Chapter

ACKNOWLWDGEMENT

A two year postgraduate study at Manipal Academy of Higher Education Dubai (MAHE) gives me a lot of memories, experiences, and values. There exist some moments when I thought that I could not get over the problems to finish my master study. However, with the supports from my professors, parents, colleagues, and friends, I even have attempted to get the target in my life.

I would like to express my gratitude to my Professor Deepa Varghese and Professor Felix, who supports me a lot in academics. They help me to understand the concepts and show me how to deal with topic selection problems. It is also about their motivations and corrections for the articles, making me confident and hard working. Without their supports and motivations, this thesis can't be finished. The other person I would like to be grateful is Professor Suresha Ramu, who accepted me as his degree of master. student at MAHE. His advises and supports make me feel stronger and believe myself to contribute to my studies. I always wish him great health and happiness in his life. I would like to give my gratitude to the Sonara Fiber & Plastic Ind FZC, company I worked - to offer me the support and financial aids to facilitate my study in Dubai. I cannot say enough words to thank my colleagues at the MAHE Dubai, who support me a lot in following my Degree of Master study

. I am happy to show my appreciation to my parents, my siblings, and my relatives, who always supports and makes me mentally healthy. They are also beside me whenever i want and provides me smiles to warm up my life.

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ABSTRACT

Improving the performances of logistics activities is a crucial reason for applying the concept of supply chain management within the housing industry. Based on the systematic literature review, we discover the key decisions, which are presently focused on construction logistics and provide chain management. These decisions are identified for 3 main stages of a construction supply chain project: planning and style, procurement, and construction execution. In the scope of this thesis, we specialise in logistics improvement for the development projects; thus, decisions associated with construction logistics are taken under consideration to model and optimize the construction supply chain operations. In order to realize efficiency in construction logistics, the four decisions are commonly conducted: transportation, material purchasing and storage, site layout, and material handling. In this thesis, issues associated with material transportation and material purchasing and storage are considered to model and optimize the integrated construction supply chain network with a Third-party logistics partnership, which minimizes the entire supply chain costs, including transportation cost, material purchasing cost, and material storage cost. Meanwhile, site layout planning and material handling are concurrently considered to get an efficient layout of temporary facilities within the construction site, which aims to attenuate the fabric handling cost and maximize the adjacency score between the facilities.

Based on the identified present focuses of deciding in construction logistics and provide chain management, we found that the event of supply chain integration within the housing industry has been limited and at a slower speed as compared thereto of other industrial sectors. Thus, we recommend the availability chain integration as a key factor for the efficiency in construction logistics. Besides the mixing of relevant supply chain actors, it's also important to leverage the focal role of the availability chain driver acting because the coordinator for the development logistics activities. In the thesis of this form, to realise the availability of chain integration is suggested inside the logistic network for the third party logistic partnership. Building information modelling (BIM)-based platform is usually recommended to facilitate the collaboration of construction actors within the logistics execution.

Third-party logistics partnership are often used as a strategic tool for improving construction site logistics since it supports the development supply chain operations with the mixing of relevant actors. Recently, the utilization of third-party logistics providers has been considered as a business opportunity for the development industry where many problems in logistics management exist. This thesis presents an optimal decision-making

model for construction supply chain operations with the Third-party logistics partnership, which promotes the role of Third-party logistics provider because the logistics coordinator. The proposed model aims to make an optimal logistics plan for material purchasing, transportation, and storage. The model has distinctive contributions since it supports the determination of the operational strategies for common tasks in construction supply chain management: supplier selection, determination of order quantity, and consideration of the efficiency in using Third-party logistics under the considerations of fabric types and uncertainties price, demand and provide. The model is particularly useful for the development owner and General contractor to think about the fabric procurement from remote suppliers who require large purchasing amounts to supply low prices and transportation costs. This implies that the optimization model for the integrated construction supply chain operations with a Third-party logistics partnership are often wont to improve the development logistics performance and deal with the sensible requirements of the present issues within the this industry.

Keywords: Supply chain management, construction industry, logistics, optimization model, site layout planning, third party logistics

LIST OF TABLES

Table No Table Title

Page No

0.1 Inefficiencies in sharing information in construction projects 09 0.2 Difference in characteristics between construction & manufacturing 10 1.1 CSC decision-making across the construction phases 23 1.2 Descriptions of CSC decisions 24 2.1 Summary of recent studies in CSC optimization 43