Integrating the Supply Chain with AWP Practices

Suppliers can be better involved in the project, especially if they are engaged earlier than has been usual practice. RT-363’s interviews with suppliers identified a number of opportunities for them to add to the project through earlier involvement. The team’s survey expanded on the results from the interviews and found that many challenges stemmed from late involvement of suppliers and that many benefits could be realized by involving suppliers earlier (FR-363, in press).

The Procurement Work Package (PWP) is defined as aligned to the Construction Work Package boundaries. (RT-363 considers the PWP to be an optional construct.) The Supply Chain Process (SCPr) is composed of a set of capabilities to track both information and materials deliverables in support of the execution sequence, including the ability to support constraint management. The SCPr supports mapping procurements across multiple work packages (FR-363, in press).

The research team described 20 changes to the work processes in the AWP Process Integration Flowcharts (a.k.a. swimlane diagrams) published in Volume II of IR272-2. These changes included updates to early planning, such as enhancements to supplier prequalification and supplier technology screening; developing a materials responsibility matrix and managing it through engineering and construction; and additional steps in materials tracking and materials readiness to support field activities (FR-363, in press).

RT-363 considers current materials management systems to be less than ideal, whether developed in house or commercially acquired. By drawing upon research findings from its interviews and survey, the research team identified nine areas of key capabilities for a materials management system. Practitioners can use these areas to audit existing tools and plan for logical expansions (FR-363, in press).

In addition to identifying processes and tools that could be key enhancements for supply chain performance, the team also acknowledged the importance of people to make the process and technology work. RT-363 defined roles that would be required to enact the process improvements it had identified to enhance the AWP swimlanes (see Key Finding 3), and it wrote abbreviated job descriptions for them. Key among these roles, the digital coordinator would be involved early in the project to help design and to coordinate the transfer of information among stakeholders on the project. This role could expand beyond the supply chain function, but the team considered it to be critical to the successful communication of information across the supply chain (FR-363, in press).