Critical success factors for adopting supply chain management in Tanzanian construction projects

Supply chain management (SCM) has been effective in several industries, such as the manufacturing industry and agriculture. SCM is the active management of supply chain activities to maximise customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Therefore, the adoption of SCM by construction businesses can help reduce delays, thereby improving their competitive advantage. The purpose of this study is to discover which critical success factors (CSFs) determine the successful adoption of SCM in the construction projects, with the aim of filling the knowledge gap in the context of a developing country by using a questionnaire. To achieve this, respondents were purposely selected from construction firms registered in Class 1 and 2 by the Contractors Registration Board of Tanzania. Out of 100 questionnaires distributed, 60 were returned filled in fairly well for analysis. The data was analysed using two features of IBM SPSS version 20, which are descriptive statistics-frequencies and compare means-one-sample t-test. The findings revealed that the CSFs for adopting SCM by construction projects were providing logistics at a lower cost and on-time delivery to clients, having a centrally coordinated logistics function and top management’s commitment and support. It means that clients, contractors, subcontractors, consultants and suppliers/manufacturers will need to rethink what CSFs determine the performance of the construction projects using SCM, as knowing which ones are critical would lead to improved project delivery. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing insights into the CSFs that can be adopted by firms to successfully implement SCM in construction projects for sustainable construction businesses in Tanzania, which has not been explored.