“Engineer to Order mass and extended production systems

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Engineer to Order mass and extended production systems improvement in the Construction industry based on GRAI Methodology: an empirical study Ander Errasti and Javier Santos Tecnun University of Navarra, Spain Raul Poler CIGIP-UPV, Spain

ABSTRACT The aim of the following research is to investigate the adoption of some good practices in the Construction Sector, based on developed practices in other sectors,that could be helpful to gain competitive advantage. These practices (GRAI Methodology to improve the operational performance of the supply chain) are already known and have been studied by researchers, however the development of these techniques in the field of Construction has not been so deep. The proposed research method is based on Action Research, in which the researchers are involved in the changing process. This method has been chosen because it is a theory extension or refinement. In the last three years the researchers have been involved in using an experimental model for the diagnosis, strategy formulation and deploy of these practices to improve the performance of one top firms related to Construction sector. The conclusion is that the benefits of integrating and improving the planning and control system of the extended enterprise aided by GRAI methodology, as well as Action Research utility for this type of Research are completely demonstrated.

1 Introduction 1.1 Paper introduction This paper starts with the origins of the research, goes on with Literature Review about Construction Sector Supply Chains, Mass Customization principles in project based production systems and supplier integration. Then, it shows up the Research Questions and expose the method how the researcher has conducted the Research Objectives. This paper also presents the company which have taken part into the Action Research, and the main characteristics of the projects carried out. Finally the main conclusions and future research questions are exposed.

1.1 Origins of the research The possibility of transferring good practices from Manufacturing to the construction industry has been identified in the literature (Ngowi, 2000)(Anumba et al, 2002), in particular Ngowi (2000) has suggested that: ‘‘Supply Chain Management and time compression techniques which require close interfunctional cooperation have been successfully implemented in the Manufacturing Industry and there is a possibility that they can be used to integrate the various disciplines of the construction at project level’’. Moreover, it has been argued that the implementation of these principles might usefully be extended beyond the boundaries of organisations to include their suppliers (Gunasekaran, 2000) (Towill, 1998). Indeed, an increasingly large number of publications are concerned with inter-firm projects (Soderlund, 2004). Even if there have been some practices developed by main subcontractors ( Errasti et al, 2006) (Errasti et al, 2008) there are few evidences (Errasti et al, 2007) of development of these principles to Engineer to Order mass and extended production systems in the Construction Sector.

2 Literature review


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