Piloting distributed activities: the case of building sites

This study of the logistics in firms in the construction sector shows that they have always used models of industrial organization that are now though t to be the most innovative. Project organization, the product-process appr oach and competitive engineering all count among these firms' activities. B y analysing them, light can be shed on how forms of learning and coordinati on emerge in networks of actors among whom activities are distributed. In t hese networks, a new framework is worked out for producing and managing kno wledge. Paradoxically, analysing logistics in this branch of the economy bo th brings to light the most innovative forms for organizing production in a network and sheds Light on the conditions for coordinating the parties inv olved. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.