Urban Construction Consolidation Centre

Lead Research Organisation: University of Cambridge
Department Name: Engineering

Abstract

A Construction Consolidation Centre (CCC) aims to promote the efficient flow of construction materials through the supply chain to the work face on site. The Urban CCC (UCCC) would enhance performance of the construction site and reduce the impact on environmental issues such as congestion, pollution, and waste. Construction material, less bulk items such as aggregates, would be delivered to the UCCC, where they are formed into work packs, defined by the various contractors, and delivered to the work face, using 'just-in-time' criteria. This process combines (consolidates) multiple part loads into single deliveries and, hence, reduces vehicle movements to site. In this process, unnecessary packaging is removed for re-use or recycling. The material handlers will extract all unused material, manage and reduce waste, and maximise re-use. In the UK, construction consolidation has only been used in London and at Heathrow due to operational necessity (space, vehicle movement reduction and control), and which are largely project specific and temporary in nature. Where construction has not had those imperatives, contractors have chosen to revert to traditional, less efficient supply chain models with consequent negative impacts on the environment and community.The novelty of this project is in the design and operation of a semi-permanent UCCC spanning multiple projects with different start and end dates, providing a 'just-in-sequence' supply option to local construction sites, which targets congestion and environmental benefits in addition to operational savings.

Publications

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Graham G (2017) Smart Cities - Foundations, Principles, and Applications

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Harrington T (2016) Identifying design criteria for urban system 'last-mile' solutions - a multi-stakeholder perspective in Production Planning & Control

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Harrington T (2016) Designing a 'concept of operations' architecture for next-generation multi-organisational service networks in AI & SOCIETY

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Harrington TS (2012) Effecting policy change within UK construction logistics - Capturing current and future industrial and institutional obligations

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Harrington, T.S. (2012) Effecting Policy Change within UK Construction Logistics - Capturing Current and Future Industrial and Institutional Obligations in Industry Studies Association (ISA) Conference proceedings

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Harrington, T.S. (2012) Urban Logistics and Transportation - Defining a B2B Concept of Operations for Urban Construction Consolidation Centres in Proceedings of the 9th International Meeting on Logistics Research (IMLR)

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Jin, X (2015) A typology on Last Mile distribution systems

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Kumar M (2016) How will smart city production systems transform supply chain design: a product-level investigation

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Kumar M (2016) How will smart city production systems transform supply chain design: a product-level investigation in International Journal of Production Research

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Lim S (2018) Consumer-driven e-commerce A literature review, design framework, and research agenda on last-mile logistics models in International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management

 
Description Approaches to assessing Urban Construction Consolidation Centre (UCCC) solutions were developed which may promote the efficient flow of construction materials through the supply chain to the workface on site, providing just-in-sequence consolidated supplies to multiple construction sites, reducing vehicle deliveries and reducing the impact of congestion, pollution and waste.
The UCCC model is innovative in the potential application of existing consolidation technologies to multiple projects within the wider context of Local Authority construction, providing community and commercial benefits, promoting greater customer choice in selection of construction processes that reduce negative impacts on the environment and communities and informing government policy on contracting models for construction services in a more environmentally aware way with potential application across the UK.
Research outputs may enable:
a) Greater customer choice: Allow customers of major construction projects to propose use of a UCCC, both to improve the efficency of deliveries (currently, inefficiencies are simply passed on to the customer) and reduce environmental impact, across a range of projects in a geographical area.
b) Effective use of transport network: potential to link consolidation to the broader construction supply chain utilising inter-modal links via 4PL solutions. The UCCC concept may also inform synchronisation with other modal termini (railway station, airport, docks).
c) Enable effective working in the logistics industry: future potential to set a new standard throughout the construction logistics industry on 'just-in-time' material consolidation processes and control
d) Customer focused technology development: principal construction companies, and their sub-contractors in the supply chain are all potential users who may benefit from the efficiencies of the system. The use of consolidation in the context of regeneration may also pioneer a new approach to construction logistics with potential benefits throughout the public sector.
e) Considerable research outputs continue to be generated on e-commerce driven last-mile logistics. Specifically, publications have addressed the viability of e-commerce last-mile delivery, integrating the economics of cost-to-serve models linked to a specific geography-population, and where we would examine the basket of the consumer, based on their preferences (e.g. nutritional preferences). Other papers published in the leading journals in the field cover specific topics including:
- a recent 2017 industrial practice review piece published in leading supply chain management journal
- a 2018 publication, in the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, on the design (configuration) approach for last-mile logistics in the omni-channel context
- a structured 2018 literature review, published in the International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, on the e-commerce last-mile logistics domain.
These publications and on-going modelling tools are currently being used in industry to analyse Best Practise, omni-channel configuration design, and the viability of e-commerce operations in high population densities with significant market penetration and adoption of e-commerce transactions. Industry users include major Fast Moving Consumer Goods Manufacturers, retailers, and specialist last-mile distributors. Similar approaches to last-mile e-commerce delivery are now being explored within the healthcare sector with a major pharmacy-chain, and a thrid-party logistics services provider.
Exploitation Route The integration of supply network tools with Last Mile design concepts, developed as part of this research, may be used to review possible approaches to re-evaluating public services in a common geographical space. In one application, research findings have informed tool development and integration, and approaches for potential deployment, as the services involved some B2B (and B2C) activity. Scenario development techniques developed may also be used to evaluate mechanisms for network design choices and integration.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Environment,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology,Retail,Transport
URL http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/global-networks/case-studies/business-to-business/
 
Description Recent years have witnessed the development of new routes-to-market involving specialist 'last-mile' consolidation and distribution service providers. Sustainable development has been a key driver, with many business-to-business (B2B) applications seeking to reduce congestion (as well as costs) through smart consolidation practices that deliver 'just-in-time'. As part of this research, supply network design configuration and capability tools have incorporated a last-mile methodology which addresses the interests of the various stakeholders - institutional players, companies and customers. The challenges facing the UK construction industry reflect many of the inefficiencies in current practice. 60% of planned vehicle deliveries do not arrive on time, 20% of all UK waste comes from construction, 15% from over-ordering of materials and nearly one hour lost productivity per person per day on every construction project due to materials delay. This project looked at identifying the hard and soft factors that influence public sector approval in the context of UCCC to aid the development of a collaboration model between private companies and public resources, and then link the key processes and requirements of the stakeholders to inform the potential development of a new industry standard for the UK construction industry.
First Year Of Impact 2010
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Environment,Transport
Impact Types Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services