Whereas supply chain management (SCM) is in vogue within many UK business schools, its further presence within construction management is clearly welcome. Although it was the Latham report that recommended partnering in construction, it was the Egan report, published in 1998, that advocated the use of SCM in construction as highlighted in the text. This book is well organised and written, bringing together the theory and practice of SCM.
Construction supply chain management is organised into two main sections: Part A covering the theoretical concepts of SCM in construction; and Part B covering the application of SCM to the United Kingdom (UK) construction industry.
Part A covers the theoretical aspects of SCM and provides an introduction to the main concept and developments in supply chains in the construction industry, culture in supply chains, knowledge, learning and innovation in supply chains, and a discussion on the marketing and pricing strategy in supply chains and value-added approach to competition in construction.
Part B, the practice, comprises the chapters on supply chains applied to private finance initiative projects and supply chain risk, supply chains used and developed from a client’s perspective by two of the largest UK clients, Slough Estates and British Airport Authorities, and a contractor’s perspective on the way they exploit supply chains. The final chapter is on the use of franchising in construction and its application to contractors and sub-contractors.
The target audience for the text is undergraduate and postgraduate students studying construction or project management, civil engineering or quantity surveying. However, this is a useful text for practitioners with its emphasis, in part B, on the application of supply chains in construction. The editor’s aim was to ‘demonstrate that supply chain management in construction is more than a management fad’. His aim has been more than achieved by demonstrating that SCM is a critical area of SCM and construction management. The editor highlights the significance of SCM in construction, ‘the opportunity for substantial improvements in client and stakeholder value and/or reductions in overall costs’. This text is strongly recommended.
