Papers by Louise Bildsten
Linköping University Electronic Press, 2011
In economic and management literature, the relationship between supplier and buyer can be more or... more In economic and management literature, the relationship between supplier and buyer can be more or less intimate. It can vary from market-driven with a constant change of suppliers to a value-driven relationship with one sole supplier. Purchasing strategies of construction companies have often been described as shortsighted , where price is the most considered aspect. Recent lean management literature promote value-driven purchasing, since it provides benefits such as just-in-time delivery, zero defects and customized products through close technical collaboration. This article hypothesises that value-driven purchasing of customized kitchen cabinets is more profitable than market-driven purchasing in industrialized housing construction. The hypothesis is examined through a case study of kitchen carpentry at one of Sweden's largest producers of industrialized prefabricated multi-storey housing. By comparing characteristics of market-driven vs. value-driven purchasing, this article aims to further clarify the benefits and drawbacks of these two strategies. At the case company, kitchens are ordered cabinet-by-cabinet and then installed inside the factory. The company is considering the possibility of a long-term relationship with a smaller local supplier that can deliver a new kind of innovative kitchen cabinet solution that is prefabricated. If the local supplier can meet the expectations of just-in-time delivery, zero defects and a product-tailor-made‖ for the housing company, there is much to gain.
Export of quality clothing at a men’s wear manufacturer-a study of market strategies at the House of
To satisfy customers’ desires with a maintained efficiency of the production process is a challen... more To satisfy customers’ desires with a maintained efficiency of the production process is a challenge for many house construction companies. Houses are one-off projects with a production process char ...
A significant part of the cost of a construction project, up to 90%, consists of purchased goods ... more A significant part of the cost of a construction project, up to 90%, consists of purchased goods and services. Suppliers thereby have a large impact on the quality, price and time of projects. Purchasing management is therefore important for the outcome of a project. The aim of research covered by this thesis is to describe and analyse purchasing management and its interrelation with the supplier relationships and the production process. The research design was twofold: theory building and case studies. In the latter, the initial phase was inductive through studies of industrialized building, changing to abductive and, thereafter, deductive when tentative theories were tested within construction companies. The findings were that maintaining supplier relationships and, at the same time, retaining competition with several suppliers are desirable. The construction industry has been portrayed by some researchers as price-driven with respect to the choice of suppliers. The research revea...
To improve, it’s crucial to see! Vital characteristics of Lean are visualisation and transparency... more To improve, it’s crucial to see! Vital characteristics of Lean are visualisation and transparency, i.e. allowing everyone to see all what occurs in production. A common tool for this purpose is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). Due to varying flows, performing a successful VSM in construction confers additional challenges. In this paper, lessons learned from successful VSM studies in construction are provided.Three VSM case studies were performed at different companies ranging from patio door manufacturing to kitchen cabinet assembly. Lessons learned can be structured into three phases; preparing the VSM (selecting “value stream leaders” and VSM team, clarifying values, etc.), performing the VSM (use of mapping tools, approximation of key indicators, waste identification, etc.), and following-up the VSM (Plan-Do-Check-Act, evaluating customer values, etc.).For the involved companies, the lessons learned imply the start of a “Lean journey” even though the involved companies found it diffic...
CTIT technical reports series, 2014
Kartlaggning av vardefloden har blivit ett av de mer anvanda verktygen inom Lean sammanhang. Dess... more Kartlaggning av vardefloden har blivit ett av de mer anvanda verktygen inom Lean sammanhang. Dessutom ar det ett viktigt verktyg for standiga forbattringar.Dess framgang ar kopplat till skapandet a ...
The kitchen is the heart of the house where people spend much of their time. It is, therefore, an... more The kitchen is the heart of the house where people spend much of their time. It is, therefore, an important room that requires high quality. Because construction is argued to be unproductive and wa ...
In economic and management literature, the relationship between supplier and buyer can be more or... more In economic and management literature, the relationship between supplier and buyer can be more or less intimate. It can vary from market-driven with a constant change of suppliers to a value-driven ...
Constructive alignment in teaching is a way to make students adopt a deep learning strategy. In p... more Constructive alignment in teaching is a way to make students adopt a deep learning strategy. In pedagogic literature, several kinds of taxonomies exist that all categorize different levels of complexity of students understanding. The goal of constructive alignment is to have the same level of complexity throughout the course including: intended learning outcomes, teaching/ learning activities and assessment of performance. This sounds like common sense, but is it really achieved in reality? The purpose of this study is to find out if teachers actively work with constructive alignment when designing courses and what the challenges are of implementing constructive alignment in practice experienced by teachers in engineering higher education. To find out the use of constructive alignment and its challenges, eight courses at an engineering school was analysed. The data collection consisted of archival data about the courses and eight structured interviews with each of the course coordin...
South Africa, as many of the countries on the African continent, has for a long time been discrim... more South Africa, as many of the countries on the African continent, has for a long time been discriminated against when it comes to export of clothing and textiles. The trade regulations are now getti ...
The kitchen is the heart of the house where people spend much of their time. It is, therefore, an... more The kitchen is the heart of the house where people spend much of their time. It is, therefore, an important room that requires high quality. Because construction is argued to be unproductive and wasteful with low quality, studying a kitchen assemblage in detail is of particular interest due to its complexity with many details. In lean, the visualization and transparency of processes is the core for waste reduction and improvement. Low productivity levels are often argued to depend on a lack of information about the root causes of process problems. Thus, more information about the installation process of kitchens by studying the process is needed to target the sources of problems in terms of waste. The purpose of this paper is to gain a further understanding of how value stream mapping can be used to identify different types of waste that occur when acquiring and installing kitchens. Value stream mapping is carried out through observations and interviews at an industrialized timber h...
Forskning vid Lulea tekniska universitet har visat pa att Vardeflodesanalys (VFA) kan hjalpa fore... more Forskning vid Lulea tekniska universitet har visat pa att Vardeflodesanalys (VFA) kan hjalpa foretag att korta ledtider, minska lager och reducera sloseri genom att hitta en gemensam bild over fore ...
The price of housing in Sweden has, over the past couple of decades, increased at a much faster r... more The price of housing in Sweden has, over the past couple of decades, increased at a much faster rate than salaries. Politicians have tried to steer the housing market towards the provision of affordable housing, but have not succeeded. After 1993, the responsibility for regulating the price of housing transferred to the market, which is more interested in building for high-income earners. Despite several reports focusing mostly on productivity levels in the production of housing, little has changed. When problems persist without any significant change, it is necessary to look for fundamental, structural explanations. The study reported here offers a political-historical perspective of the Swedish housing market and its impact on the price of housing. The methodology encompasses an overview and analysis of governmental reports covering political actions to stimulate the production of housing. The findings reveal that prices depend on a malfunction in political control and unclear rol...
Innovative construction needs collective capabilities from a variety of firms. The purchasing of ... more Innovative construction needs collective capabilities from a variety of firms. The purchasing of new products, i.e. innovations, is complex and involves many people with different interests and motivations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the purchasing decision-making process and its enablers, and barriers to innovation through three construction projects in southern Sweden. Interviews were conducted in three different projects with three different company consortia of architect, contractor and client. The interviews concerned the selection of suppliers, products and services. The long or short-term nature of the supply chain agreements can act both as enabler and as barrier to innovation. The present study will show that the contractor-supplier relationships in the cases studied were long-term in nature, contrasting previous research findings suggesting the opposite. Furthermore, the study revealed that close relationships between contractors and their preferred suppli...
The specific topic of innovation in construction has only recently been given as much attention a... more The specific topic of innovation in construction has only recently been given as much attention as in many other sectors. In the realms of lean production, much literature points out that the pecul ...
The purchasing strategies in the construction industry have been considered by many writers in co... more The purchasing strategies in the construction industry have been considered by many writers in construction management as short-term and arms-length. However, a different picture is portrayed in the manufacturing industry, where the purchasing strategies are mostly long-term to secure supply for production. Industrialized building is at the crossroad between construction and manufacturing, which raises the question of what purchasing strategies are applied. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the Kraljic model (1983) can be applied in an industrialized housing factory. The purchasing strategies were studied through interviews with the CEO of a timber housing manufacturer in northern Sweden. Industrialized housing manufacturers can take advantage of standardized construction systems and secure production flows that eliminate waste and improve quality. Evidence proves that long-term relationships similar to those in the manufacturing industry also exist in the construction...
This conceptual paper provides a desk-top study of secondary sources to outline a robust program ... more This conceptual paper provides a desk-top study of secondary sources to outline a robust program of research to increase the market penetration of high quality green buildings produced in advanced manufacturing facilities. The environmental benefits of such buildings are investigated, a theoretical approach to understanding the drivers of best practice is outlined and a field work method is proposed to understand the dynamic capabilities that support leading manufacturers. An extended sociotechnical systems view of the firm is developed to guide a program of international case studies. This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the understanding of firm performance in an important empirical setting. Future research by the author will involve execution of the described research program. A limitation of the paper is that the effectiveness of the proposed theory and methods is yet to be tested empirically.
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Papers by Louise Bildsten