Partnering with suppliers – an untapped opportunity for the construction industry

The way forward is to increase the interaction between companies. There are three forms of expanded collaboration with suppliers:Increased interaction in the framework of the individual construction projectIncreased interaction between projects managed by the same companyIncreased interaction in permanent networkIncreased interaction in an individual project may lead to advantages if the cooperation begins at an early stage. If the supplier and sub-contractorsare involved already at the drawing and planning stage, many of the problems which are currently resolved during production could be avoided.Increased interaction between projects managedby the same company generates potential for improvements. By having more or less fixed constellations of sub-contractors it is possible to ensure that the same company and individuals meet in several projects – and hence there is no need to start a new learning curve on each occasion.Another type of increased interaction is collaboration between several, simultaneous projects in the same company. This is also based on close relationships with a small number of suppliers with a basic concept of pooling purchases from several projects in order to achieve economies of scale.Increased interaction requires increased centralization, which encroaches on the autonomy of the individual project. The implementation must therefore be cautious in order to avoid jeopardizing\ua0the benefits of local decision-making. The crucial challenge is to find a balance between centralization and decentralization.With increased interaction in the permanent network, a “strategic partnership” is achieved. The principle is based on a long-term and in-depth cooperation between construction companiesand suppliers. Research about customer-/supplier relationships in other industries shows that interaction in permanent networks creates commercial relationships which support efficiency and innovation. The companies make mutual adjustments, over time, to improve the use of common resources and interests.It is very hard to change deeply rooted traditions and work methods, since it involves re-examination of principles that have been applied for a long time. The transition to a focused partnering will be very demanding, both in terms of time and resources. Consensus and courage of all parties involvedis a requirement – from the construction site to corporate management – as well as a challenging and inspiring leadership.Despite current practice in the construction industry, a more long-term and in-depth approach is entirely possible. This would require doing away with prevailing decentralization to individual projects and traditional competitive tendering procedures for selection of suppliers. Great potential for improvement, benefiting all parties, would be the result. Partnering with suppliers represents an untapped opportunity in the construction industry

Resource interaction in product development: a cross-functional analysis

Inter-organizational collaboration and joint resource combining is a necessity in new product development (NPD) in order to access technology and knowledge of various actors. The aim of this paper is to investigate how customer relationships in NPD involving technology that is new to the firm affects product development. A single case study is conducted at a world leading industrial tool manufacturer. The project under study is the development of a product that is new to the firm, a new application, that involves a world leading automotive manufacturing customer as well as two specialized suppliers. In their efforts of developing a hand-held digitalized tool for quality assurance in the production of cars numerous resources are combined over time, crossing the boundaries of several actors. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with nine representatives of three units of the industrial tool manufacturer. In addition, secondary data in the form of protocols and other documents containing information of the product development process provide important input to the case. Analysis of the case consists of identification of key resource interactions in the product development process where business relationships are of significant importance. Thus, inter-organizational interaction comes in focus and in combination with analysis of cross-functional collaboration several findings are revealed. The study points to the meaning of managing knowledge sharing with external partners as well as within the focal firm. Having customer and supplier relationships in order to organize and manage collaborative development is of significant importance for firms that traditionally focus on manufacturing hardware products to provide digitalized products. The study thus demonstrates how product focused firms embrace new digital technology. In addition, customer contribution varies over time depending on the need for specialized resources, for instance, technology and knowledge, as in-put for the product development through joint resource combining. Accordingly, relationships with external partners are managed differently depending on their scope of contribution in the product development project. Finally, the study shows that in addition to fruitful external relationship collaboration, firms need to have well-functional collaboration among various internal functions in order to reap the most benefits from external collaborations in NPD

Knowledge Integration Through Resource Combining: The Case of a National Standard Framework for Hospital Design

The hospital design process contains technical and organisational challenges. The paper investigates how the Swedish national healthcare project framework and database, Program for Technical Standard (PTS), is used to facilitate knowledge integration within and across hospital projects and the outcomes thereof. The study covers data from 7 Swedish regions based on 12 semi-structured interviews with 14 facility mangers, 2 property managers as well as the national system administrator for PTS. PTS is considered to support the design process; however, some actors also perceive that PTS as a standard is not compatible with the call for adaptation. By mapping how the specific resource, PTS, is combined differently in various resource constellations, the results show that the value is contingent on the integration (or lack of) of numerous technical and organisational resources interfaces within and across organisations, projects, and regions. In particular, the perceived value of using the standard framework relates to its integration with the client\u27s internal resources and project processes, and the matureness of digital competence. The divergence of knowledge integration is shown to be present on a project level as well as on a national level among the regions

Building sustainable hospitals: A resource interaction perspective

In response to a growing influence of patients, higher specialisation, technological advancement and the need to provide care services more efficiently, the issue of sustainability in healthcare has gained prominence. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the social and economic sustainability of healthcare are dependent on interconnecting resources across organisational borders and in different settings over time. Adopting a product development process perspective, the paper explores the gap between a planned healthcare facility and how it actually came to be used, through a longitudinal case study of the Skandion clinic, a small, highly specialised, hospital in Sweden. The findings suggests that integration of healthcare resources over time is central to achieve social and economic sustainability goals. The results hereby contend the prevailing view of hospitals as independent organisational units and highlights the need for more holistic analyses of sustainability in healthcare. Analyses which take into account the complex interdependencies stretching across networks of interconnected facilities and organisational units

BIM in construction production: Gains and hinders for firms, projects and industry

The construction industry strives to implement digitalization and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Studies of BIM in construction claim that a pronounced BIM strategy, knowledge of the subject and a willingness to change are important factors to succeed, but even when such conditions are in place, BIM implementation in construction production is scant and has limited impact. So how should the construction industry go from grand digital visions to practical application in reality? By identifying gains, obstacles and success factors on company, project and sector levels the paper aims to set out a road map for successful BIM implementation in construction production. Data sets, both qualitative and quantitative from eleven studies of using BIM in construction production, show that although the industry is making progresses in implementing BIM and digitalization, the full potential is far from realised. Specifically, the research presents an analysis of factors in relation to (1) strategy and innovation, (2) technology, (3) organizing, and (4) ecosystem. Conclusively, all these levels are strongly interdependent and need to be considered by adopting a holistic approach to reach an enhanced implementation

The role of public actors in construction logistics: effects on and of relational interfaces

Public actors are increasingly enforcing the use of specifically designed construction logistics setups (CLS) to cope with logistical challenges and minimising disturbances on third parties in large construction projects. The organising of these CLS is contingent on the interaction among several types of actors. The purpose of the paper is to advance the understanding of the design and use of CLS and the distribution of various outcomes of such arrangements on the actors involved. The paper analyses the role of public actors in the initiating of CLS and how this affects the relational interfaces in the CLS triad of developers, contractors and logistics service providers, and the outcomes of their interactions. First, the main reason for a public actor to initiate a CLS is not cost, productivity or innovativity gains, but to decrease disturbances on third parties. Second, developers and contractors are forced to use the CLS initiated by the public actor. This makes them take on a forced customer role, explaining why these actors are often resistant to adopt to a certain CLS. Third, ripple effects, such as unintended costs and productivity impacts, occur in the construction supply chain because of the use of CLS

TOTAL BIM PROJECT: THE FUTURE OF A DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Although the construction industry strives to implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) toimprove efficiency and quality, adoption in the actual construction phase is still limited. However, in Scandinavia,recent years have seen the rise of an idea known as Total BIM - An approach where the BIM is the legally bindingconstruction document and no traditional 2D-drawings are used on-site. In this paper we present a case study of asuccessful Total BIM project. We investigate the prerequisites for – and outcomes of – implementing the Total BIMconcept, where commonly found individual and isolated BIM uses is turned into an all-inclusive approach toachieve a more efficient design and construction process. Our analysis shows that the success was contingent onfactors from within several different areas, including strategy and innovation, organizing, and technology, but alsoon the commitment shown by the construction management company responsible for the project. In addition, threekey elements were identified; BIM as the legally binding construction document, cloud-based model management,and user-friendly on-site mobile BIM software

TOTAL BIM PROJECT: THE FUTURE OF A DIGITAL CONSTRUCTION PROCESS

Although the construction industry strives to implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) to improve efficiency and quality, adoption in the actual construction phase is still limited. However, in Scandinavia, recent years have seen the rise of an idea known as Total BIM - An approach where the BIM is the legally binding construction document and no traditional 2D drawings are used on-site. In this paper we present a case study of a successful Total BIM project. We investigate the prerequisites for – and outcomes of – implementing the Total BIM concept, where commonly found individual and isolated BIM uses is turned into an all-inclusive approach to achieve a more efficient design and construction process. Our analysis shows that the success was contingent on factors from within several different areas, including strategy and innovation, organizing, and technology, but also on the commitment shown by the construction management company responsible for the project. In addition, three key elements were identified; BIM as the legally binding construction document, cloud-based model management, and user-friendly on-site mobile BIM software

When construction projects are to satisfy health care needs - partnering as a way of connecting the two?

In the construction industry the intention with partnering is that it should facilitate closer interaction between the client and the project organisation and particularly assist the contractor-client communication. In the Scandinavian countries, a number of high-technology hospitals are currently being planned for and being built through partnering agreements with intentions of providing modern health care supported by advanced medical technology. Health care represents a complex structure of actors, resources and activities that are to be coordinated toward the purpose of providing relevant and consistent care services to individuals over time. The remaining project organisation embodies construction-related organisations that represent a temporarily organised constellation of actors, resources and activities in the design, production and delivery of the building. Thus, as construction “meets” health care in a construction project, there are very different requirements that are to be fulfilled; that of gaining benefits from temporarily organising around a construction project and that of having a facility that supports complex care processes over time. The differences in requirements in turn rests on the different logics of on the one hand temporary and on the other hand permanent organisations of a different set of activities, resources and actors. Through the industrial network approach (INA) we outline the interactions taking place between key actors in a large health care construction project practicing partnering in Sweden, and investigate how partnering affects the communication of these different logics in play. How is the interaction coloured by these different requirements and logics during the different project phases, and what is the role of partnering in creating a favourable setting for useful interaction

Intermediation in Business Networks: A Case Study in the Textile and Clothing Industry

Intermediation is a central concept in the marketing channel literature where it is used for analyzing how specific firms, intermediaries, connect producers and users. It is argued that intermediation is primarily about increasing transaction efficiency when intermediaries undertake functions for closing the gap between producer stocks and consumer assortments, thus bridging discrepancies in time and place between supply and demand. Current changes of business reality in terms of postponement, specialization, customization and outsourcing call for an extended perspective on intermediation, since existing interpretations do not seem to fit very well with today’s business reality. As a supplement to the previous focus on intermediation between actors, this thesis explores intermediation also in the activity and resource layers of business networks, with the aim of creating a framework for analyzing intermediation in contemporary business networks. Models and concepts from the industrial network approach (e.g. H\ue5kansson, 1987; H\ue5kansson et al., 2009) are used in order to regain a holistic view of intermediation justified by the need to “bring together heterogeneous supply on the one hand with heterogeneous demand on the other” (Alderson, 1965, p. 200). A qualitative case study in the textile and clothing industry is used to empirically address intermediation. It involves a Swedish shirt manufacturer, SM, and its demand side and supply side, which have very different features. The demand side is characterized by a huge variety of product ranges, volumes of different types of shirts, changes of models demanded and a call for rapid modifications both quantitatively and in terms of variants. On the supply side, large-scale facilities appear with an inherent logic of large economic batch quantities to obtain cost efficiency. The intermediating challenge for SM is thus to balance the flexibility requirements on its demand side with the call for stability on its supply side. A broadened scope of intermediation contributes to improved understanding of current conditions in business reality. The activity analysis shows that the way a specific activity intermediates between two other activities will impact on their economies of scale, interdependences, economic efficiency and diversity. The resource analysis reveals that resource utilization owing to resource intermediation is an intricate balancing of obtaining cost efficiency and individualization. The analysis of the actor layer shows that intermediation among actors is ever more important since resource combining and activity interdependence increasingly cross the borders of firms. In today’s business reality all firms are involved in intermediation. Hence, ‘intermediary’ has lost its relevance as a theoretical construct since it can no longer be used as a meaningful discriminator between various types of actors. Keywords: intermediation, intermediaries, industrial network, channel, textile, clothin