Expert Opinion on the Significant Fragmentation Issues in the Malaysian Northern Region Industrialized Building System (IBS) Housing Projects

Fragmentation issues has been regarded as a major problem affecting the efficiency level of construction industry worldwide and this is no exception for Malaysia especially concerning the IBS project implementations. In fact, fragmentation has been regarded as among the main reason obstructing the uptake of IBS in the country and thus adoption rate has been very low despite it being introduced in the country since the 1960’s. This paper therefore aims at establishing the main fragmentation issues/factors affecting the Malaysian IBS project with particular focus made on the Northern Region housing projects. A combination of quantitative and qualitative method was used with respondent being 6 industry experts having experience between 17 to 59 years. Outcomes after focus group session led to 29 issues/factors being established as being most significant with most of them being due to teamwork and procurement related problems. Hence, an improvement on these aspects are important to effectively address the fragmentation issues that are affecting the IBS implementation to ensure a more fruitful outcome in future.