4/2/2017 Gamuda leads the way with Industrialised Building System ­ Star2.

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Gamuda leads the way with Industrialised

Building System
 JANUARY 24, 2017  LIVING (HTTP://WWW.STAR2.COM/./LIVING/)
BY MENG YEW CHOONG

After years of of埛�cial encouragement, Gamuda Bhd is demonstrating to the construction

industry that the Industrialised Building System (IBS) holds immense promise by investing in
not one, but two purpose-built IBS plants.

In early 2015, Gamuda invested more than RM100mil – excluding land cost – in constructing
Malaysia’s 埛�rst robotic IBS factory at a 7ha plot in Sepang’s Tanjung Industrial Park.

The factory was completed last June, and is now producing concrete segments for three
blocks of affordable housing in Jade Hills in Kajang. This is a 148ha development by Gamuda
Land, Gamuda’s property arm.

The factory has the capacity to produce up to 2,000 apartment units a year.

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4/2/2017 Gamuda leads the way with Industrialised Building System ­ Star2.com

According
Our Sites to Gamuda Engineering Sdn Bhd managing director Datuk Ubull Din Om, the mass
adoption of IBS was driven out of the need for better ef埛�ciency, less material wastage, and
shorter delivery timelines.

“The use of IBS also increases the level of safety at the site as fewer workers will be needed.
In developed countries, health and safety compliance costs can be so high that in some
cases, they nearly match the cost of putting up the building itself,” said Ubull.

“Sustainability and innovation have been the key drivers in Gamuda as a construction and
property group since the company’s inception 40 years ago. As a result of the drive for
ef埛�ciency, the reliance on labour, especially unskilled foreign labour, can be reduced.”

That said, Gamuda took its time to carefully research and shop around for the best solution
for Malaysia.

“It has taken us a few years to plan and decide on a plant

design that will suit our local context and needs before we
committed ourselves to the purchase.”

Gamuda’s fully robotic IBS plant that is housed within a

factory stands out as many other contractors are still
practising IBS in a rather haphazard manner. It is not
uncommon for building components to be fabricated under
open air conditions, resulting in inconsistent end product
quality due to temperature ៛�uctuations and exposure to the
elements.

The spanking new factory just 9km away from KLIA, is as

clean and neat as any modern factory, with the compound
largely dust-free, unlike some precasting yards. The IBS factory is clean and neat and
reduces many of the hazards
“As we are both a developer and contractor, we are aware of associated with conventional wet
works at construction sites. Seen here
what the market needs, and what is the best way to get is engineer Lim Hui Yan with a
there,” said Ubull. completed wall segment.

“We are also different from the rest in the sense that we are
utilising an integrated 3D Building Information Modelling design and utilising a shared
Common Data Environment (CDE), which allows us to customise our designs without having
to invest in a new set of moulds for every new project.”

CDE enables sharing and transfer of relevant information related to drawings, design, raw
material supply, stockyard inventory, logistics and even 埛�nance data on a single platform
through software and robotics engineering, resulting in the automation of the entire
production process.
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4/2/2017 Gamuda leads the way with Industrialised Building System ­ Star2.com

“This enables
Our Sites us to roll out from design to construction quickly as each cast is formed
individually by the robots,” added Ubull.

The equipment and machinery in the factory are commonly used in Europe and other parts of
South-East Asia which have already embraced IBS. The Government, through MIDA and CIDB,
has granted Gamuda IBS the Investment Tax Allowance which allows 60% of the qualifying
capital expenditure to be given tax breaks, making the company the 埛�rst in Malaysia to utilise
this.

“The equipment was not dif埛�cult to procure, though a lot of thought went into specifying the
plant to 埛�t our needs. A signi埛�cant proportion of the cost and time was also invested in the
Building Information Modelling (BIM) academy to train our staff so they could design and
operate the automated process,” Ubull pointed out.

BIM is the means by which everyone can understand a building through the use of a digital
model built using data contributed in a collaborative fashion – before, during and after
construction.

Creating a digital building information model allows those

who need to interact with the building to come up with the
best solution or action to maximise the long-term value for
the asset.

BIM is expected to transform the Malaysian construction

industry by taking it through a digital revolution in which
team members will be working on a common platform that
allows them to create value from the synergy between
people, process and technology.

Gamuda is one of the forerunners in the use of BIM, having

implemented it for the underground portion of the Klang
Valley MRT project since 2012. The use of BIM is now
Robotic welders at work in Gamuda’s mandated throughout the company. “Based on our
IBS facility in Sepang.
experience with Line 1 of the MRT, there has been reduced
wastages as co-ordination between different construction
trades was carried out before any physical work started on site. This helped to avoid costly
and time-wasting recti埛�cations when two or more elements get into each other’s way. It
certainly helped reduce the rerouting of ducting, cabling and hacking of structures,” added
Ubull.

With reduced dependence on manual and unskilled labour, there is now a value add in terms
of local human capital development as more employees, including its subcontractors, are
trained to use BIM and IBS.
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4/2/2017 Gamuda leads the way with Industrialised Building System ­ Star2.com

“To facilitate
Our Sites the human capital development process, we have set up an academy which will
train over 1,000 staff in BIM – in 3D, 4D and 5D work៛�ows – over the next two years. Gamuda
hopes to lead the change in the construction industry as far as reducing inef埛�ciencies and
wastage are concerned,” Ubull continued.

“We hope to see greater emphasis on IBS in future government procurement. With Gamuda
IBS, any construction will easily exceed the IBS score of 75 as desired by the Government. For
example, our affordable housing projects at Jade Hills have achieved a score of more than
90.”

A second IBS factory by Gamuda is currently under construction in Banting, and will be ready
in the third quarter of 2018.

“This facility will cater to industry needs as Gamuda intends to play a key role as turnkey
contractor. Federal or state housing projects will bene埛�t from Gamuda’s IBS proposition,
where we would be able to build in half the time, thus ensuring the Government is able to
deliver affordable housing on time as construction can be shortened by 12 to 18 months for
high-rise buildings. The shorter delivery time translates into savings in interest payments for
the house buyer.”

Gamuda is also in discussions with various parties to make customised IBS products for
them. Gamuda Land is working closely with Gamuda IBS to develop products for affordable
housing all the way to premium landed homes.

“Gamuda IBS is not a gamble. We believe it to be a natural evolution towards being ef埛�cient,
highly skilled and delivering high quality products,” said Ubull, who added that the construction
industry has not seen many ground-breaking developments.

“It has been practised in pretty much the same way for the past 30 years or so – the
technology has not changed. But we believe the future is here.”

As the IBS building elements are installed in Lego-like fashion, the worksite is cleaner and
neater as there are few wet works (like concrete mixing and plastering), while dependence on
manual labour has been cut by 60%.

For 埛�rst-time house buyers, the end result is affordable houses constructed with the same
precision as high-end homes.

“In fact, you can see that the affordable houses we are building now using IBS can come out
looking better than some so-called luxury products built 15 to 20 years ago,” added Ubull.

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