Best Procurement Practices for Off-Site Construction: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Off-site construction has been promoted as a solution to persistent challenges in the construction industry, including low productivity, labour shortages, cost overruns, and schedule delays. While many studies have focused on technical and process optimizations, procurement remains an underexplored factor influencing the successful delivery of off-site construction projects. Procurement decisions shape early stakeholder involvement, design–manufacturing integration, cash flow mechanisms, supply chain coordination, and risk allocation; consequently, many traditional procurement approaches are poorly suited to realize the benefits of off-site construction.

This paper is based on a systematic literature review of 30 peer-reviewed studies supported by bibliometric and thematic analyses. A systematic review was conducted, including scoping, database searches, and a PRISMA-based screening process to identify the final set of studies. For each study, structured data were extracted, and bibliometric analysis was used to identify overall research patterns and trends. A comparative procurement matrix was developed to evaluate model performance against key OSC operational criteria.

The results indicate a clear increase in research on off-site construction procurement since 2020, with most contributions originating from Australia, China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. The literature consistently shows that conventional procurement approaches, such as design–bid–build, are poorly aligned with off-site construction requirements. In contrast, more collaborative and integrated models, including progressive design-build, integrated project delivery, construction management, early contractor involvement, and just-in-time strategies, demonstrate greater potential to support off-site construction by enabling early cash flow, improving coordination with manufacturers, and enhancing supply chain resilience. Key challenges identified include fragmented supply chains, a lack of standardized codes and contractual frameworks, ineffective payment mechanisms, logistics and storage constraints, limited real-time information sharing, and low trust among project stakeholders.

The paper concludes by identifying research gaps and outlining future directions for developing context-specific procurement frameworks to support scalable off-site construction.