What is Lean Construction?

Lean Construction is a new working philosophy with countless competitive advantages, but how did this trend emerge? Towards the end of the 20th century, Toyota captured 40% of the Japanese market by applying a new philosophy to production in the automotive industry. This philosophy delivered better quality at a lower cost, with shorter lead times and the elimination of waste. As a result, 30 years on, this philosophy is applied globally across all industries under the term “Lean”. Furthermore, Toyota is the only car manufacturer among the world’s 100 richest companies.

Lean: minimum waste, maximum value

The designation Lean It is used for those production systems that optimise available resources, guaranteeing fewer product defects and greater variety. Its origin lies in the Toyota Production System (TPS) developed after the Second World War by the Japanese. The TPS it sought to eliminate as far as possible any activities that did not add value to the final product, providing better quality at a lower cost.

In the late 20th century, the TPS was rebranded in the West under the term Lean and was adapted to other sectors as Lean Production. Thus, this working philosophy, based on new production models, finally reached the construction industry, becoming known as Lean Construction.

¿What is Lean Construction?

The Lean Construction it is defined as the optimisation of value-adding activities in a construction project while reducing or eliminating those that do not. To achieve this, Lean Construction develops specific tools applied to site execution and to establishing a production system that eliminates or minimises waste.

In Lean Construction, 8 categories of waste are established:

Source: www.practicorte.com

Similarly, Lean Construction focuses on improving three processes with the aim of increasing efficiency:

• Transformationminimising or eliminating flows, understood as the journey materials make until they are installed on site.
• Planning: defining criteria and strategies to achieve the project goals.
• Controlensuring that each activity will be carried out in the planned sequence.

Lean Construction is defined as the optimisation of activities that add value to a construction project whilst reducing or eliminating those that do not.

Lean Construction, like any Lean philosophy, aims to find excellence, not only in the final product, but also in the responsible company. To achieve this, it seeks apply philosophy to the entire lifecycle project completion:

¿How to implement Lean Construction?

As the construction sector is of a unique nature, Lean Construction requires a set of sector-specific tools. In any case, these tools can be used independently or, preferably, together:

Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS)

LPDS is a Lean Construction proprietary working methodology based on an integrated collaborative process. This facilitates the alignment of objectives of the different stakeholders involved, resources and constraints across the project, design, supply, execution and maintenance stages. LPDS requires understanding the construction process as a value-generating process in which the different stakeholders involved appear at the very beginning of the project conception.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)

IPD is understood as the set of actions aimed at unifying criteria in the management of systems, business practices and the people involved. In this way, IPD harnesses the talent and viewpoints of everyone with the purpose of optimising results, increasing value, minimising waste and increasing efficiency throughout the process.

Last Planner System

The Last Planner System is a Lean Construction production control method designed to deliver a reliable workflow and rapid learning. To achieve this, we integrate into the planning the consideration of ideal practices, feasible practices, practices that will be carried out, and practices that have already been carried out. These considerations will be taken into account when preparing the construction planning and the assignment of responsibilities.

Loss Measurement 

The measurement of losses involves the quantitative study of the workers' time spent on site. Through the analysis of the crews' time distribution, productivity is estimated and activities to be optimised are identified.

Source: www.researchgate.net

In which projects can Lean Construction be applied?

Lean Construction can be applied to any project looking to save costs and reduce delivery times by putting the following methods into practice:

• Sustained process improvement
• Constant search for leaks
• Implementation of new integrative technologies, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM)
• Collaborative approach

In this way, any refurbishment, new build or interior design project in any sector of the construction industry can be carried out using Lean Construction. This methodology does not require large investments, just sufficient human resources.

Lean Construction Can ybe applied to any project looking to save costs and reduce delivery times

What are the benefits of implementing Lean Construction?

The Lean Construction methodology has been in full development since it began to be implemented in 1996. It is currently continuing to develop across its various methods and systems, adapting to each country, region and company. Its results are highly favourable for the industry in economic, social and environmental terms. Some of the benefits are set out below:

Economic impact on construction and business efficiency

• A reduction of 10% in costs and of more than 20% in project completion timesreason why Lean Construction has been adopted in a large part of the worldUS. The UK, Latin American countries such as Chile and Brazil, and northern European countries have already begun to adopt this new way of building.
• Higher profit margin for businesses: the Chilean mining companies Those who implemented Lean Construction achieved profit margins ranging from 31% to 148%, in contrast to the figures of -318% and -301% for cases where the Lean system was not implemented.
• Higher labour productivityone McGraw Hill Construction report in 2013 it reveals that the company Boldt Construction reduced man-hours from 24 to 7 per each installed element.
• Better budget compliance: this same report states that the company Rosedin Electric carried out a value stream analysis which ultimately saved it 50,000$ in staff costs.
• Fewer site accidents: In the Chilean mining sector, companies that implemented Lean Construction reduced accident and injury rates to 0%.
• Greater collaboration between the different teams: implementing Lean Construction stabilises production, facilitates control, reduces waiting times and fosters effective relationships.
• Lowest number of order and requisition changes: with all possible variables having been considered from the outset.
• Fewer complaints and lawsuits: improvisation is eliminated and with it the uncertainty of the final result of the work.

General productivity improvement

It is no surprise, then, that applying the Lean Construction methodology helps to drive the evolution of an industry whose productivity rate has fallen by 25% over the last 50 years, according to the Construction Industry Institute and the Lean Construction Institute. Furthermore, this industry generates up to 57% of waste in terms of time, effort and materials that add no value whatsoever to the final product. Through Lean Construction, value is added, generating benefits for each of the stakeholders involved.

Source: www.leanconstruction.org

En Evalore Spaces we integrate the implementation of Lean Construction with the application of sustainability and well-being standards such as LEED, BREEAM, Passivhaus, or Alright.If you would like us to help you implement Lean Construction on your project, and save on construction costs and delivery times, contact us.

Israel Leal Vegas

Architect, Evalore Spaces