Making logistics a central core in complex construction projects: a power-dependency analysis

In complex projects, such as hospital constructions, there are large interdependencies betweenthe actors involved, especially relating to the flow of materials and resources. As new hospitalbuildings are often built on existing blocks and campuses, ongoing hospital operations may hinderlogistics and construction operations and vice versa. To handle these issues, it has becomeincreasingly common to implement construction logistics setups (CLSs). The purpose of thepaper is to analyse how the centrality of the CLS in the project organization affects the coordinationand conflict level in complex construction project management using a power dependencylens. The study is based on case studies of six hospital projects in the Nordic countries.Based on a cross-case analysis it is identified that: 1) from a logistics management perspectivewe identify three different foci of the CLS; i) security for hospital patients and staff, ii) on-sitematerial flow coordination, and iii) flow coordination to and from site, and 2) from a projectmanagement perspective the main findings point towards the importance of centrality of theCLS in the project management organisation in order to ensure enough power to mandateenforcement of coordination.