The Abstract Of Material Management

The Abstract Of Material Management 

Material management is the system for planning and controlling all the necessary efforts to ensure that the right quality and quantity of materials and equipment are appropriately specified in a timely manner, are obtained at a reasonable cost, and are available at the point of use when needed. Logistics defined as comprise planning, organization, coordination, and control of the materials flow from the extraction of raw materials to the incorporation into the finished building. The Just-In-Time method approach represents major changes in management philosophy to reduce slack resources and responsive organizational systems in place of highly structured, formal organizational systems, and involve people at all levels in operations management and decision making. The study area is the road improvement work which is an infrastructure project located in Selangor district. The objectives of this study are to understand the current method in material management such as Just-In-Time(JIT) and logistic, to know and understand types of infrastructure project, to analyze the method that has been adopted in that those project and to identify the material management method that is used in a few infrastructure project in Selangor. Determination of material management was figure out by analyzing the interview data. The result shows the concepts that have be used in material management such are Just in Time and Logistics.

Overall Logistic concept

Overall Logistic concept

The logistics approach involves a new role for the material supplier, including early involvement in then design phase and overall responsibility for the flow of information relating to materials. Communication between materials suppliers and recipient should be such that details regarding transportation, eventual site location, order of delivery, labeling and packaging sizes should be available to all those involved. Generally, it refers to the foundation of an organization as well as large scale public systems such as roads and publics building of a country or region. Commonly, infrastructure can be derived as a large scale technology system, consisting of immovable physical facilities and delivering an essential public or private service through the storage or transportation of certain commodities.

Implementation of Just-In-Time for Building Material Management.

Implementation of Just-In-Time for Building Material Management.

The implementation of Just-In-Time for building material control in construction will need reorientation and changes in attitudes of construction management and workers. Just-In-Time requires flexibility and demands workers participation in the decision making process. Current practice in the construction industry gives little or no opportunity to workers, particularly at the lower level, to participate in decision making. On the implementation of Just-In-Time in the construction industry, it can concludes that ‘the very nature of construction activities suggest that the Just-In-Time concept, which has been adopted successfully for raising productivity in manufacturing, can only be applied gain fully if appropriate structure modification are made in the construction industry’ (Low 1992).

Figure 2.2 shows the relationship between all these stage and the Just-In-Time application to building material management.

JUST-IN-TIME APPLICATION FOR BUILDING MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

JUST-IN-TIME APPLICATION FOR BUILDING MATERIAL  MANAGEMENT

Various materials are required for construction, ranging from low-cost item like nails to high cost component like steel beam. Relatively large numbers of components and materials are purchased and delivered to construction sites to achieve the end product. A typical materials flow for building construction is characterized by convergence to the end product – the complete building. Many materials are processed, fabricated and combined to make sub-assemblies or prefabricated under a factory base environment before being brought to site for installation. Some are processed and assembled on construction sites as part of work-in-process.

Overview of Just-In-Time

Overview of Just-In-Time

According to Joshi (1990), Just-In-Time is a set of philosophies developed in Japan designed for efficient and quality production. Although perception of Just-In-Time vary enormously, it is generally agreed that it improve quality preventive maintenance, employee motivation and morale, worker involvement and commitment and decreases inventory level, lead time, throughout or set up time, defects and ultimately costs. The Just-In-Time approach represents major changes in management philosophy to reduce slack resources, create more fluid and responsive organizational systems in place of highly structured, formal organizational systems, and involve people at all levels in operations management and decision making. Based on Ohno(1998) and Suzaki(1987) have outlined detailed analyses of sources of waste in manufacturing that are consider invaluable inputs to Just-In-Time. These ways are over production, waiting, transportation, processing production, waiting,  transportation, processing, stalls, motion, and making defective products. Lea and Parker (1989) illustrated Just-In-Time as dealing with the creation of manageable environment – in which participants in production process seek to eliminate waste and keep things simple – to effect a continuous improvement in overall business. Schonberger (1982) explained the idea of Just-In-Time in a simple fashion; to produce and deliver finished goods just in time to be sold, sub-assemblies just in time to be assembled into finished goods, and purchasing materials just in time to be transformed into fabricated parts. Willis and Suter (1989) pointed out that Just-In-Time simply means to provide exactly what is needed when it is needed. Scott (1986) described this as a ‘wasteless’ programmed. Ptak (1991) summarized the by-product of Just-In-Time implementation as a major reduction in lead time, inventory and required manufacturing space yielding a more competitive company. Plenert (1990) recognized three different concepts of Just-In-Time : kanban, production planning and global management philosophy. Kanban allows the scheduling of inventory movement through the shop floor with the use of a material-movement-tracking device. Figure 1 shows Just-In-Time implications for various functioning aspects of manufacturing. To realize its potential and achieve total quality, Schneider and Leatherman (1992) have maintained that Just-In-Time must involve all aspects of organization (total business approach) leading to excellent communication and inter-functional cooperation. The main features of Just-In-Time (Schonberger 1982 ; Hutchins 1990) can be expressed as :

        i.   Minimum inventory

      ii.   Minimum work in progress

    iii.   Information driven ‘pull’ system

    iv.   Close knit team

      v.   Close relation with suppliers

    vi.   Operator responsibility

  vii.   Responsiveness

viii.   Reorganized work space

FIGURE 2.1 Just-In-Time approach to total business functions

Source: Akintoye, A. 1994

Practical Use of The Logistics Model

Practical Use of The Logistics Model

TABLE 2.1 Components of logistics management model

Logistics management tool	Description
Materials coordinator	Responsible for managing the logistics model during the construction process
Supply plan	Supply plan indicates the proposed delivery dates of units for the whole project. This plan is specified by the material coordination in cooperation with each suppliers/subcontractor.
Request schedule	A detailed version of the supply plan covering a three week period. The schedule is drawn up by coordinator in cooperation in each subcontractor.
Unloading plans	These plans indicated where daily supplies (units) would be delivered on site.
Unit specification	A unit is a package of materials requires for one working operation within one craft at one location on the construction site. The content of each unit was specified by individual subcontractors. A unit plan was specified by the materials supplier in conjunction with the materials coordinator

Sources: Agapiou, A 1997

The logistics model was developed to improve a number of aspects of the design and construction process. The project team identified several criteria for consideration, including:

i. Planning of site practice

ii. Deliveries of materials to site

iii. Number of changes to the detailed design

iv. Re-work during the construction stage

v. Site working conditions.   

The Logistics Concept

This research has described the logistics concept and development of a logistics model to manage the flow of materials from manufacturer to installation on site. The requirement of the high quality products and for overall savings were provided by the process of planning site activities based on a strategy to ensure that materials were handled, transported and stocked as little as possible. This led to overall savings of 5% when compared to traditional project. This success was based not only on an integrative approach to materials control, but also on the ‘new’ (non-traditional) roles adopted by the participant during the design and construction phases of the project

Definition and Scope of Logistics

In the concise Oxford Dictionary, It is defined as “art of moving, lodging and supplying troops and equipment”. In business, logistics activities commonly involve movement and storage for the purpose of having the desired object of flow at the right place at the right time. Transport and distribution are cornerstones of logistic is

flow from the extraction of raw materials to the incorporation into the finished building.(Claussen 1995). For most of the materials purchased, the planning of the deliveries is undertaken on ad hoc basis (Clausen 1995).Based on Enhassi, (1996) this can lead to two types of problem. First, some materials may be purchased just before they are required, resulting in delays, and interruption to the working schedule. Second, other materials are procured in large quantities without complying with production needs on site. This can result in a waste of resources during stocking, handling and transporting. Responsibility for waste concerns all project participants. It concerns general management as well as site management; any solution to the problem should involve all parties such as those who design the building, those who design the materials and component; and those who specify, describe and account for the work and suppliers materials (Loundoun 1976).

JUST-IN-TIME APPLICATION FOR BUILDING MATERIAL MANAGEMENT

Various materials are required for construction, ranging from low-cost item like nails to high cost component like steel beam. Relatively large numbers of components and materials are purchased and delivered to construction sites to achieve the end product. A typical materials flow for building construction is characterized by convergence to the end product – the complete building. Many materials are processed, fabricated and combined to make sub-assemblies or prefabricated under a factory base environment before being brought to site for installation. Some are processed and assembled on construction sites as part of work-in-process.

Just in Time Method

The Just in Time method is the method that can reduce the wastage of the project from the overall view. Just in Time building material management, as an addition to good management practices, has the potential to ensure that contractors are competitive in a tough market.  Just in Time implementation for building material management requires trust and discipline on the part of the contractor and its suppliers. This require the contractor to redefine its relationship with its suppliers. An indication of successful implementation of Just in Time in the construction sector, based on trust, commitment and cooperation. Generally, Just in Time in manufacturing achieves a series of benefits. It improves communication, increases inventory turnover, reduce inventory, eliminates warehouse, improves services, reduce supplier base, improves or enhances forecasting, simplifies ordering and receiving procedures, builds up long term relationship with suppliers, provides quicker resolution of delivery problems, decrease purchasing and administrative costs, decreases carrying cost, improves sense of team spirit, decreases traffic time and achieves lower prices. This study gives a clear perspective of the information about the infrastructure project. Basically, infrastructure is the basic underlying or feature of a system or organization and it also can be understand as a large scale of public systems like power, water supply, roads and public transportation.