Critical success factors to industrialised building system contractor

Industrialised Building System (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 Malaysian construction industry has been urged to change from a conventional method to IBS to attain better construction quality and productivity, reduce risks related to occupational safety and health, alleviate issues for skilled workers and dependency on manual foreign labour, and achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the overall cost of construction. The use of IBS has been made compulsory in the construction of public buildings and the adoption was supported by the government through programmes, incentives and encouragement policies stipulated under the IBS Roadmap 2003-2010. Despite acknowledging its benefits, the construction industry is still not rapidly embracing IBS. This is mainly due to its traditional and conservative nature where anything new or different faces implementation barriers. In addition, there is a lack of knowledge to help traditional contractors to successfully transform to IBS. The availability of such knowledge could help to accelerate the uptake of IBS. The aim of the research is to identify the critical success factors for IBS uptake and develop a framework to support the transformation of contractors to the IBS. The research adopted a multiple-case-studies approach. The main part of this thesis is a presentation and discussion of case studies with contractors in Malaysia. The analysis is based primarily on cross-case analysis and pattern matching where nine critical success factors and two enablers have been identified as significant to the success of IBS. From the critical success factors, this research proposes a framework which was validated with an industry focus group. Strategy, people and process were identified as the main elements of the framework. The framework depends largely on the strategy, meetings of human capability and capacity, and improvements to the process. The enabling factors are Information Technology (IT) and continuous improvement. The outcome of this research showed that the main problems that are preventing contractors from embracing IBS are rarely purely technical in origin. They are more related to the organisational strategy and soft issues which underpin the capability of the organisation to successfully implement IBS. This led to the fact that IBS is best handled as a holistic process and requires a total synchronisation of construction, manufacturing and design. In addition, factors such as project management, procurement, rationalisation, standardisation, repetition, collaboration, integration, supply chain partnering, planning, skills and training were found to be essential and they need to be carefully considered during the transformation process.