The challenges of supply strategy selection in a project environment: evidence from UK naval shipbuilding

Abstract

PurposeThere is a view that firms should decide between a lean or agile approach to supply management primarily on the basis of whether their product offering is “functional” (predictable demand, low variety and a long life cycle) or “innovative” (unpredictable demand, high variety and a short life cycle). This paper aims to present and test the proposition that this dichotomy is less useful in complex, one‐off project environments, such as shipbuilding or construction, because projects typically require the assembly of many different, largely functional, products in a unique or innovative configuration.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reports a case study focusing on one of the supply chains serving a major UK shipyard. The case study data were gathered by means of semi‐structured face‐to‐face interviews with key personnel (procurement, sales, production, materials management and engineering/design) from each company within the defined supply chain.FindingsThe case study reveals that the design and build process used in the shipyard introduces radical unpredictability into the demand for “functional” components of naval vessels.Originality/valueThe paper raises important questions as to the conceptual robustness and the empirical generalisability of some of the extant literature on supply strategy selection. In particular, the case study suggests that a core assumption – that the demand for functional products is relatively predictable – is not sustainable in the context of project specific supply chains where the ultimate demand is generated by an active organisational buyer.

Applying Lean principles to a building refurbishment project: experiences of key stakeholders

“…The project manager (plumber) put it succinctly: 'The concerns of [our] company are always first, those of the project come second.' The findings confirm the view that inter-organizational cooperation is essential for the success of Lean (Sanderson and Cox, 2008). The case shows how such cooperation needs to extend up the supply chain to include those supplying materials to the organizations directly involved in the Lean production system.…”

“…lack of incentivization of all parties. The plaster work project manager's experiences also confirms the findings of Sanderson and Cox (2008) in that functional products--in this case, plasterboard, do not always have a predictable demand profile in complex project environments, such as refurbishments, making JIT difficult.…”

Enhancing transparency and learning sustainability on the perceptions of improving naval ships’ support performance

“…The difficulties are exacerbated by unprecedented issues of the real world such as the sudden obsolescence of components. This problem could be rectified, through variety of methods such as Contract Logistics Support (CLS) (Houghton and Lea 2009), Contract for Availability (CFA) through 'mitigation strategies' and 'resolution approaches ' (Rojo et al 2010), lean supply strategy and Agile supply strategy (Sanderson and Cox 2008), performance-based contract (PBC) to give stronger incentives, reliability improvement and more control over fleet availability etc. (Sang-Hyun et al 2011).…”

A social network‐based organizational model for improving knowledge management in supply chains

“…Construction firms have to assume the need to manage the complete knowledge generation process in order to correctly share and transfer knowledge project-toproject (P2P) and project-to-business (P2B). Indeed, the usefulness of models in generating management advice for SC feeding into a low volume or a one-off project environment like the construction industry has not been considered (Sanderson and Cox, 2008).…”