An Analysis of the Life-cycle Curtain Wall Process through Supply Chain Management

This paper presents a research project named "Automated life-cycle management system for curtain walls in high-rise buildings based on supply chain management," which is jointly performed by the consortium of universities and companies involved in curtain wall design, manufacturing, and construction in Korea. The objective of this research is to improve the efficiency of the current process through the application of SCM to the C/W life-cycle. In this paper, the research results at the early stage are presented with a focus on the analysis of problems and waste in the life-cycle of the curtain wall supply chain spanning from design to construction, and to operation and maintenance. The results show that most of the problems and waste are caused by poor collaboration, information sharing, communication, and coordination among actors in the supply chain of the project life-cycle. Finally, future research issues are briefly discussed.