Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SUCCESS (Sustainable Urban Consolidation CentrES for conStruction)

Teaser

SUCCESS (Sustainable Urban Consolidation CentrES for ConStruction) is one of the few projects focusing on freight transportation for the construction sector, and more specifically on:- The construction supply chain, collecting real data from four pilot construction sites and...

Summary

SUCCESS (Sustainable Urban Consolidation CentrES for ConStruction) is one of the few projects focusing on freight transportation for the construction sector, and more specifically on:
- The construction supply chain, collecting real data from four pilot construction sites and analysing them in order to measure the potential advantages of the adoption of collaborative tools, Decision Support Systems and new practices
- The Construction Consolidation Centres (CCC), measuring their potential impact and finding a viable business model for their replication in other contexts.
There are already a number of projects related to the reduction of logistic flows in urban areas, yet, few experiences of Construction Consolidation Centres. These pilot studies demonstrated reduced transportation impacts, positive effects on transportation efficiency and construction site productivity. Yet, they were implemented in specifics contexts and their commercial viability was not demonstrated.

SUCCESS is important for society because the concentration of population in urban areas causes an increase in construction works within cities. This in turn leads to an increase on the number of trips related to the construction supply chain. These trips often originate from far away and have huge negative externalities (air pollution, congestion, noise, accidents, etc.) SUCCESS aims at better understanding the construction-related supply chain and its social, environmental and economic externalities, in order to reduce them.

The project aims to:
1. decrease the negative externalities produced by urban freight transportation: congestion, pollution, noise and accidents
2. improve the overall quality of life in urban zones
3. improve the use of the existing transport infrastructures and diminish their degradation, so to decrease building and renovating costs and impacts on urban environment
4. increase the level of cooperation and coordination among all the stakeholders of the supply chain as well as policy makers (Construction Companies, Supply Chain Actors, Transportation Companies, Public Administrations, etc.) for reduced transport impacts on society
5. develop reusable methods and tools which can be adopted for the CCC implementation and for the optimisation of the construction sites, distribution network, and reverse logistics activities.

Work performed

The project has so far identified a number of KPIs and a common methodology to collect the data needed to compute them in D2.2 to allow to compare the results from the four pilots with respect to these externalities and to estimate the potential for improvement with a scientific approach. It has then delivered in D2.4 a comprehensive data collection effort across the four pilot sites to analyse the as-is situation and prepare the ground for optimization in future construction works, following target improvement settings for each KPI (D4.1).

Advanced techniques to perform a cost/benefit analysis of the optimized scenarios have been identified in “WP3 - Methodologies and optimisation tools” as well as algorithms to simulate the impact on some KPIs of different optimization methods. These algorithms will be translated in software tools during the second period (at M20). D3.1 identified reusable ICT tools for the collaboration and the coordination of the various activities between the partners of the construction logistics supply chain. The partner construction companies are analysing the possibility to test some of these tools in the framework of future construction works. One of the companies has already decided to implement a Construction Consolidation Centre in a new site. D3.2 adapted for the first time techniques developed in the framework of Lean Manufacturing to the construction sector, providing methods and guidelines to apply them to future construction sites.

As regards “WP4 - Solutions Design and Test”, in addition to the already mentioned D4.1, Task 4.2 begun defining the data required for the simulation of the models and defining the different scenarios for each pilot site to be simulated.

A preliminary research effort on best practices in the EU and the US has been launched in the framework of “WP6 - Replicability and take up”. A draft list of international best practices in the construction supply chain is already available and a final and more comprehensive one will be delivered in the second period.

Several communication efforts performed in “WP7 - Communication and dissemination” contributed to raising awareness about the un-optimal state of construction-related logistics at present and on the potential for improvement. Two local events have already been organised in Valencia and Verona to discuss with local authorities and supply chain partners (contractors, subcontractors, transporters, etc.) and present the potential advantages of optimized logistics. A presentation on the same lines has been delivered to many local authorities and other stakeholders at the CIVITAS Forum 2016 and an open call for partner cities interested in testing the project’s recommendations has been launched in the occasion.

Final results

SUCCESS delivered the first comprehensive data collection effort focussing on the analysis of construction supply chain across four heterogeneous pilot sites. The collected data will be delivered at least partially as open data and will help further research and benchmarking activities.

The project adapted for the first time techniques developed in the framework of Lean Manufacturing to the construction sector, providing guidelines to apply them to future construction sites.

During the second period, SUCCESS will use the collected data to simulate and estimate the impact of a wide range of tools and techniques for the optimisation of potentially any construction site, in order to establish which tools are more suitable for a given site and what kind of business model could be viable for them. CCCs will be one of these tools. The result of this effort should allow a large take-up and transferability of the identified optimisation approaches.

The core impact expected from SUCCESS is the reduction of the negative externalities and costs of freight deliveries and service trips generated by the construction supply chain in urban areas.

With reference to CCCs, in the short run the impacts generated by SUCCESS focus on the mainstreaming of the CCC business, operational solutions and related regulatory frameworks into investments decisions of companies and policy plans of cities. In fact, not being in the project possibilities the actual infrastructural development of a CCC, SUCCESS will assess the impacts of the introduction of CCC solutions in urban contexts and prepare on a longer term the possibility to actually implement them.

The main long term impacts of SUCCESS concern:
1. The reduction of construction traffic and the related reduction of congestion, pollution, noise, etc.
2. Just‐in‐time deliveries and smoother material flows by better synchronizing supply chain activities
3. The reduction of construction waste by integrating reverse logistics processes
4. The improvement of the working environment thanks to the reduced presence of waste
5. The diffusion of CCC schemes thanks to the identification of new business models which deliver added value services to its users
6. The improvement of the productivity of construction sites
7. A reduction of the conflicts between construction sites and the urban environment.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.success-urbanlogistics.eu/.