Supply Chain Innovation in Action: Five Habits Every Modular Leader Should Practice
Dyci Manns Sfregola is an author, strategist, and the founder of New Gen Architects.
Introduction
“Innovation” is one of the most overused words in business today. Companies say they want it. Teams aspire to it. Leaders put it in their strategies. But too often, what people really mean is: “I want to try something new, as long as it looks a lot like what I’ve already been doing for years.”
True innovation doesn’t happen when we stay comfortable. It requires truly doing new things, doing old things differently, and pushing creativity while creating space and time for teams to iterate. It requires leaders who are willing to replace “no, because…” with “yes, and…” — to build cultures where experimentation and intellectual curiosity are the norm.
For modular construction is already challenging the conventions of traditional building, but embracing innovation means going even further. It means reimagining the supply chain not as a cost center but as a driver of value, resilience, and profit. Here’s what it really takes to be innovative — and how modular leaders can bring it to life through supply chain practices.
1. Innovation Requires Doing What’s Never Been Tried
By definition, innovation means trying things that haven’t been done before. In modular supply chain, this might mean rethinking how teams collaborate with suppliers, negotiate material contracts or plan and model scenarios where current capability doesn’t yet exist.
For example, instead of ordering materials reactively or when a project contract is finalized, a modular firms can adopt collaborative planning and forecasting framework to deploy with strategic suppliers. Sharing demand signals early allows suppliers to invest in capacity, optimize their own labor, and ensure materials are ready when needed. It’s a shift from “order taking” and “order making” to shared growth planning and strategic procurement and purchasing.
This is not the easy path and it requires trust and relationship building. But that’s what innovation demands: a willingness to do the unfamiliar for the sake of breakthrough results.
2. Innovation Requires a Culture of Creativity
Technology investments don’t make organizations innovative. People do. Leaders must build environments where curiosity and creativity are not only encouraged but expected.
In modular supply chain, this can look like inviting cross-functional brainstorming before problems arise. Rather than letting engineers, procurement, sales and logistics work in silos, leaders can create structured time for these teams to ideate together and implement strategic initiatives that positively impact the entire business.
In practice this might manifest as a material flow design session attended by stakeholders from procurement, plant managers, site managers and finance to ensure cash flow statements are considered when supply chain stakeholders decide when material should arrive and also during contract negotiations for when ownership is established for certain inbound materials. With the right facilitation, the group could generate new options — from staging modules in regional hubs to partnering with suppliers on just-in-time delivery models for both raw material and finished goods.
The key is bringing stakeholders together with different perspectives to ask, “What if we do it this way?” Even if the answer is “No,” the question might spark a new feasible idea.
Dyci Manns Sfregola is the author of Next Level Construction Management: Leveraging Digital Supply Chain Fundamentals for Project Success and founder of New Gen Architects.
3. Innovation Requires Time to Think
One of the biggest barriers to creativity is busy-ness. Teams constantly firefighting problems don’t have time to reflect, analyze, or imagine alternatives. Leaders who want innovation must carve out space for thinking.
This might mean scheduling “innovation sprints” or dedicating part of project reviews to “what if” scenarios. It might mean pausing to ask: “If we had to deliver this project with half the lead time, what would we do differently?” Or “If we had to improve the cost of quality by reducing our scrap percentage, where would we start?”
Nowadays, many teams are asking How can we automate this to move faster? How can we use AI to make better decisions? Unfortunately, those same teams are often asking those questions to consultants. The key isn’t outsourcing thinking to consultants. It’s using consultants to facilitate your team’s thinking, stretch their boundaries, and provide frameworks that empower them to innovate on their own.
4. Innovation Requires “Yes, And” Thinking
Many promising ideas die when the first response is “no, because.” That mindset shuts down creativity before it can take root.
A culture of innovation thrives on “yes, and” thinking: acknowledging the merit in an idea, then building on it. This doesn’t mean every idea is adopted, but it ensures every idea is explored.
If a team member proposes sourcing a new material from an unconventional supplier. The “no, because” answer kills the idea immediately. The “yes, and” approach might sound like: “Yes, and if we tested it on a pilot project, we could validate quality before scaling.” That’s innovation in action.
In supply chain, “yes, and” thinking allows teams to explore alternative routes, partnerships, or digital tools that could transform performance — rather than defaulting to the way things have always been done.
5. Innovation Requires Sharing, Not Hoarding
Innovation thrives in transparency. Supply chain is a prime example: when data is siloed, progress is stifled. When information flows freely across the value chain, new solutions emerge.
Adopting a robust sales and operations planning, or S&OP, process requires sharing sales forecasts and demand signals with materials suppliers, subcontractors, finance and accounting, transportation partners, and production planners that can lead to proactive problem-solving and insightful scenario planning that reduces firefighting. When all strategic stakeholders are involved in the conversation, you can also identify opportunities to co-develop components, invest in capacity, or explore partnerships to enter new markets. That’s the essence of innovative supply chains: collaboration that creates value for everyone in the network.
Conclusion
Innovation isn’t a slogan. It’s a discipline. It requires leaders who are willing to do new things, foster creativity, create time for thinking, and push teams toward “yes, and” instead of “no, because.”
For modular construction, the opportunity is enormous. By applying these principles to supply chain practices — collaborative planning, strategic procurement, scenario modeling, digital tools, and transparent forecasting — construction leaders can build value chains that are not just efficient and agile, but truly innovative.
Because at the end of the day, innovation isn’t about doing what’s comfortable. It’s about pushing boundaries to build faster and smarter.
More from Modular Advantage
Resia: Breaking All the Rules
Resia Manufacturing, a division of U.S.-based Resia, is now offering prefabricated bathroom and kitchen components to industry partners. Its hybrid fabrication facility produces more precise bathroom and kitchen components (modules) faster and at lower cost than traditional construction. Here’s how Resia Manufacturing does it.
How LINQ Modular Innovates to Bring Modular To The Market in the UAE and Beyond
LINQ Modular, with an office and three manufacturing facilities in Dubai, is a modular firm based in United Arab Emirates. The company is on a mission: to break open the housing and construction markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area with modular.
ModMax: Redefining Modular Construction with Confidence and Precision
ModMax was born out of frustration—frustration with five persistent pain points in modular construction: Permitting bottlenecks. Production delays. Rigid designs. Disconnect between “the office” and the field. Lack of transparency and communication.
LifeArk: Disaster-Resilient Housing from Recycled Plastic and 100-year-old Technology
Wee compares LifeArk’s housing units to Yeti coolers, as they are built similarly. Each component takes 15 to 20 minutes to manufacture, has an R-value of 40, and includes molded slots and chases for wiring, plumbing, fire sprinklers, and other utilities.
Building the Future of Modular Edge Infrastructure
The edge data center market is expanding rapidly, driven by the surge in AI workloads, IoT adoption, and the need for localized compute power. In these environments, sustainability, scalability, and reliability are non-negotiable. Cooling is among the most complex challenges for operators—and one of the most decisive factors in long-term success.
Accelerating Light-Gauge Steel Construction: A Semi-Automated Digital Workflow for Off-Site Projects
For construction professionals, the message is clear. By adopting semi-automation and digitalization, companies can deliver projects faster, more accurately, and more profitably, while also building stronger collaboration across teams. The approach is not about replacing people with machines, but about empowering people with better tools and processes.
Why Modular Data Centers Are Gaining Momentum
Artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and edge applications push the limits of traditional “stick-built” data centers. They take years build, often struggle with high density workloads, and aren’t optimized for deployments near end users. Modular data center platforms are purpose-built to address these challenges, offering flexibility and scalability to adapt to evolving technologies, while opening new opportunities for the modular construction industry.
Exploring the Role of Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) in Advancing Circular City Principles – A Survey of Stakeholder Perspectives
The survey findings highlight the significant potential of Modular integrated Construction (MiC) in advancing the development of circular cities. By reducing costs, accelerating construction timelines, and minimizing waste generation, MiC offers a promising approach to sustainable urban development.
The Use of MS POLYMER™-Based Sealants and Adhesives in Modular Building
These products combine flexibility and elastic recovery with excellent adhesion to different substrates and have already shown their usefulness in traditional construction. Now it’s time for them to be put to use in the modular construction industry.
From BIM to Execution: Turning a “Pretty Picture” into a Single Source of Truth for Off-Site Construction
When implemented properly, BIM becomes the company’s digital backbone: connecting teams, standardizing information and transforming data into actionable insights. It is the key to achieving lean, predictable operations where all phases – design, planning, procurement and project execution are empowered by a single source of truth.