The Power of Lean Principles (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
This article supports previous publications on the importance of lean principles as guidelines (Liker, 2004) or as challengers when developing systems and frameworks (Ballard, Hammond, & Nickerson, 2009) and even methods and tools (Santos, 1999). It seems that the principles have taken the position of being a significant part of lean thinking, meaning a knowledge that lean personnel should acquire. This article wants to support and emphasise the importance of lean principles as rules of living but believes in taking the power of the lean principles one step further. If a lean organisation, project or leader explicitly confronts each other with the principles, this empowers the individuals being challenged and may create an outcome that closely links the employee's know-how to the process. Using lean principles as the main message to be understood, they may pull in tools, methods, frameworks or systems to answer these principles. This paper reports from research that explores the effect of pushing lean principles as the direct challenger on employees. Skilled workers at construction sites are the receiver of both general principles but mainly rephrased into more operational language.
Trends and Challenges to the Development of a Lean Culture among UK Construction Organisations
Proceedings for the 20th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction, San Diego, USA, pp 1151-1160, 2012
Lean construction efforts could prove to be highly rewarding for the UK construction industry, but there is a lack of experiential research to demonstrate how lean thinking principles are diffused and enacted by organizations to successfully attain the promised rewards. Building upon established conceptual frameworks, this study sought to identify how lean concepts are being enacted and reveal trends in the development of a lean culture among UK construction organisations. A theoretical framework, incorporating soft and hard aspects of lean was adopted for the research and formed the basis for a questionnaire survey. The study targeted practitioners in the UK construction industry and the data obtained was clustered into six classifications to allow trends and contrasting views to be determined.
A CONCEPTUAL MODEL OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Malaysian Construction Research Journal, 2018
Lean Construction has become a global reference of a production system with the minimum of waste. However, previous research shows that there are several implementation scenarios, which differ from one company to another according to their own understanding of the Lean Construction principles. This work aims to fill this gap by proposing a generic framework leading to a better understanding of the basics of Lean Construction. In this paper, an original conceptual model has been developed based on a rigorous analysis of the most relevant Lean construction models that have been applied and tested in several countries. The outcome of this model shows that there are nine main Lean Construction principles, and which are: customer focus, supply, continuous improvement, waste elimination, people involvement, planning and scheduling, quality, standardization and transparency. In addition to that, the most used Lean Construction sub-principles have been identified based on an extensive literature review.
Implementing lean construction: understanding and action
Proc. 6 th Ann. Conf. Intl. Group for …, 1998
Lean thinking is a new way to manage construction. Born in manufacturing, the goals demand a new way to coordinate action, one that is applicable to industries far removed from manufacturing. Implementation requires action be shaped by a deeper understanding of the goals and techniques. This paper explains the implications of the goals and key production principles, and how when taken together they result in a different way to manage construction. Implementing lean in construction then becomes a matter of developing and acting on this new knowledge. Advice on implementation is offered.
Applying lean in construction - cornerstones for implementation
2012
The majority of lean transformations fail to meet their initial expectations and end up as disappointments. Excessive focus on specific tools and failure to understand the philosophy or to motivate people in continuous improvement are often blamed for this. This research explores the cornerstones for successful lean implementation in the construction business. Research results based on 39 semi-structured interviews conducted in Finland and California suggest that managers should pay attention to the following aspects: building trust, motivation, ensuring skills and competence, developing and selecting the right people, and providing leadership. In general, lean should be embraced as a comprehensive management philosophy which requires a long-term viewpoint in order to achieve competitive advantage. In construction, it is important to pay attention to the way people are recruited, emphasize their social skills, and develop them through training. Building trust and constructing project teams based on participants' suitability and competence will help to move the industry forward, but managers should also learn to take advantage of crises, when organizations are at their most receptive.
Building a Lean Culture into an Organization
IGLC Conference, Chennai, India, 2018
The Indian construction industry is in need for a change; a change that can help its people and organizations discard the conventional project management approach of 'Command and control'; a change that can create better collaboration between project teams and reduce blame games. Lean construction and the Last Planner System™ is a potent and proven solution that offers the change. This paper suggests/proposes an approach for an organizational lean transformation. The approach is based on real life experience of the authors working with both Owner and Contractor organizations. The approach is based on building experience in lean tools at the site level that can be scaled across projects as a bottoms-up model. This is complemented with a top down approach that builds awareness, empathy, and knowledge at the leadership level. Together, the goal is to build capability and confidence in the organization to adopt and adapt lean into the organization. This paper explains in detail about the program and evolution of it from Indian experience. The authors will share their experience and their learning making the change in organizations. They will share the successes and the limitations of the approach.
LEAN CONSTRUCTION WITH OR WITHOUT LEAN – CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING LEAN CONSTRUCTION
Since the introduction of Lean Construction, implementation of Lean Construction method, tools, and thinking has been a challenge. The success of Lean Construction is evident, but still implementation challenges emerge, among others, culture, training, leadership, but also partial implementation of Lean Construction. Some reports indicate that the major implementation challenges are related to misconceptualization of lean construction tools, and case studies have found that often Lean Construction was either partially or incorrectly applied. Denmark is one of the pioneer countries in the Lean Construction journey, with the driving force of Sven Bertelsen and MT Højgaard among others. It is considered a country with a widespread and deep implementation of Lean Construction. But how disseminated is Lean Construction in reality? And do those who claim to apply lean construction actually do lean construction? On the basis of these questions this research contributes with a survey with a magnitude of 500 practitioners from the Danish construction industry. Results of this survey are compared with recent IGLC research on implantation challenges of lean construction. This research itself does not put forward any improved guide on how to implement lean construction. Instead it brings light to how lean construction is actually applied. In itself this is very interesting, and is valuable knowledge that can be used in further research on lean construction theory and on implementation of lean in the industry.
A Qualitative Case Study of Construction Managers' Understanding of Lean Thinking Submitted by
The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore how highway construction managers describe their understanding of lean thinking in the material selection, quality, and completion time of a project in the Northeast United States. The Japanese Toyota production system (TPS) security framework established by Taiichi Ohno provided the conceptual framework for this study. A purposeful sampling strategy was used to select 15 construction managers to participate in the study. Data were collected through open-ended, semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews, questionnaires, and asynchronous discussions through e-mails. Both inductive and deductive thematic analysis was used to analyze all the data gathered in the study. The following seven major themes emerged from the data relating to how highway construction managers describe their understanding of lean thinking in the material selection, quality, and the completion time of a project: (1) eradicating waste and improving efficiencies, (2) organizational change, (3) hazard and risk management, (4) value-based approach, (5) sustainability, (6) time and project management, and (7) maximizing profit and controlling inventory. The results indicated how construction managers describe their understanding of lean thinking in the material selection, quality, and the completion time of a project, and these could be understood through a combination of lean thinking concepts including continuous improvement 5s, and visual management.
Development of a Conceptual Framework of Lean Construction Principles: An Input-Output Model
Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems, 2019
In the new global economy, Lean Construction has become an e®ective way to design construction systems, which aims at reducing all forms of waste and creating the maximum of value for the customer. However, previous studies have reported that there are various implementation approaches, and most construction practitioners have applied this management philosophy according to their own understanding of Lean Construction principles. The main aim of this study is to develop a conceptual model for a successful deployment of lean construction. In this paper, an original generic model has been proposed based on a rigorous analysis of six relevant Lean Construction models that have been designed, validated, and tested in several countries (USA, UK, Malaysia, Germany, and Brazil). The ¯ndings of this work show that there are nine main Lean Construction principles and which are: customer focus, supply, continuous improvement, waste elimination, people involvement, planning and scheduling, quality, standardization , and transparency. Moreover, these principles have been divided into 33 sub-principles based on an extensive literature review of reliable documents (research papers, review papers, books, conference papers, and thesis) that have been published between 1992 and 2017.
Journal of Manufacturing Technology …, 2006
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to act as a meticulous conceptual paper probing the contemporary view towards lean and illustrate that, despite its discernible benefits, the implementation record suffers as the prevailing opinion fails to encapsulate that an aspiring lean enterprise shall only succeed if it views lean as a philosophy rather than another strategy. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on a thorough literature search concerning the success and failure of lean implementations and acts as a precursor for one of the authors utilising a combination of methodologies; namely, interviewing, survey questionnaire and participant observation in attempting to prove his PhD hypothesis. Findings -Evidently, a cocktail of factors are needed for lean success; not only is it necessary to implement most of the technical tools but an organisation's culture needs transforming too. Furthermore, the alterations need to be implemented throughout an organisation's value chain. Lean has a major strategic significance, though its implementation procedure, HRM implications, general approach to the supplier base coupled with the overall universal conviction of viewing lean as a set of tactics rather than embracing it as a philosophy advocates that this contributes to the relatively low number of successful lean initiatives. Originality/value -The paper would prove invaluable to lean practitioners through its summation of the intricacies towards lean enterprise success and academic researchers by focusing their attention towards the necessary cultural implications.