Knowledge-based E-business in the Construction Supply Chain

E-business in construction is not just about trading products on-line, as e-commerce was originally defined. It covers all aspects of relationships with clients, contractors, suppliers, and partners within the construction supply chain. It also includes procurement, intra-team collaboration, handling value added services like transportation, warehousing, infrastructure, and multiparty transactions. E-business provides mechanisms for cross-enterprise coordination in name of construction supply chain integration. In order to optimise the entire supply chain system cross-enterprise coordination and special business relationship must be established among the organisations along the supply chain. Since a construction supply chain spans over multiple organisations, knowledge management happens in the background – real time. It is done by everyone as part of the day-today business, embedded in the workflow. Therefore, knowledge management is essential for e-business in the construction supply chain. Some organisations in the supply chain use their knowledge as a competitive differentiator, some sell it directly, and others offer services and technology to enable their clients to improve their own knowledge management. The benefits that an organisation in the construction supply chain reaps from knowledge management activities will also be beneficial to the organisation's clients, suppliers, and partners. This paper presents a characterisation of the construction supply chain. It argues that knowledge management is essential for e-business in the construction supply chain. It highlights the areas where knowledge management systems can be applied to improve business processes. Finally, it presents some infrastructure developments in progress.