The role of supplier information availability for construction supply chain performance

Paving the Path towards Efficient Construction Logistics by Revealing the Current Practice and Issues

“…The latter is an important question because most materials in construction are purchased with transport included. If we compare the study by Bäckstrand and Fredriksson [16] with these results, we can guess that suppliers are given very limited information and are thus not aware that opportunities exist to suggest other delivery times that would make it possible to avoid congestion, both in the city and on-site. The study by Gholami et al [44] indicates that suppliers would be happy to utilise the day differently because this would save them time, such as in the case of Smart delivery containers enabling drop-off when convenient, although such a container is only suitable for packages (here we could see it was used on one project, Project A).…”

“…Early phases of construction projects involve bulk transports due to earth and rock masses that need to be removed or added, whereas later in the project, smaller deliveries consisting of pallets and packages are more common [17]. One important aspect determining the efficiency of construction logistics is the planning of deliveries, i.e., offsite logistics, and the handling of unloading or loading, i.e., onsite logistics [16]. The efficiency of this process is manifested in the turnaround time.…”

“…Additionally, the lack of a goods reception function at the site could impede the flow of goods, which has a negative impact on inventory management [32]. Furthermore, according to Bäckstrand and Fredriksson [16], suppliers and transporters often lack information about delivery and transport conditions (e.g., turning circles, type of machinery needed to unload, exact addresses of the gate and phone numbers of the freight or goods receiver). This reduces the efficiency of construction logistics by increasing turnaround times and the risk of extra delivery trips being required.…”

“…The management of deliveries are part of construction logistics, which focus both on coordinating the fragmented sourcing of materials and resources and their transport to/from the construction site, and coordinating materials and resources within the construction site itself [15]. Although, during the delivery, i.e., arrival and unloading/loading of trucks, these two foci need to be coordinated, which is often considered a secondary issue, leading to productivity losses, both for the construction project and for the suppliers and transporters [16]. Bad coordination of deliveries in the construction industry is a result of neglecting logistics management [9], which depends on the planning of construction works.…”

Performance measurement and management practices of on-site activities in industrialized housebuilding

“…Its temporal and spatial separation from other parts of the order fulfilment process, as well as the methods of data collection and performance assessment, do not provide accurate evaluations of the effects of interventions (Grenzfurtner and Gronalt, 2020) as they are not reliable enough and are too cost-or time-consuming for regular performance management (Raffoni et al, 2018). Accurate measurements of performance are impacted by many factors such as: the complexity of an IHB order fulfilment process (Sardén, 2005;Thunberg and Fredriksson, 2018), the nature of on-site working, the segmented order fulfilment processes as well as the number and disparity of in-house, subcontractor and suppliers' employees involved (Bäckstrand and Fredriksson, 2020;Grenzfurtner and Gronalt, 2020;Knauseder et al, 2007).…”