APPLICATION OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH CLOUD COMPUTING

Abstract

All over the world, to fix problems like project loan inflows, site conditions, weather, etc. different techniques from other industrial sectors are adopted, paving the way towards advancements and development along with minimizing problems regarding waste management, stakeholder management, supply chain management, planning, monitoring and control. Various techniques are being imported from other industrial sectors and are now causing radical advancement in construction sector. Among many, the following are: i. Supply Chain Management (SCM) ii. Lean Construction (LC) iii. Cloud Computing (CC) This study was carried out to benchmark the field practices of Pakistan Construction Industry. Semi-structured interviews were carried out aiming at a total of 93 questions about the three categories of SCM, 5 categories of LC and cloud computing. The interviews, covering open ended questions, were carried out in the 25 leading companies of Pakistan construction Industry. Project managers, planning managers and procurement managers were focused for interviews. Case study was conducted on the project sites of those companies which were performing better in these trades to confirm and standardize their practices by evaluating their performance. Case study parameters about the concepts of supply chain management, lean construction and construction cloud were also set to identify the actual leading and lagging trades of these organizations. Data was analyzed by using ANOVA, graphic (line graphs and pie charts) and qualitative data analysis technique. Results showed that though Pakistan Construction Industry professionals have a clear perception about these trades, due to non-standardization of organizational cultures, distrust among the construction industry stakeholders, traditional contracting, non-automated environment, poor communication and coordination and inefficient stakeholder management, they are unable to achieve the better growth rate. Thus, the industry is still considered as backward.

To introduce the trend of construction automation and update the field practices in the areas of supply chain management and lean construction, a model was developed, well integrating all these concepts. To make the model acceptable and adoptable by PCI, feedback was taken from the experienced professionals. After incorporating the entire feedbacks, model is customized and arranged. The proposed model is expected to be capable of upgrading the PCI and enabling it to compete with the other developed industries. But the serious steps should be taken to implement this model and to fruitfully adopt SCM, LC and cloud computing trends. Professional trainings, educational and awareness programs and workshops, efficient monitoring and feedback systems, standardization of organizational cultures and Govt support can help in achieving the goal of application of lean construction supply chain management through cloud computing.