IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON IBS IMPLEMENTATION IN HOUSING CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

ABSTRACT

Industrialized Building System (IBS) implementation is one of the best practices to enhance, which contributes to the overall development and economy of the Malaysian construction industry. The advent of COVID-19 has disturbed all aspects of life and the Malaysian construction industry is no different including housing projects. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to examine the impacts and new practice approaches of IBS implementation in the housing construction projects due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study conducted the quantitative approach and distributed the questionnaires for data collection. The respondents involved in this study are the G7 contractors in the area of Johor. A number of 140 responses were received and were analysed using SPSS version 22.0. The descriptive analysis was used to describe the respondents' background while the mean, standard deviation, and ranking were used to achieve the objectives of this study. The significant findings showed that the most impacts of the IBS implementation in the housing projects due to COVID-19 were the new safety regulations, improving the supply chain, and reducing the unskilled foreign worker. In addition, the respondents recommend some new practice approaches for IBS implementation including new incentives allocation, up-to-date technology implementation, and skillful workers utilization. In conclusion, this study has been established the impact of COVID-19 through identification of the impacts and suggested new practice approaches, which will help the contractors in managing housing construction projects effectively. © 2022, Construction Research Institute of Malaysia. All rights reserved.