Construction supply chain resilience

Construction industries worldwide have already suffered significantly from COVID-19–related major supply chain disruptions. Construction supply chains are also vulnerable to weaknesses in global supply chains. Therefore, it is timely for construction organisations to revamp their strategies and operating procedures to counteract these vulnerabilities to enhance their own performance and that of the industry. Supply chain resilience (SCR) is taken to be the dynamic capability of supply chains to withstand the influential vulnerabilities in a tumultuous global supply chain environment by developing and deploying appropriate capabilities. Further, SCR envisages a game-changing strategic shift from traditional supply chain risk management practices to enable effective counteracting of various vulnerabilities: by anticipating, withstanding and overcoming them while also empowering proactive resilience through appropriate dynamic capabilities. This chapter describes a completed exercise to identify critical vulnerabilities associated with construction supply chains and thereby ascertain the capabilities that should be developed to withstand them. Further, the dynamic balance between capabilities and vulnerabilities, their individual impacts and the supply chain vulnerability levels in different phases of procurement and delivery were explored through a specific case study that focused on industrialised construction in Hong Kong, given increasing trends in many countries towards reduced on-site operations, by shifting the production of most building components to factories. Finally, a set of strategies to boost SCR is proposed based on the case study findings but adaptable to other jurisdictions. Moreover, the findings in this chapter should benefit contractors, clients/employers, policymakers and other industry stakeholders to rethink ‘business as usual’ and develop innovative strategies and methodologies to reduce supply chain vulnerability levels during all phases of construction project procurement and delivery while identifying and developing relevant counteracting capabilities.