Developing distributed design capabilities in the construction supply chain

This paper reviews the changing nature of construction design and the potential for e-procurement to respond to these changes. With the emphasis shifting from supply-driven to demand-driven product design the trading relationships within the industry must become more complex. This paper hypothesizes an electronic market in design and supply capability to exploit distributed design knowledge within the supply chain. In their current form, e-commerce and brokering systems are too immature to support such relationships, but many elements of a technical solution are available. However, how they will reshape working practices is uncertain and this poses architectural and human organization problems for information systems (IS) developers. They must anticipate and address changes in working practices across a whole group of industries competing within a complex market place. We postulate a development approach that uses simulation models supported by soft systems methods to explore these process re-engineering options and human issues. The simulation of new business processes, combined with prototype IS designs, offers a powerful mechanism for evaluating the effects of proposed architectures for “design transactions” in e-procurement. The open learning that occurs in simulation experiments is also a key element in helping the management of the individual organizations in understanding how to shape their particular contribution to the new collaborative process. A major barrier to enhancing construction industry performance in this way is the defensive nature of existing contracts and lack of trust between parties; we therefore propose the use of COLA process in parallel with the simulation work to engender trust and improved working relationships between the collaborating organizations.