Developing material delivery processes in cooperation: An application example of the construction industry

Abstract

The conservative construction industry needs new tools and approaches to develop their business processes. The objective of the paper is to introduce a new approach for cooperative development of material delivery processes. The developing process is based on process view that emphasizes cooperation between construction firms and material suppliers. Two measurements are applied as a part of the cooperative developing process. These tools measure the effectiveness of information and material flows. With these tools the current performance of delivery processes can be analyzed and different practices benchmarked. The idea is to find out the improvement potential that could be realized through cooperation. An application example is introduced as a part of the paper. Delivery processes of the kitchen cabinets and major appliances have been developed by the cooperative developing approach. Case study results show that the cooperation of suppliers and construction firms offers many improvement ways. Both supplier and construction firm can benefit from the results of development process.