Logistical Principles in Construction Supply Chains.

Supply chain management and logistics management have proven
successful in the manufacturing industry, with improved productivity as a
consequence. However, in the construction industry these issues have not
been high on the agenda. This may be one reason why the construction
industry lags behind the manufacturing industry in terms of productivity.
The good thing is that there is a growing interest for managing the
construction supply chains.
The basic idea in this thesis is not to come up with new logistical
principles, but to learn from the existing performance in the manufacturing
industry. A theoretical framework concerning general supply chain
management and logistics issues is presented. This includes nine logistical
principles, which have been acknowledged by the manufacturing industry.
Previous academic reports concerning supply chain management and
logistics in the construction industry are analysed with the general
theoretical framework as a basis.
In addition to this literature review two case studies have been
conducted. Both case studies involve a supply chain starting at the
manufacturer and ending at the client. The first case regards radiators and
the second case regards installation cable. Common for both cases is that
they represent groups of material which have shown a historic high cost
increase.
The results confirm that supply chain management has still not been
widely spread, and was not implemented in either of the two supply chains
studied. However, there were signs among the client and the building
contractor in the first supply chain of an emerging focus on the supply
chain performance, which very well may lead to the adoption of supply
chain management.
Both case studies show similar results that the wholesalers offer
excessive service when delivering stocked material within a day from
receiving the order. This is a consequence of the contractors’ lack of
establishing detailed delivery dates early in the projects.
This thesis has come up with several suggestions for improvements in
the supply chains, which all together shows that there is much to gain in
starting to manage the supply chains and avoiding sub-optimisation.