Supply chain integration: Myths and realities

The aim of the paper is to help understand the concepts of social and economic integration of supply chain participants in parallel with the nature of fragmentation within the UK construction industry. The paper presents a brief literature review on construction procurement and how it is used to integrate the supply chain within construction industry, through two case studies, using case study research methodology. The current status of the UK construction industry is also presented to support the argument through latest published statistics. The paper analyses the argument and concludes that the UK construction practice/industry needs both integration and fragmentation within its project supply chains in order to deliver the clients requirement as a finished facility. Both presented case studies are public sector construction client and maintenance projects. The biggest implication of the above is that public sector clients operate under defined guidance through different policies, which influences the way they procure work and integrate their project supply chain. The authors, in the future, would test their arguments in the future research with the private sector clients. The current structure of a supply chain on a particular project within an emerging procurement method is integrated upstream and fragmented downstream. That means, the supply chains are not fully integrated in practice and consist of both integration and fragmentation element. Authors also argue that there is nothing wrong in having fragmentation within the industry; in fact it is healthy. The paper's main contribution is to start the debate and give justification through evidence that the UK construction practice/industry is both socially integrated as well as fragmented.