The global adoption of Industralised Building System (IBS) : lessons learned

Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) is typically used interchangeably with other terms such as prefabrication, offsite manufacturing, offsite construction, and modern method of construction (MMC), industrialised building and industrialised construction. Nevertheless, the term modern method of construction (MMC) has been used to collectively describe both offsite-based construction technologies and innovative onsite technologies in the United Kingdom. It is evident that there exist a wide range of contextual issues which stems from the definition of these terminologies. However, lack of previous research has explored the relationship between these terminologies. Therefore, this paper emphasises the contrasting concepts of IBS and MMC, and concludes that ill-defining the MMC-IBS terms leads to misunderstanding, uncertainty and prejudice of the IBS concept and its benefits besides the adoption of IBS in global, which will be detrimental to efforts promoting the use of IBS in the construction industry

A cause of communication failure in managing industrialized building system (IBS) projects : a perspective view from project managers

An effective communication process is an important element in distributing information to various project teams. The previous study demonstrates the importance of communication in the project management process in order to encourage project delivery processes successfully. Unfortunately, the issue of communication still dominates Industrialization Building System (IBS) because the project development process are still based on traditional methods. This research aims to explore the cause of communication challenges between construction players in managing IBS projects. The research methodology implemented for this paper was a semi-structured interview approach used to investigate the communication problem. Five experienced project managers were chosen from across the industry. The findings of this study are valuable for improving the communication level of project teams, which will indirectly increase the level of the IBS project delivery process and strengthen team integration on IBS projects in Malaysia

Improving communication in managing industrialised building system (IBS) projects : virtual environment

Traditional approaches are still dominant in virtually all construction projects in Malaysia. This was highlighted as the main barrier for further developing the Industrialised Building System (IBS) construction process. Indeed, traditional approaches implemented in IBS have been recognised by several studies as failing to support effective work teams when team processes are disconnected from each other (fragmented), thus failing to produce an effective communication process. Additionally, IBS construction involves large numbers of teams with different expertise and from different organisations, all of which are handled by different numbers of management processes, for instance in planning, manufacturing, transportation, positioning and assembling the structures that involve minimal additional site work. With the increasing demand in building bigger and better buildings and structures, construction projects are becoming more complex to manage by project managers, as they have to manage every single phase by coordinating and monitoring the entire project while at the same time, consider different values and interests from every project team members. Hence, high intensity levels of communication processes involving project team members are importance in order to produce high quality information in decision-making process and conveying instructions to all team members. Regarding the issues of communication practices inside construction projects, this paper explores how communication is applied by the project team management in managing different construction stages inside an IBS construction project with several of stakeholders from diverse locations, and different cultural and organisational backgrounds. Even though a few studies had highlighted communication barriers in the construction field, only a few investigated virtual team practices in the IBS construction industry, especially in Malaysian construction. In this context, preliminary interviews were conducted on several project managers with vast experience in managing IBS construction projects. The content analysis method was used as the technique to ensure the gathered data were comprehensively and accurately analysed. The results showed that most project teams communicated virtually within and among teams for the duration of the project implementation, which the phenomenon is resulting from modern organisational form. There are five categories associated with virtual team work environment, namely distributed area, open discussion, team attitude, communication technology, and reliability of task, all of which are exceptionally pertinent in virtual team, compared to traditional team, work interaction practices