Simulating the impact of supply chain management practice on construction project performance

Supply chains have been identified by researchers as one of the main problems in the construction industry which lead to poor performance. On construction sites, supply chains encompass the flows of materials, labour, equipment, plant and information which originate from the different parties, viz., main contractor, suppliers, subcontractors and client/architect. Any problems with these flows will eventually disrupt the project performance. This paper describes the building of a simulation model to predict how supply chain management (SCM) practice may impact on construction project performance. A CPM network of a typical school building has been used to develop the model to which the problems of supply chain flows have been applied. The extent of the problems regarding supply chain flows were identified using questionnaires sent to UK contractors and these results will be used to develop the model using Pertmaster Risk ExpertTM. At the time of writing, no results are available, but the paper will describe the nature of the tests to be conducted using the simulation model.