Perception of Industrialized Building System (IBS) Within the Malaysian Market

The Industrialized Building Systems (IBS) has the known theoretical advantages of speed, safety and quality. However, in Malaysia, wet construction method is still widely accepted as a convention and safe option despite incurring higher cost and slow production rate. The objective of this research is to investigate the underlying reasons for the cold reception and hence for the small market share for industrialized construction in Malaysia (Perak, Penang & Kedah). IBS only accounts for approximately 15% of the market share due to several reasons despite a series of promotion campaign by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). Survey research method (SRM) is being implemented in this project. SRM is done through questionnaire and personal interview method. Fabrication of questionnaire consists of close-ended questions and open-ended questions. Systematic random sampling is being selected as this technique spread the sample more evenly over the population and it is easier to conduct than simple random sample. Questionnaire is distributed through snail mail and follow up is done subsequently to maintain a consistent number of feedbacks by the respondents. Feedback is analyzed by implementing descriptive method and then analytical method. It can be observed from the feedback that the major reasons of the cold reception of IBS in Malaysia are failure in the transfer of technology, resistance of industry players to change, conventional system is more open and flexible and IBS generally is more costly than conventional system