A Collaborative Web Service Platform for AEC Supply Chain

Information sharing within and across companies is crucial for an effective supply chain. For the AEC industry, however, information sharing is difficult due to the highly fragmented and temporary, project- based nature of its supply chain. As Internet access becomes ubiquitous and online information grows, the web services model has emerged as a promising approach for integrating scattered information sources and software applications to achieve interoperability. A prototype web-based platform, SC Collaborator, is de- signed to facilitate information sharing and to support collaborative communication for AEC supply chain. Using web portal technology, the web-based platform can be easily set up to integrate distributed application services and provides a single point of access for each participating partner to collaborate on a project. This paper describes the system architecture and the features of the platform. An example scenario is included to demonstrate the potential of the web-based supply chain platform in managing material delivery and facilitat- ing online collaboration.