Barriers and Perceived Effectiveness of Industrialized Building System Adoption in Malaysian Bridge Infrastructure

Abstract

Industrialized Building System (IBS) adoption in bridge infrastructure depends on practitioners’ capabilities and the conditions under which prefabricated components are procured and assembled. This study examines perceived barriers and effectiveness among Public Works Department (Jabatan Kerja Raya, JKR) practitioners in Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak. A structured questionnaire targeted engineers, assistant engineers and project managers through purposive sampling. The manuscript records 82 questionnaires distributed and 72 valid cases, giving a valid-case yield of 87.8%. Descriptive results identify skilled personnel and technical competency as the highest-rated barrier (C1, mean = 4.097), followed by initial cost and financial constraints (C2, mean = 3.972). Effectiveness items have means from 4.097 to 4.417, indicating favourable perceptions on the reported response scale. Recommendations concerning standardisation, supply-chain reliability and digital integration also receive high ratings. These results describe practitioners’ perceptions rather than measured changes in project performance. The available correlation extract relates awareness items to barrier items and does not establish the proposed relationship between barriers and effectiveness. Construct-specific reliability and a complete, multiplicity-adjusted correlation analysis require respondent-level data. The descriptive findings support targeted competency development and assessment of procurement and implementation conditions, while the inferential objective remains unresolved.