Construction supply chain management: A systematic literature review and future development

Abstract

The dilemmas of resource waste and information dispersion in the construction industry can be attributed to scattered management mode. Primary project participants tend to emphasize their own production operations and benefits. Problems such as overcapacity, untimely procurement and supply of materials and equipment, unreliable transportation, and information distortion occur frequently. In response to the urgent need of enhanced construction industrialization, construction supply chain (CSC) management provides a solution by coordinating production and resources, collaborating all primary parties in construction activities, and integrating construction information. However, lack of comprehensive review of CSC research hinders clarifications of research directions and implementation priorities for CSC management. This paper aims to combine quantitative and qualitative methods to systematically analyze CSC related studies to bridge this gap. The quantitative analysis of 465 relevant articles found that CSC resilience plays an important role in ensuring CSC stability in uncertain environment but receives insufficient attention. Thus, from the perspective of CSC resilience development, 38 articles focusing on CSC were qualitatively analyzed and a framework for achieving CSC resilience from dimensions of organization, management, and technology was established. Further guided framework suggested that future research on CSC should focus on interaction of participants across CSC lifecycle, information integration, objective CSC resilience measurement, and CSC digitization with new technologies. The CSC resilience achieving framework, limitations and challenges of CSC management, and future research directions underlined in this study can provide guidance for future academic work and practical application of CSC management.