Major blocking factors affecting the application of industrialized building system

Abstract

Industrialized construction continues to emerge globally. Developing countries like Malaysia are still unable to increase industrialized building system (IBS) implementation significantly, demonstrated by the low IBS percentage of less than 3%. Therefore, this research aims to determine the factors blocking IBS implementation through a mixed-methodological approach in the Malaysian construction industry. Using the data collected from 219 valid questionnaire responses, several statistical analyses were performed. Factor analysis was used to categorize the 25 factors into six main groups namely: “financial concerns,” “ineffective policies,” “technical and management worries,” “traditional stakeholders’ concerns,” “design restrictions” and “negative perception”. The top three critical factors are high initial capital cost, high initial cost of customized design, and transportation cost. Hence, adopting an innovative standardized design concept and increasing IBS manufacturers nationwide are recommended. The findings provide a useful guide to critical blocking factors and, thus, develop feasible solutions to achieve successful implementation of industrialized buildings.

Keywords

• Off-site construction
• Critical factors
• Challenges
• Barriers
• Sustainable building
• Prefabrication