Ameliorating Supply Chains of Prefabricated Housebuilding: An Integrated Performance Framework

Abstract

Prefabrication construction has proven sustainability and affordability through innovative solutions. Prefabricated housebuilding companies, as supply entities, play a vital role towards successful projects using prefabricated products. Many companies go into liquidation due to poor performance. Supply chain management performance is linked with organizational performance in the manufacturing domain. However, there is no performance framework to date for prefabricated housebuilding companies using supply chain management theory. The purpose of this study is to identify the supply chain management interventions in prefabricated housebuilding research and report relevant key performance indicators based on empirical evidence. These indicators were classified under performance dimensions and supply chain processes. These indicators were then checked for relevancy with subject matter by academic and industry experts engaged in prefabricated construction research and practice, respectively. Later an industry-wide Likert scale-based survey was conducted with experienced experts in practice, involved in the prefabricated construction business, for validation of the proposed framework. This study reports forty key performance indicators, ranked under six principal component bodies of supply chain management, with low to high ranges from marketing to strategic management. The purposive selection is used for industry consultation with experts having practical experience. Survey results show all the indicators are highly significant except “supplier-driven strategy” which is still under a medium range of relative importance index. The top six key performance indicators are “Collaborative networking”, “Quality assurance”, “Entrepreneurial cognition”, “geographical proximity”, “intellectual property” and “Relationship marketing”. The performance framework is suitable for vertically integrated companies involved in design, manufacturing, and construction. A qualitative nature of framework is highly useful, with implementation ease, for the companies to benchmark and gauge performance in a competitive market. This study explored the general supply chain management theoretical intervention for the development of an integrated performance framework as only specific elements were considered previously.