Application of Viable System Model in Diagnosis of Construction Supply Chain management in petrochemical industry

Current researches on supply chain management (SCM) in manufacturing industries are not directly applicable to construction industry. The application of SCM in the construction industry is associated with serious difficulties such as transient nature and uniqueness of construction projects, coordination problems, unrepeatable interactions and contextual differences in the manufacturing and construction industry. One of the models with the capability of complexity management is viable system model (VSM) which is rooted in organizational cybernetics. The model states that in order to achieve viability, each organization must perform certain activities and certain relationships must be established between these activities. VSM, employed to diagnose a supply chain of an Iranian Petrochemical Construction project based on the proposed methodology that includes three steps, case study selection, system identification and system diagnosis. This led to a model development as well as identification of the weaknesses of the construction supply chain (CSC). The validity of the research methodology and findings has been confirmed through multiple qualitative criteria. The research innovation is application of VSM to diagnose a CSC in combination with case study method in order to design a model and accordingly identification of the weaknesses and bottlenecks over the whole model via a systemic approach.