Disadvantages

Although there are many benefits in IBS, there are few weaknesses.

The initial cost of IBS is high. The cost required is the cost of set up the factory,
standardize the sizes, improve quality of the products, casting beds and support
machinery. (Scridb, 2010). Adoption of IBS requires the governance of a specific
organization which is costly in terms of standardisation of sizes, improve the building
regulations through research, quality of the products and so on. The extra cost is also
needed to train foreign unskilled and semi skilled labourers so that they are able to do
IBS construction work. However the training will be wasted if the worker decided not to
stay in our country. It will be wasteful either for the constant change of worker and the
retraining of new worker. (Lim, P.C, 2006). Hence, only large project undertaken can be
cost effective. (Scridb, 2010).

Besides, the IBS cause the contractors and manufacturers to use this technology to
monopolize the market. The reason is that many companies are still unwilling to adopt it
because the high investment cost. As a result, small and medium industries that are
refusing to change will be involved in an unhealthy competition among them. (Lim, P.C,
2006).

The IBS also have the disadvantage in site accessibility. As the IBS components are
transported to the site and heavy machineries are involved in the installation process, the
road surface at the site must be in good condition. Temporary site access must also exist
for heavy vehicle. Hence, much money will be used in improving the road condition.
Crusher run is necessary to be laid to improve the existing site access ground condition.
The site access to the prefabricating factory must be consider so that manufacturing plant
will not be delay in loading and unloading. (Lim, P.C, 2006).

In addition, the transport used to bring IBS components have to be redesign so that it is
able to bring larger IBS components. Redesigned lorries must be suitable and follow the
road regulation. At present, according to the road regulations, the transporters can bring
limited weight, length and depth of IBS components. Thus, the optimum carrying
capacity is not met. (Lim, P.C, 2006).

IBS have the problem of joint. Water leakage is always occurs in IBS constructed
building.It is more obvious especially in country like Malaysia where raining occur
frequently in the whole years.
Reason of Sarawak not ready for the IBS
Since the IBS was introduced in construction industry of Sarawak, it is not gaining
popularity. Although there are few completed IBS project, Sarawak is not ready to have
the IBS fully implemented. A number of barriers are existed to hurdles to the
implementation.

The low existence of involvement in IBS from precast manufacturer is one of the barriers
to the slow growth of IBS. The application of new technology is costly to the
manufacturer depends on the types of machineries and its function. High risk investment
in manufacturing IBS component, may be faced by the new precast manufacturer, due to
the large capital precast plant and the instability of construction demand. Contractors are
still using conventional method as they know this method quite well. (Kong, X.H., June
2009) Thus, the precast concrete industry is very tough in business opportunities,
technology, quality in production and market reputation. To invest in IBS construction,
high initial investment is necessary to purchase new machinery, steel mould,
transportation and wages of skilled workers for installation process. (Dayang Azwa
Abang Adenan, n.d.) The high initial investment has reduced the margin of profit.
Although there are many advantages of using IBS, some construction players still has a
negative perception IBS. Currently, there is no guarantee to has a considerable cost
savings as changing to IBS especially undertake small project. (Ahmad Baharuddin Abd.
Rahman, Wahid Omar, September 2006) Therefore, small contractors still prefer
conventional method than IBS. (Kong, X.H., June 2009)

The other reason of slow growth of IBS is the transportation of precast component to the
construction site. Since most of the places of Sarawak are hilly and mountainous, the
consideration about the access of the big trailer to the site must be done. As the IBS
method require special lifting technique and heavy machinery, there are few criteria such
as access to the site, ground conditions and size of the site must be considered. (Dayang
Azwa Abang Adenan, n.d.)
Besides, lacks of awareness in construction technology have caused the IBS to be slowly
accepted as method of construction. This is because lack of awareness among the
construction player, students in higher institution level and the public as well. Adoption
of IBS is chosen by the client. Client who has good knowledge and awareness about
advantages of IBS will definitely support hire designers to design building based on IBS.
(IBS Roadmap Review (2007) report as cited in )However, short of awareness program
to know client needs and giving actual information on IBS has caused uninteresting
among the client and decision makers. (Rahman & Omar, 2006 as cited in )
The insufficiency of technical research cause the slow growth of IBS because lack of
precise information. Those researches are necessary to convince the people about the IBS
to be used in building construction. Furthermore, there is no specific local authority to
urge the adoption of IBS in Sarawak. (Dayang Azwa Abang Adenan, n.d.)

In addition, negative perception among the people is the other problem for the slow
growth of IBS. Its negative image is due to the bad architecture in the past. (Rahman &
Omar (2006).Generally, these buildings create the image of pre-fabricated, mass
construction method, low quality buildings, leakages, abandoned projects, unpleasant
architectural appearances and other shortcoming. Clients always hesitate about using IBS
due to fear of customer rejection. Even construction professionals are in doubt in IBS
technology and relate IBS with a potential post-construction problem. Besides, it is not
gaining popularity among the designer since they found that their creativity will be
limited in the design process of IBS. (Hamid et al. 2008)