A Survey Study on Industrial Construction Project Supply Chain: On Time Performance and Practices of Structural Steel and Pipe Spools

Abstract

Construction material not available for installation cause delays in the construction project supply chain and pose risks to overall project delays. Many researches have studied the supply chain to find the underlining reasons and influencing factors for project delays. Other investigations of the construction project supply chain identify ways to improve the supply chain. The purpose of this study is to determine the current state of construction project supply chain performance with a focus on material on-time availability. A survey of industrial constructors and their suppliers’ on-time performance and related supply chain practices was conducted. Structural steel and pipe spools are frequently used in industrial construction projects and were selected as the subject of the survey. This survey was used to obtain a general perspective of the issues associated with the delays so that further surveys and simulations could be performed to pin point specific areas of improvement. This survey of experts in the field was used as a qualitative query to obtain opinions and a feel for the state of the practice in industrial construction supply chain management. For this initial review it is found that there are many possible delays, missing and defective parts, overall 22% for structural steel and 18% for pipe spools. New technologies such as RFID would be a possible way to improve the construction project supply chain process at this level.