READINESS FOR INDUSTRIALIZED BUILDING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AMONG MALAYSIAN ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS' MEMBERS

The Malaysian construction industry has lags behind other industries in terms of performance that had drawn the attention to implement innovative construction method like Industrial Building System (IBS). However, the implementation of IBS in Malaysia remains low although the Government had commenced various efforts. The architects have been perceived as the prime mover for construction innovations by integrating their roles as designer, manager, and professional advisor with their strength in design. Therefore, this paper is designed to assess readiness for IBS implementation among organizational members of architectural firms by examining the influence of demographic backgrounds. The study distributes questionnaires to randomly selected respondents who represent firms that are located in highly developed states in Malaysia. Various analysis techniques have been used namely Cronbach's Alpha coefficients, frequency, mean, standard deviation, one-way ANOVA, and independent samples t-test towards achieving the research objective. The findings disclose that working experience in tender and construction stage (more than 18 years) indicate high likelihood of readiness to implement IBS. This research also reveals that demographic variables (job designation, working experience in design stage, and working experience in tender and construction stage) has significant impacts on the decision maker category, whereas decision maker is the most influential aspect for organizational readiness to implement IBS.