A Review of Current Lean Approach Practice in the Industrialised Building System (IBS) of the Malaysian Construction Industry

Abstract

The presence of the Industrialised Building System (IBS) has a significant effect on Malaysian economic growth, especially in increasing labour productivity, however, its growth regularly fluctuates. Hence, in 2015, Malaysia Corporation Productivity (MPC) promoted a lean approach to IBS as one of the strategies for labour productivity enhancement. Therefore, extensive literature reviews regarding the current implementation of the lean approach mainly in IBS have led to the purpose of this study. Relevant published journals and proceedings in the range of 2015 to 2022, including governing bodies' reports were synthesized from the findings that were searched through online databases. The findings revealed that JIT is a common practice in IBS mainly used in logistic management. This shows that the current implementation of the lean approach in IBS is not holistically implemented and limited application of other strategies such as Kanban, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Benchmarking, and so forth. The unavailability of guidelines on how to use the lean approach coupled with a lack of knowledge and awareness leads to misconceptions regarding lean. In addition, limited literature has discussed its solutions, which this study intended to accomplish. The significance of this study to shows that could be a starting point for IBS production to learn how to think like a lean in a comprehensive way and align with IBS' mission and vision.