Implementation of Supply Chain Management in Iran Construction Industry

In the last few decades construction sector in Iran has been developing rapidly compared with other industries in this country. Economically, Iran government has placed a significant emphasis on this industry as a consequent of the escalating social demand of commercial, industrial and residential constructions especially low-cost housing and affordable accommodation. However, this sector is still suffering from low productivity and it is still running on traditional way of doing business. Therefore, a well-organized transformation in order to reduce cost, time and waste in construction sector to cope with this situation seems to be necessary. It is argued that one of the well-thought techniques that possibly could be the solution to construction industry’s conflicts and time and cost overruns is the Supply Chain Management (SCM), the concept that has emerged and developed in car manufacturing industry and has brought success to that industry as well. It is believed that supply chain management has the potential to enhance the overall productivity of the construction industry in many ways. Yet, this technique has not been practiced efficiently in many countries particularly in Iran. The main purpose of this study is to develop an adequate conceptual framework with the aim of implementing SCM in Iran construction industry on the base of an indepth literature review and analyzing the current performance of the industry throughout a questionnaire survey collected from industries’ experts and stakeholders. The collected responds were statistically analyzed and not surprisingly, project quality improvement, site procurement enhancement, project cost and time reduction are the most significant benefits of the construction supply chain management (CSCM) implementation. Industrialization, BIM (specifically 4D & 5D designs) and advanced technologies (e.g. IT, ERP etc.) are selected as most important variables for implementing CSCM and on the other hand lack of trust, poor subcontractor identification and priced based selection are counted as main barriers in implementing SCM. Subsequently, by implementing this framework it is believed that potential benefits like project cost and time reduction, quality improvement and site procurement management improvement can be achieved. Keywords: Iran construction industry, supply chain implementation, construction supply chain management, SCM framework, construction management