Prelims

Half Title Page

Construction Supply Chain Management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era

Title Page

Construction Supply Chain Management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution Era

by

Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi

Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland

Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa

University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Wellington Didibhuku Thwala

University of South Africa, South Africa

And

Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke

University of Johannesburg, South Africa

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2022

Copyright © 2022 Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala, and Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80382-160-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-159-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-161-0 (Epub)

About The Authors

Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi is a Lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University with a passion for aligning the United Kingdom's construction and real estate industry with the principle of industry 4.0. He completed his PhD in Engineering Management at the University of Johannesburg in 2020. His research interest lies in facility management, real estate, construction supply chain management, housing, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the gig economy. Much of his work has been focused on educating real estate professionals on the benefit of applying the principles and technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He has received internal and external funds for his research. Dr Temidayo is the author of over 30 published research articles in local and international journals and conferences.

Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa is a Professor in the Department of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying, and Director of cidb Centre of Excellence & Sustainable Human Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Before delving into academics, he was involved as quantity surveyor on several infrastructural projects in Nigeria and South Africa. He completed his PhD in Engineering Management and has published several research papers in the area of housing, construction and engineering management and research methodology for construction students. He has extensive knowledge in practice, research, training and teaching.

Wellington Didibhuku Thwala is a Research Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa. He has varied research interest, including project management, construction management, supply chain management and leadership in the construction industry, construction digitilisation, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and smart cities. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Construction Project Management and Innovation. He has more than 400 published and peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books and conference proceedings locally and internationally. He also serves as an editorial board member to various reputable international journals.

Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Quantity Surveying, Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria, and a Senior Research Associate with cidb Centre of Excellence, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. With more than 250 publications, his research interest is in Sustainable Infrastructure Management (SIM), emphasising sustainable construction, value management, quantity surveying and construction in the digital era.

Preface

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) originated from the manufacturing sector and is based on the premise that the manufacturing industry has gone through three revolutions: mechanisation, electrification and digitalisation. Evidence from literature and practice revealed that we are currently in the 4IR, which describes the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital and biological worlds. The present revolution seeks a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things and other technologies that can alter the management of the construction supply chain (CSC). Unfortunately, most construction stakeholders do not know how to align their supply chain activities following the technologies and principles driven by the 4IR. This led to failure and underperformance, which is evident in the delay, fragmentation, corruption and other Gordian Knots of the CSC.

Towards positioning the management of CSC as the lynchpin of the Nigerian economy, this book presented the model for construction supply chain management (CSCM) practice in the 4IR era. Prior to developing the model, this book recognised some existing factors or behaviour capable of impeding the administration of CSC following the tenets and principles of 4IR. For instance, the CSC stakeholders as a culture for hoarding financial information. This culture contradicts the principles and belief of managing CSC in the 4IR era that encourages seamless information synchronisation across the supply chain. Another crucial belief for CSCM in the 4IR era is the principle of interoperability. This principle supports seamless communication and the usage of the functions of one another. The focus of interoperability performs effectively in a trusted environment. Unfortunately, the CSC is not a trusted environment due to the heavy sub-contracting within the construction industry.

In ensuring the practical application of 4IR beliefs like interoperability, this book introduced the drivers of trust, 4IR components and organisational culture to the existing variables for modelling CSCM. Trust drivers encompass the factors that eliminate opportunistic behaviour within the CSC. At the same time, organisational culture was perceived as the indicator supporting the adoption of 4IR components for CSCM. The 4IR components are divided into the cyber-physical system, virtualisation and smart management. The existing variables for modelling CSCM before the rise of 4IR are collaboration, integration and supply chain structure. The model was developed from a rich and robust existing theoretical and SCM model. The book discusses how theories such as the resource-based view, resource dependency theory, transaction cost theory, social identity theory and change theory shaped the CSCM in the 4IR era. Also, a two-stage Delphi study regarding the future trends likely to occur within the CSC of developing economies was presented in this book. The book's content is crucial for academia, construction stakeholders and the construction regulatory bodies.

The findings from this book will enable the construction stakeholders to realign their activities with the principle and tenets of the 4IR era. Knowing the influence or impact of the model's constructs could assist construction stakeholders in planning better during the management of CSC activities. The book's content will also be significant to academia in the following areas: it serves as a road map for researchers interested in expanding the frontiers of knowledge regarding CSCM in the 4IR era. Furthermore, it will provide literature for students researching the SCM concept in the construction industry in the era of the 4IR. The book provides an operational definition of CSCM from the theoretical perspectives, thereby providing a further basis for studying CSCM. The findings from the study serve as a guide for training students on SCM practice on construction sites in the 4IR era. The robust literature review emanating from this book assists in exposing the readers to CSCM practice in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

The book will provide tremendous support for construction regulatory bodies in determining the acceptable practice and standard for managing the CSC in the 4IR era. The regulatory bodies for construction professionals and stakeholders in conjunction with the Government can create software using the construct extracted from this study. The software will function as a pre-test in predicting the performance of CSCM in the 4IR era. Finally, the outcome of this thesis is of great significance to developing countries and their regulatory agencies through the provision of innovative ideas to improve the CSC. The book provides a guide regarding essential factors to consider for achieving efficient CSC practice in the 4IR era.

This book is divided into three parts and nine chapters for guidance and ease of use for construction stakeholders and researchers. Each chapter commences with a brief introduction describing the objective of the chapter and concludes with a summary highlighting the significant issues and their solutions. Since this is a research book, each chapter has a reference for further reading and broadening of the knowledge and scope of this book. An index of significant keywords was also provided for prompt reference to areas of interest for the readers.

The anticipated readers of this book include postgraduate students in the built environment, researchers with an interest in CSCM in the 4IR era and construction and project managers. Other potential readers are government departments that are responsible for construction project delivery as well as corporate agencies shouldered with construction management agenda including clients and contractors of construction projects. The book will also attract built environment professionals, such as operations managers, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, estate managers, etc. It will also attract a reading audience from stakeholders in the construction educational sectors, owing to the ability of the book to function as an educational research guide, framework or material for topics related to CSCM. Finally, we hope that the readers of this book find it interesting, intuitive, and impacting and vital in improving their understanding of CSCM in the 4IR era.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Temidayo Oluwasola Osunsanmi

Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa

Wellington Didibhuku Thwala

Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke