Identifying enablers for coordination across construction supply chain processes: a systematic literature review

What is it about?

Projects usually suffer from schedule delays and cost overruns. One of the major problems causing that is the inefficient supply chain management in construction projects. The considerable amount of the design and schedule changes leads to a waste of time for rework and a waste of materials. It is required that project stakeholders or the supply chain partners have good capabilities to communicate the information and ensure good coordination of material flows. Many recent studies have advanced construction supply chain coordination from multiple perspectives. However, the field still lacks a comprehensive analysis to summarize existing research, to explicitly identify all the possible enablers for coordination, and to investigate how the enablers can be carried out at the supply chain interfaces. (An enabler is defined as a way to give people competence and power to achieve a purpose). To fill this gap, our research provides a systematic literature review to examine highly relevant scientific publications regarding the coordination of construction supply chain functions. A systematic review is useful to link main research findings with specific categories of those enablers and to provide an in-depth analysis of research contents. We found that project’s mutual adjustments and reciprocal interdependences could be well addressed by contractual, procedural and technological enablers. They should be used together to ensure efficient coordination, for example, in an integrated form of smart contracts. Unfortunately, how these enablers can be combined has not been adequately addressed so far in the state-of-the-art.

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