Purpose

To deal with the present situation and recover after the COVID-19 pandemic, construction firms are required to recognise the trends in construction supply chain management (CSCM) for the upcoming years and determine the appropriate practices towards the trends for the improvement of construction activities in terms of strategy, tactic and operations. This paper aims to recognise key trends in CSCM and uses these trends as strategic criteria for the evaluation and prioritisation of lean construction (LC) tools at different project phases including design and architectural engineering, planning and control, on-site construction and safety management.

Design/methodology/approach

The integrated analytic hierarchy process–Delphi method is used to collect and analyse the data from construction experts to evaluate the importance levels of the CSCM trends and recommend the appropriate tools for LC practices to improve project performances.

Findings

Seven key CSCM trends are identified: lean supply chain management (SCM), supply chain (SC) integration, SC standardisation, SC problem-solving, SC information-sharing, SC flexibility and SC sustainability. Based on these trends, a set of prioritised lean tools are suggested for LC practices, in which “virtual design construction” (VDC) and “last planner system” are considered as the central tools. These two LC practices can be integrated with other effective tools to support the strategic, tactical and operational targets in construction supply chain (CSC) projects.

Research limitations/implications

This study gives the managerial implications by developing an application framework of LC practices for CSC projects. The framework promotes “VDC” as a strategic tool for the phase of design and architectural engineering and considers “last planner system” as the central LC practice for the phase of project planning and control. The framework also focuses on the improvement of efficiency in construction operations by taking into account the aspects of on-site collaboration, problem-solving, improvement and safety.

Originality/value

Up to date, there is still a lack of researches in classifying and prioritising the significant LC tools for each project phase to deal with CSC issues in both breadth and depth. Thus, this study is performed to provide construction managers with the awareness of CSCM trends on which they can focus to have strategic criteria for selecting LC practices to improve CSC performances.

中文翻译：

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精益实践对建筑供应链管理趋势的展望

目的

为了应对目前的情况并在 COVID-19 大流行后恢复，建筑公司需要认识到未来几年建筑供应链管理 (CSCM) 的趋势，并针对改善建筑活动的趋势确定适当的做法战略、战术和行动方面。本文旨在识别 CSCM 的主要趋势，并将这些趋势用作在不同项目阶段（包括设计和建筑工程、规划和控制、现场施工和安全管理）对精益施工 (LC) 工具进行评估和优先排序的战略标准。

设计/方法/方法

集成层次分析法——德尔菲法用于收集和分析来自建筑专家的数据，以评估 CSCM 趋势的重要性级别，并为 LC 实践推荐适当的工具，以提高项目绩效。

发现

确定了七个关键的 CSCM 趋势：精益供应链管理 (SCM)、供应链 (SC) 集成、SC 标准化、SC 问题解决、SC 信息共享、SC 灵活性和 SC 可持续性。基于这些趋势，我们为 LC 实践提出了一套优先的精益工具，其中以“虚拟设计构建”（VDC）和“最后计划者系统”为核心工具。这两种 LC 实践可以与其他有效工具相结合，以支持建筑供应链 (CSC) 项目中的战略、战术和运营目标。

研究限制/影响

本研究通过为 CSC 项目开发 LC 实践的应用框架来提供管理启示。该框架将“VDC”推广为设计和建筑工程阶段的战略工具，并将“最后规划者系统”视为项目规划和控制阶段的中心 LC 实践。该框架还侧重于通过考虑现场协作、问题解决、改进和安全等方面来提高施工作业的效率。

原创性/价值

迄今为止，仍然缺乏对每个项目阶段的重要 LC 工具进行分类和优先排序以从广度和深度上处理 CSC 问题的研究。因此，本研究旨在为施工经理提供对 CSCM 趋势的认识，他们可以专注于这些趋势，以制定战略标准来选择 LC 实践以提高 CSC 绩效。