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

Een visie op agrologistiek rondom de A1 eiwitcorridor: het proces naar agrologistieke innovaties

De eerste paper geeft de context weer: een toelichting op de huidige situatie. Het schetst het spanningsveld tussen enerzijds het economische en sociale belang van de agrobedrijvigheid in dit gebied en anderzijds de toenemende economische en maatschappelijke problemen. De tweede paper schetst een aantal ‘duurzame innovatierichtingen’: ideeën voor oplossingen voor de geschetste onduurzaamheden. In de derde paper, tenslotte, gaat over het proces om te komen tot agrologistieke innovaties. Daartoe worden ook ervaringen van andere innovatietrajecten gepresenteer