مکانیسم های هماهنگی برای مدیریت زنجیره تامین ساختاری در محیط اینترنت

The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts compared with other manufacturing industries. Supply chain management as an innovative management mode provides a new solution for resolving these problems from systems perspective. Coordination is the core issue to improve construction performance in construction supply chain (CSC). In this paper, the concepts of CSC and CSC management are defined. Furthermore, the inter-organization problems that effect CSC coordination are identified. Considering the Internet fosters the integration of construction processes and provides an efficient platform for CSC coordination, this paper presents two types of Internet-enabled coordination mechanisms: market mechanism, such as auction and contracting, and coordination flow, including information hub and electronic marketplace, for improving construction performance and to accelerate the innovations in the construction industry.

Recent years have seen a growing globalization of markets and the concentration of companies on their core competencies resulting in increasing supply chain coordination in supply chain management (SCM). No industry is left untouched. The construction industry in general is characterized with high fragmentation, low productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts and disputes compared with other manufacturing industries. These characteristics also are major causes of performance-related problems facing the industry [1]. These problems in general are supply chain management problems. This urgently requires coordinating construction supply chain (CSC) to improve construction performance in construction supply chain management (CSCM). The barriers that obstruct coordination and integration of CSC are identified as follows [2]: • Attitude-related issues: such as narrow minded “win-lose” attitudes and short-term focus, arrogant attitudes, exclusion of the subcontractors and suppliers from the early involvement phases, lack of praise for good performance, and lack of understanding of the subcontractors and suppliers problems. • Quality of information-related issues: such as poor information quality from general contractor and less transparency coupled with inadequate information exchanges and limited communications. • Financial/cost-related issues: These are related to competitive tendering based on price (with inadequate focus on life-cycle costs and ultimate value), which has developed adversarial relationships among clients, general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers that result in serious problems with regards to payments. • Programming/time-related issues: such as false expectations on part of the general contractor, unrealistic program times, and unrealistic and uncertain lead time of materials and equipments. The Internet fosters the integration of construction business processes across the CSC by facilitating the information flows necessary for coordinating construction business activities [3]. In the traditional CSC, for reasons of information asymmetry and uncertain factors intervened by people, the construction processes frequently cannot be controlled well, easily resulting in inefficient management and poor project performance. However, the rise of the Internet has thoroughly changed the traditional market’s business rules and has brought a revolution in transaction practices. The use of Internet-based technology initiatives makes the exchange of information simple, fast, accessible, and accurate, and brings a new, pivotal opportunity and force to development of the construction industry [4]. The omnipresent Internet provides a rich environment as well as an effective tool for CSC coordination. This paper presents the concepts of CSC and CSCM and analyzes the inter-organization problems in CSC business activities. An Internet-based framework for CSC coordination is described, which emphasizes on two Internet-enabled coordination mechanisms, i.e. market mechanism and coordination flow. Another purpose of this paper is to suggest a research agenda in CSCM for improving construction performance.

The world of business is being changed to an e-economy by new forces global competition, increased information availability, changing relationships, rapid innovations, and increasingly complex products. No industry is left untouched. Coordination has been become the key issue in SCM and enterprise strategy, especially in CSCM to improve construction performance. Construction industry has been characterized with fragmentation and poor coordination among project participants in long time, and there are many inter-organization problems, such as inaccurate information transfer and wrong deliveries in CSC, which result in the dissatisfied performance. Internet provides a rich environment and platform for the coordination in CSC. It has the potential to enable the integration of construction business processes across the CSC. Of course, CSC coordination is a systemic construction business strategy which involving all the stakeholders in construction process. It requires the partners set up common business goal. Thus, managers need to choose suitable coordination mechanisms that can promote the effective coordination in CSC. Market mechanism, which incorporates auctions, contracting, purchasing groups, electronic purchasing aids and electronic agents, and coordination flow including IH and Ems in general are two foundational Internet-enabled coordination mechanisms. CSC coordination is a valuable research opportunity for scholars. This paper only presents a general framework for CSC coordination. There is a lot of significant work, such as how to measure the coordination performance, how to calculate the coordination cost, etc, that waiting for us to do for effectively implementing this framework in practice.