Lean System in Construction Industry

Hi !!  Welcome to my "New Horizon" Blog,

Hopefully you like it.

Here is the topic of this week, read & enjoy it ! !

-----------------------------



LEAN CONSTRUCTION

Construction is possibly the last frontier for lean. Although manufacturing’s productivity has improved during the last 40 years, the construction industry has experienced a slight decline, as seen in figure 1 below. Even though the construction world has embraced high-tech tools, we still manage projects the same way we always have, and we’re still getting the same poor results. Less than 30 percent of projects come in on time, on budget, and within specification. The answers to improving construction productivity are not in more software or technology.

In the construction world, waste is rampant. A study, “Owners Talk about Revolutionary Changes in Construction Contracting,” presented by SMWIA/SMACNA Partners in Progress at their 2006 conference, found that 57 percent of the time that crews spend on a job site is waste. 

Before sharing examples of lean application in construction, let’s identify the seven types of waste readily found in construction:

• Defects. Everyone in construction understands this type of waste. It includes doing the wrong installation, defects in fabrication, and errors in punch lists. Not meeting the required code is waste. Rework in construction is rarely measured.

• Overproduction of goods. This happens when we fabricate material too early or stockpile material in the warehouse or at the job site. Estimating and bidding jobs that are not won is a form of this waste. Printing more blueprints or making more copies of a report than needed is overproduction.

• Transportation. This waste occurs when we move material around the shop, when we load it on the truck or trailer, when we haul it to the job site, when we unload it, and when we move the material from the lay-down or staging area to the installation point.

• Waiting. Construction is full of this waste, including when a crew waits for instructions or materials at the job site, when a fabrication machine waits for material to be loaded, and even when payroll waits for the always-late timesheets.

• Overprocessing. This waste includes overengineering, requiring additional signatures on a requisition, multiple handling of timesheets, duplicate entries on forms, and getting double and triple estimates from suppliers.

• Motion. These “treasure hunts” happen when material is stored away from the job or when workers look for tools, material, or information. This waste also occurs in the office or job site trailer, when looking for files, reports, reference books, drawings, contracts, or vendor catalogues.

• Inventory . This includes uncut materials, work in process, and finished fabrications. Some contractors claim that they have no inventory because they job-cost all material. While this may work for accounting, if the material is not yet installed and isn’t being used by the customer, it’s waste. This waste includes spare parts, unused tools, consumables, forms and copies, employee stashes, and personal stockpiles. One could argue that the unfinished facility is inventory and is waste until operational.