European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164

Information procurement practices of key actors in

construction supply chains
F.T. Edum-Fotwe*, A. Thorpe, R. McCa!er
Department of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK
Accepted 4 September 2000

Abstract

This paper presents a survey on the practices associated with the acquisition, use, storage and transfer of information by a sample of
professionals (actors) within the construction supply chain. The role of information in construction supply chains witnessed a shift
from its passive function in decision-making from the 1990s, to a strategic resource that drives both the processes and competitiveness
of companies. This change presents challenges for organisations that participate in the construction supply chain. The way
organisations involved in the construction supply chain manage this resource will have direct impact on their competitiveness. This is
in#uenced by the information acquisition, processing, utilisation and transfer practices of their professional sta! (actors) involved in
the processes of the construction supply chain. The paper presents results from a survey that looks at some aspects of how key actors
in the construction supply chain address these information-related issues.  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Information; Construction; Supply chain; Procurement; Organisation

1. Introduction the changing business in construction, and argues that

Supply-chain management has emerged over the last
two decades as an important and strategic area of man-
agement decision-making for both proxt making and
non-proxt organisations. In Porter's value chain (Porter,
1982) the e$cient performance of an organisation is
associated with the e!ective management of its supply-
chain operations. At the heart of the transactions that
take place in supply chains within construction is in-
formation. It has been argued that construction largely is
an information transaction process (Thorpe et al., 1998).
This implies that the way information is managed by the
key actors involved in the process will impinge on the
e!ective management of construction as a supply chain
(Betts et al., 1998).
This paper "rst describes the construction supply
chain and then explores the role that information plays in
bringing about e$cient delivery of the products asso-
ciated with the construction process. It identi"es the
growing importance of information as a consequence of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #44-0-1509-223-776; fax: #44-0-
1509-223-981.
E-mail address: f.t.edum-fotwe@lboro.ac.uk (F.T. Edum-Fotwe).
the way key actors in the construction supply chain
acquire, manage and distribute information will not only
impact on the competitiveness of their organisations, but
also in#uence the take up of current ICT developments in
improving the construction supply chain. The paper
presents the results of a survey to ascertain the practices
of principal actors in the construction supply chain re-
garding the acquisition, processing, use and transfer of
information. The outcome from the survey provides in-
sights on the potential for adopting ICT options for
procuring and transferring information within the con-
struction supply chain.
2. The construction supply chain
The 1990s have seen a trend towards greater reliance
on outsourcing by organisations in order to address the
intensifying element of competition (Hendry, 1995).
The contracting out of services, operations and activities
considered peripheral to the business of corporate estab-
lishments, and which traditionally have been provided
internally has been driven by the sole aim of reducing
operational costs (Davis and Austerberry, 1999). The
rationale for contracting out derives from the bene"t the

0969-7012/01/$ - see front matter  2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 9 - 7 0 1 2 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 4 - 1
156 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164

organisations gain by focusing more closely on those Vokurka (1999) point out that it is not just procurement,
core activities that they do best. Traditionally, the con- inventory management or logistics management. Spek-
struction industry has been organised along the lines of man et al. (1998) argue that it is a combination of all these
outsourcing, thus making it amenable to the application functional aspects as well as other corporate activities
of supply-chain principles. However, the systematic man- and relationships that impact on the way an organisa-
agement of the whole process as a supply chain with tion's operations and processes result in the movement of
a view to improve the delivery of the client's product or products or services from its source to the "nal point of
facility has become a necessity as a result of a change in use. In this respect supply-chain management in con-
the business of construction. The substantial use of sub- struction can be de"ned at two levels: the individual
contract arrangements facilitates work sections of a pro- company level, whereby it focuses on the operations
ject considered outside the scope of operations for involved in the production process; and the product level,
a particular construction company to be let out to other which addresses the processes involved in the delivery of
more qualifying companies. The implications of the wide- the client's need. The application of supply-chain man-
spread use of these subcontract arrangements in con- agement and concepts to the construction and engineer-
struction are two-fold: ing sector is relatively new and still emerging and
essentially focuses on the product level. This is not sur-
E distribution of operational capability for delivering the
prising considering that an integrated approach to sup-
client's product;
ply-chain management from a logistic perspective is itself
E a situation whereby the ability of larger construction
a relatively young "eld and still evolving (Gattorna and
companies to perform to the requirements of cost, time
Walters, 1996, p. 79).
and quality is in#uenced by small and medium con-
The presentation of construction as a supply-chain
struction enterprise. The in#uences do not just relate to
process rather than the development of a product pro-
physical operations on site but equally to the use and
vides the most e!ective approach to organising the pro-
management of information.
duction and business activities of the industry (Scott and
There are a number of factors that have combined to Westbrook, 1991). The process commences with a client
give rise to the change in the business of construction. requiring a facility, be it a building, as in the case of
The salient ones of these factors are discussed below. a private or a commercial developer, or other infrastruc-
The late 1990s have seen the emergence of a more ture such as roads and railways, as in the case of central
informed client making increasing demands for quality or local government. The process culminates in a product
improvement, driven by a need to minimise time to or facility that will be appropriated by the client or some
market for its developments and cost reduction, so that it other designated interest. Fig. 1 presents a schematic
can in turn pass on these gains to its customers. view of the key phases that make up the construction
Construction over the past decade has experienced supply chain. The process can be cyclical whereby several
intensifying competition in its industry along three di- iterations of the process are undertaken as facilities are
mensions. These are competition: say modernised or replaced, or can terminate as is the
case with many one-o! private developments. From an
E within domestic strategic groups of the industry where-
economic perspective the client's need for a construction
by construction companies of similar characteristics
(for example size, turnover, number employed) com-
pete directly against each other;
E between domestic strategic groups, due in part to the
capability of smaller construction companies to behave
as their larger counterparts by taking advantage of
technology; and
E from emerging regional markets and globalisation.
The industry is seeing unprecedented levels of the
deployment of technological options to facilitate the op-
erations of companies (Daugherty et al., 1999). This in-
cludes availability of information and resource sourcing
on a global level, and the growth in electronic publica-
tion of technical and general documentation.
Supply-chain management primarily addresses the in-
tegrative management of operations through which re-
sources move from source of supply to the "nal point of
use (Christopher, 1998). Re#ecting on this integrative
perspective of supply-chain management Lummus and Fig. 1. Key phases of the construction supply chain.
 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
facility can result in ewective demand, which leads to the
conceptual phase. The conceptual phase will comprise
several sub-operations including development of brief,
feasibility study, design, "nance arrangements, land ac-
quisition, permit and licences. The construction phase
will cover major equipment purchases, site and services
development, and physical construction of the actual
works to the client's e!ective demand. The next three
phases of the process, commission, operation and refur-
bishment or replacement, can each lead back to the start of
the process. Alternatively, the process may terminate in
a de-commission or abandonment after the economic life
of the developed facility. The whole process presents
a sequence of customers and suppliers linked by their
contribution to the "nal product. The di!erent phases are
all dominated by information transactions. In particular,
the client demand and conceptual phases have only in-
formation as the "nal product. The supply chain can
therefore be viewed in one sense as a chain of information
transactions that facilitates the delivery of the client's
demand.
2.1. Key actors of the construction supply chain
Each phase of the construction supply chain brings
together several stakeholders organisations that contrib-
ute inputs to achieve the phase. Fig. 2 presents examples
of di!erent stakeholders that participate in some of the
phases of the supply chain outlined above. The list in
Fig. 2 is not exclusive, and also that the di!erent
stakeholders can operate in any of the phases depending
on the nature and contractual arrangement in place.
Information supply chains essentially drive the transac-
tions between various actors. Within each of the stake-
holder organisations are a number of information actors
Fig. 2. Information actors in the construction supply chain (Edum-Fotwe et al., 1999).
157
that generate and provide or acquire and process in-
formation to facilitate the activities of the particular
phase in which they participate. The e!ective and timely
progress of each phase and the whole project supply
chain for that matter is directly in#uenced by these in-
formation transactions.
It has been argued by Edum-Fotwe et al. (1999) that
competition within the construction industry in the next
decade or two will be between supply chains, and not
among individual companies. Early evidence of such
development within the construction industry can be
seen in the emergence of procurement arrangements such
as the private "nance initiative. Sharing and co-ordina-
ting information as a major resource in the production
process will essentially drive this type of competition.
Within construction this development is already unfold-
ing as organisations involved in project supply chains
share information to levels that had hitherto been un-
precedented. For example, the transaction of information
for operations within the supply chain in construction is
often conventional. This is driven by the separated re-
sponsibility for delivering the client's demand whereby
design and construction activities are traditionally con-
ducted by separate and often di!erent organisations.
Equally, information that previously had been
considered con"dential and commercially sensitive is
increasingly shared through arrangements such as
partnering. Comprehensive transaction of information as
a resource within the supply-chain environment will re-
quire the key actors in construction to give consideration
to the way they acquire, process and disseminate in-
formation. There are a number of developments evolving
that will make such considerations vital for achieving
improvement both at the company level and throughout
the supply chain. Some of these developments are given
attention in the next section.
158 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
2.2. Construction supply-chain information
The importance of information and its associated tech-
nologies is currently recognised by most managers as the
primary factor for future success of their organisation
(Gri$ths, 1997; Maier et al., 1997). Naturally, products
and services that make the construction process cannot
#ow from their source to the "nal user without informa-
tion. Information allows, forbids and directs the physical
#ows, and also enables the checking and con"rming as
well as provides proof and audit trails for transactions.
Because the information #ows are so intimately connec-
ted with the physical movement of products and service
delivery, it is only sensible to deal with them as part of the
same production system. Whereas this need for informa-
tion has existed in the past, the urgency of obtaining the
right information at the right time and from the right
place (based on a JIT inventory system) has now become
the essential criteria for construction organisations. In
many cases it makes the di!erence in the accuracy of
supply-chain decisions (Ahituv et al., 1998).
The growing role of information is underscored by the
concomitant progress in technology to enable profes-
sionals and managers gain timely access to relevant
information. Fig. 3 depicts the rate of growth of
information sources available for technical and manage-
rial executives. The exponential pattern associated with
the growth in the sources of information re#ects the
growing importance in information for operational suc-
cess of organisations. In consonance with the growth in
sources, there has been a growth in mobile computing
Fig. 3. Growth in location-independent access and sources of information.
and devices to ensure a location-independent access to
information on a JIT basis.
The explosion of enterprise resource planning (ERP)
applications has enabled the procurement of information
on such a JIT principle within organisations (Schlatzer,
1997; Rojas and Songer, 1999). The widespread availabil-
ity of ERP applications is also facilitating the seamless
exchange of data between di!erent applications and thus
eliminating data source duplication for all information
actors within an organisation. The argument of Schlatzer
(1997) that the take up of ERP has only witnessed modest
development and occurred only within isolated com-
panies still bears considerable relevance for present con-
ditions and information transactions within the industry.
For example Kempis and Ringbeck (1998) describe the
take up of integrated management of information and its
related technologies within the manufacturing sectors as
rather dismal. They further contend that although the
greatest potential for such systems in manufacturing has
been associated with product development processes, it
has made less than an anticipated impact in those areas.
The situation is no less di!erent for the construction
process. Polaine (1997) and Kang and Paulson (1998)
describe the di$culties encountered by many project
managers when they need to manage information
throughout the construction phases.
However, the bene"ts of ERP implemented at the
single organisation level, provide a #avour of what can be
gained by an integrated approach for transacting in-
formation as a resource within the construction supply
chain. Granted that the technological tools for undertak-
 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
ing such integrated information transfer within the con-
struction supply chain are available, the widespread use
of such systems will grow within the foreseeable future.
The speed with which computing, communications and
the demand for information have exploded on the con-
struction domain has caught many professionals un-
awares and unprepared to cope with the resultant needs.
The case as to why its take-up has been slow can partly
be accounted for by the information acquisition, process-
ing and transmission attitudes of the key actors involved
in the construction supply chain. Awareness of these
practices should therefore help to focus the implementa-
tion of any ERP programmes adopted within the con-
struction supply chain.
The advent of recent and ongoing information infras-
tructure and the Internet in many countries is prompting
fast transformation of organisations and supply chains in
construction toward a virtual workplace. As the growth
in the virtual workplace and teleworking accelerate, or-
ganisations within the construction supply chain will face
new challenges to cope with the new organisational
structure. Some of these new challenges include under-
standing the emergent work environment, the changing
social work order and the dynamic requirements of the
knowledge worker. To meet these challenges e!ectively,
organisations involved in the construction supply chain
will need to develop strategies to support the new con-
cept of moving work to where people are, rather than
people to where the work is. Thus, in order to maintain
their status quo and also to be comparatively competi-
tive, construction supply-chain organisations must not
only understand the new structure but also take innova-
tive steps to adopt and adapt to new organisational
forms and arrangements that accommodate the increas-
ingly diverse workplace. A signi"cant proportion of such
work within the construction supply chain, particularly
at the technical and managerial level will involve the
transfer, acquisition and provision of information.
Benjamin and Levinson (1993) emphasised that for IT-
based change to be e!ective, technology, business pro-
cesses and the organisation itself need to be adapted to
each other. The axis along which these aspects of construc-
tion companies can be aligned is information. In the light
of these new possibilities provided by IT there has been the
need to re-assess the role that information by itself plays
within organisations in order to ensure e!ective alignment
between information itself and the evolving technological
capabilities. These have been the focus of many research
studies including Betts (1992), Soderberg (1996), La#in
(1997) and Igbaria (1998). Equally, the readiness of sta!
involved in the deployment of these technologies will a!ect
the management of information and its impact on organ-
isational processes. In particular, understanding their cur-
rent practices regarding the way they acquire, make use of
and transfer information as it a!ects their work is essen-
tial to evolving new options for deploying associated IT
159
in construction organisations. Such options include
a move from perceiving information only as a corporate
asset for construction companies to include its role as
a major construction resource.
2.3. Information is a construction resource
Technological developments in the last few decades
have elevated the role that information plays in the sur-
vival of companies, and is causing a revolution in the way
organisations in general treat information, information
systems and its associated technologies. Until the 1980s,
managers in the construction industry generally did not
concern themselves with how information was collected,
processed and distributed within their organisations (Crane,
1997; Weiser and Morrison, 1998; Thorpe et al., 1998).
Information was only perceived as an enabler for the pro-
cesses of the supply chain. The use of information within
construction has seen a signi"cant change from this posi-
tion. In today's fast changing technological industry envi-
ronment, few managers can a!ord to ignore the
information component of their organisation. McCreadie
and Rice (1999) provide di!erent conceptualisations of in-
formation and present a view of information as a resource
or commodity that can be produced, purchased, replicated,
distributed, manipulated, transferred, controlled and traded
just as any other tangible production resource. This view of
information assumes that it is a value-adding process that
forms part of the supply or production chain. It also re#ects
information that exists in tangible form and which can be
accounted for. However, not all the construction company's
information resources exist in this tangible form.
Within construction information exists often in the
form of documentation, such as drawings, speci"cations,
and conditions, explanations, clari"cations, that is com-
municated between parties, and forms the bedrock of the
industry's production activity. As a major resource for
sustaining competitiveness of construction companies,
information and associated technologies need e!ective
management based on a strategic outlook if contractors
are to bene"t from the deployment of this resource.
Understanding the methods that employees within these
organisations adopt for acquiring and distributing in-
formation within their functional roles provides the "rst
step to its management as a resource.
2.4. Information transaction and the construction process
Over a period of time construction has evolved and
developed concepts, systems and mechanisms for the
e$cient acquisition of the tangible resources involved in
its supply chain. The procurement of information for
managing construction processes and organisations is
often not considered from such a standpoint (Harrison,
1993). Information is often seen as an asset and not as
a resource for the processes in construction (Langford
160 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
and Retik, 1996). Its procurement and management is
therefore not attended by systematic approaches, as is the
case for the other major construction resources. This
paper adopts the view that construction is not only
a material conversion process, whereby input materials
are incorporated into the "nal product or facility, but
also an information process that involves the conversion
of knowledge and transfer of information as a resource to
combine with other input resources to generate the in-
dustry's physical products. Equally, there are informa-
tion-based outputs that emanate from the supply-chain
process either as intermediary products or "nal products
in their own right. An example of this will be the product
from a structural design "rm, which essentially is in-
formation to facilitate the physical works on site. If
considered from such a perspective, the potential for
achieving improvements in the processing time for the
acquisition of information for the whole construction
supply-chain process by deploying appropriate technolo-
gical tools can be immense.
3. Construction supply-chain information categories
There are several categories of information used by the
industry to undertake the processes that make up the
construction supply chain. Salminen et al. (1997), and
Langford and Retik (1996) characterised the various
types of technical information utilised for the processes
within the construction supply chain into generic catego-
ries which form the basis for evaluating information
procurement in the supply chain. These categories are
summarised as follows:
E standards, codes, building regulations (such as ISO, BS);
E manufacturer details (drawings);
E trade and product catalogues;
E pricing information;
E standard speci"cations (text);
E standard construction details;
E design guidance and best practice;
E health and safety;
E quality management in construction.
4. Attitudes of construction actors
This paper argues that for information to be con-
sidered as a resource and treated as such by construction,
there is the need for research to understand and appreci-
ate current practices regarding the way professionals in
the industry make use of and manage information. A sur-
vey was conducted to ascertain the existing practices of
construction actors within the supply chain regarding
some aspects of information procurement and manage-
ment. Since technology and in particular hardware issues
have featured in a number of other studies including
Betts et al. (1998), the survey concentrated on the softer
dimension on the use of information. Essentially it
covered the procurement, processing and transfer of tech-
nical information that is incorporated or employed to
facilitate the processes of the construction supply chain.
4.1. Attitude elicitation
The object of the survey was primarily to establish
a cross-sectional perspective based on a common frame-
work, and the postal option was adopted in order to
maximise its coverage and relative sample size. The
sample frame for the survey was drawn from various
standard databases of construction organisations. Or-
ganisations included in the sample frame were selected to
re#ect di!erent identi"able interest groups and profes-
sional backgrounds in the industry re#ected in Fig. 2.
The sample frame included actors from design, contract-
ing, consultants, developing and employer organisations,
as well as information managers. The inclusion of in-
formation managers in the survey was in recognition of
this evolving position within construction companies, as
well as the contribution they can bring to information
supply chain in construction.
4.2. Attitude measurement
The main tool employed in collecting the core data for
the survey was a structured questionnaire. The choice of
a structured questionnaire tool was made in order to
ensure a degree of consistency necessary for aggregation
of perspectives elicited in such a cross-sectional study.
The questionnaire instrument addressed the following
information acquisition and transfer aspects for key ac-
tors in the construction supply chain:
E the relative importance of various technical informa-
tion categories employed for the operational activities
of the construction supply chain;
E information acquisition attitudes of actors in the con-
struction supply chain with respect to sources and
format, as well as duration;
E information processing attitudes of actors in the con-
struction supply chain with respect to productive time;
E information transfer attitudes of actors in the construc-
tion supply chain.
4.3. Questionnaire administration
The questionnaire was piloted on 20 actors from "ve
organisations by employing the interview technique. This
comprised 8 site-based engineers and managers, 6 o$ce-
based design engineers and architects, 3 project managers
and 3 IT/administrative sta!. The purpose of adopting
this approach was to ensure that feedback could be
 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
obtained with respect to the overall purpose of the instru-
ment, its structure, and the clarity associated with the
data it was eliciting. The lessons from the pilot were
employed to enhance the overall quality of the question-
naire. The main survey was administered to construction
supply-chain actors in 220 organisations by direct mail
and achieved a response rate of 35%. In all, 78 responses
were obtained out of the 220 questionnaires adminis-
tered. This yielded an overall response rate of 35%.
According to Easterby-Smith et al. (1991) surveys of this
nature are often associated with a response rate ranging
between 5 and 20%. This level of response rate attained
for the postal survey therefore justi"es the choice of the
method, measures and procedure adopted in undertak-
ing the survey. The main constraint associated with
postal questionnaires is the time lapse between the issue
of the instrument and the cut-o! for receipt of responses.
A decision on the cut-o! for receipt of responses was
based on a proportion of the duration for the overall
survey. As such, the response rate of 35% could have
been better given additional time.
5. Analysis of respondent attitudes
Analysis of the returned questionnaires was under-
taken by descriptive statistics to provide indicative re-
sponses for the various issues that were elicited by the
survey. The results of the survey have been organised in
three main sections. The "rst section presents the back-
ground details of the respondents. The second section
details the information usage characteristics of the re-
spondents. The third section summarises the respondent
attitudes regarding on-line options for information re-
source transactions, along with the additional details
related to on-line information resource transactions.
Analysis of the returned questionnaires was undertaken
by inferential statistics.
Fig. 4. Relative importance of information types for supply-chain operations.
161
5.1. Characterising supply-chain information categories
Fig. 4 presents the importance index (I) for the di!erent
technical information categories employed in supply-
chain operations by the actors in the respondent group.
The importance index (I) describes the degree to which
an information category can impact on the operational
e$ciency of supply-chain activities. The importance in-
dex of each information category for the survey was
based on a 7-point scale and is de"ned as follows:
Sum of all factors for a category
I" . (1)
Sum of all factors for all categories
The resulting ratio is then transposed onto a 15-point
index to give values that are easy to appreciate. Fig. 4
shows the indices for the various information categories,
and can be grouped into three levels. The "rst level
comprises information categories that the respondent
actors' attitudes show to be vital to construction supply-
chain processes. These are the ones with indices of be-
tween 12 and 15. The second level is information that can
be considered essential to supply-chain operations and
includes categories with indices from 9 to 11. The third
level, which has indices from 1 to 8, is information that is
useful but not essential for supply-chain operations.
Fig. 5 presents attitudes of the respondent actors re-
garding the rate of change of information content, which
they employ for operational activities. It shows that over
60% of the information acquired for supply-chain opera-
tions by the respondent actors rarely changes in content
or is subject to annual changes. It also presents
the distribution of respondent actors regarding their
frequency of acquisition of technical information for op-
erational purposes. Over a third of all the respondent
actors acquired information either on a daily or weekly
basis.
162 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164

Fig. 5. Rate of content change and frequency of acquisition.

Fig. 6. Source and duration for information acquired by actors.

5.2. Information acquisition attitudes proportion of actors' information requirements (about

30%) is kept in-house. Equally, ozcial publications and
The sources from where respondent actors procure information services (together accounting for over 50% of
information to incorporate in supply-chain operations the respondents) form the main sources of external in-
are diverse. However, Fig. 6 shows that a signi"cant formation for the respondent actors.
 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164 163

Fig. 7. Information acquisition format.

Fig. 6 also outlines the productive time involved in the

acquisition of information for each session. While a large
proportion of the information acquired takes less than an
hour (47%), this will have to be viewed against the
background of signi"cant in-house storage of informa-
tion resources. What is signi"cant and should require
further investigation is the proportion of actor respon-
dents who spend 1}3 h or more (63%) of productive time
in information procurement per session. Developing ap-
Fig. 8. Processing duration of construction actor procured informa-
propriate options for reducing this acquisition duration tion.
can in#uence productivity for the whole supply chain.
Fig. 7 shows the respondent distribution on the me-
dium for information procurement. Essentially, all actors
acquire information in paper-based media (96%). While
the use of electronic options for information procure-
ment within the construction is low (22%), it is quite
interesting to "nd that this medium is making inroads
into the operational activities of the supply chain.

5.3. Information processing attitudes

The time involved in processing, for example re-format

for incorporation or reproduce within another docu-
ment, can in#uence the medium and format in which
Fig. 9. Information transfer format.
information is obtained. Over 65% of the information
procured by respondent construction actors is incorpor-
ated into the supply-chain operations with a minimum
level of processing (less than 1 h) as depicted in Fig. 8. information in electronic format, they are marginally less
Equally, it is essential to bear in mind that over a third of inclined to transfer information in the same format.
all respondent actors spend 1}3 h or more in processing Equally, they are more inclined to transfer any procured
information they procure into suitable format, and can information verbally.
provide potential for improvement.

5.4. Information transfer attitudes 6. Conclusion

Fig. 9 shows the medium by which construction in-
formation actors transfer information within the supply
chain. The proportion of 94% respondents who employ
paper-based options is consistent with their acquisition
attitudes and is indicative of the domination of paper
within information chains for the industry. It is interest-
ing to note that while they are more likely to receive
The construction supply chain is essentially an in-
formation transaction process. This paper has argued
that the role of information in the supply chain needs to
be broadened from its current passive status to en-
compass its active management as a strategic resource.
Treating information as a resource should enable the
parties in the construction supply chain to plan and
164 F.T. Edum-Fotwe et al. / European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 7 (2001) 155}164
ascertain optimum levels of its utilisation for projects and
thereby achieve productivity improvements. For this to
be a reality, the way information is utilised by actors in
the supply chain has to be understood. A survey that
focuses on some aspects of the way professionals in
construction utilise information shows that there is
a propensity to utilise paper-based options in procuring,
processing and transferring this resource. The productive
time involved coupled with the medium of transfer makes
information supply chain in construction a potential
avenue for productivity improvement. The current
growth in sources of information and availability of tech-
nology for ease of access implies that the management of
information as a resource in the construction supply
chain can be a reality.
A signi"cant proportion of actors in the respondent
group considered their current information requirements
as being relatively stable (subject to annual changes).
However, the current trend of technological development
and its concomitant economic competition that it will
generate from productivity improvements and shorter
operational times imply that such stability may no longer
exist within the foreseeable future. The potential impact
of considering information as such a resource in the
construction supply chain can be useful in this direction.
It will call for the development of appropriate proced-
ures, protocols and mechanisms for evaluating informa-
tion along the same basis as other construction tangible
inputs and outputs.
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