Gosling, J; Naim, M; Towill, D; Abouarghoub, W and Moone, B (2015) Supplier development initiatives and their impact on the consistency of project performance. Construction Management and Economics, 33(5-6), pp. 390-403. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Many empirical studies exploring the impact of supply chain management on performance metrics have been undertaken in the manufacturing and retail sectors, espousing the positive outcomes attainable. Owing to a range of industry characteristics, some have questioned the effectiveness of such initiatives in the construction sector, and it has been noted that there is a lack of longitudinal empirical data in this setting. Exploiting a unique performance dataset gathered from a global construction company’s archival records (1990–2013), the following question is addressed: 'what is the impact of supplier development initiatives on key performance indicators (KPIs) in a construction supply chain?'. Mobilizing established frameworks on relationship types and supplier development initiatives, suppliers are organized into relational categories, including 'strategic partners', 'preferred' and 'approved' suppliers. A combination of descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Levene’s tests was used to analyse the data. The findings report a significant difference between the volatility of performance between different groups. The higher the level of partnership in the relational category, the more consistency there will be in performance. Suppliers in the approved category perform less well on the 'closeout' KPI, suggesting a need for initiatives with this category to help raise performance on closeout issues.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | longitudinal study; performance management; relationships; supplier development; supply chain management |
| Index terms: | performance metric, construction sector, dataset, performance management, key performance indicator, partnership, global construction, empirical study, effectiveness, project performance, construction supply chain, statistics |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, data management, partnership management, project management theory and practice, performance management, research methods, performance measurement, project delivery, construction logistics, mathematical modelling, strategic management |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Quality Management, Supply Chain Management, International Construction, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
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