Building resilient supply chains for construction small and medium sized enterprises

Along with global economic growth and the prevalence of global trade, uncertain and turbulent markets can lead to construction supply chain vulnerabilities and disruptions. Within this environment, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry are booming, despite being considered one of the most vulnerable sectors in the economy. Therefore, construction SMEs need to implement fundamental changes and adopt agile methods of coping with supply chain uncertainties to withstand the effects of unpredicted events, such as the COVID-19 crisis. In Australia, SMEs account for more than 99% of all Australian enterprises and deliver up to 60% of the total value of the construction industry. This research aims to identify resilience factors to optimize the supply chains of the SMEs in construction industry. Through a systematic review of literature, this research firstly identifies the resilience factors under the general supply chain environment. Subsequently, it systematically identifies the resilience factors for construction supply chains and SMEs supply chains with an objective to characterise the similarities and difference in these factors. Finally, this research demonstrates and applied these resilience factors in a small Australian building company. This research will contribute to the body of literature of resilient supply chains and to qualitative and quantitative research into building of resilient supply chains in the construction sector SMEs. © 2021 Proceedings of the 37th Annual ARCOM Conference, ARCOM 2021. All Rights Reserved.