Rebuilding the Construction Industry: A Strategic SCM Framework for Overcoming Pandemic Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed great challenges globally as well as to the construction industry, leading to organizations having to re-examine their response mechanism to remain competitive. In Malaysia, private housing projects have been among the most severely affected, with 539 classified as sick projects. However, despite being among the worst hit, the number of research focused on holistically addressing the pandemic challenges are lacking, while existing initiative in Malaysia lacks innovative approaches. Poor performance by the industry has led to calls for change and SCM has been promoted a strategic path forward however, past SCM studies have also lacked holistic approaches, resulting in underutilized SCM strategies. This paper, which is part of a university research grant, therefore explores the significant pandemic challenges confronted by the construction industry in Malaysia, with specific attention to private housing projects, and the potential of SCM as the way forward. Pathogen, which refers to dormant conditions, will be employed as a means for classifying the significant pandemic challenges, enabling resolution from their roots. Through a mixed-method approach involving Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) questionnaires and Semi-structured Interview on industry experts, this research aims to tackle the pandemic challenges systematically and propose a Holistic SCM-Based Framework to facilitate improvements. The findings are expected to make a significant contribution to empirical studies on SCM by devising a framework that leverages on SCM instruments to overcome the key determinants of pandemic challenges. Moreover, the framework is expected to offer practical insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders, potentially serving as a model for other countries to emulate in handling similar challenges in the future.