| Abstract | The housing supply chain includes a plethora of privately owned trades, and a high level of fragmentation is driven by a significant number of micro businesses in the UK housing construction. The construction industry has been recognised as one of the major industries with a high level of waste and rework, particularly among different contributors in housing
construction. Rework is an endemic and chronic issue and has been recognised as a symptom that has afflicted the workflow process and the productivity in housing construction projects in the UK. Traditionally, the root cause of rework in the housing supply chain has been identified as a poor performance of subcontractors. However, there is very limited research into the elimination of rework in the housing supply chain. Subcontractors play an important role in delivering successful projects. There has been less attention paid to the importance role of subcontractors in housing supply chain, given the high level of fragmentation associated with the large number of subcontractors in housing development projects. The research method is based on a literature review, semi-structured interview, and questionnaire survey. A pragmatic sequential exploratory approach (i.e., the qualitative research followed by quantitative investigation) was used to address the research questions. For the qualitative research a semistructured interview was carried-out to gauge industry experts’ perspectives and understanding of the root causes of rework. A quantitative research method, using a questionnaire survey, was employed from wide range of practitioners within housing development projects. The finding of the study suggests and highlights the importance role of subcontractors for rework minimisation in housing construction projects. Also, several key findings that have emerged from the study include cooperative working to foster trust among subcontractors, collaboration improvement among practitioners, creating incentive mechanism, and learning mechanism, improving site management team, different strategies to minimise rework, employing offsite manufacturing techniques, using digital tools, and adopting communication tools to improve collaboration and minimise rework onsite. To help subcontractors achieve a sustainable rework minimisation practice, a best framework has been developed based on the findings from the study and evaluated by employing a focus group. The content of the study can be used by practitioners who are involved in housing development projects. |
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