THE IMPLEMNTATION OF PRE-CAST CONCRETE PANEL SYSTEM FOR HIGH-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN MALAYSIA

The purpose of this project is conducted to examine the level implementation of the pre-cast
concrete panel system and its barrier in Malaysia. Besides that, it is also to study the usages of
both panel and non-panel system in Malaysia. Pre-cast concrete panels is one of the
components in IBS which made with concrete cast in reusable mould and cured in a
controlled environment before transfer and erected at site to form a building. There were
many advantages of using this system as compared to the conventional method especially
regarding the problems of dependency on foreign workers by Malaysian construction
industry. Even with all the advantages of this system, it still not fully utilized especially for
high rise residential building. Therefore, identifying the barrier of using this system was
necessary, thus it can be the main alternative method of construction for high-rise residential
building in Malaysia by year 2020. The methodology that has been conducted is a Survey
Research Methodology (SRM). The methodology are use to collect quantitative information
about item in population based on questionnaire survey and opinion survey. Based on the
result of the survey it shows that the cost is the main barrier or the least attraction of using the
system in current construction industry in Malaysia. Majority of the respondents agreed that
the system involves high start-up cost, which most of the construction firms do not have
financial capability to do so. The data also shows that even though numbers of labour are
reducing when implementing the system, the cost is still unchanged. This unchanged cost,
probably due to high cost in fabrication and erection of the pre-cast concrete panel system.
Contrary to that, the most attraction of using the system was the speed of construction as
compared to the conventional method. Therefore, local authorities need to take note about this
problem and develop a solution to attract small companies and to reduce the start-up cost to
implement the system. If the system can be refined and the barrier of using this system can be
overcome, thus it can be the main alternative to cater the demand of residential properties in
Malaysia