Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt Vol. 8, No.5, October 2019 473 Collaborative Supply Chain Management (SCM) Tools for Improved Teamwork in Construction Projects Salman Riazi Mehdi Riazi #1 , Mohd Nasrun Mohd Nawi * , Nurul Azita Salleh * , Mohd Akhir Ahmad * # School of Housing, Building, and Planning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia * School of Technology Management and Logistics, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia 1 salman.riazi@usm.my Abstract— Fragmentation or the separated working environment has been a major hinderance to effective collaboration among construction industry players and these has been mainly blamed upon the wasteful conventional working practice. Supply Chain Management (SCM), which hold tightly on the notion of collaboration being among its most important enabler and has also proven to contribute to many important elements of an effective collaboration such as better trust, transparency, knowledge sharing, pain-gain sharing etc.; has therefore been promoted to overcome the problem via numerous Collaborative Tools it has to offer. This paper presents part of an on-going research aimed at using SCM Tools to overcome delay and definitely collaboration is an aspect that needs improvement. After conducting a comprehensive literature reviews on past proposal and applications, a number of SCM Collaborative Tools have been identified, elaborated and discussed in this paper; which is expected to serve as a guide towards adopting SCM into construction project practices and thus, achieve the benefits it has to offer. Some of them have been applied in major projects and experienced success hence, deserve more appreciation by the construction world Keywords— Collaboration, Construction Industry, Project Team, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Fragmentation. 1. Introduction A major problem facing the construction industry worldwide is the separated nature of working environment; also known as fragmentation [1], [2]. It has been linked with numerous performance- related issues facing the industry [3] such as delays, cost overrun, low satisfaction level and many more; as well as problems related to coordination and integration of the supply chains [4]. The interface among project entities has been regarded as utmost vital aspect of construction projects [10], which does not come as a surprise considering the numerous parties involved both from inbound and outbound levels which are expected to work with each other to deliver the client’s wants. Not only does poor collaboration lead to lacking in performance but; it also impedes innovative idea and solutions since the abundance of knowledge, information and experience within the project team cannot be properly utilized [4]. The fact that collaboration has very close connection with the ability to be innovative [5] suggests the need for the industry to raise up this aspect of practice; which can be enabled via SCM [4]. In the past, the literature has been flooded with numerous SCM tools aimed at tackling diverse inefficiencies (i.e. poor collaboration) faced by the industry; while others have also applied these tools with success (see [6-8]. The industry has also been convinced of the need to shift practices [9], [10] and the vast potential of modern approaches (i.e. SCM) have been well proven (e.g. [8],[11],[12]. In fact, SCM has been endorsed and recommended as the way forward by many (e.g. [13], [14]. 2. Potential of Supply Chain Management (SCM) to Improve Collaboration among Project Participants Past findings have established time, cost and quality as the main target of every project [15] and organizations have started to recognize the close connection between team dynamics and the ability of firms to be continuously competitive [4] which strongly connects to the need to improve collaboration among project parties to function as a lively team. In fact, collaboration has been strongly connected to SCM [4] and that problems in this area can lead to delays and cost overrun [8]. In general terms, collaboration refers to the process that involves a minimum of two (2) parties working ______________________________________________________________ International Journal of Supply Chain Management IJSCM, ISSN: 2050-7399 (Online), 2051-3771 (Print) Copyright © ExcelingTech Pub, UK (http://excelingtech.co.uk/)