However, the discussion of SCM in construction has been developed in isolation
from industrial engineering based on two reasons. First, construction management has
unique characteristics related to its nature such as an intermittent flow and non-repeated
projects. Continuous flow it is an important process feature to reduce
inventory of finished goods or work-in-process. Also, it also influences on demand
forecasting, which consequently impacts on stock levels. Non-repeated projects take along difficulties to production standardization and modularization, not contributing
to obtain gains of scale in production systems. Thus, quantitative and modelling
studies are not easily applied within construction environment due to its complexity.
Second, construction management presents a lack of integration between suppliers,
contractors and developers. Integrated efforts are key aspects to improve performance,
not only to deliver better projects to the final customers, but also to reduce waste and
to promote cost reduction throughout the supply chain (SC). Nevertheless, industrial
engineering has experienced significant developments in supply chain management
and they might bring a contribution to construction industry. Such contribution can be
directed implemented or adapted from the practices of supply chain management in
industrial engineering.