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In the past decades, different industries have Chain Management (CSCM) is an emerging area of
shown an increasing focus and specialization of practice concerned with the coordination of discre-
adopted managerial tools and techniques. The te quantities of materials – and associated specialty
common belief that “one size does not fit all” engineering services – delivered to specific con-
drove scholars and practitioners to develop be- struction projects. The global sourcing of materials

spoke approaches for specific industries. Parti- and assemblies – provided by both advances in

cularly relevant is the divide between volumes and transportation technologies and a shortage of craft

value industries, with the extreme cases of large labor – force increasing amounts of value-added

scale manufacturing on the one hand, and ETO work to be conducted off-site, upstream along the

(Engineering To Order) on the other hand. Supply Chain (SC). On the other hand, clients are

In 1997, Harvard Business Review published Fi- demanding faster, more responsive construction

sher’s seminal paper “What is the right supply processes and higher-quality facilities, which trig-

chain for your product?” (Fisher, 1997), discussing ger the need for responsive SCs and close coor-

the most appropriate SCM (Supply Chain Manage- dination between the owner and the construction

ment) approaches for different kinds of manufac- team. In the end, effective construction project

tured goods. Almost two decades later, it is now execution will mean effective CSCM.

time researchers and practitioners embarked on a CSCM requires an interdisciplinary perspective

similar discussion, focusing on ETO products. with contributions in three major areas: production

Companies facing ETO challenges, e.g. EPC com- and operations analysis, organizational perspective

panies, focused on the key competences required and information technology.

to manage large projects, bringing together a ple- The area of production and operations analysis re-

thora of stakeholders. This required the integration fers to the whole set of approaches and methods

of specific skills and competences, placing great for designing and operating project SCs, with re-

attention to contracts definition, improving their ference to design as well as materials production.

project and risk mana- A structured approach

gement skills, monitoring CSCM requires an interdisciplinary for modeling construc-
performance and assi- perspective with contributions in tion SCs consists of a
gning responsibilities, cre- sequence of steps sug-
ating specific and cunning three major areas: production and gesting metrics, level of
incentives- (and penal- operations analysis, organizational detail, elements, and at-
ties-) schemes to award perspective and information tributes that need to be
(or punish) over- (or un- technology considered in the mode-
der-) performing partners. ling process (Azambuja

At the same time, large- and O’Brien, 2009).

scale manufacturing com- Several types of simula-

panies (e.g. automotive, white goods, consumer tions can be used for understanding and impro-

electronics) were leveraging the massive produc- ving the dynamic behavior of a construction SC,

tion volumes and standardized products, by deve- including systems dynamics (one particular type of

loping just in time and lean approaches. The goal simulation). Within the general framework for plan-

was to reduce wastes and to streamline processes, ning and controlling projects, those sub-processes

honing their demand forecasting and inventory ma- that are concerned with the coordination of con-

nagement skills, turning quality management into struction SCs are emphasized, by involving the

a continuous improvement endeavour, applying concurrent dynamics of SCs and the Product De-

statistical techniques, standardizing the production velopment (PD) process of construction projects.

planning processes and formalizing them into refe- Beside PD process, CSCM can be seen according

rence models, developing specific KPIs (Key Per- to a lean construction perspective: a project be-

formance Index) to measure performance all along comes a part of a SC by design, acquiring goods

the Supply Chain, just to mention a few. and services from a combination of preexistent and

Nowadays, a number of challenges in the ETO in- custom-made SCs. Indeed, the development of

dustry are forcing companies to “think out of the integrated materials management strategies for dif-

box”, getting off the well-beaten path of Project ferent types of materials plays a crucial role in con-

Management BOK (Body of Knowledge) and tech- struction projects, given the use of stock-manage-

niques. Arguably, most successful companies ment techniques for managing non-task-specific

in the ETO industry will be those who will prove materials and the use of materials requirements

themselves able to innovate by adopting tools and planning systems for managing task-specific ma-

techniques tried-and-true in large scale manufac- terials.

turing industries and adapt them to the idiosyncra- The organizational perspective in construction SCs

sies of the ETO sector. depends on the large number of firms involved in

A very relevant area in ETO is represented by Con- designing, procuring and assembling construction:

struction management, where such a cross ferti- it is difficult to address SC improvements without

lisation has already started. Construction Supply also considering arrangements between organi-

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