Supply chain visibility for industrial construction projects : assessment of benefits, current status, definitions, barriers, and enablers
Creators: name: Dharmapalan, Vineeth
name: 0000-0003-1235-460X
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2021
Subjects: Supply chain visibility
Information sharing
Construction supply chain
Industrial construction
Supply chain decision-making

description: 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.