Toward Seamless Delivery: Qualitative Unraveling of Supply Chain Constraints in Off-Site Construction

The urgent need for affordable housing requires addressing shortages efficiently, which can be achieved through off-site construction (OSC). Although widely used globally, OSC adoption remains limited in many countries, including New Zealand. Recent studies have identified barriers related to supply chain management (SCM) as the main impediment to OSC’s broader implementation. Thus, successful OSC deployment is heavily dependent on effective SCM, which is often characterized by complexity and fragmentation. This research explores the critical design, raw material preparation, manufacturing, transportation, and assembly barriers related to OSC-SCM. It adopts a triangulation approach, integrating an in-depth global literature review, which is then verified and mapped to show how mitigation strategies intervene at different SCM stages. These insights are contextualized through expert interviews and case studies in New Zealand. The study also proposes a comprehensive framework to analyze the interdependencies between various barriers within the OSC-supply chain. It highlights the importance of understanding the impact of these barriers to develop strategies that optimize SCM performance. Ultimately, this research aims to advance the wider application of OSC techniques by addressing the major barriers that currently limit their full potential in architectural and engineering projects. The results show that critical factors are the most significant barriers, with regional factors like market size, dispersed populations, and unique geographical challenges intensifying these problems. This study recommends pilot projects in real-world environments to evaluate and refine SCM methods, and further research into automation and optimization to improve OSC supply chain efficiency.