INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO SUPPLY CHAIN COORDINATION IN PREFABRICATED HOUSING CONSTRUCTION

Urbanization has resulted in a dramatic increase in the urban population. This has led to a lack of houses for people, especially those on low incomes. This shortage cannot be solved by traditional building practices, because the latter as acceptable for the past, involve slow construction time, high expenses, waste and require a significant amount of work and resources. Therefore, an advance from traditional labour based systems to prefabricated construction is widely regarded as a major opportunity that will bring about a dramatic improvement in the productivity and efficiency of housing supply. Part of the solution as long as it is well-planned, lies in prefabricated housing construction which is also a money-saving solution. Although prefabrication is considered to have advantages, its use is limited. Some authors from different countries have described a number of barriers to its application. Some include high cost to set up prefabrication facilities, unwilling attitude of local construction parties, poor infrastructure, and lack of skills. Previous studies also reveal that supply chain is a primary obstacle for the development of prefabricated housing construction, but it is rarely analyzed so far. Although some studies focused on obstacles to prefabrication in some foreign countries, no research has given detailed attention to supply chain management problems in Nigeria. Although some research work has been done on the barriers, there is little in supply chain management literature in Nigeria. The development of easy-to-use, supply chain management will be essential to realize the full potential of prefabricated housing construction in the nation. This has stimulated this study of supply chain management in prefabricated building construction in Nigeria. The key research questions the study is trying to contribute to address is “What are the ways in which Supply Chain Management for prefabricated construction can be improved within Nigeria?”