TY  - CONF
TI  - Enabling Lean Supply with a Cloud Computing Platform - An Exploratory Case Study
C1  - Fortaleza, Brazil
C3  - 21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
SP  - 205
EP  - 214
PY  - 2013
AU  - Azambuja, Marcelo
AU  - Schnitzer, Thomas
AU  - Sahin, Meral
AU  - Lee, Felix
AD  - Assistant Professor, Department of Construction, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026, USA, mazambu@siue.edu
AD  - Estimator, Rock Hill Mechanical Corporation, Saint Louis, MO, 63122 USA, tschnitzer@rhmcorp.com
AD  - Masters Student, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026, USA, msahin@siue.edu
AD  - Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026, USA, hflee@siue.edu
ED  - Formoso, Carlos Torres
ED  - Tzortzopoulos, Patricia 
AB  - Traditional supply practices usually generate waste such as lack of materials and/or accumulation of large inventories on construction job sites. Lean supply systems require the integration of suppliers in the production process as a means to minimize waste. Such integration allows better synchronization of supply and demand and pulling of materials to the job site. Supply chain visibility and real time information are a must in this environment. Manufacturing and retailing have widely used information technology (IT) solutions, such as enterprise resource planning systems, for managing their supply chains. In the construction industry, only a few large construction firms can afford to deploy sophisticated IT tools. The majority of firms are small to medium-sized companies that do not have the resources and/or the manpower to use and maintain proprietary supply chain management solutions. This research explored freely available Google cloud computing tools, focusing on the Google Fusion Table (GFT) as a cloud-based platform to enable real time information on the supply process and site demand. This paper describes the development and testing of the platform that was used by a mechanical contractor to implement a pull fabrication, delivery, and installation system for pipe spools. The results suggest that the proposed platform provides the basic functionalities for developing a costeffective tool for small and medium-sized construction firms to manage supply chain data and implement lean supply systems.
KW  - Lean Supply
KW  - Cloud Computing
KW  - Pull
KW  - Pipe Spools.
PB  - 
T2  - 21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction
DA  - 2013/07/31
CY  - Fortaleza, Brazil
L1  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/870/pdf
L2  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/870
N1  - Export Date: 26 April 2024
DB  - IGLC.net
DP  - IGLC
LA  - English
ER  -