A project management prospective in achieving a sustainable supply chain for timber procurement in Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the alternative procurement procedures that will address the complexity of issues surrounding timber procurement for housing reconstruction after the Tsunami in Banda Aceh. It reviews construction supply chain management (SCM) and procurement philosophies with a project management (PM) perspective to facilitate the logistics of post‐disaster reconstruction. Design/methodology/approach – Based on two fieldtrip experiences in Banda Aceh in 2006 (one month) and 2008 (two months) with the housing reconstruction program of an international non‐governmental organisation, this paper examines the modern literature on SCM and analyses this process associated with construction material procurement in practice, reviews the problems inherited in the Indonesian context and analyses the proposed procedures of local and international procurement of timber to streamline the supply for reconstruction in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Findings – The incorporation of sustainable considerations into the design of procurement routes in the overall PM process for post‐disaster construction should be well recognized. The paper shows that basic SCM philosophies of ensuring stakeholder integration and collaboration could reduce the problems in timber procurement in Banda Aceh. Sustainable construction and triple bottom lines criteria are proposed to ensure a value creation process for a wider stakeholder engagement and overall reconstruction project delivery. Originality/value – The paper provides useful PM insights into SCM and sustainable construction literature. The case study reviews the timber procurement problems and goes further to present two alternative procurement models that could be implemented as more sustainable responses to post‐disaster reconstruction in Banda Aceh.