Improving supply chain management in construction: what can be learned from the aerospace industry?

In order to provide for controllable delivery, reliable lead times and efficient customer response, lean manufacturing and platform assembly practices play an important role in supply chains in the aerospace industry. The adoption of lean manufacturing practices ensures an efficient delivery of products to the market. Benefits from the development of platform strategies are a more reliable materials supply and an improved logistics control. The aerospace industry is characterized by a small number of major global players and many small ones. A major part of the design and production has been contracted out to suppliers. In this paper the basic similarities and differences between the construction and aerospace industry and supply chains are analysed. A comparative study of aerospace and construction supply chains is presented to indicate and discuss the applicability of supply chain management concepts to construction, and the improvement potential of these concepts regarding supply chain management in construction. It is concluded that in particular the practice of platform assembly is a fruitful concept to be applied in the construction industry

Enterprise resource planning in construction: An evaluation of recent implementations

In a large number of construction firms, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have replaced non-integrated information systems by integrated and maintainable software. The implementation of ERP systems in the construction industry is a difficult task. So far, ERP implementations have yielded more failures than successes in this industry. Our study tries to understand the underlying factors that cause success or failure of ERP in construction by analysing how ERP fits into the IT and business strategy of a firm. Empirical research was conducted by a multiple case study of three ERP-implementations in different business environments. Based on the results of this study, propositions are developed that relate factors for the success of ERP in construction to concepts of the existing literature on IT and strategy. These propositions are indicative, but present nevertheless a clear overall tren

The development of a partnering assessment tool for projects

Many firms in the construction industry claim to be working in a ‘partnering’ or even in an ‘integrated’ way. It is, however, very difficult to verify these claims with the tools currently available. The purpose of this study was to collect and refine existing work on integrative and collaborative working, so as to develop a quick and simple tool that measures the degree of integration with which firms are working. First, the concepts of ‘Partnering’ and ‘Integrated Working’ are discussed and, for the purposes of the work a major supposition is adopted: that the difference between these concepts is that companies that are partnering only share project-related information, while companies working in an integrated way share much more of their available information, knowledge and experience. Secondly, the development of the Partnering Assessment Tool is explained and its application to four cases is recounted. The companies’ overall scores are presented and discussed as to whether these scores might reflect their actual levels of integration and cooperative working. These scores are presented on a scale that contains the categories ‘Cooperative Working’, ‘Partnering’ and ‘Integrated Working’. It is concluded that the application of the tool can provide a useful insight in the nature of the relationships between companies that work together in construction projects. Finally, it is recommended that the tool be tested in more cases and companies, and in a variety of different contractual contexts

Adoption of alternative transport technologies in the construction industry

This research examines how the construction industry adopts alternative transport technologies. This paper presents the general characteristics of the adopter and what his perceptions are towards innovative transport technologies. The study focused on four rates of innovation, related tot alternative transport technologies. The results show that 83% of the respondents choose innovation over no innovation; more than half of the respondents choose an innovation that can be characterized as “architectural”. Further, the perceived benefits of the innovation characteristics for an incremental innovation are higher then the perceived benefits for an architectural or radical innovation. Finally, from the ventures that chose to innovate, smaller companies prefer an architectural - more challenging - innovation rather then an incremental innovation

Applying the real options theory for identifying flexibility in project delivery of health organisations

Healthcare is influenced by many uncertainties. Uncertainties affecting health organisations also influence real estate since this facilitates the primary process. Within real estate management, decisions have to be made today while there is little knowledge about the future. Therefore, flexibility is needed in the process of designing, constructing and operating real estate. A case study has been done to gain insight about how health organisations deal with flexibility. The real options approach is used to show what types of flexibility have been used, and that uncertainty can also generate opportunities. Of the five types of flexibility, only in two types real options were identified in the case study. These were stage, abandon, defer and scale within process flexibility and the options growth and switch within product flexibility. This is partly a result of the fact that the project in the case study is not further advanced than the preliminary design phase. Nevertheless it can be concluded that project managers already act as using real options. Consciously using this concept might create even more real options to be used in project management

Sensemaking of real estate management using real options and scenario planning

Healthcare across the world is facing many uncertainties. In Dutch healthcare, a recent policy change forces health organisations to deal more efficiently with real estate which makes flexibility more necessary. In order to support real estate managers in decision making in flexibility, we developed a method combining scenario planning and real options. This method is aimed to enhance sensemaking on both the consequences of future uncertainties on the organisation which influences real estate management, and on the types of flexibility needed to enable adapting to these changes. In this way, better real estate strategies can be developed. Through testing the method in one pilot case, this study shows sensemaking had taken place. Based on these results, propositions are developed focusing on the relation between real options, backcasting scenario planning and sensemaking

Advantages and disadvantages of BIM use:Differences between experiences of its users and expectations of its non-users

This large-scale study focuses on experienced and expected advantages and disadvantages of building information modelling (BIM) use in the Dutch construction industry, and its subsectors. In total 725 respondents participated in this interview-based study, 235 of them actually used BIM (the BIM users) and 342 knew about BIM but did not use it (the BIM non-users). The remaining 148 did not know about BIM and therefore were not able to answer the questions related to BIM and BIM-use. BIM-users were asked about experienced advantages and disadvantages, while BIM non-users were asked about expected advantages and disadvantages of BIM. Advantages and disadvantages mentioned are related to the influential unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) on the adoption and use of information and communication technology (ICT). The largest differences between expected and experienced advantages were found with the architects and contractors, while the largest differences between expected and experienced disadvantages were found with the mechanical engineers and suppliers