شیوه های تامین تجهیزات اطلاعات از عوامل کلیدی در زنجیره های تامین ساختمانی

This paper presents a survey on the practices associated with the acquisition, use, storage and transfer of information by a sample of professionals (actors) within the construction supply chain. The role of information in construction supply chains witnessed a shift from its passive function in decision-making from the 1990s, to a strategic resource that drives both the processes and competitiveness of companies. This change presents challenges for organisations that participate in the construction supply chain. The way organisations involved in the construction supply chain manage this resource will have direct impact on their competitiveness. This is influenced by the information acquisition, processing, utilisation and transfer practices of their professional staff (actors) involved in the processes of the construction supply chain. The paper presents results from a survey that looks at some aspects of how key actors in the construction supply chain address these information-related issues.

Supply-chain management has emerged over the last two decades as an important and strategic area of management decision-making for both profit making and non-profit organisations. In Porter's value chain ( Porter, 1982) the efficient performance of an organisation is associated with the effective management of its supply-chain operations. At the heart of the transactions that take place in supply chains within construction is information. It has been argued that construction largely is an information transaction process ( Thorpe et al., 1998). This implies that the way information is managed by the key actors involved in the process will impinge on the effective management of construction as a supply chain ( Betts et al., 1998). This paper first describes the construction supply chain and then explores the role that information plays in bringing about efficient delivery of the products associated with the construction process. It identifies the growing importance of information as a consequence of the changing business in construction, and argues that the way key actors in the construction supply chain acquire, manage and distribute information will not only impact on the competitiveness of their organisations, but also influence the take up of current ICT developments in improving the construction supply chain. The paper presents the results of a survey to ascertain the practices of principal actors in the construction supply chain regarding the acquisition, processing, use and transfer of information. The outcome from the survey provides insights on the potential for adopting ICT options for procuring and transferring information within the construction supply chain.

The construction supply chain is essentially an information transaction process. This paper has argued that the role of information in the supply chain needs to be broadened from its current passive status to encompass its active management as a strategic resource. Treating information as a resource should enable the parties in the construction supply chain to plan and ascertain optimum levels of its utilisation for projects and thereby achieve productivity improvements. For this to be a reality, the way information is utilised by actors in the supply chain has to be understood. A survey that focuses on some aspects of the way professionals in construction utilise information shows that there is a propensity to utilise paper-based options in procuring, processing and transferring this resource. The productive time involved coupled with the medium of transfer makes information supply chain in construction a potential avenue for productivity improvement. The current growth in sources of information and availability of technology for ease of access implies that the management of information as a resource in the construction supply chain can be a reality. A significant proportion of actors in the respondent group considered their current information requirements as being relatively stable (subject to annual changes). However, the current trend of technological development and its concomitant economic competition that it will generate from productivity improvements and shorter operational times imply that such stability may no longer exist within the foreseeable future. The potential impact of considering information as such a resource in the construction supply chain can be useful in this direction. It will call for the development of appropriate procedures, protocols and mechanisms for evaluating information along the same basis as other construction tangible inputs and outputs.