Supply chain integration through innovative procurement

Recent innovative procurement initiatives by the public sector construction clients within the UK are challenging the traditional ways of procuring construction projects. The new concepts and practices are intended to empower clients to exercise more control over the supply chain and generate more co-operation among project participants. The initiatives aim to: bring project members closer together; integrate the supply chain; create greater trust; develop relationships on a long term basis; introduce a pain and gain culture; and reuse the knowledge on succeeding projects. This paper, with examples from the UK construction industry, presents the procurement initiatives of public sector clients to integrate the downstream supply chain members through innovative procurement strategies. This paper particularly highlights the benefits of, and the motivation towards innovative procurement resulting into integration of supply chain members through four case studies, conducted as part of a supply chain integration project at the SCRI research centre. The paper defines the construction procurement and recent initiatives through policy documents within the UK. Then the methodology and case studies are presented followed by the findings. The paper concludes that, through clients' innovative initiatives, there is a great potential to integrate supply chain participants at the outset of a project, in order to achieve effective planning and delivery of the whole project, as well as greater collaboration among supply chain members working on the project. The findings also reveal that there is need for more efforts especially from the contracting organisations to integrate their key suppliers and manufacturers, which are still operating through the traditional procurement process.