Building Supply Chain Research Articles

Challenges in the green building supply chain: multi-objective planning for prefabricated factory site selection

Challenges in the green building supply chain: multi-objective planning for prefabricated factory site selection

Dynamic Incentive Mechanism of Collaboration in Prefabricated Building Supply Chain Based on Differential Game

Supply chain collaboration is an important guarantee for improving the performance of prefabricated construction projects and exerting its advantages. The aim of this study was to explore the level and effect of supply chain collaboration under a no-cost-sharing contract, a cost-sharing contract, and a centralized decision-making contract. A dynamic incentive model of prefabricated building supply chain collaboration based on the differential game model was proposed. Considering the impact of BIM on collaboration, the BIM application level was also introduced into the incentive model. Through the comparative analysis of model solution results and numerical simulation, it was found that, in the centralized decision-making contract, the optimal collaborative effort and the optimal total revenue of enterprises in the prefabricated building supply chain were the largest; the optimal collaborative effort of enterprise in the prefabricated building supply chain reduced first and then tended to be stable; and the improvement of the BIM application level could promote collaboration in the prefabricated building supply chain. The results of this study are helpful for managers to select and formulate a reasonable collaboration incentive contract in the prefabricated building supply chain.

Risk Management of Supply Chain in Prefabricated Buildings: A Case Study of Leishenshan Hospital

Based on the research of other scholars, this article divides the prefabricated building supply chain into six stages: design and development, production procurement, warehousing and transportation, lifting construction, and facility recycling. Taking the well-known prefabricated building of Leishenshan Hospital as an example, this study analyzes the possible risks of these six stages in the prefabricated building supply chain, such as insufficient design capabilities, production efficiency, the low standardization level of molds, transportation policy constraints, insufficient protection of components during the warehousing and transportation stage, insufficient organizational capacity, inadequate supervision, and problems such as missing recycling processes. Due to the special nature of Leishenshan Hospital, which has received great attention, some risks that have been avoided due to special reasons have been proposed, and the power of management personnel has been strengthened for these risks, digitization and standardization of molds, and strengthen on-site management level. From this study, construction, component production, and design enterprises can learn from measures such as increasing awareness of component recycling.

Supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations: examining the role of self-organisation, information integration and adaptability in South Sudan

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose and validate a theoretical model to investigate the relationship between self-organisation, information integration, adaptability and supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical model was developed from extant studies and assessed through a structured questionnaire survey of 86 humanitarian organisations operating in South Sudan. The data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling.FindingsThe study found that self-organisation has a discernible positive influence on supply chain agility not only directly but also indirectly through adaptability. Further, information integration does not significantly influence supply chain agility directly but is fully mediated by adaptability. Together, the antecedent variables account for 53.9% variance in supply chain agility.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to providing an empirical understanding of a humanitarian supply chain as a complex adaptive system and hence the need to incorporate self-organising and adaptive dimensions in supply chain management practice. Furthermore, it confirms the centrality of the complex adaptive system feature of adaptability when building supply chain agility through self-organisation and information integration.Practical implicationsThe findings provide a firm ground for managerial decisions on investment in self-organisation and information integration dimensions so as to enhance adaptability and improve supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations.Originality/valueThis study is distinctive in the sense that it uses the complex adaptive system variables to empirically validate the relationships between self-organisation, information integration, adaptability and supply chain agility in humanitarian organisations in the world’s youngest developing economy with a long history of conflict and humanitarian intervention. The mediating influence of adaptability examined in this study is also novel.

Research on Topology Optimization of Building Digital Supply Chain Based on Genetic Neural Network

In order to maximize the benefit of building supply chain, the topology optimization method of building digital supply chain based on genetic neural network is studied. According to the overall structural characteristics of the building digital supply chain, customer demand data, supplier sales data, manufacturer production management data, and environmental policy exception data are collected to form a building digital supply chain data set. As input data, a building digital supply chain demand prediction model based on improved genetic LSTM neural network is constructed. Capture the needs of the building digital supply chain; according to the demand of suppliers, manufacturers and customers in building digital supply chain, a nonlinear 0–1 mixed integer programming model based on the newsboy model is established. According to the various information provided by the supplier, the ant colony algorithm is used to calculate the optimal supplier. After all suppliers are identified, the topology of the digital supply chain is constructed. So far, the optimization of the supply chain has been completed. The experimental data show that this method can accurately predict the demand of construction projects, the maximum error is less than 1.5%, and can obtain the best supplier selection results. Compared with before optimization, the profit of the structural digital supply chain after topology optimization increases the most.

Design and analysis of government subsidies policy of capacity expansion under reselling and agency selling schemes

Major disruptions, such as the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the US-China trade war, have significantly impacted businesses and the global economy, creating a turbulent environment for society and supply chains. Globally, fighting disruptions and ensuring the supply of essential goods has become a significant challenge for governments. One possible solution is to strategically expand essential product capacity to increase supply resilience. Governments must cooperate closely with suppliers through carefully designed subsidy policies. A theoretical model based on current industry practices was built to explore and analyze the partnerships between governments and essential product suppliers. Our proposed model includes four players: the government, the supplier, the selling agent, and the consumer. We considered government subsidy policies for capacity expansion in building supply chains subject to two pricing designs: (1) government pricing and (2) market pricing. The results indicate that once a disruption occurs, social welfare increases with the government-subsidized expansion of essential goods to increase supply chain capacity. We analytically show that if the government does not support production expansion, the supplier can expand production only if the expansion cost is trivial. Furthermore, without government pricing, the product price increases in the government subsidy ratio. Hence, we conclude that government intervention is required to stabilize the market with proper price control, especially in the essential goods supply chain.

Resilience and Innovation Strategies: How Businesses Adapt to Supply Chain Disruptions in the Post-Pandemic Era

The study explores strategies for dealing with supply chain disruptions in various industries in Turkey after the pandemic. The industries studied include manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, consumer electronics, retail, and food and beverage. The analysis involved using both qualitative data from interviews with six industry experts and quantitative analysis using NVivo and Python. NVivo and Python were utilized for thematic and sentiment analysis to summarize the findings. Common strategies identified include diversifying supply sources, integrating technology, and improving risk management. The study also revealed a consistent shift towards building resilient and agile supply chain systems. Additionally, the findings highlighted that while common strategies apply across different sectors, sector-specific differences also need to be considered when developing tailored strategies to address sector-specific challenges. This study not only addresses a significant gap in empirical insights into post-pandemic supply chain management but also provides managerial and policy recommendations for building supply chain resilience and fostering innovation in these sectors.

RESILIENCE OF GREEN BUILDING SUPPLY CHAIN: CAPABILITIES, RISKS AND INFLUENCE MECHANISM

ABSTRACT Green buildings are more effective in saving energy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions than conventional buildings. However, the long-term development of green buildings depends heavily on the resilience of their supply chain. This study examines how capability factors (readiness, response, and recovery) and risk factors (technological, organizational, and environmental) interact to influence the resilience of the green building supply chain, using a third-order partial least squares structural equation model. The results indicate that response capability and technological risk significantly impact resilience, while readiness capability mitigates organizational and environmental risks. The study suggests three strategies to enhance supply chain resilience: strengthening readiness capabilities and increasing resistance to organizational or environmental risks. The findings provide green building project managers with practical insights and tools to make informed decisions that improve supply chain resilience.

Analyzing resilience influencing factors in the prefabricated building supply chain based on SEM-SD methodology

The supply chain for prefabricated buildings (PB) currently grapples with pressing challenges. In order to ensure the safe and stable development of the prefabricated building supply chains (PBSC), this study aims to identify the key factors and internal mechanisms affecting the PBSC, and propose a supply chain resilience enhancement mechanism, so as to promote the sustainable development of the PB industry. The study combined a literature review and survey data to identify key resilience factors in PBSC. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to explore the relationships between these factors. System dynamics were applied to create a simulation model, assessing the resilience impact level and conducting sensitivity analysis. The results show that the transportation and procurement processes are the most significant factors influencing supply chain resilience. The external environmental factors wielded a more pronounced impact on the overall evaluation of supply chain resilience than the delivery and use processes, but delivery and use processes are more sensitive. The study uses the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model to suggest strategies for enhancing supply chain resilience. This study contributes to more sustainable and efficient construction practices by offering an innovative theoretical framework to analyze the factors influencing PBSC resilience and proposing enhancement strategies.

Selecting Resilient Strategies for Cost Optimization in Prefabricated Building Supply Chains Based on the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-Ⅱ: Facing Diverse Disruption Scenarios

As a new sustainable building production mode, prefabricated building supply chains can realize energy saving, environmental protection and full cycle value maximization of building products. Prefabricated building supply chains often experience disruptions due to supply instability, transportation delay and force majeure, resulting in project delays and cost escalations and posing challenges to the sustainable development objectives of enterprises. Therefore, it is important and essential to study the strategy of enhancing the resiliency of prefabricated building supply chains, which has not been comprehensively explored in previous papers. This paper constructs decision-making models for supply chain cost resilience strategies under varying scenarios of supply disruptions, incorporating both redundant inventory and back-up supplier strategy. It considers the total cost and resilience of the supply chain as dual objective functions. Parameter-tuned non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-П (NSGA-П) algorithms were used innovatively to solve the project case, and the impacts of the redundant inventory coefficient and back-up supplier supply price coefficient on the model result were analyzed. The results indicate that the supply chain with resilience construction has a superior capability to cope with disruption. The results show that when there is a mild supply disruption, the general contractor uses the capacity within the supply chain and chooses a redundant inventory strategy to restore resilience. In the event of moderate disruption, both the easy inventory strategy and back-up supplier strategy are selected to maintain supply chain stability. In the event of a severe disruption, only the back-up supplier strategy is selected to cover the losses and maintain the project schedule. In addition, the choice of resilience strategy is impacted by the inventory levels and component prices of back-up suppliers. It further verifies the effectiveness of the model and the impacts of uncertain parameters in the model on the results. This study contributes to enhancing the resilience management of the prefabricated building supply chain by the general contractor, thereby elevating the overall efficiency and competitiveness of the supply chain and furthering the sustainable development of prefabricated buildings.

Review of Green Building Supply Chain Research at Home and Abroad

In 2020, China proposed the goal of "striving to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and making efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060." In the future, the construction industry in China will inevitably develop towards the direction of building more resource-saving, environmentally friendly, and pollution-reducing high-quality buildings. This paper starts from the concept of green building supply chain, the significance of its development, and its practical applications, and reviews the relevant literature on green building supply chain at home and abroad in recent years. By analyzing the shortcomings of existing studies, it puts forward the future prospects of green building supply chain research.

Climate change and resilience for antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention.

This review covers recent research regarding the challenges posed by climate change within the areas of antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention, and ways to build resiliency in these fields. Infectious disease patterns are changing as microbes adapt to climate change and changing environmental factors. Capacity for testing and treating infectious diseases is challenged by newly emerging diseases, which exacerbate challenges to antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention.Antimicrobial resistance is accelerated due to environmental factors including air pollution, plastic pollution, and chemicals used in food systems, which are all impacted by climate change.Climate change places infection prevention practices at risk in many ways including from major weather events, increased risk of epidemics, and societal disruptions causing conditions that can overwhelm health systems. Researchers are building resilience by advancing rapid diagnostics and disease modeling, and identifying highly reliable versus low efficiency interventions. Climate change and associated major weather and socioeconomic events will place significant strain on healthcare facilities. Work being done to advance rapid diagnostics, build supply chain resilience, improve predictive disease modeling and surveillance, and identify high reliability versus low yield interventions will help build resiliency in antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention for escalating challenges due to climate change.

Reducing betrayal behavior in green building construction: A quantum game approach

The issue of energy consumption in buildings is becoming increasingly pertinent. Society highly values energy conservation and environmental protection, viewing the adoption of green buildings as an inevitable trajectory in the evolution of the construction sector. However, a challenge emerges during the progression of green building construction concerning betrayal within the supply chain. This paper employs a quantum game approach to tackle the issue of green building betrayal within a two-tier green building supply chain comprising developers and contractors. Initially, a non-zero-sum classical game model is formulated based on the green-building construction process between developers and contractors Subsequently, the classical strategy space is extended to the quantum strategy space. The findings indicate that in classical games, and without considering quantum entanglement, even if both parties adopt comprehensive strategies, the party exerting complete effort still faces the risk of betrayal. Conversely, in scenarios of maximum quantum entanglement, the loss incurred by the party not exerting complete effort does not affect the party making a complete effort. Consequently, when accounting for quantum entanglement, both parties tend to opt for complete effort. Lastly, an entanglement treaty is proposed to constrain the strategic choices of both parties and ensure that neither has an incentive to betray. The findings of this study provide good suggestions for green building project managers to improve the effort degree of the developer and general construction contractor in green buildings to promote the development of green buildings.

Toward Sustainable Construction: Optimizing Carbon Emission Reduction in the Building Supply Chain through Game-Theoretic Strategies, Government Subsidies, and Cost-Sharing Contract

Toward Sustainable Construction: Optimizing Carbon Emission Reduction in the Building Supply Chain through Game-Theoretic Strategies, Government Subsidies, and Cost-Sharing Contract

Trends in Shortages of Lead Chelators From 2001 to 2022.

The study aims to describe drug shortages affecting lead chelators in the United States from 2001 through 2022. Drug shortage data were retrieved from the University of Utah Drug Information Service from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2022. Shortages of first- and second-line lead chelators were analyzed. Drug class, formulation, administration route, shortage reason, shortage duration, generic status, single-source status, and presence of temporally overlapping shortages were examined. Total shortage months, percentages of study period on shortage, and median shortage durations were calculated. Thirteen lead chelator shortages were reported during the study period. Median duration was 7.4 months and the longest shortage (24.8 months) involved calcium disodium edetate. Calcium disodium edetate and dimercaprol had the greatest number of shortages, 4 each, and 61.5% of shortages involved parenteral medications. Median shortage duration was 14.2 months for parenteral agents and 2.2 months for non-parenteral agents. All shortages involved generic, single-source products. Supply/demand and manufacturing problems were the most common shortage reasons provided. Overlapping shortages occurred for 3.7% of the study period. Median shortage duration increased from 3 to 11 months in the second half of the study period, and 61.5% of shortages occurred in the second half of the study period. All chelators experienced multiple shortages, which became increasingly frequent and prolonged over time. Concurrent shortages occurred, potentially hampering substitution between different agents. Health care stakeholders must build supply chain resilience and develop guidelines regarding how to modify chelation therapy based on shortage conditions.

Building supply chain management programs for the economic development of the region

At times, universities are charged with helping stimulate the local economy. This study considered how the supply chain management programs at a regional university could be modified in order to provide a positive impact on the economic development of the region. Through a mixed methods action research approach that incorporated a neural network, key themes were uncovered that led to the modification, design, and implementation of strategic supply chain management curricular offerings that were targeted towards addressing the local businesses’ felt needs. As a result of this study, adjustments were made to the supply chain management program that were helpful to the local industry and provided an added revenue stream for the department.

Building supply chain resilience in small and medium-sized clothing retailers in Australia: an empirical study

Purpose In today’s complex and globalised business setting, Australian clothing retailers are ever more vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Supply chain resilience reduces the effect of a disruption, which permits the members of a supply chain to respond aptly to disruptive events. This study, hence, aims to uncover the details of how the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of clothing retailers in Australia build supply chain resilience and what are the major issues experienced by the SMEs while building resilience. Design/methodology/approach This study is carried out using a descriptive qualitative research design, and data are collected from semi-structured interviews with key informants from managerial levels within the Australian clothing retailers’ businesses. Findings This study identifies five enablers, namely, collaboration, multi-sourcing, visibility, flexibility and information systems, that the SMEs of clothing retailers mostly consider to achieve resilience in the supply chain. This study also finds that SMEs’ capabilities, cost and financing, lack of managerial autonomy and the inability to create redundancy are the key impediments hindering SMEs from attaining the expected level of resilience. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by being one of the first empirical studies to explore the SMEs of clothing retailers’ supply chain resilience in the Australian business context, which can add valuable insights for academics and practitioners in guiding supply chain design decisions for the SMEs in other sectors.

Towards a critical realism synthesis of configurational and middle-range theorising

PurposeWe present configurational theorising as a novel approach to developing middle-range theory in two steps: (1) we illustrate configurational theorising as a new form of supply chain inquiry by connecting its philosophical assumptions with a methodological execution, and (2) we generate new insights underpinning a middle-range theory for supply chain resilience.Design/methodology/approachWe synthesise information from a range of sources and invoke ‘critical realism” to suggest a five-phase configurational theorising roadmap to develop middle-range theory. We demonstrate this roadmap to explain supply chain resilience by analysing qualitative data from 22 organisations within the Australian food supply chain.FindingsCoopetition and supply chain collaboration are necessary causal conditions, but they need to combine with either supply chain agility or multi-sourcing strategy to build supply chain resilience. Asymmetrical analyses showed that the simultaneous absence of supply chain collaboration, supply chain agility and multi-sourcing results in low supply chain resilience, but coopetition was indifferent to low supply chain resilience. Similarly, high supply chain resilience is possible with the non-presence of supply chain agility and multi-sourcing.Research limitations/implicationsThe configurational middle-range theorising roadmap presented and empirically tested in this paper constitutes a substantial advancement to both theory and the methodological domain.Originality/valueThis is the first attempt at developing a middle-range theory for supply chains by explicitly drawing on configurational theorising.

Intelligent construction technology based information sharing network for prefabricated building supply chain: a social network analysis approach

PurposeIn the context of Industry 4.0, intelligent construction technologies (ICT) represented by information technology and networking will undoubtedly provide new impetus to the development of the prefabricated building supply chain (PBSC), but they will also bring various potential risks. So far, there is a large lack of research on the comprehensive consideration of the risks associated with the intelligent transformation of PBSC based on the information sharing perspective, and the critical risks and interactions are still unclear, making it difficult to identify efficient risk mitigation strategies. Therefore, this paper aims to reveal the interactions between stakeholders and clarify the critical risk nodes and interactions in information sharing of PBSC (IS-PBSC), and propose targeted risk mitigation strategies.Design/methodology/approachFirstly, this paper creatively delineates the risks and critical stakeholders of IS-PBSC. Secondly, Data is collected through questionnaires to understand the degree of risks impact. Thirdly, with the help of NetMiner 4 software, social network analysis is conducted and IS-PBSC risk network is established to reveal critical risk nodes and interactions. Finally, further targeted discussion of critical risk nodes, the effectiveness and reasonableness of the risk mitigation strategies are proposed and verified through NetMiner 4 software simulation.FindingsThe results show that the critical risks cover the entire process of information sharing, with the lack of information management norms and other information assurance-related risks accounting for the largest proportion. In addition, the government dominates in risk control, followed by other stakeholders. The implementation of risk mitigation strategies is effective, with the overall network density reduced by 41.15% and network cohesion reduced by 24%.Research limitations/implicationsIn the context of Industry 4.0, ICT represented by information technology and networking will undoubtedly provide new impetus to the development of the PBSC, but they will also bring various potential risks. So far, there is a large lack of research on the comprehensive consideration of the risks associated with the intelligent transformation of PBSC based on the information sharing perspective, and the critical risks and interactions are still unclear, making it difficult to identify efficient risk mitigation strategies.Originality/valueBased on the results of risk network visualization analysis, this paper proposes an ICT-based IS-PBSC mechanism that promotes the development of the integration of ICT and PBSC while safeguarding the benefits of various stakeholders.

Supply chain resilience: When the recipe is more important than the ingredients for managing supply chain disruptions

Over the past two decades, considerable research has focused on enhancing supply chains' capacity to cope with disruptions. Consequently, the concept of supply chain resilience (SCRE) has emerged, with the prevailing view that building resilience into the supply chain effectively manages disruptive events. However, given the concept's nascent state, little is understood about the processes through which a supply chain becomes resilient. This study employs fuzzy qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurations of managerial and organizational capabilities that contribute to improving the resilience of supply chains against both high- and low-impact disruptions. It identifies four key “recipes” that combine different resilience antecedents to enhance supply chain resilience. The findings illustrate how various combinations of organizational and managerial antecedents of SCRE, as suggested by the dynamic capabilities theory and its extension, the dynamic managerial capabilities theory, operate to build supply chain resilience. Additionally, the study demonstrates that principles of complexity theory—namely, asymmetric relationships, equifinality, and causal complexity—are integral to developing SCRE.