Dharmapalan, Vineeth (2021) Supply chain visibility for industrial construction projects: Assessment of benefits, current status, definitions, barriers, and enablers. PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Abstract
Despite recent efforts to improve the delivery and management of materials, industrial construction projects continue to suffer from lower productivity, delays, and budget overruns. Among the myriad of contributing factors, lack of visibility of material status is the major problem limiting effective supply chain management. Most visibility improvement efforts have been on the construction site. They are applied informally under the premise that simply allocating more resources to locating and tracking materials will improve its installation productivity. Currently, there is limited understanding of visibility in the supply chain of construction projects, which is pivotal for the industry to identify inadequacies in the supply chain and apply improvement strategies more formally. This dissertation describes a research effort to formally assess visibility in the supply chain of construction projects belonging to the industrial sector. First, the research introduces supply chain visibility (SCV) in construction. It identifies the need for improvement based on the literature review by investigating seven industrial construction projects and inputs from a panel of academicians and industry practitioners. Next, it assessed the current status of SCV using an industry survey that studied the benefits of SCV, SCV level at key locations and for common project material types, and barriers to SCV improvement. The industry survey and expert panel helped identify the need to define visibility needs in detail and link them with key supply chain decision areas. The need to define enablers to identify essential capabilities were also recognized. To populate, define, and assess the visibility needs and enablers, the study employed both deductive and inductive approaches that used the expertise of academics and industry practitioners to evaluate corporate practices, tools, and industry cases. Finally, a survey was used to evaluate the enablers' ability to impact projects and their frequency of competent execution. The study contributed to the body of knowledge and practice. Theoretically, it improves understanding of visibility in the construction industry by providing detailed definitions and assessments of benefits, barriers, visibility needs, and enablers of SCV for industrial construction projects. Practically, the results of the study can be used by the industry to measure, communicate, and develop strategies for SCV objectively. The study's assessment of benefits, barriers, supply chain location, material types, visibility needs, and enablers also serves as a benchmark for industry and academia to measure future research and investments in SCV. Collectively, the study established the importance and need for focused research and investment in SCV for construction.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | O'Brien, William J; Morrice, Douglas; Leite, Fernanda and Faust, Kasey |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | supply chain visibility; information sharing; construction supply chain; industrial construction; supply chain decision-making |
| Index terms: | construction supply chain, academia, information sharing, dissertation, construction industry, industrial construction, productivity, construction project, decision-making, budget overrun, practitioner, body of knowledge, literature review, strategy, construction site, survey, inductive approach, supply chain visibility |
| Subjects: | practitioner, research dissemination and communication, knowledge management, production management, research methods, building construction, construction logistics, data collection methods, financial and cost management, supplier oversight, data analysis and analytics, work location, data exchange, management, industry analysis, educational institutions, decision analysis |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Project Management, Risk Management, Supply Chain Management, Education, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Information Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications, Site Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here