Application Of Industrialised Building System Construction Essay

This is because under the Seventh Malaysia Plan (1996-2000) the Government of Malaysia for the first time to introduced the Low Medium Cost Housing category (the previously it was classified together with medium cost housing category) due to the always increasing demand for housing in this category. In additional, it is to ensure that the middle low income group with salary ranging from RM1,501.00 to RM2,500.00 per month and able to own a house. However, the pricing of low medium cost housing are around RM42,001.00 to RM60,000.00 per unit only. Using IBS in this types of housing project are more suitable because high volume and stability of demand for buildings is the advantages of using IBS. Besides that, it will also reduce the selling price of low medium cost housing.

The IBS is a manufactured the building components at factories (off site manufacture), will enable cost saving; safety and health; productivity and quality improvement through the reduction of labour intensity and construction standardisation. Apart from this method, it also offers minimal site wastage, less site materials, cleaner and neater environment, controlled quality, and lower total construction costs.

Using higher percentage of IBS in the construction of public housing and other building projects will provide better productivity, quality, and safety, especially for the total construction time saving and cost saving. IBS will contribute towards a better construction industry, as well as improve the global competitiveness of Malaysian builders. Nowadays, IBS in Malaysia become more popularity in the construction industry especially for the Government project. An early effort by the Government of Malaysia to promote usage of IBS and develop an Open Building system (OBS) concept as an alternative to conventional and labour intensive construction method has yet to make headway.

According to Works Minister Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed, the prefabricated parts will be used in all Government projects in a proposal to reduce the dependence on foreign workers. Besides that, it wills also reducing inherent social problems involving these foreign workers. The use of prefabricated parts was part of the IBS which would be adopted for all Government projects. The Government of Malaysia has ordered all government agencies carrying out development and people’s housing projects to use at least 70% IBS content in those projects.

In the beginning, literature review was conducted to determine an overall idea regarding IBS for public housing. This refers to collecting the latest secondary data and information from different sources which including books, journals, magazines, dissertations, conference papers, and information from the internet. These materials were used for background reading to obtain full understanding and information needed for discussion and analysis in the research.

Conventional construction method is defined as components of the building that are prefabricated on site through the processes of timber or plywood formwork installation, steel reinforcement, and cast in-situ. This construction method is mostly built of reinforced concrete frames for conventional building. Using the wooden formwork mainly is for the traditional construction method and need take some time to construct the formwork before concreting. This construction method is much more costly for construction which is need includes total labour requirement, raw material, transportation and very importance once is low speed of construction.

The main objective of a cast in-situ construction method is to weed out and reduce the using traditional timber formwork, brickwork, and plastering. A carefully planned in-situ work can maximise the productivity, speed and accuracy of prefabricated construction. Cast in-situ method uses lightweight prefabricated formwork made of steel or fibreglass or aluminium that is easily erected and dismantled. The steel reinforcement is placed within the formwork after finishes construct the formwork. After placing the reinforcement they are being erected and concrete is poured into the mould. When the concrete is set and according to the required strength, the moulds are dismantled. The workers can be easily trained to erect the moulds and set the steel reinforcement. These construction methods are required limited labour and it will reduce the total labour need. Its advantages over the conventional construction method include, low skill workers requirement, speedy construction, low building maintenance, durable structure and less construction cost.

These prefabricated timber framing systems is using the timber in the construction industry for construct the building. Usually the timber framing system are consists of timber building frames and timber roof trusses (show as below figure 7). While the steel framing systems have been the more popular choice on construction industry, but the timber roof truss system also have its own market where it is offering interesting designs from simple dwelling units to buildings requiring high aesthetical values such as chalets for resorts. This prefabricated timber framing system we can see in the traditional building.

Prefabricated construction in Malaysia started way back almost fourth years ago with the completion of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Public Housing Estate or commonly known as the Pekeliling Flats. No proper plan was formulated by the government for the industrialisation of construction and until the inception of the IBS Roadmap 2003-2010. This is a master plan to facilitate the transformation the Malaysian construction sector was formulated with inputs from industry and endorsed by the Cabinet back in October 2003. Known as the “Industrialised Building System (IBS) Roadmap 2003-2010”, the master plan is based on the 5-M Strategy (Manpower, Materials-Components-Machines, Management-Processes-Methods, Monetary economic and financial and Marketing promotion) with the aim of having an industrialised construction industry as well as achieving Open Building by the year 2010. The transformation of the construction sector is crucial in ensuring the successful achievement of Vision 2020.

Each part on the IBS Scoring was having their own rules and regulation to calculate the points. For example: under Part (1): Structural System, the points are awarded for various types of structural system used such as precast concrete beams and columns, steel, and prefabricated timber. For the Part (2): Wall Systems, the points are awarded based on various types of wall systems used such as precast concrete panel, glass, dry partition and block work. For the Part (3): Other Simplified Construction Solutions, the points are awarded based on usage of other simplified construction solution for example standard components based on MS 1064, standardized grids, other 3D prefabricated components (prefabricated toilets, and staircases). IBS Score calculation only considers the superstructure elements of a building and sub-structure works are not taken into account in the calculation.