Rethinking infrastructure supply chain management – a manifesto for change

Abstract

ABSTRACT Infrastructure projects exemplify engineer-to-order supply chains, where there is a high degree of complexity and uncertainty associated with developing a ‘unique’ product. While there is much advocacy of translating operational excellence techniques from high volume manufacturing sectors, we argue that such an approach is based on a mis-presumption of order and structure at all systems levels. We suggest an alternative ‘travel of an idea’ from the knowledge management discipline, a phenomenological framework describing contexts in terms of ordered and un-ordered, which directs us towards the need for diverse management approaches if we are to minimise the risk of project underperformance and failure. We contemplate the value of the framework and reflect on the contribution it can make to the construction industry specifically and to engineer-to-order production systems more generally; we provide a basis to bring a healthy challenge when ‘travelling ideas’ and expose how unthinking choices can be expected to fail.