Tools
Articles
Housing Supply Chain Everyone Wins, Current trends in homebuilding with specific focus on the consolidation wave currently underway in distribution, contracting services, and construction products. JMP Securities - November 29, 2006
Getting Started, The essence of SCM is a defined step-based process focused on running a better business. www.prosalesonline.com - September 2006
One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor, Public and private builders develop contrasting strategies - to expand or retrench - to weather the down market. Big Builder - October 2006
Purchasing Overhaul, Standard Pacific is employing top-to-bottom initiatives to centralize and streamline purchasing. www.bigbuilderonline.com
Getting It Together, Intrepid CIOs cobble together streams of unrelated data in support of business growth, change, and—now—cost control. www.bigbuilderonline.com - October 2006
Late for the e-Train
Homebuilders are increasingly concerned with the current state of
information technologies. Read a recent Big Builder magazine article which
summarizes Symbius' comprehensive technology in homebuilding survey and the
limitations and challenges in the current information technologies available
to homebuilders.
Chasing Ground - New York Times
Read
a recent New York Times story, Chasing
Ground, about the business of homebuilding which gives a provocative
inside view of the development process and candid insights into
the future of homebuilding and home ownership.
3 Articles of special interest to Dealers/Distributors:
Homebuilding Solutions from SAP Improve Efficiency, Communications, and Control
SAP
Morrison Homes - a SAP Success Story
How Internet-enabled information technolgoies are impacting the extended supply chain
John Taylor and Hans Böjornsson
Supply chains were not originally designed to facilitate the huge increase in the mass production of homes over the last 5 years. This paper looks at how one companys' improvements using the Internet, a proprietary information system and a new distribution channel to integrate information and material flow significantly increased value creation.
How the Internet is Accelerating Supply Chain Trends
Graham Sharman
The internet did not create supply chain innovation. Outsourcing, collaboration, and supply chain compression and differentiation began long before the advent of the World Wide Web. There's no question, though, that this new technology is increasing the speed at which these strategies move from concept to reality. By using the internet to drive the innovations, companies have begun to unleash the true e-revolution.
Strategic Sourcing for Homebuilding - 3 parts
Strategic
Sourcing for Homebuilding (Part I of III)
Luis F. Solis
Some homebuilders have begun to experiment with supply chain management. But homebuilding executives should seek the strategic benefits of improved sourcing, not just short-lived cost reductions.
Information Discovery for Homebuilding Operations
(Strategic Sourcing for Homebuilding: Part II of III)
Greg Allen and Matt Sanders
From whom are we buying? How much do we spend? Are we using common suppliers and trades? Can we get better deals from manufacturers, regional trades or large local trades? How much overlap of suppliers do our different divisions have? The answers to these types of questions can be found using Information Discovery tools and techniques.
Change Management in Homebuilding
(Strategic Sourcing for Homebuilding: Part III of III)
Alex Vieira
Why is it so hard to make good changes stick? Why do some initiatives such as regional purchasing or national contracts not provide the desired results?
The answer lies in successful execution of the Change Management aspects of strategic sourcing.
More Articles
Demystifying Supply Chain Management
Pete Stiles
A number of promising enabling technologies known as Supply Chain Event Management are available to companies who want to achieve breakthrough improvement for their supply chain. What frameworks are available to supply chain professionals decide what is needed for their companies?
How the Internet is Accelerating Supply Chain Trends
Graham Sharman
The internet did not create supply chain innovation. Outsourcing, collaboration, and supply chain compression and differentiation began long before the advent of the World Wide Web. There's no question, though, that this new technology is increasing the speed at which these strategies move from concept to reality. By using the internet to drive the innovations, companies have begun to unleash the true e-revolution.
Chain Gang: Leaders in Purchasing Highlight Supply Chain Management's To-Do List
John Caulfield
At it's annual conference in Las Vegas, BIG BUILDER conducted a roundtable discussion on supply chain management (SCM) with executives from several of the industry's leading home builders. This discussion touched on how the role of purchasing is evolving and how upgrades in their organizational structure, technology, and personnel are helping these builders lower costs, reduce cycle times, and improve product quality.