The Role of Commitments in the Management of Construction Make-to-Order Supply Chains

Abstract

The integration and coordination of make-to-order (MTO) supply chains is critical for successful execution of construction projects. This study aims to investigate the potential of the language-action perspective (LAP) to analyze the way commitments are demanded, bound, and fulfilled by supply chain members, and how these affect the integration and coordination of construction MTO supply chains. Two case studies were carried out, including agents in the building elevator and cut-and-bent rebar supply chains. Multiple sources of evidence, such as exploratory and structured interviews, site visits, and document analysis, provided invaluable data to support the analysis. This evidence reveals that most of the information flow problems of MTO chains can be traced to the way that commitments among people and firms are managed along such chains. It also shows that the kinds of failure in managing those commitments can be associated with their incompleteness or the poor connectivity among them. The study suggests that the adoption of LAP can provide a novel and alternative approach to understanding information and communication problems that affect the integration and coordination of MTO supply chains in construction, as well as to identifying possible ways to avoid these problems.