Construction supply chain

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Material Supply

An effective material supply is key for a construction company to be profitable (Mattson, S. 2012). Material supply is the term for providing the production all its material, in what it needs and when it needs it. More than often, it is the purchasing department whom has the main responsibility for the material supply (Jonsson & Mattson, 2005). They are responsible for which suppliers to use for the specific project and cut the deal with the supplier for a reasonable price. An effective material supply demands a precise planning for companies with several and widely-spread components. A company with a vast range of different materials and components are called companies with “heavy inbound flow” (Langley, et al., 2008).

As mentioned before, every project in the construction industry are unique, and therefore needs to have its unique logistic and material supply, although some projects may look the same. Standardized machines, materials etc. cannot be used as effective in the construction industry, as for example in the manufacturing industry (Salem, Solomon, Genaidy & Minkarah, 2006). Construction Supply Chain (CSC) or Construction Supply Chain Management (CSCM), is a multi-organisational process. With every new project, there is a new team with several different actors involved, such as: architects, subcontractors, contractors, supplier, customer etc (Xue, et al., 2007).

Lean Production

The concept of Lean derived from Japan, more specifically from the company Toyota, it is also known as Toyota Production System (TPS) where it said to be created by Taichii Ohno, an engineer at Toyota (Womack, Jones & Roos, 1990; Dahlgaard & Dahlgaard-Park, 2006). The basic philosophy of Lean is to reduce waste, also known as muda, it is the core of Lean, where it focuses on quality improvements (Dahlgaard & Dahlgaard-Park, 2006). According to Womack, et al., (1990), the Lean philosophy changes the way an organisation thinks and work, for an example it pushes down the responsibility down the hierarchy. Where the blue-collars gains more responsibility, and better for worst it creates more challenging day-to-day work and demands more from the blue-collars (Womack, et al., 1990). Taichii Ohno created several different methods to reduce muda, some example is the Kanban system and Just-in-Time (JiT), This will be explained more in detail further down. Although the Lean philosophy originated in the automotive industry where the production site is static, it could be applied across industries, such as the research topic, the construction industry. But due to that the construction industry is so different to the automotive industry, Lean production has been, lacked for better words “translated” to the construction industry, and is known as “Lean Construction”.
With the research in mind, the company whom is being used as a case study, has implemented the Lean philosophy, although, not in perhaps in full extent as the automotive industry, we think that to give a better understanding about the topic, we deem it to be relevant to have Lean in our theoretical frame of reference and give an overview about Lean philosophy.

Lean Construction

Lean construction bases on the same principles as Lean production but with a different take. The idea of Lean construction is to reduce waste but also achieve a better result of meeting the customer needs (Tommelein & Ballard, 1999). Due to that, manufacturing and construction is so different when comparing to each other, a new take of the Lean philosophy was needed. In the construction industry, the finished product cannot be moved, and it produces a larger unit, compared to the manufacturing industry where you can move the finished product to the end6 customer (Salem, Solomon, Genaidy & Minkarah, 2006).
According to Salem et al. (2006), there are three major differences between the construction and manufacturing industry. The first difference is that in the construction industry there are on-site-production, meaning that the production occurs on the building site, comparing to manufacturing industry where the production is fixed (Salem et al., 2006). Second, there is one of a kind production meaning that every project/production is different. The customer decides the design of the end-product and can be changed during the project in contrast to the manufacturing industries, where the production is standardized and there is slim to none customizability of the product (Salem et al., 2006). Third is the complexity aspect, which refers to that projects in the construction industry is often complex and unique. This also requires subassembly on-site, where there are alot of different activities going on and several different actors working on the site. When comparing to traditional manufacturing industry, the subassembly is often the same and standardized. (Salem et al., 2006)

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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem
1.3 Purpose and Research questions
2 Theoretical frame of reference
2.1 Logistics
2.1.1 Material Supply
2.1.2 Construction supply chain
2.2 Lean Production
2.2.1 Lean Construction
5S – Transparency
Kaizen – Continuous improvement
2.2.2 Just – in – Time
What material?
Who supplies these materials and components to construction site?
What would be the best distribution system?
2.3 Planning
2.4 Supplier interaction
2.5 Core capabilities
2.6 Organizational culture
2.7 Change Management
2.8 Organizational change
2.9 Eight-step model for transforming organisations
2.10 A framework for change
Step 1: The idea and its context
Step 2: Define the change initiative
Step 3: Evaluate the climate for change
Step 4: Develop a change plan
Step 5: Find and cultivate a sponsor
Step 6: Prepare your target audience, the recipients of change
Step 7: Create the cultural fit – Making the changes last
Step 8: Develop and choose a change leader team
Step 9: Create small wins for motivation
Step 10: Constantly and strategically communicate the change
Step 11: Measure progress of the change effort
Step 12: Integrate lessons learned
2.11 Nudging
3 Method
3.1 Research Philosophy
3.2 Strategy & Approach
3.3 Research Design
3.4 Methods & Techniques
3.4.1 Data collection
3.4.2 Case selection
3.4.3 Interviews
Qualitative interviews
3.4.4 Choice of respondents
3.5 Data analysis
3.5.1 Ethical implications
3.6 Trustworthiness
4 Results from interviews
4.1 Construction
4.1.1 Plannin
4.1.2 Culture
4.1.3 Experience and personality
4.2 Construction Service
4.2.1 Planning
4.2.1 Culture
4.2.3 Experience
4.2.4 Personality
4.2.5 Supplier Contract
5. Analysis
5.1 The importance of having the material and supplies in time
5.2 The organizational behaviour
5.3 Is there a need of an organizational change?
5.4 Is there a need of change towards pickups?
6 Conclusions & Discussion
6.1 Conclusion
6.2 Discussion
6.3 Managerial implications
6.4 Limitations
6.5 Further research
6.6 Ethical considerations
6.7 Recommendations
7 References
Appendix