Advancing Construction Logistics: Unlocking the Potential for Construction Productivity

A special issue of Logistics (ISSN 2305-6290).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (22 June 2022) | Viewed by 12183

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Build Environment Engineering, School of Future Environment, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Interests: supply chain management and logistics in construction, procurement, productivity, corporate social responsibility
Department of Built Environment Engineering, School of Future Environments, Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, AUT University, Auckland 1010, New Zealand
Interests: logistics; supply chain management; procurement; productivity; construction performance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The construction sector has frequently been criticized over the years for being highly litigious, fragmented, inefficient, and characterized by low productivity. Periodically, government reports cite these charges as being axiomatically true. A brief examination of the UK example will see such a history starting with the Simon Report of 1944 through to the Construction Playbook of 2020, via Emerson (1962), Banwell (1964), Latham (1994), and Egan (1998), amongst others. Through the years, one feature of construction has stayed the same. The industry is hallmarked by the need to manage flows of high volumes of relatively low value materials to the sites of construction. By default, there is a huge cost associated with the transportation of materials; hence the need for logistics management in the construction sector. Excessive vehicle movements present significant resource requirements and consequential impacts on multi-factor productivity. Yet relatively speaking, the construction sector has not been at the vanguard of logistics management planning, tools, and technologies development. Much more work has been directed towards high level supply chain practice rather than the operational needs of transport and its planning to positively drive productivity. This would seem to be somewhat perverse.

The purpose of this Special Issue in the journal Logistics is to examine the current “state of the art” for construction logistics operations globally. Contributions are invited from technology-focused researchers developing new technical solutions and techniques to help deliver construction logistics solutions. Similarly, construction management researchers are invited to provide insights into the processes and procurement management aspects of construction logistics optimization. Of particular interest will be those researchers that can provide up to date case study-based innovations and exemplars from their investigations.

The intention ultimately is to provide a benchmark of the current state of knowledge of logistics in construction and therefore a basis from which future researchers can develop their work.

Prof. John E. Tookey
Dr. Fei Ying
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Logistics is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • construction logistics
  • supply chain management
  • transportation planning
  • procurement
  • productivity
  • best practice

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

25 pages, 10244 KiB  
Article
Construction Site Layout Planning Using a Simulation-Based Decision Support Tool
by SeyedReza RazaviAlavi and Simaan AbouRizk
Logistics 2021, 5(4), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5040065 - 22 Sep 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6271
Abstract
Background: A site layout plan is one of the important decisions to be made in the planning phase of each construction project as it can significantly impact on-site transportation, construction logistics, and safety. This decision could be complicated owing to the uncertainties [...] Read more.
Background: A site layout plan is one of the important decisions to be made in the planning phase of each construction project as it can significantly impact on-site transportation, construction logistics, and safety. This decision could be complicated owing to the uncertainties inherent in construction projects and the complex relationships between the influencing factors and decision variables. Methods: To improve site layout planning, this study aims to develop a simulation-based decision support tool (DST) that enables planners to consider the following: (1) construction uncertainties, (2) construction resources (i.e., material, equipment, and workers), (3) site layout constraints, and (4) mutual impacts between site layout and construction plan variables, for site layout planning of construction projects. Results: The developed DST visualizes the site layout plan within a simulation environment and provides seamless interactions between the site layout model and the simulation model. These capabilities facilitate planning construction site layout using simulation by establishing two-way information flows between the site layout and simulation components, which can further promote application of simulation in construction site layout planning. Usefulness and practicality of the proposed DST is demonstrated in site layout planning of a steel erection project. Conclusions: Using this DST can reduce some common wastes in construction projects and the cost associated with them, including on-site transportation, material handling and storage, and waiting time for the material arrival. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 612 KiB  
Article
Paving the Path towards Efficient Construction Logistics by Revealing the Current Practice and Issues
by Ahmet Anil Sezer and Anna Fredriksson
Logistics 2021, 5(3), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics5030053 - 6 Aug 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4377
Abstract
Multiple deliveries and long turnaround times on construction sites harm the environment and disturb on-site productivity and safety. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transport patterns of construction material deliveries, including turnaround times. In order to investigate the number of [...] Read more.
Multiple deliveries and long turnaround times on construction sites harm the environment and disturb on-site productivity and safety. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transport patterns of construction material deliveries, including turnaround times. In order to investigate the number of transports and turnaround times, transport data for 13 Swedish construction sites, which were collected with the help of booking systems, were used. By comparing data from the cases, several patterns were observed: (i) very few projects receive deliveries at weekends, (ii) almost all projects receive 50% of their daily deliveries before 09:00, (iii) long goods, standard euro pallets and lightweight goods (less than 500 kg) are the most common deliveries, (iv) trucks and delivery vans are the most common vehicles used and (v) goods to be handled by crane and lightweight goods generate the longest turnaround time/delivery. This is one of the rare studies revealing current practice and issues associated with material deliveries, which is a necessary first step to increase efficiency of construction logistics. This study shows that it is possible to influence these issues, as some projects performed better than others regarding turnaround times and transport. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop