Performance comparison between structural element of building systems in Malaysia
American Journal of Applied Sciences, May, 2005 by M.R. Abdul Kadir, W.P. Lee, M.S. Jaafar, S.M. Sapuan, A.A.A. Ali
Abstract: The Industrialised Building System (IBS) was introduced in Malaysia in 1966, but it failed to establish itself on a continuous basis though there is a sustained large market for residential projects even since. One of the reasons behind this shortcoming is the lack of scientific data on labour productivity that could convince policy maker. Hence, the objective of this study is develop a standardised data collection methodology for measuring and comparing the conventional building system and IBS in term of labour productivity, crew size and cycle time. Labour productivity (manhours/[m.sup.2]) is defined as the manhours required to complete the structural element of one unit house. A total of 499 data points were obtained from seven residential projects constructed between January 2003 and April 2004. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) indicated that the labour productivity was significantly different between four structural building systems. The mean labour productivity for conventional building system was 4.20 manhours/[m.sup.2] followed by cast in-situ table form (2.70 manhours/[m.sup.2]), cast in-situ half tunnel form (1.88 manhours/[m.sup.2]) and precast concrete system (1.33 manhours/[m.sup.2]). Further, the analysis of crew size indicated that the mean crew size for conventional building system of 24 workers was significantly different from the IBS of 22 workers. However, the crew size within the IBS was found to be insignificant. The cycle time measured in days per house was found to be significantly different between structural building systems with the conventional building system of 4.9 days, cast in-situ table form of 3.9 days, cast in-situ half tunnel form of 2.9 days and precast concrete system of 2.3 days. The labour productivity obtained from this study could be used as a preliminary guideline for client or consultant to identify the most appropriate building system for executing a construction project and determining the labour requirement in the construction industry.
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