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This paper aims to provide an answer to the important question of how can accurate assessment of supply chain practice and performance be conducted? By conducting audits across a sample of value streams it is thereby possible to identify the components of “good practice” via evidence‐based procedures.

Quick scan audit methodology (QSAM) is a site‐based, team‐oriented action research‐led investigative technique for establishing meaningful “snapshots” of value stream behaviour. The participants cover both academic researchers and host organisation staff.

QSAM is found to output repeatable results enabling the transfer of technique between companies, between businesses, between market sectors, and between countries.

Care must be taken when training new auditors and QSAM teams to ensure the required degree of consistency. There is no substitute for operating a “watch one, share one, do one” regimen.

The research purpose is to establish the performance vectors to enable effective value stream health comparisons to be made. Additionally “quick hits” (not “quick fixes”) may well be identified specific to an individual host organisation.

QSAM has already made an important contribution in enabling the gap between case‐based and survey‐based logistics research to be properly bridged.

In Belgium, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are not very aware of the possibility of integrating the life cycle concept in the development of products. “Ecodesign” is more a topic of interest for larger companies. In this context, the Flemish Government, more specifically the Public Waste Agency of the Flemish Region (OVAM), launched a demonstration project, which aimed to check whether SMEs are capable of taking account of the environmental aspects of their products over the entire life cycle and creating more environment‐friendly products. The results of this project in the participating companies were fairly positive. However, the project also showed that there are several factors that influence the failure or success of ecodesign in a company. To screen the ecodesign potential of a company, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) developed a tool, called the “Quick Scan”. Another conclusion of the demonstration project was that a very important success factor for an ecodesign project is the tool the company applies to analyse the environmental impacts of the product over the entire life cycle. Anticipating this problem, Vito developed a selection scheme that allows a company to select the most appropriate tool for the environmental analysis of their products, based on a number of criteria.

The transformation of cities from the industrial age (unsustainable) to the knowledge age (sustainable) is essentially a “whole life cycle” process consisting of planning, development, operation, reuse and renewal. During this transformation, a multi‐disciplinary knowledge base, created from studies and research about the built environment aspects is fundamental: historical, architectural, archeologically, environmental, social, economic, etc., and critical. Although there are a growing number of applications of 3D VR modelling applications, some built environment applications such as disaster management, environmental simulations, computer‐aided architectural design and planning require more sophisticated models beyond 3D graphical visualization such as multifunctional, interoperable, intelligent, and multi‐representational. Advanced digital mapping technologies such as 3D laser scanner technologies can be enablers for effective e‐planning, consultation and communication of users' views during the planning, design, construction and lifecycle process of the built environment. These technologies can be used to drive the productivity gains by promoting a free‐flow of information between departments, divisions, offices, and sites; and between themselves, their contractors and partners when the data captured via those technologies are processed and modelled into building information modelling (BIM). The use of these technologies is a key enabler to the creation of new approaches to the “Whole Life Cycle” process within the built and human environment for the twenty‐first century. This paper aims to look at this subject.

The paper describes the research towards BIM for existing structures via the point cloud data captured by the 3D laser scanner technology. A case study building is used to demonstrate how to produce 3D CAD models and BIM models of existing structures based on designated techniques.

The paper finds that BIM can be achieved for existing structures by modelling the data captured with 3D laser scanner from the existing world. This can be accomplished by adapting appropriate automated data processing and pattern recognition techniques through applied science research.

BMI will enable automated and fast data capture and modelling for not only in design and planning, building refurbishment, effective heritage documentation and VR modelling but also disaster management, environmental analysis, assessment and monitoring, GIS implementation, sophisticated simulation environments for different purposes such as climate change, regeneration simulation for complexity and uncertainty and so on. As a result, it will increase the capability for fast production of virtual reality models and comprehensive and sophisticated simulation platforms.

The paper provides useful information on BMI for existing structures.

How can a third‐party logistics (3PL) provider decide whether or not there is a viable opportunity to serve the needs and desires of potential clients? To answer this question, a tool is needed that can help determine if there are problems, inefficiencies, or needed improvements in a client's, or a potential client's, supply chain that the 3PL can effectively address. Most diagnostic tools currently in use in supply chain analysis are large, quantitative, and time‐consuming. This paper describes a qualitative diagnostic tool designed for more rapid analysis. The research and managerial implications of this tool are also discussed.

Planningof any kind can be motivated by a pressing practical problem which has to be solved—for example, an increasing number of people may have to be housed in the same area; or by a long‐term idealistic vision; or by both (the idealist seeing the long‐term implications of an immediate problem). In short‐term planning, the danger exists that the more technical problems may be solved, without attention to their implications for human beings; to take my housing example, higher and higher flats may be built, without considering the possible effects (e.g. the effect on social groupings). In long‐term planning, Utopian or ideological blueprints may be produced.

Prime contractors spend up to 90 per cent of a construction project's turnover on buying goods and services, and thus suppliers have a large impact on project performance. Therefore, the purchasing function management of the prime contractor has a large influence on the overall performance: the more developed (i.e. mature or professional) this function is, the greater its positive contribution. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a quick scan purchasing maturity tool by applying a design science research method.

The maturity tool is developed by applying Hevner's framework for design science research. In this framework, foundations drawn from the available knowledge base are used to develop the new tool. Scientific justification of this new tool and approval of its approach for construction practice is obtained through testing it in the specific context of a case company.

The tool provides a company with insight into its current level of purchasing maturity and possibilities for improving performance by increasing this level.

The conciseness and the limited time required to use the tool are major advantages over existing alternatives for construction practice.

Evidence of the quick response (QR) impact on retail inventory levels is presented. QR involves technology‐driven, co‐operative retailer/supplier relationships. QR enabling technology includes: point‐of‐sale systems, uniform product/article codes, and electronic data interchange. Using statistical analysis of Canadian chain store inventory data, and a case study on the largest chain store operation in The Netherlands, this study finds that QR is bringing lower inventory levels to retailers. There are two main retail management implications of these findings. First, merchandisers can use QR techniques to reduce inventory levels – but only up to a point. Since stock stimulates sales, retailers should use item/stock‐keeping unit (SKU) level data to study optimal (which may not equal minimum) inventory levels. Second, to reap the full rewards of QR implementation, retailers must share the SKU data with suppliers, and work towards more co‐operative relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the uptake of supply chain integration (SCI) principles internationally and the resultant integration maturity.

A rigorous supply chain diagnostics methodology called the Quick Scan is used to assess the integration maturity of 72 value streams located in New Zealand, Thailand and the UK.

The majority of the organisations studied are struggling to turn the SCI concept into reality. Supply chains on average are poorly integrated. However, there exist a handful of exemplar cases that provide guidance; levels of integration maturity appear not to differ internationally.

Only three nations are compared, hence the sample is not fully representative of all countries and industries. There is a significant gap between supply chain rhetoric and practice; clear guidance on how to enable effective integration is required. National settings do not appear to affect the extent of application of supply chain management concepts.

SCI is a very difficult undertaking. Indifferent practice is the norm. If organisations can attain even the middle ground of internal integration they will outperform many of their competitors.

The paper presents an international benchmark of SCI maturity involving three triangulated measures of supply chain performance.

Real world supply chains differ not only in their current standard of performance, but also in the most effective actions required to move each towards world class supply. A generic approach for the identification of the appropriate re‐engineering programmes based on the uncertainty circle principle is presented. A total of 20 European automotive supply chains have been analysed via a “quick scan” audit procedure. The output is a clear portrayal of the present “health status” of those supply chains. Some 10 per cent of these are performing at the present day level of “best practice”, with a further 20 per cent within sight of this goal. Specific re‐engineering requirements are identified for the remaining 70 per cent dependent on present maturity levels.

Mobile technologies, such as QR codes, play a particularly important role in scaffolding the child user’s active learning in informal environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of QR code scanning on two informal learning outcomes: increased interest and greater knowledge understanding.

In total, 91 children and their families participated in the study as part of the iQ Zoo Project. Children in both the smartphone group and the control group completed were assessed qualitatively and quantitatively before and then after their zoo visits.

Qualitative findings suggest that most children’s interest in learning about animals was sustained as a result of the experience. Quantitative results reveal that QR code scanning was effective in promoting knowledge gains, especially on subjects that are challenging for the informal learner. Findings were comparable across the younger (5–8) and older (9–12) age groups.

This study provides empirical support for the value and usefulness of mobile technologies such as QR code scanning for children's learning in informal environments.