Estimating, Tendering Kingston

University
and Procurement CE7725

LEAN CONSTRUCTION

Heydar Aliyev Centre L e c t u r e r : D r. P a u l M i s s a

Lean Construction
… A Manufacturing Process?
Where did it all start in the UK?
• Egan (1998) challenges the construction industry to adopt many of
the good practices from the consumer-led manufacturing and service
industries. However, many people within the industry argue that the
construction process is fundamentally different and is, therefore, not
able to absorb the practices from other industries.
• True?
Perceptions of Manufactured Construction
• Poor Quality
• Cheap
• Unreliable
• Fragile
Some Examples of Manufactured Buildings
Contd.
Contd.
What do you think about this?

Construction in controlled environment

How does it work?
Construction at enormous speeds
Speed
Construction Vs Manufacturing
Differences claims Argument against the claim
The construction industry produces one True, but there always is the first car or the
off products first plane
Manufacturing deals with mass Yes, but not all the time. In fact the trend
production moves towards small scale customized
production
In construction temporary organisations That is also true in terms of the supply chain
are set up to undertake projects and then involved in the manufacturing industry,
the teams are dismantled which in fact involves a larger number of
products and suppliers
Because teams are dismantled after the The main problem is that the industry is
end of a project it is very hard to have based on adversarial practices that restrict
any cross project learning passing of information freely
Because the construction industry's Although the products are different, the
products are one-offs, manufacturing processes and philosophies are applicable
methods can not be applied
Manufacturing production processes are Yes they are different but they are usually
different and therefore not applicable designed under improved production
philosophies which are applicable to
construction
Similarities claims Argument against the claim
The construction industry is identical to No it is not:
the manufacturing industry -The products produced are different and the
technology used in terms of production
equipment is quite different
- The final, constructed product in
construction cannot be tested and rectified as easily as in
manufacturing
- Production work in construction is under
additional constraints than manufacturing
e.g. weather, space, land, spatial fixity, access routes, on-
site production etc.
Proximity to a Site Planning
Road Network
Manufacturer Limitation Process

Availability
Design Manufacturer
of Skilled Partnerships
Planning Limitation
Workforce
Lets now Start Talking Like Manufacturers

Push Vs Pull Systems of manufacturing

Comparison

“So what do you

think about the
two
strategies?”
Push Vs Pull Cases

• Push Vs Pull • Dell Case

• https://www.youtube.com/watc • https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=_aeAtSiRpF0 h?v=4ocldjqiiiE
If You Were a Push Builder Then?
• You Build First and Ask Later
• You Decide on Most Economic Product Designs and Mass Produce
• You Govern How People Live – (Dictatorship?)

• By Bringing the Cost of House Down, You Ensure that People Can
Afford to Own a House
• Economies of Scale and Profitability
If You Were a Pull Builder?
• Listen to the Customer For Everything
• You Are a Service Provider in Broad Terms
• No/Negligible Cost Control
• Every Product One of A Kind
• EXTREMELY Satisfied Customer
• Serve High End Market
• Kings and Celebrities - Your Clients
So What Do You Really Want to Be?
• You Want to Harness the Potential of
• Economies of Scale
• Repeatable Process
• Controlled Working Environment
• Lean and Efficient Production
• Design for Manufacturing and Assembly
• You Want to Stay Away From
• Infinite Product Variability
• Ongoing Learning Curve
• Need for New Tools and Equipments for Every Project
• Waste Generation
• Never-ending Variations and Design Changes
Production Theories
• The Conversion Theory
• Input-Processing-Output
• Process Flow Theory
• Transport-Wait-Process-Inspect
• Value Generation Theory
• Generate Value at Every Step
Production Theories
CONVERSION FLOW VALUE

Wide view, planning, Increase the efficiency Improve customer

controlling and scheduling of value adding value
of the complete process activities Ensure capture of all
requirements
Focus on Process Improve production
Bottlenecks technology available Ensure flow-down of
requirements
Focus on complete Reduce the share of
processes non-value adding Reduce trade-offs
activities Built continuous
Hierarchical Reduce cycle time improvement
Decomposition - system is Reduce variability
divided into subsystems, Simplify Benchmarking
then into functions, and Increase flexibility
then modules; control and Increase transparency
optimisation of Focus on Process
decomposed activities
Some Production Systems
• Lean
• JIT
• Theory of Constraints/
• Synchronous Manufacturing
• Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA)
• Agile
 What is lean
Lean Production Theory
• Lean production is an approach to management that focuses on cutting
out waste, whilst ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all
aspects of a business – from design, through production to distribution.
• Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient
and responsive to market needs.
• Lean is a better way to design and build – a comprehensive system of
processes and culture based on a commitment to collaboration and
knowledge-sharing.
• Lean delivers better employee retention and quality of life, safer
worksites, reduced project waste and greater project value.

https://www.leanconstruction.org/
 What is ‘lean construction’ ?
• Lean Construction is the adoption of the principles of Lean Production in
construction.

• This production system was developed by Toyota in the 1940s, and the
main goal is to increase productivity and efficiency by reducing waste,
bottlenecks, waiting times, overproduction etc.
• For this, the main methodologies used are Total Quality Management
(TQM) and JIT (Just In Time).
• Lean Integrated Project Delivery (LIPD) is a proven solution to a
stagnated design construction industry which could be characterised by
substantial waste, projects delivered behind schedule, over budget or
both, and at a tremendous human toll leading to serious losses.
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Lean Manufacturing Systems
 Don't produce something unless the
customer has ordered it.
 Level the demand so that the work may
proceed smoothly throughout the
plant.
 Link all processes to customer demand
through simple visual tools.
 Maximize the flexibility of people and
machinery.
 INTRODUCTION
Factors that Impact ‘lean construction’ ?
Certain factors have great influence and can directly impact the Civil Construction sector.

• Expectation regarding politics, with great potential for economic stability;

• The necessary harmony between politics and the economy, enabling the sector to
grow, and
• Economic recession amidst political instability.

For each of these scenarios, there are points of attention that must be taken into
account, such as market trends, new technologies that influence the sector, strategies
and concern for sustainability , updating norms and regulations applicable to the
construction sector, for example.
For these reasons alone, it is essential that we move towards further integration of the
‘Lean Process’. Kingston
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 So what is the Loss and Waste here?
Loss includes everything that requires time and money without adding value to the
final product.

It may be unavoidable - when the investment needed for the reduction is greater than
the savings generated - or avoidable, as the consequence of poor quality processes
and the costs generated are far greater than the costs of prevention.
The lack of good planning and organization at the construction site and the use of
untrained or inefficient labour are factors that contribute to the losses.
Thus, losses can be generated during production, transportation, construction, storage,
handling or in accidents etc.
In all these cases, it is interesting to realize that labour is crucial for waste to occur or
not. In addition, a large part of these losses can be avoided in the civil construction
routine.
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 ANALYSIS
Types of Waste

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 METHODOLOGY
Lean Construction …
To maximise the efficiency and process through understanding of lean
construction as highlighted with the Toyota process, certain descriptive
elements must be in place:

• All work must be highly specified in its content, sequence, time and
outcome.
• Every customer-supplier relationship must be direct, with a defined and
clear channel to send requests and receive responses.

• The workflow and process for all products and services should be simple
and straightforward.
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 METHODOLOGY
Lean Construction

• Any improvement should be made by the scientific method, under the

coordination of a supervisor and at the lowest level of the organization.

From the 1990s, the adaptation of these principles to the civil construction
sector began to gain strength and representation throughout the world.

From then on, there has been a focus on this technique in the industry to
minimize waste and add value to the final product, without reducing
productivity.

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 Principles of Lean Construction
This methodology, through the management of works, is based on principles which
include the following five:
1. Reduce activities that do not add value …
• In Lean Construction, each process consists of a flow of materials, from the raw
material to the final product. This flow consists of transportation, waiting, processing
and inspection activities, which do not add direct value to the final product.

• Thus, the constructive efficiency of processes can - and should - be improved, mainly
by reducing or eliminating those activities that do not add value.
• E.g. The use of larger trucks for transporting materials, reducing the number of trips required
and, consequently, the amount of time spent on this activity.

• To put this into practice, it is necessary to analyse the entire internal production
chain of the company, seeking to identify unnecessary or repetitive processes, which
can be simplified orKingston
replaced by more efficient methods of flow.
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 Principles of Lean Construction
2. Increase the value of the product according to the needs of the
customers
• This principle states that customer needs must be clearly identified prior
to the start of any project or process implementation. Throughout the
project execution, all data must be available to responsible professionals
- it is possible to obtain this information through market research with
prospective clients and with customer satisfaction surveys whose
projects have already been delivered.
• For example, if the percentage of people over the age of 60 is significant among
potential or existing customers, the adoption of accessibility and security
solutions can be a decisive differential for increasing the value units.
 Principles of Lean Construction
METHODOLOGY
3. Reduce variability
• Construction involves variations related to suppliers, construction methods, time of
execution and client demand.
• Reducing this variability is fundamental to maintaining a financial and execution
standard in its works, guaranteeing the quality and uniformity of the final product.
• The big problem is that construction is one of the sectors with the highest rates of
uncertainty, since each project is unique and has its own pace of construction,
determined by available labour, local conditions and the availability of inputs and
equipment.
• To reduce this, the ideal is to invest in standardised construction processes through
the use of prefabrication (manufactured construction) to reduce or eliminate the
incidence of problems, incompatibilities etc. leading to rework etc.
 Principles of Lean Construction
4. Reduce cycle time …
• The reduction of cycle time is based on the JIT philosophy.

• The cycle time is composed of all the activities of transport, waiting,

processing and inspection for the production of a product.

• By reducing this time, the company ends up obtaining other

advantages, such as faster delivery to the customer, ease in the
fragmented management of projects and precision in the estimation of
future projects.
Lead Time – Throughput Time – Delivery Time

Where can savings be made?

 Principles of Lean Construction
5. Increase the transparency of processes
• The transparency in operations and management is fundamental to avoid
mistakes, bottlenecks and opportunities and, these can be identified with
greater ease through streamlining the decision making and other
processes.

• This principle contributes to the greater participation of the workforce in

the development of improvements and solutions.

• Some ways of ensuring transparency in construction involve removing

visual obstacles from the construction site (such as partitions and
sidings), using posters and signage with relevant information, adopting
performance indicators and organizing and cleaning programs on sites.
Benefits of Lean Construction …
• An efficient way to reduce the production stages thus reducing costs in an intelligent
and sustainable way.
• It is worth noting that this methodology involves the search for continuous
improvements of all processes which depends on a lot of organisation, discipline and
constant monitoring of information on the project.
• The principles of Lean Construction are guidelines for optimising a company's
activities - however, you do not have to follow all of them exactly as described.
• The adoption of lean will vary according to the performance and needs of each
company and project respectively. Thus, strictly following the principles may end up
eliminating strategic activities and jeopardizing the progress of works.
• The ideal is to have a different vision for each project and to evaluate what are the
most appropriate improvements and change points in each one of them.

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 THANK YOU

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