Construction Collaboration Tools for Precast Supply Chain Management

There are numerous activities, various parties, enormous effort and many processes involved within the precast construction projects. The precast supply chain parties within the phases of planning, design, manufacturing, transportation, installation and construction are required to have effective communication, accessing to appropriate, correct and up to date information in order to improve collaboration and enhanced integration. This research is aimed to explore and propose the cloud computing technology as the construction collaboration tools for precast supply chain management. The research findings are established according to the study of comprehensive literature on information technology, supply chain management and precast construction industry. Findings shows that the poor planning and scheduling, high cost of precast concrete components, the poor design, lack of architectural creativities, the poor production timing, large size and heavy precast components, wrong deliveries, poor on site coordination, poor specialised contactors and lack of good communication among parties are the main barriers within the precast supply chain. These barriers within the precast supply chain phases may result to adverse consequences on the performance of precast project delivery. Hence, to reduce and eliminate these barriers, the cloud computing technology has huge potential to provide efficient collaboration systems within the precast construction