Alternative logistic solutions at the building site

The word logistics probably makes most people think of transportation and storage. These activities makes up the core of logistics and therefore it is sometimes referred to as the science of efficient flow of material. Logistics isn’t all about making everything correct. It’s about making everything right. To receive the right products in the correct numbers at the right time means lower storage costs, less costs for intermediate storage and makes it easier for the construction workers to focus on the task at hand. The core of logistics is transportation, storage and inventory control, materials handling and packaging order handling and customer service, forecasting, production planning, purchasing and sourcing. The total cost is an important term in logistics, meaning the sum of all the costs involved from ordering the material until it is actually built in on site. In this paper we have elaborated alternative solutions for logistic problems at the construction site, such as building logistics companies, mover companies, third party logistics, co-loading goods, and just in time. Outsourcing to external logistics companies is getting more and more common. Most of these companies provide simpler solutions to transportation of construction material. When talking about third party logistics one is talking about a logistics company who is hired by a construction company to provide transportation and storage. The material is stored intermediately by the third party logistics company that also can provide several additional services. One of these additional services is co-loading of goods. Different materials is loaded and shipped to arrive at the site at the right time and amount with the same transportation. ”Just in time” is a solution in which material is delivered directly to the construction site at the time they are needed. This will minimize all the problems involving storage of large quantities of material on the building site. All the different solutions have their pros and cons. It can be very hard to know which solution will be the best on a particular construction site. We hope this paper will do as a source of inspiration for NCC Construction region East in their continued work with logistics.