Quality in construction: A supply chain perspective

Often the construction supply chain is perceived as consisting of two intertwined streams; a stream of materials and a stream of immaterial informational character. Moreover the supply delivery would be characterized by configuration by project. That this configuration is not always successful can be demonstrated by studying the emergence of failures occurring in the supply chain. The paper conceptualises the construction supply as a delivery network being partially stable, partially project specific and configured. It moreover develops a frame of understanding of the handling of quality issues in the delivery network, using operation management approaches. The paper presents case study work done in Danish construction. The method was observation of work at the construction site followed by interviews with actors backwards upstream the supply chain to the origin of the failure. The building project followed generated 160 failures over a three month observation period. The economic consequences are calculated to 8% of the production costs. The analysis of relations in the supply network showed that most of the failures were generated in the knowledge stream and then occasionally transformed into the material stream. The paper proposes initiatives to strengthen partnerships in supply chains, especially at mixed stable and project configured types. The contradiction between permanent enterprise organisations potentially capable of handling purchasing and the role of the project manager is discussed as a contradiction to overcome.