Construction supply chain management practices in Malaysia

Supply Chain Management (SCM) application has been investigated as an effective management strategy to improve performance in many industries. Meanwhile, construction projects suffer from high fragmentation, large waste, poor productivity, cost and time overruns, and conflicts and disputes for a long time.Though SCM has the potential to alleviate these problems significantly, SCM initiatives in construction have been partial-covering a subset of issues in a limited part of the construction supply chain.This paper presents the findings of a Construction SCM (CSCM) study from the Malaysian construction perspective.The main objectives of this study were to, 1) identify the SCM practices, and 2) explore the level of adoption and practice of these identified SCM practices in the Malaysian construction industry. A mixed-mode approach was adopted through structured questionnaires and interviews with the main construction industry players, namely the contractors, developers, and suppliers, where the gathered data was analysed to accomplish the main objectives.From the study, the results were framed against the Strategic Thrusts as provisioned by the Construction Industry Master Plan (CIMP) as released by the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB).The major issues related to the adoption and practice as discussed by the industry players regarding SCM practices in the Malaysian construction industry revolve around six major areas: human resource management; equipment and technology; collaboration practices; construction materials; green practices; and operating environment