Modeling and monitoring of construction supply chains

The planning and management of supply chains require properly specifying the participating members and the relationships among them. Construction supply chains usually consist of numerous participants and are complex in structure. Representing construction supply chains using a network model can help understand the complexity, support re-configuration, identify the bottlenecks, and prioritize company’s resources, as well as add values to the management of construction projects. Using a case example on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) processes in a construction project, this paper demonstrates the modeling of construction supply chains using the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) framework developed by the Supply Chain Council (SCC). The SCOR modeling framework provides a structured and systematic way to model and decompose a supply chain from conceptual representation to process element specification. The SCOR framework is commonly used by corporations for strategic planning of their supply chains. This paper further presents a model-based service oriented framework that leverages the SCOR models for performance monitoring of construction supply chains. In the supply chain management and monitoring framework each supply chain process element is implemented as a discrete web service component. The framework is built on a service oriented collaborative system, namely SC Collaborator, that we have developed using web service technology, open standards, and open source technologies.