified the IBS systems into five categories as depicted in Table 1 (CIDB, 2003). 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. Apart from this, it offers minimal wastage, fewer site materials, a cleaner and neater environment, controlled quality, and lower total construction costs (Pan et al., 2008, Hamid et al., 2008 and Pan et al., 2007). Already utilized in Malaysia since 1960s, IBS is the way forward for the industry stakeholders to make leaps and bounds progress in the Malaysian construction industry. Sufficient exposure and incentives are pouring in to encourage industry players to make a paradigm move from conventional to IBS construction. Classification Precast concrete framed buildings Formwork System Steel Framing System Prefabricated Timber Framing System Blockwork System Table 1. IBS Classification (CIDB, 2003) Descriptions The most common group of IBS products is the precast concrete elements; precast concrete columns, beams, slabs, walls, 3-D components (e.g. balconies, staircases, toilets, lift chambers, refuse chambers), lightweight precast concrete, as well as permanent concrete formworks. Considered as one of the low-level or the least prefabricated IBS, as the system generally involves site casting and is therefore subject to structural quality control, the products offer high-quality finishes, and fast construction with less site labour and material requirement. Commonly used with precast concrete slabs, steel columns and beams, steel framing systems have always been the popular choice and used extensively in the fast-track construction of skyscrapers. Recent developments in this type of IBS include the increased usage of light steel trusses consisting of cost-effective profiled cold-formed channels and steel portal frame systems as alternatives to the heavier traditional hot-rolled sections. The system consists of timber building frames and timber roof trusses. While the latter are more popular, timber building frame systems also have their own niche market, offering interesting designs from simple dwelling units to buildings requiring high aesthetical values such as chalets for resorts. The construction method of using conventional bricks has been revolutionised by the development and usage of interlocking concrete masonry units (CMU) and lightweight concrete blocks. The tedious and time-consuming traditional bricklaying tasks are greatly simplified by the usage of these effective alternative solutions.

26 EXPERIENCES AND LESSON LEARNT ON IBS CONSTRUCTION IN MALAYSIA 1. There is a change in paradigm regarding IBS in Malaysia in the past few years. In the past, the majority of contractors and industry stakeholders still divided either to use IBS or conventional method although the benefits of IBS are clear and eminent. But this is not the case now, the industry, nowadays has to think of a system to be implemented in their project (weather it conventional or IBS) due to the increase need of quality end-product and speed of construction, and coping with the issue of foreign workers. In the case of public building projects, the industry is instructed to use IBS system. So, the industry both in the private and public construction projects has no other choice but to be involved in IBS and adopt industrialisation in construction. (In November 2008, the Treasury Malaysia issued a Treasury Circular Letter, now referred to as SPP 7/2008, to all Malaysian government agencies directing them to increase the IBS contents of their building development projects to a level not less than 70 points of the IBS score and IBS must be incorporated as part of the contract document for tender. The decision was to create sufficient momentum for the demand for IBS components and to create a spill-out effect throughout the nation). Due to this policy, the cost of constructing in IBS has reduced significantly. The adoption in the past was normally based on wanting rather than by viability. IBS system in Malaysia is now, mostly competitive if not cheaper if one compare it to the conventional practices depending on type of projects, type of systems and volume. 2. The IBS in Malaysia promotes open system or hybrid system and encourages full industry participation compared to the prefab closed system where only limited industry companies can participate. IBS supply chain should comprises of modular component-based products that can be produce and interchangeable between any project thus promote mass customisation at the customers end. Therefore, a company that can utilize the IBS supply chain will enable it to sell systems rather than selling single products. Standardising the construction industry is a critical factor in establishing an Open System in Malaysia. The concept of the OBS is similar to what has happened in the ICT industry whereby through standardization of jointing parts such as USB ports, consumers can buy computer equipment such as mouse or scanner anywhere in the world. The equipment can then be easily installed by the users as the connection from the equipment to the computer has been internationally standardized. 3. One of the important milestones in IBS Roadmap was the introduction of Modular Coordination (MC). MC is a concept of coordination of dimensions and space where buildings and components are dimensioned and positioned in a basic unit or module known as 1M which is equivalent to 100 mm, as stipulated in MS 1064, and developed in The concept allows standardisation in design and building components. It encourages participation from manufactures and assemblers to enter the market, thus reducing the price of IBS components. Modular need to be adopted to cut down the waste in IBS. However the implementation of modular coordination requires better design planning. 4. Malaysian construction industry is very good in modifying and adopting IBS technologies captured from oversea practices. Many private companies in Malaysia in present day have teamed up with foreign expert to offer solutions to their IBS projects. Many had acquired enough knowledge through technology transfer to build up own capacity in IBS technologies. Many world-class Malaysian developers have chosen IBS over the conventional methods for important projects such as the Petronas Twin Towers, Putrajaya, KL Sentral and KLIA. There is ample evidence that the failures of past construction systems are due to blind acceptance of foreign products that were not open (flexible) and were unsuitable to our climate and culture. 5. Successful IBS contractors as observed are not a user of technology or limit its role as project manager and assembler. Most successful IBS contractors have an in-house manufacturing and design capacity. They also invest in and sometimes invent systems, and so do not just depend on existing manufacturers. The also partner with oversea partners to acquire the technologies. 6. One of the major issues of IBS is on changing users perception. Users tend to think that IBS buildings is easy to leak and can not be renovated. However, through the advancement of technologies and better planning and design, IBS buildings/housings in the present days have improved in term of performance and can be renovated by users.

27 7. Some of the foreign systems that were introduced during the late 60s and 70s were also found not to be suitable with Malaysia climate and social practices. Newer and better technologies were constantly being introduced than in the market since wet joint systems were identified to be more suitable to be used in our tropical climate and it was also better to utilised the bathroom types which were relatively wetter than those in the Europe. 8. IBS in Malaysia is seen as a threat to traditional methods but in reality many IBS technologies like block works is exist together with conventional practices. The failure of IBS to penetrate the market is due to a misconception that it will eventually replace the traditional sector, while it actually should work closely in tandem to promote best practice in construction. The sharing of best practice between the two approaches is essential for the continued successful development of both construction sectors. IBS should be looked by the industry as easy, simple and cost effective solutions to the players. 9. Each IBS system has its own advantages and limitations. The selection and implementation of correct technology in IBS projects is perhaps the key to IBS success. There is a need to realise that precast concrete IBS is not suitable for every project. If more people were aware of its capabilities and available technology, they could identify particular system that suited the project. The advantages of IBS systems in Malaysia are as follows: a) Pre-cast System Precast a panel and building system provides easy standardisation, speedier construction, costeffectiveness, high quality finish and enhanced facade design. Pre-cast system is more economical for high-rise apartment projects. IBS can be beneficial to that sort of building due to the repetitive nature of the design. No actual parameter to determine the exact period of investment recovery as this much depends on number of projects and targeting period of recovery. Some estimation goes that, to break even in setting up a prefabrication factory, the company requires 2,000 units of housing apartments to be built in a year. In many cases, the capital investment could be recovered in construction period. Precast concrete construction which involves the use of precast elements, has contributed significantly towards the development of the nation; especially in infrastructure and social development projects. The Pekeliling or Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats; constructed in 1960s and the Putra-Star LRT and KL Monorail projects which began developments in 1990s are some of the comparative venture period of Malaysia s construction industry. Precast components come in a variety of shapes for different types of usage, both architectural and structural. It includes the traditional precast beams, columns, slabs, walls, staircases, parapets and drains; as well as other relatively new precast components for toilets, pilecaps, facades, lift shafts and refuse chambers. Also common are the precast concrete permanent formworks that consist of precast panels that act as forms for in-situ concrete. It includes the Half Slabs and the Sandwiched/Double Walls. As the production of lightweight concrete are getting cheaper, more precast components are also produced in the form of lightweight concrete panels and blocks that greatly ease transportation and installation. Beside the use of precast concrete panel such as half slabs, hollow cores and plank as composite slabs, steel decking has been accepted as an alternative in Malaysian construction. Steel decking offers a variety of savings such as construction period, reduction in floor depth, weight and cost. The success story of PKNS Engineering and Construction Berhad (PECB) in operating state of the art technology on IBS shown that the construction industry in Malaysia is able to adopt advanced, mechanised and automated IBS technologies. From 1981 until 1991, PECB built and operated a very modern prefabrication yard at Shah Alam using Praton Haus s belt conveyor and semiautomatic precast production. The overall investment was worth in the region of RM 12.0 million which was considered a relatively huge upfront investment at that time. The high investment in the technology also requires high skills workforce with high productivity. In pre-cast system, proper coordination in installation between panels and services are important. To address this issue, the company has established a simple and systematic labeling of components. Systematic numbering and standardised information is created to avoid double handling. Further, this IBS system can be only benefit if decision to use it can be decided as early as possible not as afterthought during the project. This practice will allow manufactures, contractors and Mechanical

28 and Electrical (M&E) specialists to get involve and share their knowledge early during design stage. The collaborative design team can be established by improving procurement and contract, establishing a clear statement of needs from clients or integrating the team starting from project briefing all by client s initiative. b) Formwork System Formwork system is cleaner, safer and requires less labour than conventional methods, yet it is flexible enough to cater for immediate changes of requirement and can be reused in many projects. Some formwork system is economical and efficient type of high-rise building construction. The initial investment cost for formworks and moulds are much less than a precast system, having taken into consideration aspects required to complete the shell structure of the buildings. Another superb cost saving system, the tunnel form system is a formwork system which builders may use to cast walls and slabs in one operation efficiently. Tunnel form system simplifies the whole construction process by enabling a smooth and fast operation that can result in cost effectiveness, productivity and high quality finished. Tunnel form projects have proven that impressive results can be achieved in terms of productivity, efficiency, economy and quality. It can usually be reused for 500 to 1,000 times, and is an effective way to construct buildings that have repetitive elements or layouts. The system is now one of the most preferred methods of cellular construction by the contractors in Malaysia whilst clients appreciate Tunnel form s ability to deliver projects to budget and on time. c) Steel Framing System Previously, the application of steel framing system is only to commercial and industrial building. The application for housing is only limited to roof trusses. Just recently, the application of steel roof trusses, showed their capability in building industry whereby the cost become competitive as compared to timber roof trusses. Besides high-rise buildings, the usage of steel elements is also popular with the construction of universities, colleges, schools, hospitals and commercial complexes. Undoubtedly, structural steel offers greater freedom and flexibility to the designers, rapid construction for the contractors and faster returns on investment (ROI) to the owners. d) Prefabricated Timber Framing System Before the arrival of foreign and modern influence, the indigenous Malay and orang asli tribes of peninsular Malaysia and their related Bumiputeras tribes in Sabah and Sarawak had already developed their traditional dwelling using timber structure. Timber structure system involved the design and construction of buildings and structures using prefabricated wood and wooden products especially in structural or load bearing elements. There are two types of prefabrication of timber which is ready-cut plus shop fabrication of joints (column and beam) and structural panels where there are only walls and floors without column and beam. Although cost and availability of timber product is often seen as the barriers of the use of timber in construction. Timber building frame systems have their own niche market, offering interesting designs from simple dwelling units to buildings requiring high aesthetical values such as chalets for resorts. e) Block Work System IBS system in Malaysia does not limit to high advanced technologies and mass-production concept. The block work system is one of the simplest, flexible and most versatile systems that can be used by many in the industry. The block work is also some sort of low cost IBS with low capital investment, where many contractors can be involved in it. IBS block work is the easiest way of adopting IBS and blockwork system can easily penetrating construction market. However, there is a need for skilled designers to design blockwork than can capitilise the benefit of IBS. The block work system depends on modular dimension at design stage, is also comparable to LEGO system. Moreover, some engineered block work applies load bearing wall by incorporating the columns and beams as integral part of the wall for all types of houses (up to 5- storey in high). The amount that can be saved on a wall can range from 10% to 30% as compared to conventional with

29 additional less foundation cost. To encourage overall involvement from many in the industry, the IBS score for blockwork use in project should be increased. The non-load bearing wall using blockwork system is suitable for fencing and partition. Standard sizing, therefore making construction site neat, organised and clean. The block system particularly engineered block is flexible and can suit and complement other IBS technologies. The block system is also easily be manufactured and easily be assembled by the adopters. Nonetheless, the block systems must be in some form of standardisation in term measurement (modular) and also incorporate industrialisation and automation in factory environment. In early 1970 s, single storey low cost terrace houses were mostly built out of plain wooded frame and plank sitting on 3 ft high plastered brickwork and taking the advantage of simple raft foundation due to lightweight super structure. This type of construction today has been classified as one of IBS system. However, now, the application of this system seems unrealistic due to cost issue, but as the technology advance and it is easier to be implemented by the industry players, the system should be promoted as IBS solutions low cost project, where the cost will be reduced when foundation cost is less substantial. f) Innovative On-site System Some companies also established a temporary production plant onsite. The set-up of the temporary production plant was highly successful, producing components to a very high standard, at a rate exceeding demand, and to a lower cost than anticipated. The case clearly demonstrated that IBS options were not restricted to fixed, long-term facilities, but rather were more about understanding the concepts of production and manufacture. BARRIERS TO IBS ADOPTION IN MALAYSIA Currently, the incentives for IBS are not sufficient. IBS adoption requires more pull and push factors from the government. Due to the small profit margin, the change from conventional to IBS was not feasible, unless, more attractive incentive systems and benefits which can lure the conventionalist to IBS are in place. The availability of cheap foreign labour which offsets the cost benefit of using IBS is a root cause of the slow adoption in the past. As long as it is easy for the industry to find foreign workers, labour rates will remain low and builders will find it unattractive to change into simplified solutions such as IBS. The limited take up also relates to 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. To use a higher level of IBS, the adopters require a huge volume of works to break even on the investment. Although it creates more value to construction, it is literally a more expensive option due to the paid up capitals and maintenance of machineries. Inconsistency of volume over time and lack of business continuity resulted in the investment in latest innovation not being commercially sustainable. Low standardisation of components also hinders successful use of IBS. The tailor-made components which do not fit into another project will increase initial costs due to the cost of the mould and design. Lack of standardisation was due to a lack of a certification and accreditation scheme on IBS and the lukewarm response to Modular Coordination (MC) promotion under MS There is a 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 in IBS. Supply Chain Management (SCM) and partnering concept has not been fully understood by the industry. Currently, the cooperation between contractors, manufacturers and suppliers is weak in many

30 cases. Improving the procurement system and supply chain is the key to achieving IBS success for contracting companies. THE WAY FORWARD The lesson learnt on IBS construction in Malaysia has led to the following recommendations towards the future improvement of IBS adoption in Malaysia: The rising sustainability awareness around the globe has put the construction industry under immense pressure to improve project efficiency and deliverables. IBS has the potential to promote sustainability development and green construction. This may be achieved from a controlled production environment, minimization of construction waste, extensive usage of energy efficient building material, a safer and more stable work environment, and possibly better investment for long term project economy. The industry need to seize this opportunity and use IBS as their competitive advantages in promoting sustainable construction. The mass construction workforce, especially the locals, needs to upgrade their skills to be involved in IBS. The policy on labour focuses on encouraging personnel to acquire skills in more than single trade. This would add more value by providing a more skilled workforce which would ultimately enhance the competitive advantage of the industry in facing the issue of adoption from conventional to the IBS. They must be equipped in design, installation and project management skills which are critical to IBS. A comprehensive preliminary study should be conducted by the government to identify the skill gaps in the IBS sector in order to create a comprehensive and systematic training programme. The preliminary study will ensure that the training fits the needs of IBS organisations and accommodates current skill shortages in the market, particularly specialist skills such as design and installation, based on information from real practice. A vendor development programme modeled along the lines of the development of the national car industry should be established to target delivery of building components for the construction. The vendor program is to be accredited by existing government agencies which can provide a vetting process not only to guarantee consistent quality but also the achievement of structural capacity, fire rating and other requirements. The selected vendor are to be provided training, seed capital, components design, and selected private sector consultant to start up production factories. The location of this vendor s manufacturing plant has to be located in the areas with available labour. Based on educated assumption, the expected investment requirement of RM 1.25 million is considered within the reach of SMEs and small contractors displaced by the new technology. A system is to be developed such that building component accredited will be given green lane approval such that technical and non-technical legislation that hinders implementation of the new technology will be removed. The government can help by conducting market research to ascertain market opportunities to the vendors. The vendors also need inventory management consultancy and advice and development of better tools and infrastructures required for location of manufacturing plant. Manufacturers and all players of IBS sectors need to create highest value for IBS to serve the clients best interest, as we know clients in a private sector are more demanding in term of design esthetic value. With this regards, we need to move from mass production of components to mass customisation of buildings where the building design can be tailor-made to specific customer needs. The industry shall need to encourage automation and robotic to be really reduce the use of workers in construction and prefabrication. The government also perhaps needs to encourage manufacturers to produce modular housing which move all the work trade at site to the manufacturing floor. We need to move up the level of industrialisation and encourage innovation, whilst low innovative systems which do contained enough value like mould systems will be discouraged. Proper incentive and tax holiday need to introduce to cater the production of innovative IBS. Malaysian IBS contractors need to benchmark IBS technologies, lesson learnt and best practices from other countries. Construction industrialisation is a worldwide agenda. IBS is already successful adopted in Finland, Sweden, Japan, Germany and Singapore where offsite technologies had eventually modernised and improved the industry. This research recommended the industry players to find ways to capture and disseminate technologies, lesson learned, and best practices from successful countries and companies to expedite our learning curve on IBS and to guide the way forward. The government should launch a forum

31 on a regular basis of academics and associated practitioners active in IBS for exchange of information and experience, development of new techniques and advice on promotion and implementation of IBS. An online portal was also suggested to disseminate international trends, products and processes associated with the IBS. REFERENCES CIDB (2010) CIDB News, first quarters 2010, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Publication CIDB (2009) Malaysian construction industry outlook, presentation by Business Development Sector of CIDB, August 2009 CIDB (2008) Malaysian construction industry outlook, presentation by Business Development Sector of CIDB, August 2008 CIDB (2008) IBS Implementation in Malaysia, Constriction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2007) IBS Digest at Malbex in IBS Digest, Special Issues on 24th Malaysian International Building Exposition (Malbex 2007) September 2007 CIDB (2007) Report of quality assessment for project in Cambodia and Thailand constructed by Malaysian contractor 2007, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2007) Implementing IBS Roadmap: Mid-term review of IBS Roadmap , Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2005) IBS Survey 2005: Survey on Malaysian Architects. Kuala Lumpur, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) CIDB (2003) IBS (IBS) Roadmap Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2003) IBS Survey A Survey on the Usage of IBS in Malaysian Construction Industry, Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2003) IBS Roadmap , Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur Hamid, Z., Kamar, K. A.M. Zain, M., Ghani, K., and Rahim, A. H. A. (2008) Industrialised Building System (IBS) in Malaysia: The Current State and RandD Initiatives, Malaysia Construction Research Journal (MCRJ), Vol. 2 (1), pp 1-13 Hassim, S., Jaafar, M. S. and Sazali, S. A. A. H. (2009) The Contractor Perception Towards Industrialised Building System Risk in Construction Projects in Malaysia American Journal of Applied Sciences, 6 (5), pp Pan, W., Gibb,, F., A. G. and Dainty, A. R. J. (2008) Leading UK Housebuilders' Utilization of Offsite Construction Methods, Building Research and Information, 36 (1), Pan, W., Gibb, A. G. F. and Dainty, A. R. J. (2007) Perspectives of UK housebuilders on the use of offsite modern methods of construction, Construction Management and Economics, 25 (2), Rahman, A. B. A, Omar, W. (2006) Issues and Challenge in the Implementation of IBS in Malaysia, Proceeding of the 6th Asia Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (ASPEC 2006), 5-6 September Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sarja, A. (1998), Open and Industrialised Building, International Council for Building Research, E and FN Spoon, London Shaari, S. N. and Ismail, E. (2003) Promoting the Usage of Industrialised Building System (IBS) and Modular Coordination (MC) in Malaysia Construction Industry in Engineers (Board of Engineer Malaysia) March 2003 Sumadi, S. R. (2001) Promotion strategy and future research and development on IBS, National Seminar on IBS, Construction Industry development Board (CIDB) Kuala Lumpur Thanoon, W. A., Peng, L. W., Kadir, M. R. A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S. (2003) The Essential Characteristics of Industrialised Building System in International Conference on Industrialised Building Systems Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 2003 Trikha, D. N. and Ali A. A. A. (2004) Industrialised Building System (Fist ed.), Kuala Lumpur, Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

32 4 OFF-SITE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: THE COMMON PATTERN Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman 1, Taksiah A. Majid 1, Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad 1, Mohd Hanizun Hanafi 2 School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia 1 School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia 2 syurga7181@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION The latest development in technology and global standardization has changed the past practice of the construction industry. This has affected land resources, social environment and local skills to cater the demand from the public and private sector. In the early stage of development of the construction industry, construction technology was imported from overseas in order to accelerate the pace of development and to ensure the increase in productivity of the construction sector. In order to fabricate mass production and high-quality products, factors such as the environment, level of workers skills, knowledge competence and resources need to be taken into account. It is vital to ensure that the technology can adapt to the local condition and the needs of the construction industry. In the United State (US), off-site manufacturing in the construction industry is described as Off-site Construction Techniques (OSCT). However in the United Kingdom (UK), the Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is the term used by the government to describe a number of innovations in house building, most of which are off-site technologies. The term Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) is the term used both in Australia and the UK construction industry. In Malaysia, the definition used for off-site manufacturing in the construction industry is known as IBS. The US and Japan have the biggest construction industry in the world and are well prepared with their global strategies (Abdul-Aziz, 1994). The three factors that determine the ability of construction industries to enter the international market are technological advantages that are associated with possessing formidable construction technologies; sophisticated management systems for scheduling, material tracking, organized sub-contractors; and financing capability that enables a company to arrange for project financing schedules from international financiers. Technology is an important tool to push the construction industry to achieve the international level. This will help construction companies to achieve long-term profitability and acquire a balance growth in the future. The four countries involved in the studies are US, UK, Australia and Malaysia. The off-site manufacturing in the US was started by Henry Ford (Gann, 1996). It was a big evolution that became a phenomena and spread to the rest of the world. There is still a need to be more creative and innovative in ideas to assist in improving the usage of appropriate off-site technology suitable to the local condition. As in the olden days, construction materials performance characteristics is made to adapt to the climatic condition, natural resources and available collective local skills (Ngowi et al., 2004). The paper is focus to the pattern of off-site construction industry in US, UK, Australia and Malaysia. THE SIMILARITY OF PATTERN IN OFF-SITE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY The idea of improving the performance of the construction industry by learning from other industries is not new. Henry Ford developed the standard production line for car manufacturing which has open a new era of ideas for of producing houses in factories. The biggest impact of manufacturing system occurred in Japan 1950 after Toyota s President, Eji Toyoda, spent three months at Ford s Rouge plant in the USA (Gann, 1996). This has resulted in Toyota developing a new approach of lean production, use of plant, management resources, quality control and relationship between producers and consumers (Womack, 1990; Gann, 1996). The great influence of the highly successful manufacturing system in Japan has resulted in researchers from US and UK coming to Japan to learn from the Japanese experience (Webster, 1993; Gann, 1996; Taylor et al., 2003). Affordable housing also are becoming a vital issue to meet the demand with an increasing population growth and Sebestyen (1998) claimed that one to-thirds of the building is for residential and one-fifth to one-third of gross fixed investments was made on residential construction, which is the largest sub-sector. The lack of housing for the low income group has led to the existence of squatter settlements in major cities in the country. Thus in the European country, there are 3 million homeless and 18 million have inadequate housing due to a lack of adequate affordable housing (Edgar et al., 2002). According to Barlow (1999) there is a need to explore the

33 new methods, techniques and ways of working to deliver affordable house. As reported Doherty et al. (2008), the homeless phenomena generate the transition of planned city to the post industrial city, will affect the behavior of social relations, political practices and cultural traditions in different locales and institutional settings. The government has encouraged the construction industry to move towards off-site construction technology which can produce high volume of houses at affordable cost especially low-cost houses. Industrialization of high rise residential building components is critical to competitiveness and become a new trend of demand for affordable houses in order to solve the housing problem especially in a big city with limited space for new development area. Almost all the major cities in Asian countries, residential buildings are characterized with high rise and high density (Niu, 2004). Thus the construction players have responded to this crisis by adopting prefabrication and by building a more uniform product (IBS, 2005). United State (US) has the highest spending capital on construction with seventy-four percent of the total spent capital in world construction (CMAA, 2010). Yet, they still face problems at the off-site construction industry as reported in CMAA (2006) where more than 40% of the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) experienced construction schedule overruns due to the shortage of skilled craft workers and resulted in escalation of project costs. The great challenge faced by the construction industry in UK is to integrate the traditional technology with the appropriate off-site technology. In UK, the strong traditional technology that comprises of brick/concrete block cavity wall methods, timber/precast floors and timber truss roofs (Pan et al., 2007). Thus, the house buyers are strongly influenced by the negative perceptions of the MMC innovation in houses construction that it will spoil the authentic traditional house image (Edge et al., 2002). This has effect the construction industry and the innovation building technologies where the industry players faces difficulty in implementing new concepts to the building system (Pan et al., 2007; Barlow, 1999; Roskrow, 2004). Notwithstanding, the MMC is also known as OSM (Taylor et al., 2004). UK and Australia have the similarity in applying the OSM in their countries. Goodier and Gibb (2004) have difficulty in accessing the historic value of OSM in Australia. Thus a vague boundary exists between the traditional and OSM approaches, as well as data report on the performance of the construction and manufacturing industries. In Malaysia, the IBS was initiated in 1964 by the Housing and Local Government after making reference to the success of several European countries (Thanoon et al., 2003). The players in the industry preferred to use the conventional method until the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) educated the industry on the essential usage of IBS components and conducted awareness programs on usage of IBS since As part of the government policy in encouraging the use of IBS, the government have mandated that 70% of IBS components should be use in government projects with the value of RM10 million (Treasury, 2008). The use of IBS system is vital as a means to reduce the number of foreign workers which in turn will reduce outflow of Malaysian currency. This has created phenomena where construction industries has changed and move to IBS as shown in Table (1). The trend in the construction industry to move to the manufacturing system is not only occurring in Malaysia but worldwide. As an example automotive, computers, books and electronic items have their own modular standard when produced by the respective manufacturer. Therefore, the construction industry should also adopt the modular standard when manufacturing the IBS components. Table 1. The Trend of Construction Industry in Malaysia Phase of Construction Traditional Modern Method Construction IBS Manufacturing Scope Project based Product based Project Specification Short term Long term Profit Earn Profit from customized solutions Possibility of project Project Duration being delayed (Lim and Mohamed 2000, Alaghbari et al., 2007) Applied Technology Manually and semi mechanization Profit in volumes of similar products (Gann, 1996) On time project completion / meeting timeline (Kadir et al., 2005) Higher mechanization due to process repeatability and high quality production Transportation Requirement Important Very important Erection Procedure Occasionally required Very important Crane Requirement Occasionally required Very important Environmental Awareness Type of Workers 3-D Syndrome (Dirty, Difficult and Dangerous) (IBS, 2003) Required a large number of unskilled worker Environmental friendly and recycled waste Using minimum skilled worker

34 With regards to the development of technology for the off-site construction industry and the various of offsite construction industry system, the government and the researchers have come out with a guideline categorizing the off-site system as show in Table 2. Table 2 also shows the pattern and the degree of technology changes. The US, UK and Australia have achieved the modular building standard but Malaysia is still in the initial stage to achieved it. The three countries have the similarity in off-site preassembly but UK and Australia have divided the off-site preassembly into non-volumetric and volumetric order. Thus, UK and Australia share the same similarity categorisation of off-site system where most of the Australian researchers referred to UK. Malaysia is still in the stage of hybridisation system. Table 2. Categorisation of Off-site System Countries Authors Categorisation of Off-site System US Lu (2009) UK Australia Goodier and Gibb (2004) Blismas and Wakefield (2008) Malaysia IBS Info (2010) -Offsite preassembly -Hybrid system -Panellized system -Modular building -Component manufacture and sub-assembly -Non-volumetric preassembly -Volumetric pre-assembly -Modular building -Non-volumetric preassembly -Volumetric pre-assembly -Modular building -Pre-cast concrete systems -Formworks systems -Steel framing systems -Prefabricated timber framing systems -Block work systems -Innovative product systems CONCLUSION The vital issue on the awareness of OSCT, MMC, OSM and IBS has a common related pattern that started seriously early 90 s. The off-site construction industry has gone through a few transitions from the pre-assembly of components to the modular building system. The establishment of OSCT, MMC, OSM and IBS in the construction industry will only be possible if the construction industry achieve global standard, in touch with the latest technology and there is growth in the economy. There should be a common effort to share and exchange the knowledge on off-site manufacturing among countries in order to ensure that the construction industry will be able to move to higher level of development. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) for the providing the data. REFERENCES Abdul-Aziz, A-R, Global strategies: a comparison between Japanese and American construction firms, Construction Management and Economics, 12(6): Alaghbari, W., A. Kadir, M.R., Salim, A. and Ernawati, The significant factors causing delay of building construction projects in Malaysia. Emerald, Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, 14: DOI: / Barlow, J., From craft production to mass customisation: innovation requirements for the UK housebuilding industry. Informaworld, Housing Studies, 14(1),

35 Blismas, N. and Wakefield, R., Drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in Australia. Construction Innovation, 9, DOI: / CMAA, FMI/CMAA Sixth annual survey of owner. URL CMAA, FMI/CMAA Tenth annual survey of owner. URL Doherty, J., Busch-Geertsema, V., Karpuskiene, V., Korhonen, J., O Sullivan, E., Sahlin, I., Petrillo, A. and Wygnanska, J., Homeless and exclusion: regulating public space in European cities. Surveillance and Society, 5(3), Edgar, B, Doherty, J, and Meert, H., Access to Housing: Homelessness and Vulnerability in Europe. Bristol: The Policy Press. Edge, M., Craig, A., Laing, R., Abbott, L., Hargreaves, A., Scott, J. and Scott, S., Overcoming Client and Market Resistance to Prefabrication and Standardisation in Housing Robert Gordon University,Aberdeen-Research report of DTI/EPSRC Link programme, Meeting Clients' Needs through Standardisation (MCNS 04/09). Gann, D., Construction as a manufacturing process similarities and differences between industrialised housing and car production in Japan. Construction Management and Economics, 14: DOI: / Goodier, C. and Gibb, A. Barriers and Opportunities for Offsite Production (OSP), Loughborough University, 2004, Loughborough. IBS, IBS Survey Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), pp 2. IBS, IBS Survey Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), pp 7-8. IBS Info, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Issue 1. Kadir, M.R.A., Lee, W.P., Jaafar, M.S., Sapuan, S.M., Ali, A.A.A., Construction performance comparison between conventional and Industrialised Building System in Malaysia. Emerald, Structural Survey 24: DOI: / Lim, C.S. and Mohamed, M.Z., An exploratory study into recurring construction problems. Int J Project Management, 18(3): Lu, N., The current use of offsite construction techniques in the United States construction industry. Building a sustainable future proceeding of the 2009 construction research congress. ASCE, Ngowi, A.B., Pienaar, E., Talukhaba, A. and Mbachu, J., The globalization of the construction industrya review. Building and Environment 40: DOI: /j.buildenv Niu, J., Some significant environmental issues in high rise residential building design in urban areas. Energy and Buildings, 36: DOI: /j.enbuild Pan, W., Alistair, G.F., Gibb, Andrew, R.J. and Dainty, Perspectives of UK housebuilders on the use of offsite modern methods of construction. Construction Management and Economics, 25: DOI: / Pan, W., Alistair, G.F., Gibb, Andrew, R.J. and Dainty, Leading UK housebuilders utilization of offsite construction methods. Buildings Research and Information, 36: DOI: / Roskrow, B., Design and deliver. Housebuilder pp Sebestyen, G., Construction-Craft to Industry, E and FN Spon, London. Taylor, P.L., Morrison, S., Ainger, C. and Ogden, R., Design and Modern Methods of Construction Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (CABE), London. Thanoon, W. A., Peng, L. W., Kadir, M. R. A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S., The Essential Characteristics of Industrialised Building System in International Conference on Industrialised Building System Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Treasury, Application IBS (IBS) in Government Project. Treasury circular letter no. 7 Year Webster, A.C., Japanese building design and construction technologies. ASCE, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 119: DOI: /(ASCE) (1993)119:4(358) Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T. and Roos, D.,1990. The Machine that Changed the World. Maxwell Macmillan International, New York.

36 5 IBS: A REVIEW OF EXPERIENCES IN UNITED KINGDOM AND MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Kamarul Anuar Mohamad Kamar 1, Mustafa Alshawi 2, Zuhairi Abd. Hamid 1, Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi 2, Ahmad Tarmidzi Haron 2, and Mohd Rofdzi Abdullah 2 Construction Industry Development Board, Malaysia 1 and University of Salford, United Kingdom 2 kamarul@cidb.com.my INTRODUCTION Camp (1989) defined benchmarking as a search of the best practices for superior performance. Benchmarking in the context of comparison between two countries is an instrument for increasing national performance through better policy design and implementation practices. Benchmarking provides an opportunity for learning and stimulates the application of new solutions and practices. The idea of benchmarking and comparison with other countries to guide IBS implementation in Malaysia has been highlighted in the literatures (Peng et al., 2003; Hussein, 2007; Hamid et al., 2008; Kamar et al., 2009). Thus, this paper discusses the experience of Malaysia and UK in the adoption of IBS construction. The paper discusses the terms, historical background, drivers and government s initiatives to promote IBS in both countries. IBS s perspective in UK and Malaysian construction industry will provide some ground for benchmarking and technology transfer exercise in the future. This paper is part of on-going PhD research in University of Salford to benchmark best practices in IBS. EXPERIENCES IN UNITED KINGDOM Definition Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is a term recently adopted by Housing Corporation and Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). MMC is defined as those technologies which provide an efficient process to provide more products for better quality in less time. It has also been defined in various ways such as prefabrication, offsite, Offsite Production (OSP) and Offsite Manufacturing (OSM) (BURA, 2005). Historical Background on MMC Implementation Serious attempts at a manufacturing approach for housing can be traced back a long way. In the UK, the brick has been a highly successful standardised component started in the 18 th century s Georgian architecture (The Housing Forum, 2002). Approximate a century later, over prefabricated housing units were built after the war (ibid). Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, the UK government s slum clearance programme reignited a requirement to build houses quickly and pre-cast concrete systems found favor for medium and high-rise applications. However, poor detailing and workmanship has let down many of these systems in the UK (ibid). In the 90s, notable UK government sponsored reports had been explicit in asserting a need for significant change within the UK construction industry. Sir Michael Latham s report had identified a necessity to overcome the industry s adversarial and fragmented nature through enhanced supply-chain partnering and collaboration (Latham, 1994). Sir John Egan s report had similarly highlighted concern about the industry s apparent under-achievement, low profitability and underinvestment in capital, research and training (Egan, 1998). Both reports emphasized the advantages of standardisation and preassembly and stressed the importance of re-engineering and modular industrialised systems in housing. In the impetus driven by Egan and Latham, Constructing Excellence and Housing Forum was established to promote the Modern Method of Construction (MMC) in UK. The government s own urban regeneration and social housing companies, the Housing Corporation and English Partnership has been using MMC to build public housing projects since The Drivers to MMC Adoption In the UK, the trend rate of real house price growth over the last 30 years has been 2.4 per cent, considerably higher than the European average of 1.1 per cent (Barker, 2004). The number of households is predicted to rise by 3 million by 2016, on average 230,000 per year and this has lead to acute need for affordable housing (Barker, 2004; The Housing

37 Forum, 2002; Pan et al. 2008). In the year 2002, however, the number of new houses completed that year was only in the region of 145,000, which is far from the predicted target (Barker, 2004). A weak supply of housing would contribute to macroeconomic instability and hinders labour market flexibility, constraining economic growth (ibid). Barker s Report had indicated the slight concern that the current housebuilders with traditional build method would be unable to cope with this demand (ibid). It was suggested then, the Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) to be used by the housebuilders in order to address the under supply and poor build quality of housing. In addition to that, several government-backed reports (including NAO, BURA, Egan and Latham) had suggested that Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) could be part of the solution for addressing the under supply of housing and wide concerns over the need to improve the overall performance in construction (Egan, 1998; Latham, 1994; Barker, 2004 and Vanebles et al., 2004). The National House Building Council (NHBC) estimated that about 10% of new homes in the UK are built using timber frames, and 5% using other MMC, equivalent to about 25,000 MMC homes in 2003 (POSTNOTE, 2003). However, recent figures published by Buildoffsite showed that the current level of usage of MMC in housebuilding is low. The use of offsite-mmc was found to be around 2.1% of all construction or 3.6% of all new build (Pan et al., 2005). The Government Initiatives to Promote MMC The following are the key events of Modern Method of Construction (MMC) initiatives taken by UK government: Constructing Excellence was established under Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) in respond to Sir Michael Latham and Sir John Egan's reports. Constructing Excellence is a cross-sector, cross-supply chain and organisation charged with driving the change agenda in construction including the promotion of MMC trough RandD, benchmarking, workshop series and networking. Housing Forum has been established as the only housing organisation which provides a network across all housing construction sectors: public, private and social and through their supply chains. The Housing Forum works closely with Department of Trade (DTI), Housing Corporation, the House Builders Federation and CITB Construction Skills and others as well as its industry partners and sponsors to encourage MMC adoption Buildoffsite is a group that includes leading clients, designers, constructors, manufacturers and others was established in Buildoffsite is exclusively and uniquely focused on off-site construction solutions facilitation and supporting the government in implementation process (Buildoffsite, 2008). The Buildoffsite engages a two-way communication to promote offsite and MMC through stakeholder s events, workshops, technology showcase and awareness. The Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) has gathered information from 50 leading experts from sector practitioners and published a National Audit Office (NAO) report on MMC in This report is an independent examination to identify how to get the best value when using MMC-offsite (NAO, 2005). Barker 33 cross-industry group was established in 2006 to examine the barriers to greater use of MMC in the provision of new housing and the mechanism to overcome them (Barker, 2006) MMC is fully utilised in the public sector by ODPM s Housing Corporation (Social House Regulator for England and Wales) and English Partnership (Urban Regeneration). Large-scale development schemes such as the Thames Gateway and the seven Millennium Communities initiatives run by English Partnerships are allowing housing associations to use MMC to promote efficiency in construction (NAO, 2005). In 2004, The Housing Corporation has stated that 25% of all new grant-aided construction by housing associations should be by MMC (5000 homes per year which is equivalent to 3% of total new UK housing) The government and industry sponsored, Rethinking Construction programme has encourage the use of MMC through promoting best practice and providing information. Government research initiative such as the 1.5 million Department of Trade Industry (DTI) funded PROSPA (Promoting Off-site Production Applications) programme has been aimed to investigate the views of the UK industry on offsite MMC. Loughborough University had developed IMMPREST software as an interactive tool to help measure and evaluate the benefits of using standardised components within construction The planning system has an important indirect influence on the MMC market because of its role in determining the supply of land for house building. The government planning policy is laid down in Planning Policy Guidance (PPG), one of which (PPG3) is about housing. PPG3 covers issues such as housing density. Nevertheless, the use of MMC is not currently mentioned and planning guidance would not generally cover such details about construction type (POSTNOTE, 2003) In addition, the UK building regulations do not specify building materials or construction method, but instead set minimum performance standards. Proposed changes to the building regulations covering energy efficiency, broadband access and structural integrity are forthcoming. It is important to note that, both planning and regulation policies adopted and planned in UK may make it cheaper and easier for MMC to meet the regulations compared with traditional construction (POSTNOTE, 2003). EXPERIENCES IN MALAYSIA

38 Definition In Malaysia, the term IBS is widely used by the government and practitioners. IBS is a construction technique in which components are manufactured in a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works (CIDB, 2003). The term also covered the concept of Modular Coordination (MC) and Open Building System (OBS) (CIDB, 2003). Historical Background on IBS Implementation IBS has been introduced in Malaysia since the 60 s by the use of pre-cast concrete beam-column element and panelised system (CIDB, 2003; Thanoon, 2003). The projects in Jalan Pekeliling, Kuala Lumpur and Rifle Range, Penang had used Danish System and French Estoit System respectively. However due to some criteria that were not suitable for local cultural habits, the technology did not take off as planned. The recent influx of foreign workers in the 90 s, however, has reignited the interest on IBS. IBS research and promotion was pioneered by Housing Research Centre (HRC), Universiti Putra Malaysia. HRC had organised a series of national and international colloquiums and seminars on IBS. In 2001, their research on Interlocking load bearing hollow-block building namely the Putra Block has won the prestigious Geneva Gold Medal award for innovation. HRC were also engaged with the National Affordable Housing research program with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in In 1999, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia formed the IBS Steering Committee in the effort to bring to the fore all the IBS related issues in a framework and IBS Strategic Plan 1999 were published. In 2003, the government, through CIDB published parliament endorsed roadmap to guide the practitioners and decision makers in adopting IBS in Malaysia. Known as the IBS Roadmap , the master plan is based on the 5-M Strategy (Manpower, Materials-Components- Machines, Management-Processes-Methods, Monetary and Marketing) with the target of having an industrialised construction industry and introduce open building concept by the year 2010 (CIDB, 2003). The initiative of roadmap implementation is currently lead by two working groups; IBS Steering Committee and IBS Technical Committee. CIDB s IBS Center has taking a role of secretariat to monitor all the activities. The Drivers to IBS Adoption In Malaysia, the influx of foreign workers is a big issue for the construction industry. Malaysia has attracted a huge number of foreign workers into the country to take up employment on site as unskilled labour doing manual jobs. Total foreign workers rose from 4% of total employment in year 1990 to about 10.7% in 1997 and 9% in year As at July 2004, there are about 1.3 million registered foreign workers, constituting 12% of total employment in the country (Hamid et al. 2008). According to Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, 69% (552,000) out of total 800,000 of registered workers as at June 2007 is foreign workers (ibid). Foreign workers are usually unskilled when they first arrived in Malaysia and this impacted the productivity and the quality of the construction industry. The social problems associated with foreign workers, further aggravates the situation (ibid). The local workforce and new graduates were reluctant to join the industry due to the 3-D syndrome (dirty, difficult, and dangerous) which has been long associated with the industry (ibid). The availability of manual labours especially the abundant and cheap workers coming from neighbouring countries has sustained this type of practice and making IBS very unpopular. CIDB s report stated that only 15 % of construction projects used IBS in Malaysia in the year 2003 (CIDB, 2003b) and only 10% of the complete projects used IBS in the year 2006 (Hamid et al., 2008). In addition, less than one - third of total construction projects (using at least one IBS product) in year 2006 had been reported in IBS Mid Term Review (ibid) as compared to forecasting IBS project of 50 % in 2006 and 70% in year 2008 as projected by the IBS Roadmap (CIDB, 2003). In a survey in 2005, the majority of the architects claimed to have relatively poor knowledge in IBS (66%). The Government Initiatives to Promote IBS The following is the key events of IBS promotion and initiatives taken by the government: Through the 2005 Budget announcement back in September 2004, the government had pledged to construct 100,000 units of affordable houses using IBS. In addition, all new government building projects were required to have at least 50% IBS content which had been calculated through the IBS Score Manual developed by CIDB (CIDB, 2007).

39 The Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP, ) had been published in December 2006 as means to chart the future direction of the Malaysian construction industry. The effort to promote IBS is highlighted under Strategic Thrust 5: Innovate through RandD to adopt a new construction method (CIDB, 2007b). Beginning from 2007 onwards, new incentives for IBS adopter has been introduced. The exemption of the levy (CIDB levy % of total cost of the project according to Article 520) on contractors that used some kind of IBS in 50% of the building components has been commenced since 1st January 2007 (Hamid et al., 2008). In early 2007, IBS Centre had been established in Cheras to promote IBS in Malaysia and also to play the role of consultant. The centre is equipped with IBS showhouse and Research and Development (R&D) capacity. Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) was initiated to manage IBS research. The new circular of Surat Pekeliling Perbendaharaan Bil. 7 Tahun 2008 dated on October 2008 had emphasized on the full utilization of IBS for government s projects in Malaysia. Among the pressing matters raised in the circular were the use of IBS component in government projects must not be less than 70% and the inclusion of IBS component as part of contract documents for all building works. As in February 2009, 320 government projects worth RM 9.43 billion had been carried out using the IBS technology (Bernama, 2009). The government would establish a new policy to reduce 50% of current 320,000 foreign workers registered with the sectors. CIDB had allocated RM 100 million to train skilled workers among locals on IBS and other methods (Bernama, 2009). LESSON LEARNED SO FAR The move towards industrialisation of construction industry is a global phenomenon and not a local or isolated initiative. The perspective in UK and Malaysian construction industry will provide some ground for benchmarking and technology transfer exercise in the future. Malaysia can learn much from UK s experience in term of promotion and initiatives and vice versa. The introduction of Modern Method of Construction (MMC) and offsite in UK is a response to a shortage demand of housing and to improve overall construction performance. In Malaysia, IBS has been introduced to cope with influx of foreign labour and to improve the image of the industry which firmly associated with 3D syndrome (Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult). In comparison, the adoption of IBS in Malaysia is better structured and centralised with the establishment of IBS Roadmap A lukewarm response from the private sector in Malaysia, however, has forced CIDB to evaluate the accuracy of the problem statements, assumptions and the timeline of the roadmap. The role of the government funded project is vital to kick-start IBS adoption. The implementation of MMC in Housing Corporation and English Partnership s projects has created a spill-out effect to the industry. In Malaysia, the government has emphasised on the utilization of IBS component in its government projects. This will spur more investment on component s manufacturing and create opportunities for small and medium sized contractors to be IBS installer. There is a consensus of opinion that, the promotion of MMC in UK is based on the needs for a quality and affordable housing. MMC is not highlighted in national policy but it is just as a tool to achieve a vision in affordable housing. Regardless of the method, the main objective of the government initiatives is to promote best practice in construction. This will incorporate both modern and traditional method of construction. Promoting MMC in combination with traditional approaches will help ensure widespread utilisation. IBS and MMC should not be seen as a threat to traditional methods. Both methods should be able to work in tandem and improve their processes collectively. The sharing of best practice between the two approaches is essential for the continued successful development of both construction sectors. In Malaysia, however, IBS has been portrayed by the government as a silver bullet for all problems in construction. CIDB s levy exemption was introduced as an incentive to IBS adopter but not to the best practice contractor. While the readiness level of the industry is questionable, the construction industry is forced on make or break decision to adopt IBS. IBS should not be seen as an alternative method but rather as a good mainstream solution, where the contractors have the ability to choose the best option between IBS and traditional or hybrid that suits the unique characteristics of every projects. The failure of IBS to penetrate the market is due to a misconception that it will eventually replace the traditional sector, while it actually should work closely in tandem to promote best practice in construction. IBS requires fresh thinking and blue ocean strategy to capture new demand, create new market space and offer customers a leap in value. The blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of market space that is not yet explored. Benchmarking the best practice program for MMC and offsite project in UK is worked well under offsite registration scheme. The scheme has been set up by Buildoffsite, the body that campaigns for the greater uptake of offsite, in association with Lloyd's Register to standardise and ensure best practice across all aspects of the offsite process, from the submission of tenders through the awarding of contracts to the specification, design,

40 manufacture, construction, handover and even the ongoing maintenance of a completed building. By choosing a supplier registered under the scheme, client organisations can be confident of the assured levels of competence, methodology and safe working from companies that have standardised the best practice for the delivery of their products and services. The approach focuses on the way the products and services are delivered rather than laying down standards for the products and services themselves. This provides the flexibility to cover a wide range of different approaches whilst still setting a benchmark for best practice. As compared to the UK, Malaysia needs to formulate better platform to encourage private sector s participation on IBS promotion. Buildoffsite and Housing Forum are well supported cross-industry bodies in the UK, where the captains of the industry have played prominent roles to promote IBS. Both bodies are promoting IBS in twoway communication to facilitate the adoption. Although, CIDB and IBS Centre have been established to play the promoter s role for IBS in Malaysia, they have been seen by practitioners as authority bodies to implement government s policies rather than a facilitator. Perhaps, the IBS Centre should be privatised in the future to solve the problem. For instant, the delay of Modular Coordination (MC) from the inclusion in Uniform Building by Law (UBBL) is possibly due to the misconception and failure for the promoting body to understand in depth each and every problem faced by practitioners and local authorities. The practitioners and the approving bodies both agrees that they are still not ready for MC while CIDB has work for MC inclusion in UBBL for a long time. So, the two-way communication is imperative. The public housing scheme in UK (Housing Corporation) is under the same ministry department with the promoter (The Constructing Excellence and Housing Forum), thus giving them the opportunity to promote and implement IBS at same time. However, in Malaysia, both effort in promoting and implementing (in the form of local housing project) are under two different ministerial administrations. It resulting a difficulties in coordinating efforts especially in implementing IBS Roadmap s recommendations. The government has been seen by the practitioners, failed to implement what they preach when the majority of public housing projects in Malaysia were still using the conventional method. CONCLUSION Although the different terms are used in both countries, the fundamental idea is to move some construction effort away from on-site to the manufacturing floor. The benefits of IBS are numerous and far reaching. Reduced construction time, better site management, reduced wastage are but a few of these benefits which will ultimately produce better products for the customer. In general, both governments are very supportive to the idea of IBS. Modern Method of Construction (MMC) in UK has been introduced to cope with the issues of affordable housing and in Malaysia IBS is critical to deal with influx of foreign workers in the industry. This paper discussed initiatives to promote a greater use of IBS in Malaysia and UK construction industry. This paper recommended more kick start project to be launch that will provide a spill out effect to the industry. The new policy to use of IBS component in government projects must not be less than 70% is very interesting to watch according to local and international observers. If the implementation is successful, it will re-launch the full adoption of IBS in this country but if the result is otherwise, it will be devastating to manufacturers and installers. The implementation could be difficult in some ways and some project can be in delay and fail if they are not incorporate with IBS principal. Shifting to IBS seems to be an uphill task since the construction stakeholders in the country have been exposed and trained in conventional building system for decades. As such, many factors and variables should be taken on board; practitioner s readiness, manufacture continuity, escalation of material prices and current economic condition. The quality and performance of projects under the government s supervision should not affect in negative way by the introduction of IBS. Most important, we should avoid another Gong Badak s stadium disaster, this time due to readiness and lack of trained professional in IBS. On the other hand, the promotion of IBS should be in tandem and complement with traditional method. IBS should be promoted in Blue Ocean and not become threat to traditional build. CIDB and IBS Centre should find way to encourage more private sectors participation in IBS promotion activities. The Buildoffsite s promotion and Lloyd Registration Scheme in UK can be a good example to follow. The IBS Roadmap spanned eight years from 2003 until 2010 and Malaysia is now at the brink of the final years of its implementation. Although the administration infrastructures are well in place, the market has yet to embrace the technology as seen by the lukewarm response on the ground. Perhaps, Malaysia has to look and learn from other countries to be successful. This paper has provided some perspectives on IBS in both UK and Malaysia, and provided some ground for future benchmarking and technology transfer exercise. REFERENCES Baker, K. (2004) Review of Housing Supply: Delivering Stability: Securing our Future Housing Needs HMSO, London Barker 33 Group (2006) Modern Method of Construction Barker 33 Cross Industry Group, London 6 April 2006

41 Bernama (2009) Shift to IBS Technology, Abdullah Urges Contractors, 19 March 2009, Agency Berita Nasional (BERNAMA) Buildoffsite (2008) Buildoffsite Yearbook 2008, Buildoffsite, London BURA (2005) Steering and Development Forum Report: MMC Evolution or Revolution, British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) Report, London, United Kingdom Camp R C (1989) Benchmarking -The Search for Industry Best Practices that Lead to Superior Performance, ASQC Quality Press CIDB (2003) IBS (IBS) Roadmap Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2003b) IBS Survey A Survey on the Usage of Industrialised Building System in Malaysian Construction Industry, Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur CIDB (2007) IBS Digest at Malbex in IBS Digest, Special Issues on 24th Malaysian International Building Exposition (Malbex 2007) September 2007 CIDB (2007b) Construction Industry Master Plan Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur Egan, J. (1998) Rethinking Construction in the Egan Report, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, London Hamid, Z. A., Kamar, K. A. M., Zain, M. Z. M., Ghani, M. K. and Rahim, A. H. A. (2008) Industrialised Building System (IBS) in Malaysia: The Current State and RandD Initiatives Malaysian Construction Research Journal (MCRJ), 2 (1), Hussein, J. (2007) IBS: The Challenges and Way Forward In Construction Industry Research Achievements International Conference (CIRAIC 2007) (Ed, Hamid, Z. A.) Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Kuala Lumpur April 2007 Kamar, K. A. M., Alshawi, M. and Hamid, Z. A. (2009) Barriers to Industrialised Building System (IBS): The Case of Malaysia in BuHu 9th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC) (Eds., Alshawi, M., Ahmed, V., Egbu, C. and Sutrisna, M.), Salford, United Kingdom, pp Latham, M. (1994) Constructing the Team - final report HMSO, London NAO (2005) Using modern methods of construction to build homes more quickly and efficiently National Audit Office, London November 2005 Pan, W., Gibb, A. G. F. and Dainty, A. R. J. (2005) Offsite Modern Methods of Construction in Housebuilding Perspectives and Practices of Leading UK Housebuilders In Buildoffsite Report 2005 Loughborough University, pp. 14 Pan, W., Gibb, F., A. G. and Dainty, A. R. J. (2008) Leading UK Housebuilders' Utilization of Offsite Construction Methods Building Research and Information, 36 (1), Peng, L. W., Kadir, M. R. A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S. (2003) The Experience of Malaysia and Other Countries in IBS In Proceedings in International Conference on IBSs, Construction Industry Development Board, Kuala Lumpur September 2003 POSTNOTE (2003) Modern Method of House Building In POSTNOTE Number 209, Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, London, United Kingdom Shaari, S. N. and Ismail, E. (2003) Promoting the Usage of Industrialised Building System (IBS) and Modular Coordination (MC) in Malaysia Construction Industry in Engineers (Board of Engineer Malaysia) March 2003 Thanoon, W. A., Peng, L. W., Kadir, M. R. A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S. (2003) The Essential Characteristics of Industrialised Building System in International Conference on Industrialised Building System Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 2003 The Housing Forum (2002) Homing in on excellence - A commentary on the use of offsite fabrication (OSF) methods for the UK housebuilding industry The Housing Forum, London 1-79 Vanables, T., Barlow, J. and Gann, D. (2004) Manufacturing Excellence: UK capacity in offsite manufacturing In The Housing Forum Constructing Excellence, London

42 6 EXPLORING THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE IN IBS SYSTEM AMONG THE CONTRACTOR IN PENANG Siti Hafizan Hassan, Nadira Ahzahar, Janidah Eman, Mohamad Zain Hashim Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Pulau Pinang INTRODUCTION IBS is not new in Malaysian construction industry. Significantly, the usage of prefabricated, composite construction method and cast-in situ are the examples of IBS. But the usage and implementation of IBS in Malaysia is still low compare to the conventional construction method. IBS should be accepted as alternatives to labour-based and conventional approach construction since it can give a lot of benefit to construction industry especially in Malaysia. By implementation of IBS, the construction communities are assured of low site workers required due to minimal construction work. Other benefit of IBS are the quality of end products also can be controlled, timber formworks can be reduce or eliminate and the completion of construction projects will be faster compare to the conventional approach system. The term IBS is often misinterpreting as a systems that limited for the construction of buildings only. In fact, IBS is the system that cover all types of structures such as bridge and drainage because the word buildings is termed as or related to constructing. The definition of IBS that used by Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) is the construction systems in which components are manufactured in factory, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works (IBS, 2003). The concept of IBS is not new and it was started since 1624 when panellized timber houses were transported from England to North America. The Industrial Revolution of the 1700s provided the construction industry with technological increase. The construction of the first cast iron bridge in England known as Iron Bridge revolutionized the way structures were built). Then, various superb iron-based structures were constructed including Eiffel Tower in Paris. The race to build tall structures began through the development of steel and other materials. In fact, steel frames are often combined with pre-cast panels in building tall structures (IBS, 2003). The desired of prefabrications and industrialised production are rapidly increased due to housing shortages after Second World War. The natural populations of city and industrial centres are growth in addition of large scale of migration. Because of that situation, prefabrication and industrialised production become the only solution for reconstruction at the higher construction speed (Trikha and Ali, 2004) Malaysia, the flats build along the Jalan Pekeliling, Kuala Lumpur and Jalan Rifle Range, Penang become the early building using pre-cast concrete elements to build these high rise low cost flats in Following these pilot projects, Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor imported pre-cast concrete technology from Germany and built numerous housing projects ranging from low cost houses to high cost bungalows. These successful projects followed by the rapid creation of numerous beautiful and quality structures including Bukit Jalil Sports Complex, Petronas Twin Towers, Light Rail Transit (LRT) and tunnels (IBS, 2003). From the study done by Trikha and Ali (2004) the features and attributes of a building system to be accepted as an IBS must have the as following: Prefabricated elements; a building system is accepted as an IBS when its primary elements are prefabricated either completely or partially through mechanized processes. Minimal in-situ construction; in IBS, the elements and components have to be connected to build structural envelope but in-situ construction work such as concreting or welding should be kept minimal by simplifying details of connection. Standardization; elements and components in IBS should be standardised and it is essential distinguishing features of IBS. Speed construction; most of IBS claim saving in the completion time to the extent of seventy five percent as compared to conventional systems. An IBS must lead to speedier construction. Labour saving; since IBS minimal the construction works, it is significant reduce the requirement of labour for prefabrication and erection of elements at site.

43 Advantages and Disadvantages of IBS The quality, speed of construction, and cost saving are the main emphases given in the building construction industry in Malaysia. These factors are very important ones from the points of view of the Seventh Malaysia Plan in terms of the very large number of buildings envisaged. The savings in labour cost and the savings in material cost are also the major advantages of the Malaysian IBS. The control in using materials, such as steel, sand, and timber, will result in substantial savings on the overall cost of the project (Badir et al. 2002). Besides reduced dependency on labour, the simplified construction solutions also offer better control of quality, increased productivity and faster completion, less wastage, neater and safer construction sites and cleaner environment; which lead to a lower total construction cost. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Questionnaires Data was collected through questionnaires given to the project participants at the selected project site. The questionnaire was constructed based on the review of literature. Nine questions that related to the IBS characteristics and the benefit of using IBS were chosen to get information from the selected contractors. The entire questionnaire was distributed to the selected respondent in Pulau Pinang. All the respondents were approached at the construction site within Pulau Pinang. A total of 35 respondents gave their response. The questionnaires were distributed to the Project Engineer and Site Engineer in the contractor company (G5). Ordinal Scale Measurements with ordinal scales are ordered in the sense that higher numbers represent higher values. When items are classified according to whether they have more or less of a characteristic, the scale used is referred to as an ordinal scale. The main characteristic of the ordinal scale is that the categories have a logical or ordered relationship to each other. These types of scale permit the measurement of degrees of difference, but not the specific amount of difference. This means that data can be interpreted in term of differences in the distance along the scale. Example of the ordinal scales that is used in the questionnaire for this research is: (1 = Not agree, 2 = Less agree, 3 = Considering agree, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly agree) Data Analysis and Presentation Because the data that is obtained from the field survey is in the form of an ordinal scale, it will be analysed based on the mean response of respondents so that the data can be categorized among the ordinal scale of the mean response. The result and findings will be presented in the scale of 1 to 5 and a summary table which will indicate the categories and ranking of the mean response. The ranking will compare the factor from the most preferable factor to the least preferable factor. RESULT AND DISCUSSION From the survey that has been done, it shows that 42.9% of respondent agreed on the CIDB (2003) definition on IBS (Table 1). And remaining of them are considering agree (51.4%) and less agree (5.7%) on that definition. From the result, it shows that most of the contractor in Penang aware of the IBS system, but in term of implementation it will takes some time for them to change from the traditional method to the IBS. Table 1. Definition of IBS Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Table 2 indicates 17.1% of respondent strongly agree that IBS system must have prefabricated element either partially or completely through mechanized process. Results also shown that 34.3% agree, 40% considering agree and 8.6% of

44 them less agree on that particular feature. This may be due to uncertainty and confusion on the type of IBS used in Malaysia. According to CIDB, types of IBS classification are as follows: Type 1: Pre-cast Concrete Framing, Panel and Box Systems Type 2: Steel Formwork Systems Type 3: Steel Framing Systems Type 4: Prefabricated Timber Framing Systems Type 5: Block work Systems Table 2. IBS System must have Prefabricated Elements Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total In IBS system, in-situ construction work should be kept minimal by simplifying details of connection. Table 3 shows 11.4% of respondents strongly agreed that in-situ construction works in IBS systems should be kept minimized, and 31.4% respond as agree, 51.4% is considering agree and 5.7% is less agree. Table 3. Minimal In-situ Construction Work Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Standardization also is one of the features of IBS. Standardization is IBS essential features compare to the conventional method of construction. Table 4 shows 11.4% of respondents were strongly agree on standardization as IBS feature, 57.1% of them agree, 28.6% is considering agree and the rest is less agree. Table 4. Standardisation Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total The study also found that the respondent opinion on environmental friendly features is as follows; 11.4% were strongly agreed, 51.4% were agreed, 25.7% considering agreed, 8.6% is less agreed and 2.9% of them not agreed at all (Table 5). Table 5. Environmental Friendly Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Not agree Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Table 6 shows that 25.7% of respondent strongly agree on labour saving features in IBS. IBS system use only skilled and semiskilled labour and the role of unskilled labour totally eliminated. That simple concept was agreed by 48.6% of respondents, 17.1% of them considering agree and 8.6% it is less agree. Azman et al. (2008) indicate that respondents agree that IBS is perceived easy to use. Respondents agree that the installation of IBS components will require fewer workforces.

45 Table 6. Labour Saving Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Involvement of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) systems in design and manufacturing of IBSs components were respond as strongly agree by 20% of respondents as shown in Table 7. Results also show that 22.9% is agree, 51.4% is considering agree and 5.7% of respondent were less agreed. Table 7. Modern Design and Manufacturing Method Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Systematic quality control is one of important characteristics of IBS. Table 8 indicates 22.9% of respondent strongly agreed on that IBS characteristic, 37.1% were agreed, 31.4% was considering agreed and 8.6% was less agreed. Table 8. Systematic Quality Control Frequency Percent Valid Percent (%) Cumulative Percent (%) Less agree Considering agree Agree Strongly agree Total Table 9 shows the highest percentage of IBS advantages is good quality control with 48.6 % of respondents agreed that IBS systems can lead good quality control in their project. The lowest percentage is reduce used of heavy machine. Only 5.7% of respondents agreed on that particular advantage. The quality, speed of construction, and cost saving are the main emphases given in the building construction industry in Malaysia. These factors are very important from the points of view of the Seventh Malaysia Plan in terms of the very large number of buildings envisaged. The savings in labour and material costs are also the major advantages of the IBS. The control in using materials, such as steel, sand, and timber, will result in substantial savings on the overall cost of the project (Badir et al., 2002). Table 9. Ranking the IBS Advantages Correspondents Advantage of IBS Percentage Good quality control 48.6 Faster completion 31.4 Easy installation 31.4 Reduce time 28.6 Higher quality 28.6 Provide safer site 20.0 Reduce labour cost 14.3 Reduce material cost 14.3 Potential of transfer management and technical skills 14.3 Reduce used of heavy machine 5.7

46 CONCLUSION The respondent s background and experience was investigated and analysed in this study. Most of respondents are site engineer and project engineer and most of them have 4-10 years experienced in industries. Most of respondent are having 4-10 years experience. Based on the questionnaire and statistical analysis carried out in this study, respondents agree and aware of IBS in terms of definition, features and concepts of IBS. In term of the application of IBS as the future system in Penang construction, the contractor G5 is not ready yet. Hence, the enforcement by the government in using the IBS element are seen as the vital method in encourages them towards IBS construction in Malaysia. REFERENCES Azman, M.N A., Majid, T.A., Zakaria, S.A.S. and Zaini, S.S.(2008), The Industrialised Building System (IBS) Survey Report Educating the Malaysian Construction Industry, Second International Conference on Computer Research and Development, Badir, Y.F., Kadir, M.R.A., and Hashim, A.H., (2002) Industrialised Building Systems construction in Malaysia. J. Architectural Engineering, 8(1), Muhd Rahim, Salihuddin Hassim and Mohd Razali Abdul Kadir (2002), A Survey on Construction Cost Comparison Between Conventional and Industrial Building System for Housing Project, Department of Civil Engineering, UPM, Serdang, Selangor. IBS, (2003). Survey on the Usage of Industrial Building System in Malaysian Industry, IBS Survey 2003, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Trikha, D.N. and Ali, A.A.A. (2004), Industrialised Building Systems, Universiti Putra Malaysia Press Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).

47 7 A STUDY ON THE TREND OF THE USE OF IBS COMPONENTS AND THE SETTING UP OF IBS MANUFACTURING FACTORIES IN THE MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman 1, Taksiah A. Majid 1, Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad 1, Mohd Hanizun Hanafi 2 School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia 1, School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia 2. syurga7181@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION Appropriate technology and global standardization has changed the past practices of the construction industry. This has affected the land resources, social environment and local skills to cater for the demand on various types of homes. In order to meet this demand the local authority must have precise and detailed knowledge of the needs of the lower income group to build affordable homes. There is a need to accelerate the development of construction industry and to ensure that the level of productivity of the construction industry is raised; thereby the need to import the construction technology from overseas especially from the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia as reported by Badir et al. (2002) and Hashim et al. (2009). Sometimes the advanced technology does not suit with the local condition on factors pertaining to the environment; level of workers skills knowledge and competence; venerable resources and competent manufacturer to fabricate the mass production as well as high-quality products. Affordable homes are becoming a vital issue to meet the demand with an increasing population growth. Sebestyen (1998) claimed that one-third of the building constructed is for residential and one-fifth to one-third of gross fixed investments was made on residential construction, which is the largest sub-sector. With the industrializing of construction sector, houses can be produced in mass production. The Industrialisation is also characterised by modern design methods that use scientific knowledge on structures, building physics, fire, and computer technology (Abdul- Aziz, 1994). Low cost houses in Malaysia can be classified into three (3) categories as shown in Table 1 (SPNB, 2010). Table 2 shows three (3) categories of hardcore poor, poor and vulnerable poor of households position by states. An analysis on the three categories of the total poor households shows that 229,723 may have difficulty to buy low cost house. The vulnerable poor households may be able to own an affordable house if both parents are working. The government has encouraged the construction industry to move towards IBS (IBS) which can produce high volume of houses at affordable cost especially low-cost houses. Government agencies such as Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR) and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB); and researchers have played vital roles to educate the main players of the construction industry in the form of policies, financial incentives, strategy guidelines, workshops and seminars to increase the awareness among the end users and clients. Industrialisation of high rise residential building components is critical to competitiveness and has become a new trend in order to solve the housing problem and meet the demand for affordable homes especially in big cities with limited space for development area. Almost all major cities in Asia, residential buildings are characterised with high-rise and high density (Niu, 2004). According to Barlow (1999), there is a need to explore the new methods, techniques and ways of working to deliver affordable houses. As reported by Doherty et al. (2008), the homeless phenomena generate the transition of planned city to the post industrial city. Thus the construction players have responded to this crisis by adopting prefabrication and by building a more uniform product (IBSD, 2005). Table 1. Categorization of Low Cost Houses (SPNB, 2010) Type of House Floor area (ft 2 ) Price (Peninsular) Price (Sabah & Sarawak) Low cost 700 From RM35,000 From RM 50,000 Medium low cost 750 From RM50,000 From RM 70,000 Medium cost 800 & above From RM80,000 From RM100,000

48 Table 2. Poor Households Position by States (As at 30 September 2009) (MOF, 2009) State Hardcore Poor 1 Poor 2 Vulnerable Poor 3 Total Johor 1,502 2,542 5,555 9,599 Kedah 2,228 3,827 6,384 12,712 Kelantan 4,108 7,719 13,718 25,807 Melaka 474 1,157 2,925 4,556 Negeri Sembilan ,408 4,618 Pahang 973 1,859 5,766 8,628 Perak 2,099 4,324 7,434 14,107 Perlis 439 1,225 3,290 5,129 Pulau Pinang 645 1,922 8,240 10,817 Sabah 18,295 15,746 13,820 47,862 Sarawak 12,537 14,528 18,740 45,805 Selangor 1,261 2,554 6,210 10,025 Terengganu 4,377 9,322 14,194 28,015 F.T. Kuala Lumpur ,257 F.T. Labuan F.T. Putrajaya Total 49,519 68, , ,723 Poverty Income line 1 Household with monthly income below RM430 in Peninsular Malaysia and below RM540 in Sabah and Labuan as well as RM520 for Sarawak. 2 Household with monthly income below RM720 in Peninsular Malaysia and below RM960 in Sabah and Labuan as well as RM830 for Sarawak. 3 Household with monthly income above the Poverty Income Line and below RM1,500 in urban areas and RM1,000 in rural areas The Malaysian construction industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from using conventional technology to a more systematic and mechanized system that utilizes the latest information and communication technology. IBS has become a vital component in the industry to move towards global competition and update the new industrial trend. The advantages of using IBS in construction works are the reduction of unskilled workers, using optimum site materials, reducing environmental problems, maintaining the purity of construction sites and better quality control. Other added values of using the IBS in construction works is that the task becomes more organized and completion time of construction is reduced. Even though, Malaysia is moving towards mass production of building components through IBSs technology, but still faces constraint in terms of allocation for resources and material for site construction. IBS manufacturer plants are also finding ways to achieve a state where machines have high efficient ability and are able to perform repetitive tasks using standardised components. The government had enforced rules that require the construction industry to use IBS components. However, the problem is that there are few IBS manufacturing plants in Northern Peninsular Malaysia, Western Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah. This paper aims to analyze the trend of IBS manufacturing plants in Malaysia and identify the main factors for setting up the best practice of IBS manufacturers in terms of appropriate technology in order to enhance the construction speed, quality and mass volume. METHODOLOGY The design of the pilot survey is a vital procedure to enhance the validity and reliability of the survey instrument. The respondents of the pilot survey will help to strengthen the content, scope, question structure and response scales. The approach used in the study was by interviews. The semi structured interviews were set based on the literature review from Oppenheim (1992), Naoum (1998) and Fellows and Liu, Qualitative approach is applied in the research, where the use of interview technique could generate a deeper depth of the research field but the scope covered is restricted to the knowledge and experience of those involved only. The key person involved in the interviews are four from the IBS manufacturing players, two academician and one from the government agency. THE TREND OF IBS The main function of the IBS is to create synergy, by generating partners in the industry to assist in training, giving exposure on use of IBS techniques, encouraging the setting up of new IBS factories locally, updating on the latest technology, and enhancing current issues on IBS in the local state and international level (CIDB, 2003). The conventional construction method consists of extensive cast in situ activities being widely used and the huge quantities of unwanted materials cause difficult in controlling wastage in construction sites. Therefore, the prefabrication method using IBS is being widely used in European countries, Japan and Singapore as well as Malaysia (Tam et al., 2007). Through the Industrialisation of the construction industry, huge amount of work is shifted offsite, resulting in less

49 labour is used on site, efficient use of materials and less wastage; and a tidier and cleaner construction sites (IBS, 2003). The IBS components can be divided into a few categories and has undergone several changes following the new trend of technology. Table 3 describes the trend of IBS since the early 60 s until The evolution of IBS categorization relate with the expansion of IBS manufacturing. Table 4 shows the number of IBS manufacturing in The data sourced from CIDB shows that all the IBS manufactures registered with the CIDB list companies involved in IBS. The current total number of IBS manufacturer in Malaysia is 102. In recent years, there are suppliers and manufacturers who are among the 21 which were actively involved in the dissemination of IBS in Malaysia (Badir et al., 2002). Majority of the IBS originated from the United States, Germany and Australia has a market share of 25%, 17% and 17% respectively. Malaysia produced about 12% of the IBS systems (Kadir et al., 2005). The growth of IBS has increased almost five times as reported by Azman et al. (2009). The highest number of IBS manufacturers can be found in the area of Selangor (49) followed by Kuala Lumpur (26) and Terengganu (5). Pulau Pinang, Melaka and Sabah is in the fifth place and each has three IBS manufacturers. Perlis, Kedah and WP Labuan do not have any IBS manufacturer and this contribute to the reluctance of the contractors to use the IBS method due to the increase in transportation cost and miscellaneous cost. Similarly, the state of Pahang, Kelantan and Perak are still in the initial state to explore the use of IBS. Meanwhile Melaka and Negeri Sembilan have no problem to source the IBS components from the other states namely Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. The tremendous amount of emphasis for building construction activities has met the expected outcome of the Eighth Malaysia Plan. Yet, the government still requires an additional of 100,000 units of affordable homes to use IBS (IBSD, 2005). Table 3. Categorisation of IBS Component (Azman et al., 2009) IBS Introduced (year) Categorization of IBS IBS Component Early 60 s Badir et al. (2002) i. Frame System ii. Panel System iii. Box System Early 90 s Badir and Razali (1998) Full prefabricated construction on site and off site: i. Precast concrete framing, panel and box systems ii. Load bearing block iii. Sandwich panel iv. Steel frame 2003 CIDB (2003) i. Pre-cast concrete framing, panel and box systems ii. Formworks systems iii. Steel framing systems iv. Prefabricated timber framing systems v. Block work systems Table 4 shows the number of IBS manufacturers grouped according to the classification. The highest number of IBS manufacturers are in the metal framing systems category (i.e 24 numbers) followed by precast concrete and timber framing manufacturers with 21 and 16 manufacturers respectively. The lowest number of IBS manufacturer is block work systems (with 9 manufacturers). In the analysis, it was found that metal framing systems have become more popular compared to the precast concrete due to the time frame, cost effectiveness and quality impact of the completion project. The technology and expertise in the IBS construction industry have move forward to the fast-track lane. For future research work, it will be useful to study the demand of IBS components for each classification and to forecast the future expansion of the Malaysian construction industry.

50 State Precast Concrete Table 4. The Number of IBS Manufacturers in 2009 (Orange Book, 2009) Panel Formwork Systems Timber Framing On Site Manufacture Metal Framing Systems Blockwork Systems Perlis Kedah Penang Perak Selangor WP K.Lumpur N. Sembilan Melaka Johor Pahang Terengganu Kelantan Sabah WP Labuan Sarawak Total THE SETUP OF IBS MANUFACTURING FACTORIES AS AN INDUSTRIALISATION SOLUTION Historically, the construction industry in Malaysia consists of various processes, involving many parties and different stages of work. It involves the participation of various parties from various sectors in order to ensure the efficiency of the construction work carried out. According to Bannet and Grice (1990), the conventional construction approach, is based on the rigid separation of design and construction. The design team prepares detailed drawings, specification and Bill of Quantities. The tender documents are prepared and the contract will be awarded to the successful tendered/contractor. The contractor will then manage the construction projects by using the subcontractors. According to Alaghbari et al. (2007) research on the main factors causing the delay in construction in Malaysia are as follows: Financial difficulty, being the most influencing factor causing the delay in construction projects in Malaysia usually faced by the subcontractors and labourers /workers; Delay in the delivery of materials due to poor coordination and weak site management and, as a consequence, construction errors due to the site and coordination problem were the subsequent factors causing delay in the construction projects in Malaysia. Although, Malaysia had initiated the usage of IBS since the 60 s, the response from the construction industry to overcome the delay in construction projects as mentioned by Alaghbari et al. (2007) by using IBS was poor. The response from the construction industry changed when the government enforced the ruling in 2008, where use of a minimum of 70% IBS in government projects will received 50 percent levy from the government. The IBS s Report (2008) also indicates that the awareness of the construction industry on IBS knowledge and its application increased between 2003 and The scenario of construction industry in Malaysia has changed by the implementation of the IBS technology initiated by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia. Prefabrication (IBS) has been successfully employed in the manufacturing of houses and multi-story industrial buildings (Ngowi et al., 2004). The Industrialisation may eliminate various processes and gives focus on the four main IBS players consisting of the client, designer, manufacturer and contractor as shown in Figure 1. The best concepts regarding the centralization of the construction industry to achieve the international standard requirement should have three main fields in one company; the designer, manufacturer and contractor. They are able to control the quality of work and ensure cost effectiveness. The location of the manufacturer is important in order to make the critical decision on fixed investment of the best site selection (Eddie and Heng, 2004). On the selection of manufacturer location, the problems may involve a different set of criteria or objectives. According to Owen and Daskin (1998) on the site selection mathematical models; static and deterministic models have five basic purposes which focus on: How to minimise the average distance travelled How to achieve maximum coverage, How to determine a centre that can maximum coverage and minimise the distance travelled How to deal with multiple objectives and; How to locate undesirable location. The models is a good guide for the future site selection conditions under two core uncertainty situations; planning with known model input parameter and planning imperfect information of input parameter (Eddie and Heng, 2004). Total

51 Furthermore, for the advanced industrialised construction industry, its development has been classified into three (3) generation of industrialisation (Ismail, 2006), as shown in Figure 2. Figure 1. Successful IBS Players Figure 2. Three Generation of Industrialisation (Ismail, 2006). From the qualitative survey, the main factors identified for the setting up IBS manufacturers are as follows: Appropriate technology Open manufacturing plant Transportation of IBS components and erection Design and build Skilled workers Appropriate Technology The appropriate IBS technology to be use for the construction industry in Malaysia is the hybridization technology which is a combination of the small partial conventional method and the mechanization technology. It also reflects the latest IBS classification, which is the innovative product system (IBS info, 2010). According to Sebestyen (1998), the usage of mechanisation such as mobile concrete mixers and tower crane provided the best solution for high rise residential buildings in France and Denmark as well as Hong Kong. Kamar, et al. (2009) mentioned that classification of IBS should be expanded to cater the scope of volumetric (modular) and hybrid construction. IBS is not to be seen as a threat to traditional methods. Both methods should be able to work in tandem and improve their processes collectively. The sharing of best practice between the two approaches is essential for the continued successful development of both construction sectors. Currently the most popular type of manufacturing in Malaysia is off-site which is a significant distance from the site. Offsite construction however, is remote from the building site prior to installation in their manufactured or assembled form. Thus the offsite can be divided into pre-assembly and on-site assembly. The relation is best shown in Figure 3 (Kamar et al., 2009).

52 Figure 3. IBS and Other Terms to Describe Industrialisation in the Method of Construction (Kamar et al., 2009) Open Manufacturing Plant Countries like Malaysia, with a tropical climate and temperature ranging from C, has an advantage in applying the Open Manufacturing Plant. The types of IBS manufacturing system available in Malaysia are the Open Manufacturing System and Closed Manufacturing Plant System. The Open Manufacturing System is factories that do not have a building but possess heavy machineries, workers, place to locate raw material and an office. The conventional manufacturing systems have workers, capital and plant. The uniqueness of the Open Manufacturing System for the precast concrete system is its ability to obtain the natural curing concrete with a minimum grade of 30 in a 24 hours delivery period and much suited to the tropical climate. The conventional construction works in Malaysia apply a normal concrete grade of 25. This procedure could not be applied in the IBS system because the concrete grade of 25 requires 48 hours of curing time before the precast component can be lifted and erected. Otherwise the precast component - may break upon lifting. The machine used by the IBS manufacturer is two 10 tonnes mobile cranes and one batching plant concrete. There are two main production systems focusing on IBS components consisting of linear or skeleton system, and planar or panel system. While the three dimensional or box system is excluded due to low demand, the panel system can be joined to form a box system to save cost on the mould. The Open Manufacturing system saves cost by 10 times compared to the normal factory system based on the interview with the IBS manufacturers. Transportation of IBS Components and Erection The significant value for each component of IBS precast concrete should not exceed more than 7 tonnes to ensure that the crane can easily erect and transport the material to the site. In Malaysia it is difficult to find heavy duty crane. The limitation radius of transporting IBS components to site is 50km. Meanwhile, the study by Warszawski (1999) on the suitable distance from the new potential development area to the fabrication plant should be the distance with a variance from 50km to 100km. Apart from the effective distance to transport the IBS component to the site, it is also important to have the precast concrete in partial sizes where can be plug and play to become large scale precast concrete. The main reason why the IBS manufacturer chooses to produce partial size of precast concrete is to enhance the effectiveness of erection, easy transportation to the site construction and save cost on hiring the appropriate crane. Figure 4 shows the IBS system sequence of works.

53 Figure 4. IBS System Sequence of Works Design and Build Figure 5 shows the construction project delivery by using the IBS system. The best practice tender award is design and build using the IBS system. The Design and Build method would be able to control the whole project flow especially during the construction period with less change in the design stage. The design-build still produce the conventional method of drawing, and the IBS drawing will be produced while the earth-work and pilling section were conducted on site. Under the IBS method, the M&E drawings need to be inserted in the early stages. The process requires consultation with client to finalize the design. The effectiveness of the IBS drawing helps to eliminate the redundant work in conventional works especially in the superstructure stage. In normal situation, even in design-build contract using conventional method of construction, there are construction adjustment need to be done during the substructure and superstructure of construction stage. This process delays the milestone project and incurred increment of the project cost. In contrast to IBS drawing system, once the concrete have been put to cast based on the final drawing, it is not viable to make any more adjustment except if the client agree with the additional cost imposed for the extra renovation work. That is why design and prefabrication need to be accurate at the IBS drawing design stage. The piling and the substructure work need to have a good setup and precise panel marking to avoid the displacement of structure when the component structured are installed. Basically the substructure of the project will used conventional method due to the limited repetition mould usage. It is also the best time to prepare the fabrication mould for the superstructure which uses highly repetitive mould. Design- Build Earth work Pilling Substructure Design IBS Shop Drawing + M&E Fabrication Mould Superstructure Construction Period IBS Manufacturing Erection Figure 5. Construction Project Delivery Using IBS System Construction Workers As reported by Nadim and Goulding (2009); Blismas and Wakefield (2008); and Pan et al. (2007), the construction industry in UK and Australia are facing prominent shortage of skilled workers especially in the remote areas and high growth capital cities. Associated with the difficult situation, the traditional tradesmen also find difficulty to fulfill the requirement for higher onsite precision and to deal with the low tolerance of the tasks. The same situation also happened in Malaysia where the construction industry players foresee the need to train the unskilled workers to skilled workers to fulfill the demand. Although Malaysia can easily attract foreign workers to work here, but due to the huge number of foreign workers working in Malaysia affecting the employment opportunities for the locals. By using the IBS method, Malaysia was able to reduce the number of foreign workers in 2006 by 4% as shown in Table 4 and to educate the industry that with the appropriate use of technology and systematic work, the use of IBS can gain the same productivity but with better outcome.

54 Table 4. Percentage of Foreign Workers to Total Construction Workforce (MOF,2005) Item Local Workforce 224, , , ,528 Foreign Worker 231, , , ,780 Total 456, , , ,308 Percentage of Foreign Worker 51% 49% 48% 44% CONCLUSION The trend or change in the pattern of the IBS industry has gone through a few transitions from the conventional method to the hybridization stages. The government has introduced the IBS in the 60s but the response from the industry was poor as mentioned in IBS survey (2005); and the dramatic transformation in the use of IBS in 2008 only occurred after the government enforced the use of IBS in the construction industry for the government projects. The metal framing system is the most popularly use IBS in the construction industry based on the statistical analysis and also verification from the IBS survey 2003 and IBS survey The government needs to be responsive to this phenomenal change and provide more capital investment for automation and robotics technology in order to make Malaysia ahead in the transformation of the IBS construction industry. In addition, Slaunghter (1997) have done the analysis based on the research on 85 construction works using automation and robotics technology in Japan, European, US, Australia and Israel. The research examined the trend in the development of construction technologies and the attributes of the technologies that usually requires a higher degree of customisation through the manipulation of standardised materials into nonstandard sizes or other adjustments. The flexibility to meet the unique requirements for each construction structure is achieved by modifying the standardised materials rather than producing other sizes through multi task machines. Although technology is vital to accelerate the development of a country but it required the appropriate technology as one of the major factor in setting up IBS manufacturing, based on the qualitative survey. The other factors are open manufacturing plant which is more mobile and easy to move to the nearest project. The major component of the IBS manufacturing is still mobile to move to potential development area. The IBS manufacturing also need to have the capabilities to transport the IBS component economically, with breaking the size into part as well as having good skills in erecting the IBS components. Even though, the IBS players have the ability to run the practicality onsite, but they are also required to convert the conventional drawing to IBS drawing which is among the major challenge in using the IBS system. The best approach is to have the full control onsite by using the design and builds approach of tender award. Malaysia has a lot of foreign workers and managed to reduce the number of unskilled workers. Skilled workers are important in the IBS industry to ensure better precision works. In conclusion, the IBS technology must be affordable to the construction industry especially for the small contractors; to reduce the knowledge gap between the designer and contractor to apply it under the Malaysian condition; ability to suit to the climatic condition in Malaysia which is heavy rain and hot weather; the concern of maintenance cost; and future research should be continued to educate IBS players. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), IBS Centre and Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM) for supporting the Industrialisation Building System (IBS) research. REFERENCES Abdul-Aziz, A-R., (1994) Global strategies: a comparison between Japanese and American construction firms. Construction Management and Economics, 12(6): Alaghbari, W., A. Kadir, M.R., Salim, A. and Ernawati, (2007) The Significant Factors Causing Delay of Building Construction Projects in Malaysia. Emerald, Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, Vol 14, No.2, Azman, M.N.A., Ahamad, M.S.S. and Hanafi, M.H., (2009) Conceptual Spatial Site Selection for One Stop Centre for Industrialised Building System Manufacturing Plant in Pulau Pinang. National Conference AWAM Badir, Y.F., Kadir, M.R.A., and Hashim, A.H., (2002) Industrialised Building Systems construction in Malaysia. J. Architec. Eng., 8(1), Badir, Y., and Razali, A., (1998) Theory of classification: its application and Badir-Razali building systems classification. Journal Institute Engineering Malaysia, October. Bannet, J. and Grice, A., (1990) Procurement Systems for Building, Quantity Surveying Techniques, New Directions, United Kingdom: (ed P.S Brandon), BSD Professional Books, Oxford.

55 Barlow, J. (1999) From craft production to mass customisation: innovation requirements for the UK housebuilding industry. Informaworld, Housing Studies, 14(1), Blismas, N. and Wakefield, R., (2008) Drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in Australia. Construction Innovation, 9, DOI: / CIDB, (2003) Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Newsletter Issue 3, 10 pp. Doherty, J., Busch-Geertsema, V., Karpuskiene, V., Korhonen, J., O Sullivan, E., Sahlin, I., Petrillo, A. and Wygnanska, J., (2008) Homeless and exclusion: regulating public space in European cities. Surveillance and Society, 5(3), Eddie, W.L.C. and Heng, L., (2004) Exploring quantitative methods for project location selection. Building and Environment 39, Hashim, M.S., Mohamed, Y., Zaman, R.A. and Jahaya, F., (2009) PKNS Engineering and Construction Berhad (PECB) Experience in IBS (IBS), Malaysia IBS International Exhibition 2009 (MIIE 09), IBSD, (2005), IBS Digest, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia, 3-10 pp. IBS Info, (2010), Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia, issue 1. IBS Survey (2003), Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia, 2 pp. IBS Survey (2005), Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia, pp. IBS Survey, (2008), Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Malaysia. Ismail, Z., (2006) A Preliminary Evaluation of Prefabricated Bathroom for High-Rise Housing Scheme in Malaysia. Unpublished M. Sc. Thesis, Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia. Kadir, M.R.A., Lee, W.P., Jaafar, M.S., Sapuan, S.M., Ali, A.A.A., (2005) Construction performance cpmparison between conventional and IBSs in Malaysia. Emerald, Structural Survey, 24 (5), Kamar, K.A.M., Alshawi, M., Hamid, Z.A., Nawi, M.N.N., Haron, A.T. and Abdullah, M.R., (2009) IBS (IBS): revisiting the issues on definition, classification and the degree of Industrialisation. CIRAIC. MOF, (2009) Ministry of Finance Malaysia. Economic Report 2009/2010, 6 pp. Nadim, W. and Goulding, J.S. (2009) Offsite production in the UK: the way forward? A UK construction industry perpective. Emerald, Construction Innovation, 10, Naoum, S.G., (1998) Dissertation Research and Writing for Construction Students. Butterwoth-Heinemann, Oxford. Ngowi, A.B., Pienaar, E., Talukhaba, A. and Mbachu, J., (2004) The globalisation of the construction industry- a review. Building and Environment, 40, Niu, J. (2004) Some significant environmental issues in high rise residential building design in urban areas. Energy and Buildings, 36: DOI: /j.enbuild Oppenheim, A.N., (1992) Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. St. Martin s Press, USA. Owen, S.H. and Daskin, M.S., (1998) Strategic Facility Location: A Review. European Journal of Operation Research, 111, Pan, W., Alistair, G.F., Gibb, Andrew, R.J. and Dainty, (2007) Perspectives of UK housebuilders on the use of offsite modern methods of construction. Construction Management and Economics, 25: DOI: / Fellow, R. and Liu, A., (2008) Research Methods for Construction. Willey-Blackwell, United Kngdom. Slaunghter, E.S., (1997) Characteristics of existing construction automation and robotics technologies. Automation and Construction, 6, Sebestyen, G., (1998) Construction-Craft to Industry. E & FN Spon, London. SPNB, (2010) Syarikat Perumahan Negara Berhad, Rumah Mampu Milik Program. Tam, V.W.Y., Tam, C.M., Zeng, S.X. and Ng, C.Y., (2007) Towards Adoption of Prefabrication in Construction. Building and Environment, 42, DOI: /j.buildenv Warszawski, A., (1999) Industrialised and Automated Building Systems. London: E & FN Spon.

56 8 CONCEPTUAL SPATIAL SITE SELECTION FOR ONE STOP CENTRE FOR IBS MANUFACTURING PLANT IN PULAU PINANG Mohamed Nor Azhari Azman 1, Taksiah A. Majid 1, Mohd Sanusi S. Ahamad 1, Mohd Hanizun Hanafi 2 School of Civil Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia 1 School of Housing, Building and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia 2 syurga7181@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION The IBS was introduced by the Housing and Local Government in 1964 after referring to several European countries. The outcome of IBS method in the European countries gives good quality control production and effective mass production. The government carried out two pilot projects in The first project was the Tunku Abdul Rahman Flats located in Kuala Lumpur consisting of 3000 units of flats with 40 storeys. The project used the Danish System using large panel industrialized prefabricated system. The second project was the Rifle Range Road Flats located in Penang comprised of 3699 units of flat and 66 shop lots along the Rifle Range Road (Kadir et al., 2005; IBS, 2005). The previous Seventh Malaysia Plan ( ) has targeted 800,000 units of houses but only 20% was achieved (Ismail, 2001). The population in Malaysia is increasing and the government has to fulfill the demand for housing facility programs to be builds such as offices, schools, shopping centers, hospitals, etc (Badir et al., 2002). This demand can be met by means of the advance technology used in the Industrialize Building System (IBS). In the early 90 s the government gave good indication on the use of IBS massively in government project especially in the housing sector as indicated in the Eighth Malaysia Plan ( ). It has targeted to build 600,000 to 800,000 houses. The growth of development project in Malaysia has to take some time to complete (Waleed et al. 1997). It was estimated that a housing project can be completed on the average of one house per year per worker (1 house/year/worker). Friedman and Cammelleri, (1993) discovered that the cost of labor has increased up to 30% compared to 10% a few years ago. Likewise, the required quality cannot be achieved because of the poor quality control at the site construction and the waste of using the conventional method for construction work. This has contributed to pollution problems to the environment in the form of air and water pollution, and construction waste. In order to overcome the present problems, the mass production of housing under high quality control is required. IBS ADVANTAGES AND SUPPORT The main function of the IBS is to create synergy, by generating partners in the industry to assist in training, giving exposure on use of IBS techniques, encouraging the setting up of new IBS factories locally, updating on the latest technology, and enhancing current issues on IBS in the local state and international level (CIDB, 2003). The Malaysian construction industry is undergoing a paradigm shift from using conventional technology to a more systematic and mechanized system that utilizes the latest information and communication technology. IBS has become vital component in the industry to move towards global competition and update the new industrial trend. The advantages of using IBS in construction works are the reduction of unskilled workers, using optimum site materials, reducing environmental problems, maintaining the purity of construction sites and better quality control. Other added values of using the IBS in construction works is that the task becomes more organized and completion time of construction is reduced. The IBS component can be divided into a few categories and has undergone several changes in following the new trend of technology. Table 1 described the trend of IBS since the early 60 s until 2009:

57 Table 1. Categorisation of IBS Component No IBS Introduce in Categorisation of IBS IBS Component 1 Early 60 s Badir et al. (2002) i. Frame System ii. Panel System iii. Box System 2 Early 90 s Badir and Razali (1998) Full prefabricated construction on site and off site: i. Precast concrete framing, panel and box systems ii. Load bearing block iii. Sandwich panel iv. Steel frame CIDB (2003) i. Pre-cast concrete framing, panel and box systems ii. Formworks systems iii. Steel framing systems iv. Prefabricated timber framing systems v. Block work systems GOVERNMENT SUPPORT The government has introduced new incentives to encourage the contractor to use the IBS method whereby the government will exempt levy from the contractor for project, which uses 50% of IBS components. (CIDB, 2008) This is a positive step to encourage change from the conventional method to modern method. The contractor needs to take into account the cost of transportation, fabrication of IBS components, factory installation and manpower expertise required for implementation of the project. An issue that need to be tackled is regarding the expected demand for IBS components and transportation of the IBS components to the construction work sites particularly in the Northern region (Pulau Pinang, Kedah and Perlis), Western region (Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang) and Borneo region (Sabah and Sarawak) of Malaysia. Effective for 1 st September 2008, the Public Works Department of Malaysia require contractors to use a minimum of 70% IBS method for procurement of government tender projects with a total of RM6.9 billion (CIDB, 2008). The enforcement of the use of IBS method augurs well for the future development of the country with focus given on the use of the latest technology and giving opportunity to the contractors to acquire knowledge of IBS involved with the government tender project. This phenomenon will take time and the government has begun the training on the use of IBS methods to the contractor conducted by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) agency. Not all government projects need to use the IBS method as there is still some weakness in the system to deliver the IBS component to the construction site as stated in the government circular letter. The government circular letter has given the exception for the contractor to use the IBS method as stated below (Treasury, 2008): For project, value below RM10 million are exempted from using the IBS method with the permission of JKR. For project situated inland where it is difficult to transport the IBS component Renovation works on the existing building and not involved with the new construction building The most developed areas in Malaysia are Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Pulau Pinang, Johor and Perak. These states have a high number of IBS manufacturers. The data source from CIDB shows the list of companies manufacturing IBS registered with CIDB as shown in Table 2. The highest number of IBS manufacturer can be found in the area of Selangor (36) followed by Kuala Lumpur (23) and Johor (4). Pulau Pinang is in fouth place with two metal framing system IBS manufacturer and one blockwork system IBS manufacturer. Perlis, Kedah and Kelantan do not have any IBS manufacturer and this contribute to the reluctance of the contractors to use IBS due to the increase in transportation cost and miscellaneous cost. Similarly, the state of Pahang, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak are still in the intial state of exploring the use of IBS. Meanwhile Melaka and Negeri Sembilan have no problem to source the IBS components from the neighbouring states of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. In future, if we can identify the suitable location for IBS one stop manufacture centre in Pulau Pinang, this will enable the contractor to change from using the traditional method to modern method and Pulau Pinang could be the centre for the Nothern region requirement for Peninsular Malaysia.

58 Table 2. The Number of IBS Manufacture 2009 State Type Precast Concrete Panel Formwork Systems Timber Framing On Site Manufacture Metal Framing Systems Blockwork Systems Total IBS Manufacture Perlis Kedah Pulau Pinang Perak Selangor Kuala Lumpur N. Sembilan Melaka Johor Pahang Terengganu Kelantan Sabah Sarawak Total The current total number of IBS manufacturer in Malaysia is 75. In recent years, there are 21 suppliers and manufacturers, which were actively involved in the dissemination of IBS in Malaysia (Badir et al., 2002). The majority of IBS originated from the United States, Germany and Australia, with a market share of 25%, 17% and 17% respectively. Malaysia produced about 12% of the IBS systems (Kadir et al., 2005). The growth of IBS has increased almost three times as reported by Badir et al. (2002). The Five-Year Plan under the Eighth Malaysia Plan gave a tremendous amount of emphasis on building construction activities. Yet, the government has an additional 100,000 units of affordable homes to use the IBS method (IBS, 2005). Figure 1 below extracted from Table 1, shows the number of IBS according to the classification groups. The highest number of IBS manufacturers is the metal framing systems (20) category followed by precast concrete and timber framing manufacturers with each having 15 manufacturers, respectively. The lowest number of IBS manufacturers are the panel and block work systems (5 for each category). This research will be useful to study the demand of IBS components for each classification and to forecast the future expansion of Malaysia s construction industry. In the analysis it was found that metal framing systems have become more popular compared to the precast concrete due to the time frame, cost effectiveness and quality impact of the completion project. The technology and the growth expertise in the industry have moved forward to fast track the construction work phenomena. Figure 1. The Number of IBS Classification Component

59 GIS SUITABILITY MODEL FOR IBS ONE STOP CENTER The main purpose of this study is to carry out Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial site selection to identify potential locations for IBS One Stop Centre in Pulau Pinang taking into account the needs for IBS classification component in the industry. This research will identify several factors which has direct impact on the site selection of a new IBS location. Literatures have shown that optimal site selection using GIS is successfully being performed to determine various site location problems. Mohammad (2009) applied optimum site selection to locate new hospital in the urban area of Tehran by combining GIS analysis with the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP). Eddie and Heng (2005) used the GIS approach to find the new location of shopping mall in Hong Kong by deriving four criteria viz. (1) minimum distance, (2) maximum demands coverage, (3) maximum incomes coverage, and (4) optimal center. Various other research works has applied geographical information systems (GIS) to solve or support spatial reasoning problems in different contexts, such as locating convenience stores and other facilities, site selection, screening potential landfill sites, supplier selection and local park planning (Mohammad, 2009). The possibility of using GIS in identifying potential location for IBS One Stop Center can be clearly seen. A similar approach will be used where the GIS-based land-use suitability modeling is applied. It has commonly applied to urban/regional/environment planning and management applications (Jacek, 2004). The study will concentrate on the scope of land-use suitability with respect to information science perspective and social science perspective. The use of land-use suitability modeling with regards to the objective of the research has been achieved in previous research done by McHarg (1969), Hopkins (1977), Brail and Klosterman (2001) and Collins et al. (2001). Cova and Church (2000) as mentioned in Jacek (2004) found two different context of land suitability analysis, i.e. the distinctions between the site selection problem and the site search problem. The goal of the site selection is to identify the most suitable site for some activity given the set of potential sites. The first step involves the need to define the parameter analysis spatial layer, such as size, location, distance and potential area. Then the next step is to rank or rate the alternative sites based on the parameter given and ensure the boundary spatial layer to explicit the best site for allocation. The explicit site search analysis helps to determine the site suitability and define the spatial characteristics (shape, contiguity, and/or compactness) as according to Diamond and Wright (1988), Brookes (1997), Cova and Church (2000), Aerts (2002) and Xiao et al. (2002) in Jacek (2004). The proposed land-use suitability model will generate potential sites for the IBS One Stop Center based on several criterion factor for example, road and rail road characteristic, proximity from the new potential development area, population census, proximity from the existing infrastructure, and topography. The justification made for the road railroads proximity characteristic has been mentioned by Cheng and Connor (1994). The research was to identify the potential area for the construction site layout. The Arcsite GIS software was integrated with database management systems (DBMNSs), which are able to identify the suitable areas to locate temporary facilities. Meanwhile, the study by Warszawski (1999) on the suitable distance from the new potential development area to the fabrication plant should be the distance with a variance from 50km to 100km. The conceptual spatial site selection parameter for the IBS One Stop Center is described in Figure 2.

60 Selection Parameter Data Layer Suitable Areas Spatial Model Site must be on the roads that 1. Lanes 2 2. Width 7m 3. Traffic condition is medium or high Buffer Site must be within km of potential area for new construction works Site must be have medium or high population Buffer Buffer Intersect Site must be no closer than 10m to the railroads Buffer Land-use must be 1. New development area 2. Open Space 3. Accessibility is easy to access Buffer Figure 2. Spatial Site Selection for the IBS One Stop Center The proposed study will incorporate the population census data in the site selection criteria. This is required to identify the total people per square kilometer (people/km 2 ) in each sub catchment area of Pulau Pinang that are divided into five district viz. Timur Laut (TL), Barat Daya (BD), Seberang Perai Utara (SPU), Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) and Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS). Table 3 summarises the density population district in Pulau Pinang for the year 1980, 1991 and 2000.

61 Table 3. The Density Population District in Pulau Pinang in the Year of 1980, 1991 and 2000 District Total Population Density Population (per km 2 ) Area (km 2 ) TL BD SPU SPT SPS 391,400 76, , ,975 71, , , , ,270 84, , , , , , , , ,410 1, , Pulau Pinang 900,772 1,064,116 1,313,449 1, ,024 1,264 (Source: Department of Framework Malaysia, 2002) The GIS map in Figure 3 shows the data of density population of Pulau Pinang for the year 2000 which consist of five districts namely Timur Laut (TL), Barat Daya (BD), Seberang Perai Utara (SPU), Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) and Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS). The GIS data also shows the road map, rural building and rail track. Figure 3. GIS Data of Pulau Pinang

62 IBS: Multi Usage Holdings Berhad IBS: Tong Yong Sdn Bhd IBS: Visage Industries Sdn Bhd Existing Development Area POTENTIAL AREA FOR DEVELOPMENT Potential Area for Re-development Area Committed for Development but Not Develop Fully Potential Area for Development Situated Out Side the Development Corridor Suggested Re-Use Land POTENTIAL AREA FOR RESERVATION AND RECLAIMATION Permanent Agriculture Area Agriculture Area Paddy Field Forest Mangrove Forest Figure 4. The Potential area for Development in Pulau Pinang Source: The studies structure planning state of Pulau Pinang Figure 4 described the potential area for future development in Pulau Pinang based on the structure planning from The map also shows the location of three existing IBS manufacturer in Pulau Pinang:- IBS blockwork system: Multi Usage Holdings Berhad located in Weld Quay, Barat Daya (BD). IBS metal framing system: Tong Yong Sdn Bhd located in Bukit Minyak, Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS). IBS blockwork system: Visage Industries Sdn Bhd located in Bukit Minyak, Seberang Perai Selatan (SPS). The potential area for development which as in Figure 4 can be divided into four categories, namely:- Potential area for development Area committed for development but not develop fully

63 Potential area for development situated outside the development corridor Suggested re-use land The potential area for the development has 11 shaded areas as shown in Figure 4. A detail study will be carried on the relevant factor and reasons why the area was chosen by the Department of Planning Development. There will be series of interview session with the authority and preparation on the set of quantitative analysis survey on the site selected for potential development area in Pulau Pinang. The outcome of the study will give strong justification and the model derived will be used for studying other potential area. CONCLUSION Geographical Information System (GIS) can be a computer aided tool to analyse the results with more accessible information, visualization of data, higher quality of data and established procedures for repetitive analyses. This research will also establish and determine the physical and social factors for IBS One Stop Center. It will definitely help in manufacturing new location and knowing the flow of transporting IBS component from IBS manufacturer to the site construction. The research finding will benefit the government or private sector in fulfilling the demand of IBS component where the number of IBS manufacture in Northern Peninsular, West Peninsular and Borneo region are still few. REFERENCES Badir, Y.F., Kadir, M.R.A., and Hashim, A.H. (2002). Industrialised Building System construction in Malaysia. Architec. Eng., 8(1), Badir, Y., and Razali, A. (1998). Theory of classification: its application and Badir-Razali building systems classification. Journal Institute Engineering Malaysia, October. Cheng, M.Y. and Connor, J.T.O. (1996). Arcsite: Enhanced GIS for construction site layout. Journal of construction engineering and management, 122(4), 334. CIDB, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Newsletter Issue 3, 10 Eddie, W.L.C., Heng, L., Ling, Y. (2005). A GIS approach to shopping mall location selection. Building and Environment 42, Friedman, A., and Cammalleri, V., Prefabricated wall systems and the North American home-building industry. Building and Research Information, 21-41, IBS, IBS Digest, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), 3-10 Ismail, E., IBS for housing in Malaysia. The Sixth Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Management Seminar, Tokyo. Jacek, M., GIS-based land-use suitability analysis: a critical overview. Progress in planning, 62, 4-6 Kadir, M.R.A., Lee, W.P., Jaafar, M.S., Sapuan, S.M., Ali, A.A.A. (2005). Performance comparison between structural element of building systems in Malaysia. American Journal of Applied Sciences, Structural Survey 24 (5), pp Kuo, R.J., Chi, S.C., Kao, S.S., A decision support system for locating convenience store through fuzzy AHP. Computers and Industrial Engineering 37, Mohammad, H.V., Ali, A.A., Abbas, A. (2009). Hospital site selection using fuzzy AHP and its derivatives. Journal of environment management, 1-9. Treasury circular letter no. 7 Year 2008 Trikha, D.N., Ali, A.A.A., Industrial Building Systems. Universiti Putra Malaysia Press. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Waleed, T., Mohd, P.D, Abdul, S.A, Abdul Kadir, M.R., and Abang Ali, A.A., Industrialised Building System. Proc., Seminar on Affordable Quality Housing, Housing Research Centre, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Warszawski, A., Industrialized and Automated Building Systems. London: E and FN Spon. Hassim, S., Jaafar, M. S., Sazali, S. A. A. H. (2009). The Contractor Perception Towers Industrialised Building System Risk in Construction Projects in Malaysia American Journal of Applied Sciences, 6 (5). Hayes, N. (2002). Managing teams: A strategy for success, 2nd ed. London: Thomson Learning. Howell, I. (1996). The need for interoperability in the construction industry, Informit - INCIT 96 Proceedings: Bridging the Gap, pp Huovila, P., Koskela, L., Lautanala, M. (1997). Fast or concurrent: the art of getting construction improved. In: Lean Construction (ed. L. Alarcon), A. A. Balkema, and Rotterdam. Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) Roadmap (2003), CIDB Malaysia, K. Lumpur. Ingram, H., Teare, R., Scheuing, E., Armistead, C. (1997). A system model of effective teamwork, TQM Magazine, vol. 9(2), pp Integrated Project Delivery: A Guide (2007), California Council, National, The American Institute of Architects, version 1.

64 Jaafari, A. and Manivong, K. (1999). The need for life-cycle integration of project, Processes, Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 6(3), pp Jergeas, G., & Van der Put, J. (2001). Benefits of constructability on construction projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 127(4), Kamar, K. A. M., Alshawi, M. and Hamid, Z. A. (2009). Barriers to Industrialised Building System (IBS): The Case of Malaysia. BuHu 9th International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPGRC) (Eds., Alshawi, M., Ahmed, V., Egbu, C. and Sutrisna, M.), Salford, UK. Kamara, J.M, Anumba C.J, Evbuomwan N.F.O. (2000). Establishing and processing client requirements a key aspect of concurrent engineering. Construction, Engineering, Construction Engineering and Architectural Management, 7(1). Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams. New York: HarperCollins. Kezsbom, D., (1990). Are you really ready to build a project team? Industrial Engineering, Vol. 22 No. 10, pp Khalfan, M.A. & McDermott, P. (2009). Integration of Suppliers and Manufacturers through Innovative Procurement, 2 nd Construction Industry Research Achievement International Conference (CIRIAC 2009), CIDB, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 3 rd 5 th November. Latham, M., (1994). Constructing the Team, Final report on joint review of procurement and contractual agreements in the UK construction industry, HMSO, London. Love P. E. D., Gunasekaran, A. and Li H. (1998). Concurrent Engineering: A Strategy for Procuring Construction Projects. International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 16(6), pp Love, P.E.D., Irani, Z., Edwards, D.J. (2004). A seamless supply chain management model for construction, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 9 No.1, pp Love, P.E.D. & Sohal, A.S., (2002). Influence of organisational learning practice on reworks costs in projects, Proceedings of 8th international conference on ISO 9000 & TQM (Change Management), CMQR at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Love, P.E.D., & Gunasekaran, A. (1997). Concurrent engineering in the construction industry, International Journal of Concurrent Engineering Research Applications, Vol. 5 No.2, pp Masterman, J. W. E. (2002). Introduction to building procurement systems, 2nd ed. London: Spon Press. Matthews, O. & Howell, G.A. (2005). Integrated Project Delivery an Example of Relational Contracting, Lean Construction Journal, Vol. 2 April. Mendelsohn, R. (1997). The constructability review process: A constructor s perspective. J. Manage. Eng., 13(3), Mohamad, M.I. (1999). The Application of Concurrent Engineering Philosophy to the Construction Industry, Thesis PhD, Loughborough University. Moore, D. R. & Dainty, A. R. J. (1999). Integrated project teams performance in managing unexpected change events, Team Performance Management, vol. 5(7), pp Nawi M.N.M., & Lee, A.,(2010), Improving Team Integration In Malaysian IBS Construction Projects, Proceedings in Proceedings In 4 th International Conference On Built Environment In Developing Countries (ICBEDC 2010), Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Nawi M.N.M., Lee, A., Arif, M. & Haron, A.T (2009). Collaboration among Project Participants towards Sustainable Construction: A Study of IBS In The Malaysian Construction Industry, Proceeding in 2 nd Construction Industry Research Achievement International Conference (CIRIAC 2009), CIDB, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nawi, M.N.M., Nifa, F.A.A., Abdullah, S. & Yasin, F.M. (2007). A Preliminary Survey of the Application of IBS in Kedah and Perlis Malaysian Construction Industry, Proceeding in Conference in Sustainable Building, Malaysia. Nesan, L. J. & Holt, G. D. (1999). Empowerment in construction: The way forward for performance improvement, London: Research Studies Press Ltd. Ofori, G. (2000). Greening the construction supply chain in Singapore, European Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 6, No pp Parker, G. M. (1990). Team players and teamwork: The new competitive business strategy, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. Scarnati, J. T. (2001). On becoming a team, Team Performance Management, vol.7 (2/1), pp.5-10 Strategic Forum for Construction (2003). The integration toolkit guide: Integrated project team, London: Strategic Forum for Construction. Stutz, R. A. (2000). Converting from design-bid-build to design-build, AACE International Transactions, p Sundstrom, E., De Meuse, K.P., Futrell, D., (1990). Work teams: applications and effectiveness, American Psychologist, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp Thanoon, W.A.M., Peng, L.W., Kadir, M.R.A., Jaafar, M. S. and Salit, M. S. (2003). The Experiences of Malaysia and Other Countries in Industrialized building system, Proceeding of International Conference Industrialized building systems, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Trigunarsyah, B. (2006). Case Studies on Implementation of Constructability Improvement by Construction Project Owners in Indonesia. In Brown, Kerry and Hampson, Keith and Brandon, Peter, Eds. Proceedings Clients Driving Innovation: Moving Ideas into Practice, Gold Coast, Australia.

65 UKCG Report, (2009). Construction in the UK Economy, The Benefits of Investment, UK Contractors Group, Construction in the UK economy. Vincent, S. & Kirkpatrick, S. W. (1995). Integrating different views of integration, In P. Brandon and M. Betts, eds. Integrated construction information, 1 st ed., London: E& FN Spon. Vrijhoef, R. & Koskela, L. (1999). Roles of Supply Chain Management in Construction, Proceedings IGLC-7, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA Wilson, V. & Pirrie, A. (2000). Multidisciplinary Team working beyond the Barriers? A Review of the Issues, SCRE Centre, Research in education. World Commission on Environment and Developments Our common future (1987). Oxford University Press.

66 9 UNDERSTANDING THE MANAGEMENT AND INTEGRATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN CONCEPTS: DRIVING MALAYSIA S CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS THROUGH IBS Ani Saifuza Abd. Shukor, Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad, Rohana Mahbub and Faridah Ismail Graduate Centre Department, Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) asaswan74@yahoo.com INTRODUCTION In recent years, the Malaysian industrialised building system (IBS) has been challenged to achieve supply chain integration to enhance the performance delivery of construction projects. At the same time, the supply chain management (SCM) concept has been recognised as a tool for achieving better integration amongst the construction players. Thus, in the scenario of competitive business trends, managing and integrating the supply chain has received increasing interest in delivering a successful construction project. However, understanding SCM has become a major hindrance in a developing country such as Malaysia. Various interpretations of the concept of SCM can make it quite challenging for organizations to achieve and support the entire SCM approach. Great confusion also arises because SCM is viewed from a number of perspectives for several reasons. To improve the management and integration of supply chain, understanding SCM is very important. The current research conducts a thorough review of recent literature on the philosophy and concepts of SCM and its application in a number of selected sectors. It likewise presents the results of a questionnaire survey on the understanding and purpose of SCM. To realise the importance of the implementation of the SCM concept, literature review offers an analysis of the various definitions of SCM adopted by different sectors and attempts to relate it to the IBS construction industry s concept and approach. The questionnaire survey is adopted to underpin the variables for understanding SCM and its purpose from the IBS players standpoint. We highly recommend evaluating the development of SCM definitions and concepts because it will partly influence the establishment of a suitable definition and understanding of SCM within the construction industry. In turn, it will benefit both the academia and the Malaysian IBS construction project delivery. DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPT OF MANAGEMENT AND INTEGRATION OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN Fragmented and disconnected IBS construction supply chains are the leading causes of low performance and productivity in the construction industry. These issues are attributed to the industry s involvement in a variety of separate and interdependent parties in the entire process. In the new global economy, the management and integration of supply chain has become a central issue to enhance project delivery performance. Several studies have defined the supply chain (SC) and emphasised the linkages of organizations or activities to demand and supply flows that are supported and accomplished by people (Christopher, 1992; Mabert and Venkataramanan, 1998; Trent, 2004; Samaranayake, 2005; Simchi Levi et al. 2007). Numerous studies have also attempted to explain SC and its management. In the earlier period, a large and growing body of literature investigated the definition and scope of supply chain management (SCM) across the industry. In the context of logistics, much debate about the distinction between logistics and SCM has emerged. Research done by Lambert and Cooper (2000) shows that a big part of the academia and most industry players view of SCM is not considerably different from the contemporary understanding of logistics management. In another study, Varma (2006) found that SCM and logistics are frequently used interchangeably. However, the view of logistics has been reconceptualised and modified by the Council of Logistics Management in 1998, stating that logistics management is only a part of SCM. Further associated studies by London (2004) have also illustrated that SCM is more than simply logistics. Varma (2006) expressed the same argument, citing the SCM definitions from nine books and journal articles, which consider SCM as having a larger scope than logistics. In the context of purchasing organizations, the Institute for Supply Management (2000) defines SCM as the identification and management of specific supply chains that are critical to a purchasing organization s operation; in addition, purchasing personnel may view SCM as a strategy for managing suppliers (Giunipero et al. 1996). However, the Unionist perceives purchasing as part of SCM, which also indicates SCM as a complete substitute for purchasing (Larson and Halldorsson, 2002). As the definitions reach a wider scope, Christopher (1998) views SCM as the management of upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and customers to deliver superior customer value at low cost to the supply chain. Similarly, Lambert and Cooper (2000) define SCM as the management of multiple

67 relationships across the supply chain, and Harland (1996) describes SCM as the management of supply relationships. These perspectives on SCM are more concerned with relationship management. Furthermore, one of the contentious issues in SC literature is the difficulty in defining the boundaries of the supply chain concept, given the huge variety of interpretations (London, 2004). For example, Mentzer et al. (2001) classified SCM into three categories, whereas Harland (2001) grouped SCM s use into four categories and described a four-stage supply chain classification that outlines the four main uses of SCM. London (2004) further characterised SCM into four major themes (Table 1). Literature proposes several techniques for implementing SCM. To deal with these challenges, those SCM categories have given an idea of viewing the direction and coordination concepts of SCM. Therefore, to achieve the output and enhance performance, the complexity and relationship of the chains are very important. The complexity of SC may vary significantly from organisation to organisation and from one activity to another. In general, SCM as the management and coordination of the optimised supply chain, and by fulfilling its preconditions and goals, should involve all stakeholders, including the ultimate customer (Vrijhoef, 1998; Mentzer et al. 2001; Trent, 2004). SCM represents a new way of managing the business and relationships with other members of the supply chain. The key word and basic principle of SCM is integration. Over the years, SCM has been recognised as an approach through which such integration can be reached. Thus, in reference to all the above-mentioned definitions, the management and integration of supply chains is vital to the process of delivering a product or service. Therefore, to tackle the scenario of disconnected IBS supply chains, Malaysia needs to establish an appropriate and agreeable meaning of SCM among the supply chain players to develop a common understanding, values, and concepts, and, ultimately, to accomplish the missions and goals of IBS project delivery successfully Table 1. Categories and Dimensions of Supply Chain Management (Mentzer et al and Harland, 1996) Mentzer et al.( 2001) classified SCM into three categories. Harland (1996), classified, SCM s use into four categories: London (2004) i) SCM as a Management Philosophy As a management philosophy, SCM drives supply chain members to customer orientation. They also stressed that management philosophy should have the following characteristics: a) A system approach to view the SC as a whole, and to manage the total flow of goods inventory from the supplier to the ultimate customer. b) A strategic orientation towards cooperative efforts to synchronise and converge intra - and inter - firm operational and strategic capabilities into a unified whole; and c) A customer focuses to create unique and individualised sources of customer value, leading to customer satisfaction. ii) SCM as a Set of Activities to Implement a Management Philosophy In adopting the SCM philosophy, firms must establish management practices that permit them to act or behave consistently with the philosophy. A set of activities is necessary to carry out the philosophy. In this context, the philosophy of SCM turns into SCM implementation. SCM activities include: integrated behaviour, mutually sharing information, mutually sharing risks and rewards, cooperation, the same goal and the same focus on serving customers, integration of process and partners to build and maintain long-term relationship. iii) SCM as a Set of Management Processes A process is a specific ordering of work activities across time and place, with a beginning, an end, clearly identified inputs and outputs, and a structure for action (Cooper et al. 1997) i) The internal SC that integrates business functions involved in the flow of ii) materials and information from inbound to outbound ends of the business The management of dyadic or two - party relationships with immediate suppliers iii) The management of a chain of businesses, including a supplier, a supplier s suppliers, a customer and a customer s customer, and so on iv) The management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers. Identified the following four major themes in considering Day s contribution: distribution; production; strategic procurement and industrial organization economics. These themes view the movement and activities of supply chains. MALAYSIAN INDUSTRIALISED BUILDING SYSTEM The IBS is widely adopted across the globe. It offers a potential alternative for driving further enhancement in the construction industry. IBS is a move to transform the construction industry into a purely service industry that deals with

68 components manufactured in factories. Various research projects have identified the major benefits of IBS (Blismas and Wakefield, 2009; Blismas et al. 2006; Badir et al. 2002; Gibb, 1999). The use of IBS assures valuable advantages in the context of the local construction scenario. Two IBS pilot projects in Kuala Lumpur (Tuanku Abdul Rahman Flats) and Penang (Rifle Range Road Flats) mark the beginning and development of IBS in Malaysia. The introduction of IBS is one of essential strategies for moving Malaysia s construction further up the value chain. Thus, with the impact of globalisation, the utilisation of IBS in the Malaysian construction industry looks forward to change. The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has taken the initiative by promoting the IBS Roadmap ( ) as the strategic direction for the industry to shift forward. The IBS Centre has been set up as a one-stop centre to streamline the Malaysian construction industry toward industrialisation. A series of support and initiatives have been designed to expedite the vision of the Malaysia construction industry to move forward and enhance the performance of IBS. However, despite much encouragement, certain construction chain players are still reluctant to get involved in and implement IBS. In other words, the IBS construction approach is not fully exercised. The usage of IBS is currently much lower than it could be. The root of the problem has to do with supply chain and procurement challenges (Abd. Shukor et al. 2009a). These practices are characterised by a difficulty in establishing integration and cooperation between the parties involved (CIMP, 2007; Faizul, 2006; Rashid, 2009). The innovative management and procurement in IBS has not yet been fully realised by the industry players, especially in terms of exploring good SCM, in which case, integration is the essence of SCM s basic principle. Chee (2003) and Abd. Shukor et al. (2009b) point out that SCM remains largely unexplored in Malaysia s local industry. Therefore, due to the adversarial and fragmented characteristics of IBS construction supply chains, the Malaysian construction industry should change to pave the way for improvement. The application and understanding of supply chain integration and its management should be addressed and understood by all the IBS players to enhance IBS performance. METHODOLOGY The present study is based on a literature review and questionnaire survey. The first phase involves an extensive review of the emergence and development of SCM through definitions, concepts, and issues of cross sectors. In the second phase, a questionnaire is prepared for the construction industry supply chains (clients, registered Class A/G7 contractors, consultants, suppliers, and manufacturers). Data analyses were undertaken using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The descriptive technique was used to analyse the demographic of the respondents; the frequencies of the respondents are expresses in percentage score. Out of 132 questionnaires distributed, 44 were completed and returned, representing a 20% response rate. Out of the 44 returned, 27 questionnaires came from those who engage in and practice IBS. To test the reliability and the appropriateness, the questionnaire was pre-tested by experts from the industry players and members of the academia who were selected from doctorates of similar and different specialisations. Their comments and observations were considered to improve the questionnaire. The results from the analysis of these findings will hopefully make a head-way in establishing a better understanding of SCM and achieving greater integration within the IBS supply chains. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Construction research that focuses on the supply chain concept is a relatively new field, especially in developing countries, as the Malaysian construction industry exemplifies. The concept of SCM is eminently known as a management tool and practice in many industries. The success of SCM techniques is evident in various industries, including automotive, retailing, food, information technology, and manufacturing (Morledge et al. 2009; McGeorge and Palmer, 2002). SCM has been practised and implemented in these industries for many years. It has enhanced their performance and competitiveness (Fearne and Hughes, 2000; Green et al. 2005; Tummala et al. 2006; Lee and Billington, 1995; Lummus and Vokurka, 1999; Liker, 2005; Davis, 2005). Findings from the literature illustrate that despite SCM s various definitions, the same issue emerges (Vrijhoef, 1998). Interestingly, Vrijhoef summed up the many definitions of SCM and addressed the common themes: embracing an integral perspective across the supply chain; enhancing customer responsiveness; adopting flow management of materials and information; optimal co-ordination and configuration of the supply chain process; supply chain analysis and improvement, including the reduction of inventory and costs and rejection of intra- and inter-organisational boundaries; and achieving partnership arrangement. To align with the research objective, specific analyses were identified: in reference to the definition and the concepts of SCM in mainstream management (almost manufacturing), obviously, there is a need for a mechanism through which these different functions and activities can be integrated. Therefore, from this mainstream management definition, SCM can be applied in the construction industry scenario, where an effective and efficient industry through integrated activities and managed supply chain relationship is necessary to ensure project delivery success. However, the organisation should clearly define the concept before implementing the SCM as a whole. The adoption of the concept would be inaccurate if it is used without considering the nature and the characteristics of the industry.

69 The philosophy of SCM has long been seen as a factor in improving the performance of supply chains. However, despite the popularity of SCM, there remains considerable confusion about its meaning both in the academia and in practice (Mentzer et al. 2001). Figure 1 demonstrates the respondent s type of organisation. A total of 26% of the respondents consisted of contractors; 19% QS consultants; 15% manufacturers; and 7% clients; architects, government, and engineers each comprised 11% of the respondents. The proportion of the respondents positions in the organisation is shown in Figure 2. The highest percentage (44%) labelled, Others, represents the executive level, followed by director (19%), and technical staff (15%); senior manager and project manager each has 11%. Majority of the respondents are from the top management level and involved in organisational decisions. Thus, the data and views expressed by the respondents are noteworthy because their position signifies their capacity to provide reliable information. Pryke (2009) points out the need for a single actor with the authority to deal with all the other actors within the supply chain to successfully manage any supply chain. Organisation Figure 1. Type of Figure 2. Position in the Organisation Table 1. Understanding of SCM Terms Understanding Percent (%) Integration and coordination among various function and 81 activities Synchronisation of information, product and funds flow 44 Strategic management of the supply chain relationships 41 Improved customer focus and value 26 Reduction of costs 22 Purchasing and logistics only 11 Others 7 Table 2. Purposes of the SCM Practice Purpose Percent (%) Further integrate processes and activities 81

70 Create greater value 63 Develop longer-term relationships 33 Satisfy customers 30 Implement new system development 30 Achieve a better concept 19 Others 7 Understanding the concept and philosophy of SCM is very crucial in the success of SCM implementation. Table 1 depicts the respondents understanding of SCM. Majority of the respondents (81%) understand SCM as the integration and coordination among various functions and activities. The next highest proportion (44%) recognises SCM as the synchronisation of information, product, and fund flows. A total of 41% of the respondents acknowledge SCM as the strategic management of supply chain relationships; 26% indicate that SCM is a way to improve customer focus and value; and the remaining 22% claim that it is a tool for cost reduction. Purchasing and logistic. Table 2 shows the purposes of SCM practice. The two most important reasons for practising SCM are the following: to further integrate processes and activities, and to create greater value. The next three important reasons are to develop longer-term relationships, to satisfy customers, and to implement new system development. Based on the survey findings, the main reasons for practising SCM are to integrate processes and activities, and to create greater value. These reasons are in line with their understanding of SCM. Generally, most of the companies agree that the concept and implementation of SCM gained from the practice of SCM in the construction process and implementation will be enhanced and give value for money to their organisations, thus enhancing the productivity and performance of the IBS construction industry. Moreover, Pryke (2009) noted that the supply chain and its management are the main focus of creating value for clients, achieving integration of systems, and perhaps even realising improved profit levels industry-wide. This shows that the main features of SCM in projects that are undertaken in the IBS Malaysian construction industry are more concerned with integration. Literature reveals that integration is the essence of SCM. The positive integration of supply chain has become a major factor in delivering successful construction projects. Therefore, proactive roles and actions on the establishment of SCM understanding and integration of IBS supply chains should be viewed as a way to enhance performance. The government should tackle IBS construction supply chain problems and pursue innovative approaches to realise its overall vision of IBS project delivery success. Along with these objectives, the construction supply chain management, with emphasis on integration, must be viewed as bringing together a series of different organisations consisting of IBS key players (client, designer contractor, and specialist/manufacturer), which is linked by a flow of practices, information, financial, and contractual relationships. This is to allow them to work together toward design and construction practices within the context of the project procurement delivery arrangement approach with the same common goals and objectives CONCLUSION The current study has established the definition and explored the understanding and purpose of SCM. The presented literature and evidence have shown that the characteristics and the nature of the construction industry supply chain constitute the main challenge to the implementation of SCM on a wider scale. Future empirical studies should extensively examine these areas, especially the integration of supply chain players with the procurement process and its implementation. Finally, the current study is a part of an ongoing main research that will eventually attempt to further enhance the process and implementation of the supply chain integration in the industrialised building system in Malaysia s construction projects. The results of the main research will hopefully provide the basis of a valuable framework to support the Malaysian Construction Industry Master Plan and strengthen the value chain in the Malaysian construction industry. REFERENCES Abd Shukor, A.S., Mohammad, M.F., Mahbub,R., Ismail, F. & Halil, F. (2009b) The Implementation of Supply Chain Management in the Malaysian Construction Industry. International Conference on Construction and Real Estate Management (ICCREAM 2009) 5-6 November, Beijing Abd Shukor, A.S., Mohammad, M.F., Mahbub,R.. & Halil, F. (2009a) Integration of issues and problems of construction supply chain management in industrialised building systems (IBS). 2 nd Construction Industry Research Achievement International Conference (CIRAIC 2009) 3 5 November, Kuala Lumpur Badir Y.F, Kadir M.R.A & Hashim A.H. (2002) Industrialised Building Systems Construction in Malaysia Journal of Architectural Engineering, vol 8,No1, March 1,pp19-23

71 Blismas, N. & Wakefield, R. (2009) Drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in australia. Construction Innovation Journal, Vol 9, No. 1. Blismas, N., Pasquire, C. & Gibb, A. (2006) Benefit evaluation for off-site production in construction offsite manufacture in australia-barriers and opportunities Construction Management and Economics, 24, Chee, C.C. (2003) Supply Chain Management Through Partnering in Malaysian Construction Industry. Unpublished Master thesis, University Teknologi Malaysia. Christopher, M. (1992). Logistics and Supply Chain Management: Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Services. Pitman, London Christopher, M. (2ed)(1998). Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Prentice Hall, London. Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). (2007) Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP ). Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur Cooper, M.C., Lambert, D.M, Pagh, J.D. (1997) Supply Chain Management The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 8, Number 1, pp.14 Davis, D. (1995) State of a New Art: Manufacturers and Trading Partners Learn as They Go Manufacturing Systems, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp Faizul, N.A. (2006) Supply Chain Management in IBS Industry. Malaysia International IBS Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur Fearne, A. And Hughes, D. (2000) Success Factors in the Fresh Produce Supply Chain British Food Journal, Vol.102, No.10, pp Gibb, A.G.F. (1999) Off-site Fabrication: Prefabrication, Pre-assembly and Modularisation. Whittles Publisher, United Kingdom Giunipero, Lawrence, C. Richard R.Brand, (1996) Purchasing s Role in Supply Chain Management, The International Journal of Logistics Management, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp Green, S.D., Fernie, S., Weller, S. (2005) Making Sense of Supply Chain Management: a Comparative Study of Aerospace and Construction Construction Management and Economics, Vol. 23,pp Harland, C.M. (1996) Supply Chain Management: Relationships, Chains and Networks British Journal of Management, Vol.7, Special Issue,pp.S63-S80 Lambert, D.M & Cooper, M.C. (2000) Issues in Supply Chain Management Industrial Marketing Management, Vol.29, pp Landon, K. (2004) Construction Supply Chain Procurement Modelling PhD Thesis, The University of Melbourne Larson, P.D. and Halldorsson, A. (2002) What is SCM? And, Where is it? The Journal of Supply Chain Management, Fall 2002;38,4, pp36-44 Lee, H.L. and Billington, C. (1995) The Evolution of Supply Chain Management Models and Practice at Hewlett- Packard INTERFACES 25, pp Liker, J.K. (2005) The Toyota Way and Supply Chain Management OESA Lean to Survive Program Lummus, R.R and Vokurka, R.J. (1999) Defining Supply Chain Management: a Historical Perspective and Practical Guidelines Industrial Management & Data Systems, 99/1, pp Mabert, V.A. and Venkataramanan, M.A. (1998). Special research focus on supply linkages: challenges for design and management in the 21st century. Design Sciences: 29,3; ABI/INFORM Global pg 537 McGeorge, D; Palmer, A. (2ed) (2002) Construction Management new Directions Wiley-Blackwell; United Kingdom. Mentzer, T.J., DeWitt, W., Keebler, J.S., Min, S., Nix, N.W., Smith, C.D. and Zacharia, Z.G. (2001) Defining Supply Chain Management Journal of Business Logistics, Vol. 22, No. 2. Pryke, S. (2009) Construction Supply Chain Management Concepts and Case Study Wiley-Blackwell; United Kingdom Wiley-Blackwell; United Kingdom. Rashid, K.A. (2009) Industrialised Building Systems: The JKR Perspectives. International Seminar on IBS, Malaysia IBS International, CIDB Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Saad, M., Jones, M., James, P., (2002) A Review of the Progress Towards the Adoption of Supply Chain Management relationships in Construction European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, Vol.8,pp Samaranayake, P. (2005). A conceptual framework for supply chain management: a structural integration. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 10/1, pp Simchi-Levi, D., Kaminsky,P. and Simchi-Levi, E. (2007). Designing and managing the supply chain. 3 rd ed. New Work: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, pp. 498 In. Tommelein, I.D., Ballard, The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) (2000) Glossory of Key Purchasing and Supply Terms In: Larson, P.D. and Halldorsson, A. (2002) What is SCM? And, Where is it? The Journal of Supply Chain Management, Fall 2002;38,4, pp36-44 Trent, R.J. (2004) What Everyone Needs to Know About SCM Supply Chain Management Review Tummala, V.M.R., Philips, C.L.M., Johnson, M. (2006) Assessing Supply Chain Management Success Factors: a Case Study Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 11/2, pp

72 Varma, S. (2006) Implementing Supply Chain Management in a Firm: Issues and Remedies Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 18 No.3, pp Vrijhoef, R. (1998) Co-makership in Construction Towards Construction Supply Chain Management, Graduate Studies Thesis, Delft University of Technology.

73 10 INTEGRATION OF ISSUES AND PROBLEMS OF CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IN IBS Ani Saifuza Abd. Shukor, Mohammad Fadhil Mohammad, Rohana Mahbub, Faridah Ismail, Faridah Muhammad Halil Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. INTRODUCTION The construction industry represents one of the most dynamic and complex industrial environments. The competitiveness in global market; will eventually contribute positively to the competitiveness of the supply chain. The challenge for the construction industry is not only in knowing their supply chain tiers but how their supply chains are taken up as well as managing these chains. In the scenario of globalisation and changing business trends, managing the entire supply chain has become a major factor in delivering a successful construction project especially in a developing country such as Malaysia. However, the fragmented and adversarial nature of the construction industry will extensively influence the performance and the characteristic of construction supply chains. Numerous issues and problems in construction supply chains should be addressed extensively in order to enhance the productivity. Due to the uniqueness of the characteristics of construction supply chains which is relatively disconnected and fragmented, there is a need for a change within the industry to enable improvement to take place. The application of the supply chain concept into construction is now being advocated as a management strategy to improve the performance of the industry. Supply Chain Management (SCM) brings the revolutionary philosophies and approaches to manage the business with sustained competitiveness. The successful of the SCM across industries have been approved for many years. The successful factors such as the integration process, organization and people relationship, mutually beneficial, cross-sharing information, customer view, innovation and ICT, product customisation and performance measurement that emerge from modern manufacturing concepts have seen a number of tremendous excellent deliveries (Abd Shukor et al., 2009). Therefore, those major innovations are developing to suite in the construction industry nature to enhance the construction industry performance. This new way of management could be linked to the Malaysian construction industry current and future trend in view to improve the quality of construction industry performance which is in line with the Malaysian government s industrialisation programme called the IBS. The introduction of the Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP ) and the IBS Road Map ( ) have been a significant contribution factor and impact to the development of the Malaysian economy. However, it is facing an uphill task to establish the integration and togetherness between parties in the construction supply chain (Rashid, 2009; CIMP, 2007; Faizul, 2006) Kamar et al. (2009) in their study had mentioned that one of the most critical factors in establishing the appropriate framework on the implementation of the IBS construction approach to contractors is known to be implementing the SCM. However, SCM could not be successfully implemented due to the lack of planning and management of all activities including procurement, conversion, logistics and coordination project management. Rashid (2009) in his analysis also mentioned about the problem of incorporating a successful supply chain in the IBS is due to the missmatch between the design capabilities. The fragmented and adversarial relationship among players involved causes wasteful delays. Furthermore, among other problems encountered are the lack of planning and the importance of manufacturer s involvement at the early design stage. As a whole, the performance and the productivity of the Malaysian construction industry has been reported to be quite slow and inefficient in comparison to other industries. Therefore, in order to persuade the construction industry to engage in a more strategic and systematic approaches in IBS construction, the problems which relate the Malaysian construction industry and the IBS approach must be addressed and analysed. The purpose of this paper is to discover and highlight major issues and problems within the construction industry and will attempt to relate these to the problems of the IBS. The key problems of the SCM in construction industry will also be analysed. The results from the analysis will hopefully make a head way on enhancing the performance of SCM in the IBS construction particularly in enhancing the integration among the supply chain stakeholders in IBS construction approach. CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS The construction industry is one of the major pillars and an engine in the national economy. An analysis of the key characteristics of the construction industry indicates that the problems facing construction can be categorised into five broad areas (Morledge et al., 2009)which are; fragmentation, adversarial relationships, project uniqueness, separation of

74 design and production and competitive tendering. The Egan report identified the fragmentation of the UK construction industry as the main hindrance of construction industry performance in developed countries. In addition, the weakness is caused by the increase of organisational complexity and contractual adversity which influence the efficiency and effectiveness of construction project teams (Dulaimi et al., 2001). Uniqueness, immobility and variety of construction output from these fragmentations are factors towards low performance and this is partly because of the way demand and supply systems in construction have traditionally been organised (Vrijhoef and Ridder, 2005; Morledge et al., 2009). In the construction industry, the lack of continuous work amongst chain players is because of the adversarial attitude of the construction teams and activities. Thus, the industry had become less transparent and trusting, with marked selfinterested and increasingly moving towards the adversarial culture. The interdependence and interfaces of the construction industry structures are aggravated by the traditional rigid separation between parties (between client and contractors; between designers and builders; between contractors and suppliers) (Nicolini et al., 2001). Both integration and effective collaboration among the main contractors, sub-contractors and the suppliers are difficult to achieve (Akintoye et al., 2000). Wong et al. (2004) also addressed the problems encountered in Hong Kong that are similar to those experienced in other countries. The same problems are also experienced in Singapore and Australia (Dulaimi et al., 2001). Unfortunately, developing countries such as Malaysia is currently facing similar problems. The industry should change to enable improvement to take place. The Malaysian construction industry is considered to be an engine of growth in the national economy. The construction supply chain links within the industry stimulates domestic demand and creates significant effects to the Malaysian economy. The efficiency and performance of the construction industry is to move forward and to adopt innovative approaches. Industrialisation in the construction process has always existed and been looked upon as an ideal solution. In line with the era of globalisation and sustainable construction, the Malaysian construction industry is in a period of change with the introduction of new technologies, construction processes, methods of construction and demands for better product, efficiency and effectiveness of projects and services delivery through the introduction of Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP ) and IBS Road Map ( ). Even though the reintroduction of the IBS construction method has long being introduced and has promised to solve and improve the current construction process, these practices have characteristically gain low acceptance among the relevant parties and is facing a difficult task to establish the cooperation and coordination between the parties involved. In order to be in line with the research purpose, specific problems were identified in this paper and analysed using the matrix mode. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY SCM is a concept that originated in the manufacturing industry. It was developed in Japan s number one profitable car maker known as the Toyota Motors. The secret of Toyota s success is generally considered to be the Toyota Production System. In materialising this system, Toyota has attached the special importance to Just in Time (JIT) production. According to Shingo (1988), the first signs of SCM were noticeable in the JIT delivery system as part of the Toyota Production System. JIT system is the backbone of the Toyota production system. It was driven by the need for fastest time to the market, earlier and fastest fulfilment of orders and lower cost. SCM then spreaded to other manufacturing industries and has been successfully used in various industries such as food, manufacturing and oil and gas industries for decades (Morledge et al., 2009). SCM brings the revolutionary philosophy and approach to manage the business with the sustained competitiveness. It requires adopting a global systems perspective, rather than the traditional and often shortsighted views of a single stakeholder. In the construction industry, traditional managerial approaches emphasizes: management of individual projects; separation of design, installation, and operation functions; uniquely engineered facilities and components; competitive bidding. These practices characteristically fail to capture the advantages in synergies and leverage that may be obtained by taking a multi-project perspective (Construction Industry Institute, 2009). Previous interpretations and concept of SCM have been extensively debated within the research community. Many definitions have been produced for SCM. Murphy (2008) in his review explained Supply Chain (SC) as a term for the sourcing, materials handling and logistics processes that a product goes through from manufacturing to selling point, and beyond. Christopher (1992) defined SC as the network of organisations that are involved through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different process activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate consumer. In context of the research, following an extensive literature review, Abd Shukor et al. (2009) defined SCM as an integrated and collaborated network chains whether upstream or downstream, inter or intra organization with the same goals and objectives for long term relationship integration. Based on the above definition, it is inevitable that SC is vital in the all process of delivering product or services especially in the coordination and integration of all supply chains networking. Therefore, the concept of SCM and managing SC is very crucial and important in construction industry. In addition to that, an effective supply chain management within the construction process involving all parties is necessary to ensure the successful delivery of a project. In the context of the current Malaysian construction industry works, especially in the IBS; clients, consultant, main contractor, subcontractor and suppliers need to improve their performance in relation to the procurement process and project delivery through SCM to stay competitive. All issues and problems pertaining to the process and implementation of the IBS should be

75 analysed and strategised in order to draw deeper attention among supply chain players in the IBS in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. IBS Internationally, the industrialisation concept has been recognised as one of the driving factors towards the efficiency and improvement of construction process. Therefore, industrialisation as experienced by many industries is a streamlined process that encourages efficiency and economic profit. In order to accomplish the visions of the Malaysian Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP), it would be necessary to shift the image, processes and purpose of the construction industry where necessary as per the paradigm shifts that took place in the Singapore construction industry (Figure 1). IBS is recognised and believed to be the key to the vehicle for driving further enhancement in the construction industry. In line with this paradigm, the introduction of IBS hopefully will expedite the CIMP vision and eventually contribute to the performance of the Malaysian construction industry. Many terms had been used to describe the real meaning of IBS. According to Warszawski (1999), IBS is a set of interrelated element that act together to enable the designated performance of the building. Leesing, et al. (2005) defined IBS as an integrated manufacturing and construction process with well planned organization for efficient management, preparation and control over resources used, activities and results supported by the used of highly developed components. While CIDB (2003) defined IBS as the components that are manufactured either in a factory, on or off site, positioned, or assembled into place with minimal additional site work. Looking at the definitions, IBS emphasises largely on manufactured components and involves integrated construction process. IBS has shown potential benefits in increasing efficiency and productivity, not only the pure service provision process but also the support services. Therefore, to enhance the level of adopting IBS to any approach aimed at creating industrial structures in the construction industry, it must be looked at not only on the core issues but extended beyond the overall aspects of management. One of the approaches taken by the Malaysian government to increase the level of IBS usage is by demanding more IBS approach to be used in the construction industry. This can be seen by referring to 9th Malaysian Plan Report and Treasury Circular, where all public projects must adopt or to contain up to 70% of IBS construction approach in its projects. Therefore, the establishment of the IBS provision for the process and implementation framework must take place especially in the integration among construction supply chains, where it is known to be one of the prominent problems in IBS construction. 3D: Dirty, Demanding, Dangerous Labour intensive industry 3P Industry: Professional, Productive, Progressive Knowledge Based Industry Largely on-site construction process Low cost through Low wage (Cost Perspective) Fragmented &adversarial For Domestic consumption Largely Manufactured components Low Cost through High Productivity (Revenue Perspective) Integrated & Collaborative Wealth generation/quality Lifestyle Figure 1. Necessary Paradigm Shifts in the Singaporean Construction Industry (Dul, 2008; Dulaimi et al., 2001) RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The methodology chosen for this research combines literature review and questionnaire survey. The literature search and review was the first phase of the research where the secondary data comprises relevant books, journals articles, thesis and dissertation, conference proceedings and reports. It attempts to review and evaluate issues and problems of SCM within both the construction industry generally and IBS specifically (a matrix between construction industry and IBS was developed). For the questionnaire survey, the exploratory research method was used for the study, which involved a quantitative data gathering stage. According to Kumar (2005), exploratory research is undertaken with the objective either to explore an area where little is known or to investigate the possibilities of undertaking a particular research. Therefore, to explore and understand the current trends and issues within the research area, a small-scale

76 preliminary study is undertaken to decide whether it is worth carrying out a detailed investigation (Kumar, 2005).This exploratory study approach also creates the basis for the researchers to conduct an extensive preliminary work to further describe the situation of SCM scenarios in the Malaysian construction industry. Preliminary Survey was initiated to discover key problems within the Malaysian construction industry. Before proceeding to the final field work survey, a pilot study has been carried out by interviewing relevant parties which include respondents who were selected from doctorate holders of similar as well as different specialization, PhD candidates and industry players to test the relevance and appropriateness of the questions and to justify the reliability of the measurement scale of each variables. A seven-page questionnaire, accompanied by a cover letter, was sent to managing directors of selected firms. The letter indicated the objectives of the research and requested that the questionnaire must be completed by a Senior Manager/Executive or Manager of the relevant department. The sample of the study was sent to a randomly selected Clients, Contractors (Registered Class A/G7 Contractors), Consultants, Suppliers and Manufacturers who are also known as the stakeholders in the construction industry. A total of 132 questionnaires were distributed to construction practitioners in Malaysia. Out of 132 questionnaires distributed, 29 were completed and returned which represents 22% in the response rate. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS Synthesis and Matrix Analysis The main research was conducted literally to find out key problems in the construction industry in general and the IBS in particular. It is important to look at the overall problems in order to focus on important factors or issues that should be appropriately included and look into in a detail manner during the progress of the research. Through the extensive literature review conducted, it was found that many writers and authors had explored all the possible factors contributing to the problems in the industry either in an eclectic or in list form. The Researchers have however, classified and themed up possible problems into 16 significant themes (Table 1). The number in the box indicates the ratings of the issues. Supply chain and procurement were found to be the cause of the overall root problem in the construction industry (Conventional method) and in the IBS in particular. Sustainability, Awareness & Readiness, R&D, Assessment, Process and Programme and Project Management problems seems to be the primary causes in IBS issues. In relation to construction methods and standardization, apparently the key problem is meeting the government and industry needs to adopt innovative approaches and standardization of components in order to enhance their performance in a competitive global market. Thus, the active involvement and application of the IBS is vital to ensure a successful delivery and completion of projects. The results have shown that both the industry and the IBS stakeholders need to find a close working relationship to overcome the problems encountered. The findings also indicate that the supply chain and procurement were the major root problem in many projects. Therefore, there is an important and relevant need in carrying out the research on SCM particularly in the context of the IBS. In order to look at the overall results of the survey, the analysis below will depict the detail problems of SCM in the procurement process.

77 IBS PROBLEMS CI PROBLEMS CULTURE/ PERCEPTION SKILLS/ KNOWLEDGE/ TRAINING /TECHNOLOGY FINANCE/COST/VAL UE PRODUCTIVITY QUALITY ECONOMIC SCALE /DEMAND SUSTAINABILITY AWARNESS & READINESS R&D CONSTRUCTION METHODS STANDARDIZATION SUPPLY CHAIN &PROCUREMENT NITIATIVES/ REGULATORY ASSESSMENT LOGISTICS & SITE OPERATIONS PROJECT MANAGEMENT CULTURE/PERCEPTION SKILLS/ KNOWLEDGE/ TRAINING /TECHNOLOGY FINANCE/COST/VALUE/PRODUCTIVITY QUALITY ECONOMIC SCALE/DEMAND SUSTAINABILITY 1 AWARNESS & READINESS 3 R&D SUPPLY CHAIN &PROCUREMENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT STANDARDIZATION 1 3 INITIATIVES/REGULATORY CONSTRUCTION METHOD ASSESSMENT LOGISTICS & SITE OPERATIONS PROCESS & PROGRAMME Table 1 Construction Industry and IBS Matrix

78 Survey Analysis Data analyses were performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The descriptive technique was used to analyse the demographic of the respondents and the frequency of use by the respondents are expressed in percentage score. Figure 2 illustrates exhibit the percentage of the respondents position in the organization. The survey found that 27.6% of the total 29 companies are Director and Others respectively, respondents coming from others represent General Manager, Business Development Manager, Chief Designer, Resident Architects and Quantity Surveyors, Marketing Executive and Quantity Surveyor. The other respondents are Senior Manager and Project Manager with 10.3% respectively. The remaining 24.1% is Technical. Thus, this research can be considered accurate as more than half of the participants are experienced respondents who have high power authority in decision making processes and strategy in their organizations. In order to successfully manage any supply chain, we need a single actor with the authority to deal with all the actors within the supply chain (Pryke, 2009). As shown in Table 2, the vast majority of the organizations were established companies with more than 10 years of existence (79.3%) in the Malaysian construction industry, the second highest are companies with between 5 to 10 years (13.8%) and only 16.7% of the organization were less than 5 years of establishment. This also shows that their responses were very relevant to the study. As shown in Figure 3, when asked whether SCM has always been carried out during the procurement process for project within the last 10 years, 44.8% of respondents stated that Strategic Procurement has always been an issue to their respective companies especially when using the SCM approach. The remaining 37.9% and 10.3% indicated that Production and Distribution were their main problems respectively. Figure 2. Respondents Current Position Figure 3. Issues and Problems in the SCM Organization Figure 4 illustrates a range of procurement stages that may encounter prominent problems that can make it difficult to implement the SCM approach successfully. The highest tendency of problems that may occur in SCM is during the stages where both the Initiation and Construction took place which comprises 41.4%. This is followed by Design (translation of requirement) 34.5%, Tendering and Funding where both have similar percentage (20.7%) and lastly Statutory approval (obtaining permission) (13.8%). The range of problems occurred in the stages of Initiation were caused by the failure and misunderstanding of client needs, lack of management and understanding, wrong specification, changes in requirement and uncommon practices and policy set out by client that discourages the implementation of SCM. The problems encountered in Construction stage on the other hand were communication in terms of flow of information, conventional mindset, problems in terms of coordination between various works and traders, subcontractor s performance and lastly regarding the funding factors where the process of payments were not in order. Thus, these would directly affect the performance of the SC productivity. The same problems went to the Design stage whereby among the prominent problems encountered were the lack of coordination in design management among Architects and Engineers.

79 Figure 4. Areas of SCM Problems in Different Stages of Procurement The Tendering stage encountered problems regarding the limitation of offers approval whereby the process involved too many paper works while the Funding stage predominantly involved budgeting and payment problems especially from the banking sector. Lastly, the respondents were also faced with problems of obtaining necessary permission because different authorities implement different guidelines and requirements, thus, this will give affect on the inefficiency of the process and implementation. Surprisingly, they also mentioned that the lack of understanding on the IBS processes as one of the problems encountered in the statutory approval. Even though Statutory obligation was rated the least problems but the lack of understanding on IBS processes will tremendously affect the effectiveness, performance and success of stakeholders in the Malaysian construction industry in adopting the IBS approach which in at the end of the day, will have an adverse affect on the overall CIMP aims and objectives. CONCLUSION Table 2. Cross-tabulation between Types Organization & Company s Years Establishment Company's years of establishment Total Type of organisation Less than 5 years 5 to 10 years More than 10 years Government % 100% General contractor % 66.7% 100% Supplier % 100% Consultant architecture % 100% Consultant Civil & Structural % 100% Consultant M&E 0 100% 0 100% Consultant PM 0 50% 50% 100% Consultant QS 16.7% % 100% Building Components Manufacturer % 100% Others (Developers) 16.7% 0.0% 83.3% 100% TOTAL 6.9% 13.8% 79.3% 100% This paper has attempted to establish the dominant problems within the construction industry and to ascertain whether these problems are relative to the process and implementation of the IBS in Malaysia. The results from the analysed data have shown that both the industry and the IBS stakeholders had failed in their attempt to find a close and successful relationship in addressing problems encountered. The findings also indicated that the supply chain and procurement were the cause of many problems in the process and implementation of IBS in the country. This directly reveals that the research on SCM in the IBS approach is as important and relevant to the construction industry as to the IBS stakeholders. Moreover, the findings in the survey have also shown that Strategic Procurement to be the problematic area with many issues which require much attention in the process and implementation of SCM. In order to support the CIMP and strengthen the value chain in the Malaysian construction industry, more extensive empirical research works on these areas are also needed especially in integrating the supply chain players in the procurement process and implementation. Finally, the study presented in this paper is part of an ongoing main research which will eventually attempt to further enhance the process and implementation of the Supply Chain Management in the IBS construction approach in Malaysia. The results of the main research will hopefully provide an insight into the introduction of an innovative