Review of the Model-Based Supply Chain Management Research in the Construction Industry
This paper reviews the model-based qualitative and
quantitative Operations Management research in the context of
Construction Supply Chain Management (CSCM). Construction
industry has been traditionally blamed for low productivity, cost and
time overruns, waste, high fragmentation and adversarial
relationships. The construction industry has been slower than other
industries to employ the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept
and develop models that support the decision-making and planning.
However the last decade there is a distinct shift from a project-based
to a supply-based approach of construction management. CSCM
comes up as a new promising management tool of construction
operations and improves the performance of construction projects in
terms of cost, time and quality. Modeling the Construction Supply
Chain (CSC) offers the means to reap the benefits of SCM, make
informed decisions and gain competitive advantage. Different
modeling approaches and methodologies have been applied in the
multi-disciplinary and heterogeneous research field of CSCM. The
literature review reveals that a considerable percentage of the CSC
modeling research accommodates conceptual or process models
which present general management frameworks and do not relate to
acknowledged soft Operations Research methods. We particularly
focus on the model-based quantitative research and categorize the
CSCM models depending on their scope, objectives, modeling
approach, solution methods and software used. Although over the last
few years there has been clearly an increase of research papers on
quantitative CSC models, we identify that the relevant literature is
very fragmented with limited applications of simulation,
mathematical programming and simulation-based optimization. Most
applications are project-specific or study only parts of the supply
system. Thus, some complex interdependencies within construction
are neglected and the implementation of the integrated supply chain
management is hindered. We conclude this paper by giving future
research directions and emphasizing the need to develop optimization
models for integrated CSCM. We stress that CSC modeling needs a
multi-dimensional, system-wide and long-term perspective. Finally,
prior applications of SCM to other industries have to be taken into
account in order to model CSCs, but not without translating the
generic concepts to the context of construction industry.
[1] X. Xue and Y. Wang, “Improving construction performance through
supply chain management,” Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 528–532, 2004.
[2] A.-F. Cutting-Decelle, B. I. Young, B. P. Das, K. Case, S. Rahimifard,
C. J. Anumba, and D. M. Bouchlaghem, “A review of approaches to
supply chain communications: from manufacturing to construction,”
ITcon, vol. 12, pp. 73–102, 2007.
[3] X. Xue, Y. Wang, Q. Shen, and X. Yu, “Coordination mechanisms for
construction supply chain management in the Internet environment,”
International Journal of Project Management, vol. 25, pp. 150–157,
Feb. 2007.
[4] K. Vaidyanathan and G. Howell, “Construction Supply Chain Maturity
Model – Conceptual Framework,” in IGLC-15, 2007, pp. 170–180.
[5] W. J. O’Brien, C. T. Formoso, R. Vrijhoef, and K. A. London,
Construction Supply Chain Management Handbook. CRC Press, 2008.
[6] Ö. Koçtaş and Ö. B. Tek, “Construction Supply Chains: A proposal to
develop a new conceptual model,” in International Logistics and Supply
Chain Congress, 2013.
[7] X. Xue and Y. Wang, “Improving construction performance through
supply chain management,” Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 528–532, 2004.
[8] R. V. V. Vidal, “Operational Research: a multidisciplinary field,”
Pesquisa Operacional, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 11–28, 2005.
[9] Y. Ebrahimy, S. M. AbouRizk, S. Fernando, and Y. Mohamed,
“Simulation modeling and sensitivity analysis of a tunneling
construction project’s supply chain,” Engineering, Construction and
Architectural Management, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 462–480, 2011.
[10] P. E. D. Love, Z. Irani, and D. J. Edwards, “A seamless supply chain
management model for construction,” Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 43–56, 2004.
[11] L. Bankvall, L. E. Bygballe, A. Dubois, and M. Jahre, “Interdependence
in supply chains and projects in construction,” Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 385–393,
2010.
[12] M. Latham, Constructing the team: Final report. London: HMSO, 1994.
[13] J. Egan, Rethinking Construction: Report of the Construction Task
Force. London: HMSO, 1998.
[14] R. Holti, D. Nicolini, and M. Smalley, “Prime Contractor Handbook of
Supply Chain Management,” London: Crown, 1999.
[15] EC Harris LLP, Supply Chain Analysis into the Construction Industry: a
report for the construction industrial strategy, no. BIS Research paper
No. 145. Great Britain Department for Business, Innovation & Skills,
2013.
[16] S. Pryke, R. Broft, and S. Badi, “SCM and extended integration at the
lower tiers of the construction supply chain : An explorative study in the
Dutch construction industry,” in CIB International Conference on
Construction in a Changing World, 2014, pp. 1–12.
[17] D. V. S. de Souza and L. Koskela, “Interfaces, Flows, and Problems of
Construction Supply Chains – A Case Study in Brazil,” in IGLC-22,
2014, pp. 1095–1106.
[18] S. Tennant, S. Fernie, and M. Murray, “The myth of best practice
through the lens of construction supply chain management,” ARCOM
Thirthiet Annual Conference, pp. 1093–1102, 2014.
[19] L. Koskela, “Application of the new production philosophy to
construction,” CIFE technical report n.72, Stanford University, USA,
1992.
[20] G. Ballard and G. Howell, “What Kind of Production is Construction?,”
in 6th Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction,
1998.
[21] W. J. O’Brien, K. London, and R. Vrijhoef, “Construction supply chain
modeling: a research review and interdisciplinary research agenda,” in
IGLC-10, 2002, pp. 1–19.
[22] C. Vidalakis and J. E. Tookey, “Conceptual functions of a simulation
model for construction logistics,” in Joint International Conference on
Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering,
2006, vol. 44, no. 0, pp. 1–10.
[23] A. Keramati, “Supply chain integration: A modelling classification,” in
Eighth Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management,
2010.
[24] E. W. L. Cheng, H. Li, P. E. D. Love, and Z. Irani, “An e-business
model to support supply chain activities in construction,” Logistics
Information Management, vol. 14, no. 1/2, pp. 68–78, 2001.
[25] Y. Lin and H. P. Tserng, “A Model of Supply Chain Management for
Construction Using Information Technology,” in 18th International
Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, 2001, pp. 1–6.
[26] Q. Fengyu and H. Shengyue, “The Research on the Application of
Supply Chain Management in Construction,” in International
Conference on Management Science and Engineering, 2006, pp. 1191–
1196.
[27] Q. Du, “A 3D communication model for the construction supply chain -
a route to construction industry integration,” in 1st International CIB
endorsed METU postgraduate conference, 2006, p. 11.
[28] C. Yan and X. Zhangong, “Study on the Information Technology-Based
Lean Construction Supply Chain Management Model,” in Recent
Progress in Data Engineering and Internet Technology, Volume 2,
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 157, vol. 157, F. L. Gaol, Ed.
Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 499–505.
[29] I. U. Dike and G. Kapogiannis, “A conceptual model for improving
construction supply chain performance,” in 30th Annual ARCOM
Conference, 2014, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1029–1038.
[30] X. Meng, M. Sun, and M. Jones, “Maturity Model for Supply Chain
Relationships in Construction,” Journal of Management in Engineering,
no. April, pp. 97–105, 2011.
[31] K. London, “Industrial Organization Object-Oriented Project Model of
the Facade Supply Chain Cluster,” in Construction Supply Chain
Management Handbook, CRC Press, 2008, pp. 13–1–13–46.
[32] M. M. A. Khalfan, T. Maqsood, C. Egbu, and M. A. Noor, “Supply
Chain Capital in Construction Industry: A Conceptual Model,” in CIB
W78-W102 2011: International Conference, 2011, pp. 26–28.
[33] D. Aloini, R. Dulmin, V. Mininno, and S. Ponticelli, “A conceptual
model for construction supply chain management implementation,” in
28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2012, pp. 675–685. [34] M. Thunberg and F. Persson, “A logistics framework for improving
construction supply chain performance,” in 29th Annual ARCOM
Conference, 2013, no. September, pp. 545–555.
[35] S. Hong-Minh and J. Strohhecker, “A system dynamics model for the
UK private house building supply chain,” in 20th International
Conference of the System Dynamics Society, 2002.
[36] K. D. Walsh, J. C. Hershauer, I. D. Tommelein, and T. A. Walsh,
“Strategic Positioning of Inventory to Match Demand in a Capital
Projects Supply Chain,” Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, vol. 130, no. 6, pp. 818–826, Dec. 2004.
[37] A. Sobotka and A. Czarnigowska, “Analysis of supply system models
for planning construction project logistics,” Journal of Civil Engineering
and Management, vol. XI, no. 1, pp. 73–82, 2005.
[38] F. R. Hamzeh, I. D. Tommelein, G. Ballard, and P. M. Kaminsky,
“Logistics Centers to Support Project-based Production in the
Construction Industry,” in 15th Annual Conference of the International
Group for Lean Construction, 2007, no. July, p. 11.
[39] C. Vidalakis, J. E. Tookey, and J. Sommerville, “Logistics simulation
modelling across construction supply chains,” Construction Innovation:
Information, Process, Management, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 212–228, 2011.
[40] J. Voigtmann and H.-J. Bargstädt, “Construction Logistics Planning by
Simulation,” in Winter Simulation Conference, 2010, pp. 3201–3211.
[41] Y. Ebrahimy, S. M. AbouRizk, S. Fernando, and Y. Mohamed,
“Simphony Supply Chain Simulator: a simulation toolkit to model the
supply chain of construction projects,” SIMULATION, vol. 87, no. 8. pp.
657–667, 02-Sep-2011.
[42] X. Xue, X. Li, Q. Shen, and Y. Wang, “An agent-based framework for
supply chain coordination in construction,” Automation in Construction,
vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 413–430, Jun. 2005.
[43] Z. Li, S. Cheng, and Q. Meng, “A Modelling Framework for
Construction Supply Chain Simulation Based on Multi-Agent,” in
ICLEM 2010, 2010, pp. 4691–4698.
[44] J. C. P. Cheng, K. H. Law, H. Bjornsson, A. Jones, and R. Sriram, “A
service oriented framework for construction supply chain integration,”
Automation in Construction, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 245–260, 2010.
[45] J. C. P. Cheng, K. H. Law, H. Bjornsson, A. Jones, and R. D. Sriram,
“Modeling and monitoring of construction supply chains,” Advanced
Engineering Informatics, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 435–455, Nov. 2010.
[46] X. Xue, C. Sun, Y. Wang, and Q. Shen, “A Two-Level Programming
Method for Collaborative Scheduling in Construction Supply Chain
Management,” in 4th International Conference on CDVE. Volume 4674
of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007, pp. 290–297.
[47] C. Jian-hua and T. Wan, “Time-cost trade-off problem in construction
supply chain: A bi-level programming decision model,” in International
Conference on Management Science & Engineering, 2010, pp. 212–217.
[48] N.-H. Pan, M.-L. Lee, and S.-Q. Chen, “Construction Material Supply
Chain Process Analysis and Optimization,” Journal of Civil Engineering
and Management, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 357–370, Sep. 2011.
[49] X. Xu, Y. Zhao, and C.-Y. Chen, “Integrating Safety-Stock and
Crashing Decisions for Recurrent Projects,” in MSOM Annual
Conference, 2011.
[50] X. Xu, Y. Zhao, and C.-Y. Chen, “Project-driven supply chains:
integrating safety-stock and crashing decisions for recurrent projects,”
Annals of Operations Research, Nov. 2012.
[51] H. Said and K. El-Rayes, “Optimizing Material Logistics Planning in
Construction Projects,” in Construction Research Congress 2010, 2010,
no. 1, pp. 1194–1203.
[52] H. Said and K. El-Rayes, “Optimal Material Logistics Planning in
Congested Construction Sites,” in Construction Research Congress
2012, 2012, pp. 1580–1589.
[53] J. Xu and P. Wei, “Production-distribution planning of construction
supply chain management under fuzzy random environment for largescale
construction projects,” Journal of Industrial and Management
Optimization, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 31–56, Dec. 2013.
[54] T. Seagriff and S. Lord, “Soft Operational Research Techniques :
Current and Future Uses,” in YoungOR 17, 2011, pp. 40–53.
[55] C. Vidalakis, J. E. Tookey, and J. Sommerville, “Logistics simulation
modelling across construction supply chains,” Construction Innovation:
Information, Process, Management, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 212–228, 2011.
[1] X. Xue and Y. Wang, “Improving construction performance through
supply chain management,” Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 528–532, 2004.
[2] A.-F. Cutting-Decelle, B. I. Young, B. P. Das, K. Case, S. Rahimifard,
C. J. Anumba, and D. M. Bouchlaghem, “A review of approaches to
supply chain communications: from manufacturing to construction,”
ITcon, vol. 12, pp. 73–102, 2007.
[3] X. Xue, Y. Wang, Q. Shen, and X. Yu, “Coordination mechanisms for
construction supply chain management in the Internet environment,”
International Journal of Project Management, vol. 25, pp. 150–157,
Feb. 2007.
[4] K. Vaidyanathan and G. Howell, “Construction Supply Chain Maturity
Model – Conceptual Framework,” in IGLC-15, 2007, pp. 170–180.
[5] W. J. O’Brien, C. T. Formoso, R. Vrijhoef, and K. A. London,
Construction Supply Chain Management Handbook. CRC Press, 2008.
[6] Ö. Koçtaş and Ö. B. Tek, “Construction Supply Chains: A proposal to
develop a new conceptual model,” in International Logistics and Supply
Chain Congress, 2013.
[7] X. Xue and Y. Wang, “Improving construction performance through
supply chain management,” Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology,
vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 528–532, 2004.
[8] R. V. V. Vidal, “Operational Research: a multidisciplinary field,”
Pesquisa Operacional, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 11–28, 2005.
[9] Y. Ebrahimy, S. M. AbouRizk, S. Fernando, and Y. Mohamed,
“Simulation modeling and sensitivity analysis of a tunneling
construction project’s supply chain,” Engineering, Construction and
Architectural Management, vol. 18, no. 5, pp. 462–480, 2011.
[10] P. E. D. Love, Z. Irani, and D. J. Edwards, “A seamless supply chain
management model for construction,” Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 43–56, 2004.
[11] L. Bankvall, L. E. Bygballe, A. Dubois, and M. Jahre, “Interdependence
in supply chains and projects in construction,” Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 385–393,
2010.
[12] M. Latham, Constructing the team: Final report. London: HMSO, 1994.
[13] J. Egan, Rethinking Construction: Report of the Construction Task
Force. London: HMSO, 1998.
[14] R. Holti, D. Nicolini, and M. Smalley, “Prime Contractor Handbook of
Supply Chain Management,” London: Crown, 1999.
[15] EC Harris LLP, Supply Chain Analysis into the Construction Industry: a
report for the construction industrial strategy, no. BIS Research paper
No. 145. Great Britain Department for Business, Innovation & Skills,
2013.
[16] S. Pryke, R. Broft, and S. Badi, “SCM and extended integration at the
lower tiers of the construction supply chain : An explorative study in the
Dutch construction industry,” in CIB International Conference on
Construction in a Changing World, 2014, pp. 1–12.
[17] D. V. S. de Souza and L. Koskela, “Interfaces, Flows, and Problems of
Construction Supply Chains – A Case Study in Brazil,” in IGLC-22,
2014, pp. 1095–1106.
[18] S. Tennant, S. Fernie, and M. Murray, “The myth of best practice
through the lens of construction supply chain management,” ARCOM
Thirthiet Annual Conference, pp. 1093–1102, 2014.
[19] L. Koskela, “Application of the new production philosophy to
construction,” CIFE technical report n.72, Stanford University, USA,
1992.
[20] G. Ballard and G. Howell, “What Kind of Production is Construction?,”
in 6th Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction,
1998.
[21] W. J. O’Brien, K. London, and R. Vrijhoef, “Construction supply chain
modeling: a research review and interdisciplinary research agenda,” in
IGLC-10, 2002, pp. 1–19.
[22] C. Vidalakis and J. E. Tookey, “Conceptual functions of a simulation
model for construction logistics,” in Joint International Conference on
Computing and Decision Making in Civil and Building Engineering,
2006, vol. 44, no. 0, pp. 1–10.
[23] A. Keramati, “Supply chain integration: A modelling classification,” in
Eighth Annual International Symposium on Supply Chain Management,
2010.
[24] E. W. L. Cheng, H. Li, P. E. D. Love, and Z. Irani, “An e-business
model to support supply chain activities in construction,” Logistics
Information Management, vol. 14, no. 1/2, pp. 68–78, 2001.
[25] Y. Lin and H. P. Tserng, “A Model of Supply Chain Management for
Construction Using Information Technology,” in 18th International
Symposium on Automation and Robotics in Construction, 2001, pp. 1–6.
[26] Q. Fengyu and H. Shengyue, “The Research on the Application of
Supply Chain Management in Construction,” in International
Conference on Management Science and Engineering, 2006, pp. 1191–
1196.
[27] Q. Du, “A 3D communication model for the construction supply chain -
a route to construction industry integration,” in 1st International CIB
endorsed METU postgraduate conference, 2006, p. 11.
[28] C. Yan and X. Zhangong, “Study on the Information Technology-Based
Lean Construction Supply Chain Management Model,” in Recent
Progress in Data Engineering and Internet Technology, Volume 2,
Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 157, vol. 157, F. L. Gaol, Ed.
Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012, pp. 499–505.
[29] I. U. Dike and G. Kapogiannis, “A conceptual model for improving
construction supply chain performance,” in 30th Annual ARCOM
Conference, 2014, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1029–1038.
[30] X. Meng, M. Sun, and M. Jones, “Maturity Model for Supply Chain
Relationships in Construction,” Journal of Management in Engineering,
no. April, pp. 97–105, 2011.
[31] K. London, “Industrial Organization Object-Oriented Project Model of
the Facade Supply Chain Cluster,” in Construction Supply Chain
Management Handbook, CRC Press, 2008, pp. 13–1–13–46.
[32] M. M. A. Khalfan, T. Maqsood, C. Egbu, and M. A. Noor, “Supply
Chain Capital in Construction Industry: A Conceptual Model,” in CIB
W78-W102 2011: International Conference, 2011, pp. 26–28.
[33] D. Aloini, R. Dulmin, V. Mininno, and S. Ponticelli, “A conceptual
model for construction supply chain management implementation,” in
28th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2012, pp. 675–685. [34] M. Thunberg and F. Persson, “A logistics framework for improving
construction supply chain performance,” in 29th Annual ARCOM
Conference, 2013, no. September, pp. 545–555.
[35] S. Hong-Minh and J. Strohhecker, “A system dynamics model for the
UK private house building supply chain,” in 20th International
Conference of the System Dynamics Society, 2002.
[36] K. D. Walsh, J. C. Hershauer, I. D. Tommelein, and T. A. Walsh,
“Strategic Positioning of Inventory to Match Demand in a Capital
Projects Supply Chain,” Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, vol. 130, no. 6, pp. 818–826, Dec. 2004.
[37] A. Sobotka and A. Czarnigowska, “Analysis of supply system models
for planning construction project logistics,” Journal of Civil Engineering
and Management, vol. XI, no. 1, pp. 73–82, 2005.
[38] F. R. Hamzeh, I. D. Tommelein, G. Ballard, and P. M. Kaminsky,
“Logistics Centers to Support Project-based Production in the
Construction Industry,” in 15th Annual Conference of the International
Group for Lean Construction, 2007, no. July, p. 11.
[39] C. Vidalakis, J. E. Tookey, and J. Sommerville, “Logistics simulation
modelling across construction supply chains,” Construction Innovation:
Information, Process, Management, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 212–228, 2011.
[40] J. Voigtmann and H.-J. Bargstädt, “Construction Logistics Planning by
Simulation,” in Winter Simulation Conference, 2010, pp. 3201–3211.
[41] Y. Ebrahimy, S. M. AbouRizk, S. Fernando, and Y. Mohamed,
“Simphony Supply Chain Simulator: a simulation toolkit to model the
supply chain of construction projects,” SIMULATION, vol. 87, no. 8. pp.
657–667, 02-Sep-2011.
[42] X. Xue, X. Li, Q. Shen, and Y. Wang, “An agent-based framework for
supply chain coordination in construction,” Automation in Construction,
vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 413–430, Jun. 2005.
[43] Z. Li, S. Cheng, and Q. Meng, “A Modelling Framework for
Construction Supply Chain Simulation Based on Multi-Agent,” in
ICLEM 2010, 2010, pp. 4691–4698.
[44] J. C. P. Cheng, K. H. Law, H. Bjornsson, A. Jones, and R. Sriram, “A
service oriented framework for construction supply chain integration,”
Automation in Construction, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 245–260, 2010.
[45] J. C. P. Cheng, K. H. Law, H. Bjornsson, A. Jones, and R. D. Sriram,
“Modeling and monitoring of construction supply chains,” Advanced
Engineering Informatics, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 435–455, Nov. 2010.
[46] X. Xue, C. Sun, Y. Wang, and Q. Shen, “A Two-Level Programming
Method for Collaborative Scheduling in Construction Supply Chain
Management,” in 4th International Conference on CDVE. Volume 4674
of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007, pp. 290–297.
[47] C. Jian-hua and T. Wan, “Time-cost trade-off problem in construction
supply chain: A bi-level programming decision model,” in International
Conference on Management Science & Engineering, 2010, pp. 212–217.
[48] N.-H. Pan, M.-L. Lee, and S.-Q. Chen, “Construction Material Supply
Chain Process Analysis and Optimization,” Journal of Civil Engineering
and Management, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 357–370, Sep. 2011.
[49] X. Xu, Y. Zhao, and C.-Y. Chen, “Integrating Safety-Stock and
Crashing Decisions for Recurrent Projects,” in MSOM Annual
Conference, 2011.
[50] X. Xu, Y. Zhao, and C.-Y. Chen, “Project-driven supply chains:
integrating safety-stock and crashing decisions for recurrent projects,”
Annals of Operations Research, Nov. 2012.
[51] H. Said and K. El-Rayes, “Optimizing Material Logistics Planning in
Construction Projects,” in Construction Research Congress 2010, 2010,
no. 1, pp. 1194–1203.
[52] H. Said and K. El-Rayes, “Optimal Material Logistics Planning in
Congested Construction Sites,” in Construction Research Congress
2012, 2012, pp. 1580–1589.
[53] J. Xu and P. Wei, “Production-distribution planning of construction
supply chain management under fuzzy random environment for largescale
construction projects,” Journal of Industrial and Management
Optimization, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 31–56, Dec. 2013.
[54] T. Seagriff and S. Lord, “Soft Operational Research Techniques :
Current and Future Uses,” in YoungOR 17, 2011, pp. 40–53.
[55] C. Vidalakis, J. E. Tookey, and J. Sommerville, “Logistics simulation
modelling across construction supply chains,” Construction Innovation:
Information, Process, Management, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 212–228, 2011.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:70309", author = "Aspasia Koutsokosta and Stefanos Katsavounis", title = "Review of the Model-Based Supply Chain Management Research in the Construction Industry", abstract = "This paper reviews the model-based qualitative and
quantitative Operations Management research in the context of
Construction Supply Chain Management (CSCM). Construction
industry has been traditionally blamed for low productivity, cost and
time overruns, waste, high fragmentation and adversarial
relationships. The construction industry has been slower than other
industries to employ the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept
and develop models that support the decision-making and planning.
However the last decade there is a distinct shift from a project-based
to a supply-based approach of construction management. CSCM
comes up as a new promising management tool of construction
operations and improves the performance of construction projects in
terms of cost, time and quality. Modeling the Construction Supply
Chain (CSC) offers the means to reap the benefits of SCM, make
informed decisions and gain competitive advantage. Different
modeling approaches and methodologies have been applied in the
multi-disciplinary and heterogeneous research field of CSCM. The
literature review reveals that a considerable percentage of the CSC
modeling research accommodates conceptual or process models
which present general management frameworks and do not relate to
acknowledged soft Operations Research methods. We particularly
focus on the model-based quantitative research and categorize the
CSCM models depending on their scope, objectives, modeling
approach, solution methods and software used. Although over the last
few years there has been clearly an increase of research papers on
quantitative CSC models, we identify that the relevant literature is
very fragmented with limited applications of simulation,
mathematical programming and simulation-based optimization. Most
applications are project-specific or study only parts of the supply
system. Thus, some complex interdependencies within construction
are neglected and the implementation of the integrated supply chain
management is hindered. We conclude this paper by giving future
research directions and emphasizing the need to develop optimization
models for integrated CSCM. We stress that CSC modeling needs a
multi-dimensional, system-wide and long-term perspective. Finally,
prior applications of SCM to other industries have to be taken into
account in order to model CSCs, but not without translating the
generic concepts to the context of construction industry.", keywords = "Construction supply chain management, modeling,
operations research, optimization and simulation.", volume = "9", number = "7", pages = "2318-7", }
