It’s clear that the construction industry has a long way to go in order to truly improve global productivity levels to satisfy increasing demands and manage labour shortages. In order to make this advancement, the industry needs more than just construction contractors to improve their planning and building processes, it requires every single player in the construction ecosystem to get creative and innovate collaboratively. One of the most important and influential players in this process is the supplier.

Supply chains have been challenging since the beginning of time, and no one has ever been able to escape this challenge. In construction, developers, builders, contractors, manufacturers, distributors, and architects are all trying to reimagine a new path forward, all while trying to manage their own bottom lines.

Of course, change is a major challenge for an industry like construction. Construction is highly risk-averse, fragmented, and complex. Time and cost overruns are the norm. Not to mention, contractors are constantly facing squeezed margins, making it difficult for them to find the resources to innovate in the first place.

All of these issues have led to an industry culture based around speed and low costs. While construction businesses have every right to aim for these two goals at all times, the irony of this situation is that the emphasis on these two factors is also one of the major reasons why the industry can’t move forward.

To make matters worse, construction faces a huge global labour problem, affecting every single company in the ecosystem, from developers to suppliers. Everyone in the ecosystem is struggling to find ways around this problem and it continues to affect organizational decision-making to a large degree.

As a supplier, you need to cater to this industry mindset of speed and the cheapest prices, manage your own supply chain issues, all while struggling to find enough labour on the plant and warehouse floors themselves. Boy does this sound challenging.

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