Leaner Construction

• Industry To Promote Lean Manufacturing Practices In Sri Lanka

by Wiraj Silva

Sri Lanka’s premier construction sector association – Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) would be promoting lean construction in a bid not only ensure profitability but also sustainability within  the industry.

“Today there are lot of wastes within the construction sector but by adapting to lean construction practices which is part of lean manufacturing cost reductions upto 40% could be achieved,” Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB) Chairman Dr. RohanKarunaratne said to a gathering to announce Construction Expo 2017.

Lean construction is a combination of operational research and practical development in design and construction with an adaption of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the end-to-end design and construction process. Unlike lean manufacturing, lean construction is a project-based production process.

According to lean construction industry experts, by adopting lean management approach, and a culture that emphasizes collaboration, reliability of scheduling and delivery of the most value – from the customer’s perspective – while consuming the fewest resources, which begins with pre-construction and continuing nonstop throughout  all phases of a project.

Lean principles drive the efficient delivery of services as lean culture  emphasizes re-imagining and eliminating waste in all forms and creating predictable, reliable workflows.

Some fundamental principles of lean construction are: define value from the customer’s perspective, understand the value stream of all steps in the process used to create the end product, reduce waste, ensure a smooth flow of value added activities, prefabricate and modularize building systems, utilize collaborative pull scheduling to provide each internal and external customer what they want as and when they request and to seek perfection by committing to continual improvement in all areas of the process.

According to research by Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, the productivity of the construction industry worldwide has been declining over the past 40 years. One approach for improving the situation is using lean construction. Lean construction results from the application of a new form of production management to construction. Essential features of lean construction include a clear set of objectives for the delivery process, aimed at maximizing performance for the customer at the project level, concurrent design, construction, and the application of project control throughout the life cycle of the project from design to delivery.

An increasing number of construction academics and professionals have been storming the ramparts of conventional construction management in an effort to deliver better value to owners while making real profits. As a result, lean-based tools have emerged and have been successfully applied to simple and complex construction projects. In general, lean construction projects are easier to manage, safer, completed sooner, and cost less and are of better quality.

Lean as we know it today was developed from the auto giant Toyota; more specifically, the Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean is now being successfully applied in all types of service related industries, saving companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars each year. Therefore, in today’s environment, many experts believe the term Lean Manufacturing would be more appropriately referred to as Lean Philosophies or Lean Methodologies.

Toyota production system had two pillar concepts: (1) Just In Time flow (JIT) and (2) Autonomation (smart automation). The term “lean” was coined by the research team working on international auto production to reflect both the waste reduction nature of the Toyota production system and to contrast it with craft and mass forms of production. Starting from efforts to reduce machine setup time and influenced by TQM, a simple set of objectives was developed for the design of the production system including to (1) Identify and deliver value to the customer value: eliminate anything that does not add value; (2) Organize production as a continuous flow; (3) Perfect the product and create reliable flow through distributing information and decision making; and (4) Pursue perfection: Deliver on order a product meeting customer requirements with nothing in inventory. Lean production aims to design and make things differentiated from mass and craft forms of production by the objectives and technique, and to optimize performance of the production system against a standard of perfection to meet unique customer requirements.

Construction Expo 2017, featuring all aspects related to the construction and building industry will be held on June 2,3 and 4, at the BMICH.