A conceptual model for improving construction supply chain performance

Abstract

Over the years, the UK construction industry through several reports and enquires has been admonished to change its business approaches. Research points to the industry's adversarial culture and disjointed relationships as the major hindrance in achieving collaboration and improved performance within construction supply chains. Common factors include the traditional construction procurement strategies driven by a win-lose mentality, competitive buyer-supplier relationships - pitting one supplier against another in order to achieve the optimum buy, and most significantly, loosely disseminated nature of information applications and exchange among project participants. Within this adversarial context, engagement with Building Information Modelling (BIM) and its philosophy is showing potential positive outcomes with regards to information exchange and collaborative working practices. This paper is based on a larger ongoing research project which aims to design a BIM-driven conceptual model for advancing collaboration and improved supply chain performance in UK construction projects. The research suggests that full deployment of the BIM concept possibly will greatly diminish the adversarial culture in the industry through promotion of collaborative working ideals. In turn, this will result in enhanced project supply chain performance thus, aligning with the objectives of the UK Government's construction strategy for 2016. Following this proposition, this paper based on a critical review of literature presents the essential elements required for the design of the proposed conceptual model, and its contributions to the construction management discipline.