Construction supply chain: quality control at construction site and quality traceability

Summary

This use-case involves 3 industrial partners: FLEX – the steel tubes producer, ALONG – the stone slabs produces and CONS – the construction company. FLEX and ALONG are suppliers hired by the Works Contractor and approved by the Works Supervisor (CONS) to provide, respectively, steel tubes for the formwork and stone slabs for the infrastructure being built. The supply delays sometimes can significantly affect the working schedule causing the productivity loss. In this regard, the goal is to avoid the delays that are considered as defects in this case. Thus, it is important that all the parties have an early access to information about potential delays and about the quality of supplies to act quickly and, if needed, to reschedule activities.

Structured mapping
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Demonstrator (project outcome type)
Industrial pilot or use case
Autonomous Smart Factories Pathway
Connected IT and OT
ERP-MOM systems connected
Comment:

The material manufacturer stores in the platform the information concerning the production of a specific lot, including production quality control information. The work contractor is informed about the type and amount of material that are shipped to the construction side with estimated time of arrival. If some delays occur, the corresponding application running on ZDMP platform provides an assessment of the delay’s impact on the schedule and suggestions/recommendation for rescheduling.

Humans actively connected
Comment:

Each user will have different levels of interaction with the ZDMP platform. Both contractor and supervisor should have access to the construction schedule, but their own task schedules should only be accessible to each of them. Similarly, the Supplier will not have access to the Supervisor or Works Contractor’s areas and vice-versa.

Off-line optimisation
Off-line Digital Manufacturing Process Optimisation on factory level
Comment:

Coordination of the activities within the construction plays a crucial role. Delays in materials shipping and materials quality issues may significantly affect the construction process. However, not all delays have the same impact. ZDMP platform provides the necessary assistance for delays’ impact assessment and enables agile information exchange among involved partners.

Platform enabled optimisation
Comment:

ZDMP platform allows automated exchange of the critical information that can affect the schedule. Ability to adjust the activities regarding potential delays has significant impact on the construction consortia performance.

Collaborative Product-Service Factories Pathway
Comment:

The suppliers of material to the construction side should be able to timely deliver the data about the quality of materials and, if needed, provide a replacement avoiding significant delays. Even, if the quality of materials is according to specification, accidents leading to material defects can happen during the shipment or on the construction side. Thus, it is important to constantly track the situation to react on the changing circumstances. For the construction company, on the other, hand, is important to align the material shipments to keep up with the schedule.

Service-enabled Product Design
Voice of suppliers Customers / Users
Comment:

The material manufacturer stores in the platform the information concerning the production of a specific lot. This information is automatically generated by the ZDMP platform applications or updated manually. The volume of data is considerable and, for construction materials, needs to be stored for the certain period of time defined by the legal prescriptions.

Product-Service Innovation
Service Innovation and new Business Models
Comment:

This use-case only includes only 3 industrial partners. However, the model is scalable and can be applied, to the case with more partners, for instance, the material suppliers. Moreover, different access levels and roles allow effectively regulate type and amount of information one or another partner can get access to.

Hyperconnected Factories Pathway
Dedicated IT connection to some supply chain partners
SCM - MES - ERP Software connected to SCM - MES - ERP software of suppliers or customers
Comment:

The material suppliers provide the product quality data, as well as data about material types and amount to be delivered. Thus, it is possible for construction to react in agile way and reschedule in the case of unexpected accidents.

Forecasting of required capabilities
Comment:

It is important, not only for the construction company, but also for the material suppliers to track the amount of shipped materials and quality, and, if needed, coordinate and adjust activities.