The Contemporary Lean Construction Problems Report (Assessment)

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Updated: Feb 26th, 2024

Introduction

The aim of lean production is not only to reduce waste, but also to maximize value. This has to be attained through lean production management and by devising particular tools and techniques for effective delivery of the lean production projects.

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Some of the ways of integrating lean production into the construction project delivery and it is argued that this can be achieved by improving factory based manufacturing in terms of building elements, sections and components. Inclusion of pre-assembly has attracted a lot of opposition from clients, showing how important these clients are to the process of construction.

Generally, the client and workers are the two most important stockholders in the construction process. The client ought to be involved in decision making and their views should be sought to ensure that products of value and those that meet their needs have been produced. On the other hand, the effective delivery of the construction process requires that the safety, health and welfare of workers have been met.

This assessment discusses the reasons and problems that may lead to the failure of any construction project and analyses these problems and their possible solutions, so that in the future, the project could be successful. First, the work begins by highlighting problems that may be encountered by any project before proceeding to the use of Toyota way to solve the problems.

The problems will be in reference to a number of reports from various construction sites. To begin with, there are several problems that are common at construction sites and had been previously identified in the UK by CIRIA Construction Industry Research information Association abbreviated as CIRIA (Pasquire and Connolly, 2002, p. 9).

Analysis of the Problems and Possible solutions

First, there’s a problem of the amount of labour, health and safety. Bigger cities are dominated by skilled labour than smaller ones. This is likely to have an effect on both the quality of work and the availability of employees.

Survey indicates that in the recent past, there were some injuries which a number of employees. Further study reveals that in the recent years, the industry lost billions of workers as a result of work related injury and poor health during work.

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Almost every nation has a problem of the safety of workers in the construction industry. The industry is ill reputed due to its high accident rates and despite efforts through campaigns, education, regulation and control, the impact has not been remarkable. The best solution of enhancing safety is changing the behaviour of the system to being safer rather than imposing rules (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 63).

Secondly, there the problem of construction site waste. Many builders are finding it an issue to get rid of waste from the construction site. This is an issue in most nations. The waste entails all the unwanted material such as electrical wiring, insulations and rebar.

The waste may comprise of hazardous substances such as asbestos and lead. Other forms in which waste exists are overproduction, rework, unnecessary movement, conducting unnecessary inventory and waiting (Song, Liang & Javkhedkar, 2008, p. 2).

Waste reduction is a vital aspect in lean construction. House Keeping plays a central role in waste reduction. This is simply ensuring that the construction site is organized and tidy. Workers should be urged to ensure that a job site is clean after completion of activity on it. A third way of enhancing waste reduction in lean construction is through stock holding and efficient transportation of construction material.

This is often termed as Just – In – Time (JIT) delivery which is based on the notion that inventories should be done away with because they are not valuable. Through JIT, contractors receive materials in small amounts when in need of it in a bid to minimize both stock holding and double handling of the material (Eriksson, 2009, p. 3).

Information Technology is the fourth vital waste reduction measure. A number of errors are detected and corrected using joint-IT tools represented by 3D – modelling. Research has shown that the probability of cost and schedule success increases with the use of joint-IT tools since their use enhances integration of project actors and their activities.

Moreover, there is pre-fabrication. It involves off-site manufacture of units and components. Its benefits are similar to those of lean production in the manufacturing industry. These include reduction of material waste, shortening the duration of construction and improving the working environment (Eriksson, 2009, p.3).

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The third problem has to do with the on-site coordinate activity. Coordination among workers is one of the ways through which success can be enhanced in the construction industry.

The several roles accomplished by it include implementation of measures to do with prevention of danger and safety, engineering, controlling and updating provisions of the health and safety protection plan and ensuring that information duties have been fulfilled.

This problem has to do with coordination issues among subcontractors. This is mainly manifested through putting more focus on the planning for methods of construction resources for physical construction such as labour and material but giving less consideration to technical engineering review with regard to upcoming work.

The problem can be solved using three methods. First is by using Lat Planner method. Last planners are individuals who make decisions with regard to the kind of assignment that is to be done.

They concentrate on assignment – level planning and decide the amount of work that is to be done on the basis of the master project plan. If well implemented, the last planner concept can improve productivity by removing bottlenecks (Song, Liang & Javkhedkar, 2008, p.5).

The second way of solving this problem is by use of Linear Scheduling Method (LSM). It is a graphical device that is used to reschedule linear construction projects such as pipelines, high-rise construction projects and railways whose construction units are similar.

It ensures easy monitoring of work progress because it ensures that schedule information has been well represented by depicting locations and the start and end times of various activities (Song, Liang & Javkhedkar, 2008, p. 5). Thirdly, software development can be used to come up with an application that can automatically change the schedule from bar chart form to LSM.

At times, the project process can be affected by mistakes, disjointed specifications and other incompatibilities that may need to be adjusted at in future. This is common especially when there is multi functional work and faster information exchange. To avoid this, there’s need for proper coordination to ensure that all professionals in charge of design are aware of any change in the design process (Melhado, 1998, p. 5).

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Fourthly, there is the problem of delivery and storage of materials. Material handling and storage is an important aspect in this industry. The operation should ensure that there is continuous flow of material in the entire workplace. It is also important to ensure that the materials are available when needed.

The best way of addressing this problem is pulling the just in time delivery from the supply chain to the customers. This will lead to reduction of waste in the process, provide inventory control and reduce inventory, enhance yearly improvements by strategically liaising with preferred suppliers, and enhance trust with supplier relationships (Pasquire and Connolly, 2002, p.7- 8).

The fifth problem is neglect of welfare facilities. Adequate welfare facilities such as toilet and washing facilities are required by construction workers. They also need a place for warming up and have their food apart from a place for keeping their clothes.

However, these basic needs are often neglected. It is not enough to have a chemical toilet and a cold water tap. The health and well being of individuals can be improved by good facilities besides helping to prevent dermatitis (HSE, 2010, p. 1).

Those in control of the site such as the principal contractor or any other individual have the responsibility of ensuring that the site meets legal requirements with regard to welfare. In planning, several aspects should be looked into. First, there should be a proper address of welfare arrangements in the health and safety plan to be applicable in construction.

Second, the location and frequency of maintenance of welfare facilities are also important aspects while making plans. Third, prior to construction work, there should be arrangements of making equipment available and connecting them to services. Fourth, the facilities should be adapted to the certain factors such as number of users, the area of the size and the kind of tasks done there.

For example, more washing facilities will be needed if a numerous people are working on a given site or if the work being done is either dirty or risky (HSE, 2010, p. 1-2).

Generally, welfare based areas such as personal storage, washing, rest and changing areas should not only be accessible, but also have sufficient ventilation, heating and lighting. Secondly, accessibility to facilities by all workers should be enhanced by constructing them in several places.

Thirdly, someone must be put in charge of cleanliness of the facilities. The regularity of the cleanliness may be determined by the number of people present in the site and how often they get dirty.

In addition, rest facilities are required to be used by the workers during meal times and afterwards. Furniture and other devices for warming food and heating water should be among the rest facilities. It should be easy for non-smokers to utilize the facilities without being affected by the tobacco smoke.

Proper ventilation is the best way to achieve this. Also, the rest places should be free from other facilities that may be of direct use in the construction process. This may include certain materials and equipment that do not qualify as rest facilities.

Workers in the rest place should also have access to clean water for drinking. The water should be uncontaminated and be marked to avoid it being confused with non-drinking water. Drinking vessels such as cups should also be made available at the water tap (HSE, 2010, p. 2-3).

The sixth problem is that of construction complexity whose cause is lack of optimal conditions to the problems caused and by defining preconditions parallel to the solution. In addition, different targets and goals are held by different stakeholders. A lot of project activities do not depend on each other and their execution may either be in a sequence or even simultaneous, and either way, the overall result won’t be affected.

To offer an effective solution to this problem, there should be dialogue among the stakeholders involved. The parties should also learn how to reach a compromise. To achieve this, the client should be involved too (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 55).

Moreover, a solution can be obtained by making the process of construction to be a kind of manufacturing where adoption of industrial thinking with regard to issues like management tolerance should be embraced. This strategy may generally reduce the nature of complexity in a project (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 50).

The seventh problem is about developing a plan for construction. Its significance can be attributed to that of a desirable facility design. Besides an estimate of the costs and the validity of alternatives, the planner should also look into technical viability. The significance of preparing a plan for construction can be compared to that of having a good design facility.

This is the time that the planner should not only seek technical viability, but also take an estimate of the options’ cost and validity. However, construction planning during building process started and to change physical facilities is very difficult.

An important measure to be used in solving the construction planning process is the Last Planner (PL) system. It leads to efficiency in production planning and control. Last Planners control the flow of work by preparing work plans on weekly basis and if assignments are not completed within the required time, they establish the main causes and come up with action plans to prevent similar occurrences in future.

Secondly, there is autonomation. This ensures that everybody takes self control with regard to their work to avert defects at the source and stop them from flowing through the entire process (Ballard, Harper & Zabelle, 2003, p. 6-14). All activities during the entire buying process should adopt this quality aspect. Conventionally, there is no satisfaction in performance of self control in construction work.

Since the contraction side is used to be controlled by the client’s side, a lot of commitment is required on behalf of the former. Due to lack of time, design consultants do not also perform self-control satisfactorily. It is therefore decisive to empower all co-workers enable them control their own work (Eriksson, 2010, p. 4).

The eighth problem has to do with the supply chain. Management of the supply chain is a concept that has flourished a lot in manufacturing and it emanates from the Just – in – time production and logistics. There is still a lot of waste in the construction supply chains which is contributed by inappropriate control.

In the process of construction, the SCM domain based initiatives have shown impartiality in covering issues related to the supply chain. In most cases, the issues are looked at from the perspective of the main contractor. This can be best dealt with through downstream performance.

A better solution to this can be achieved through the use of Just-in-Time delivery. This enhances efficient transportation and stockholding of material used in construction.

Other strategies that can be used to deal with waste problems in supply chains are pre-fabrication and use of joint – IT tools through three dimensional modelling which not only enhance cost and schedule success, but also detect and correct errors before the production process (Eriksson, 2010, p. 3).

Ninth, there’s the problem of downstream performance. The construction engineers are very familiar with the progress of work process on the construction site due to the many causes that may have an effect on the site. Nonetheless, these causes could either be out of control or under control.

The out of control causes cannot be dealt with and mainly include topography, weather and hurricanes. On the other hand, causes such as information delay and number of labourers can be easily dealt with and are therefore the under control causes.

The tenth problem is that regarding project delivery. Lack of knowledge on the various systems of project delivery can impede the owner from starting off a project properly. To ensure that a project sets off in the right way, the owner should choose the right project delivery system.

There are several project delivery systems related to construction. They entail the construction management model, the design – bid – build – system, bridging, program manager and the design – build – system, among other methods. The owner must take into consideration the benefits and limitations that each of the systems have. Several factors have been identified as those that can lead to project delivery.

These factors have been identified from the Crown House Engineering (CHE) Manufacturing Centre’s experiences during their off-site trading manufacturing for projects related to construction. The factors were identified are as follows: first, the project should be part of the frame work of the manufacturing company.

Second, there should be a shared desire between the project client and the delivery team with regard to high quality of engineering, operation and product. Third, the project design must suit the manufacturing process. Fourth, there should be a recognition and commitment of the site management towards the requirements of installing manufactured modules.

Fifth, there is need for an implementation protocol to enhance understanding among all project participants regarding the changed processes and the means of overcoming constraints and avoiding being tempted to get back to the old ways when faced with challenges. Sixth, a repeat business is helpful in ensuring that annual improvements have been driven in a supply chain that is stable.

Seventh, the best opportunity for ensuring that client need has been met is where high quality products and speed of installation are on demand. Eighth, there should be a commitment of all project participants towards ongoing improvement. Ninth, specification should have pre-assembly as a requirement and finally, if pre-assembly has to work well, it should be client led (Pasquire and Connolly, 2002, p. 6-7).

The availability of information system in construction is very crucial especially in the process of design. Therefore, the designer should be aware of details regarding the needs of the client and other stakeholders to ensure that changes do not arise during the design process. Moreover, this information could have effects on the site if there are numerous changes.

In addition, there should be clarity in sharing of information between engineers and designers. Design documents should have the right information since incorrect information may lead to the integration of the design parts in a wrong way. Additionally, detailed information should be available from the beginning of the design process to enhance the design analysis in relation to the production process (Melhado, 1998, p. 4).

Another problem in the construction industry has to do with not understanding the nature clients. A client refers to an individual or group of people who have a plain insight of their value. It should be understood that holding a dialogue between the client and professionals is a process of learning. After an in-depth conversation, the two parties reach at a consensus on the needs and other options.

Nonetheless, there is no specific client in the construction industry but rather the products produced are for the importance of many. The client has to do with the owner, users and the larger community that have to live with the building as it forms part of their dwelling place (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 55).

The next problem is Product lifecycle. “In construction lifecycle of product is the relatively short project duration, and thus it is more difficult to justify research and training (Salem, et al 169)”. Although the product lifecycle in construction is short, the process is not only complex, but also has some activities that ensure high quality of the product.

These are the installation and erection aspects. Both the value that these activities add and the complexity of the products may warrant research and training in construction (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 168).

The problem of product lifecycle results to another problem: lack of investment. Failure to invest in research and training due to a shorter product lifecycle is doing harm to the construction industry’s ability to improve both innovation and technology.

This jeopardizes the industry’s competitiveness at both local and global level (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 168). This problem can be properly addressed if both staff and workers create time to discuss, devise and agree on an appropriate remedy (Eriksson, 2010, p. 5).

Next, there’s the problem of manufacturing quality. “Quality in construction is primarily related to product conformance. Specifications and drawings determine quality standards, and quality assurance is the joint effort of the construction company and the owner to meet safety requirements, environmental considerations, and conformance with applicable regulations.

Rework is a common practice because only one final product will be delivered (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 169)”.

Although technically speaking, one may assert that low quality is an upcoming concept in construction, the idea is that it’s does not emanate from a single sequence of events but rather it becomes part of the system depending on management.

To deal with this, the bottom up responsibility should replace the conventional top down management in line with the commitment that the last planner is likely to make. Quality and the flow of work are improved as a result of the new principles of management (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 62-63).

The other problem is with regard to process variability. “Process variability is the notion that immediate action should be taken to prevent defects at the source so that they do not flow through the process….Because defects are difficult to find before installation, quality in construction has traditionally been focused on conformance (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 170).”

To solve this, various methods can be used. These include application of both the traditional control and autonomation to avoid defects. A functional management system supports autonomation apart from promoting the management of quality and cost in the entire company.

Secondly, there’s the method of autonomous control that hinders defects from getting into the process. This level of control is supported by visual inspection which makes it different from the traditional inspection that does not incorporate direct intervention within the process (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 170).

Continuous Improvement is another construction problem. Continuous improvement may not be connected to any particular technique. Indeed, all techniques enhance continuous improvement through problem solving and creative thinking (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 170). Nevertheless, through lean manufacturing, quality circles can enable workers to fully take part in process improvement.

The teams should have occasional meetings to come up with ideas for problems that are most visible within the place of work. The teams can work out quality, cost, reduction, maintenance and safety issues to devise potential remedies for future activities. Apart from the implemented ideas, another benefit that quality circles create is it enables workers to experience a learning process (Salem, et al, 2006, p. 170 – 171).

Factory physics is another principle whose application is problematic in the construction industry.

“Factory physics is based on the understanding of production as an ordered system which is similar to the industry part of the industry but very different from the construction part (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 53)”. Rather than adopt what the manufacturing world with its principles and order, the construction industry should aim at establishing its own construction physics.

The principles to be applied in doing this should be to lead to the maximisation of value and minimisation of waste (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 53).

Project control forms another problem in the construction process. “Construction management is by tradition executed as a management of transformation and as such can be interpreted as management by contracts. This kind of management could work in a rational and ordered system (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 61).”

Generally, for effective project control, several steps should be undertaken. First, there should be adoption of complex and dynamic systems that ensure that the system is not under tight control. Large and fatal accidents can be prevented by allowing small unpleasant incidents to occur which at times drive the stress out of the system.

Generally, ensuring that there’s proper management of both out of control and under control, the steps that should be taken include: improvement of the system prior to its details, increasing order to the largest extent possible while not anticipating perfection, setting the objectives clearly and communicating them broadly, minimizing the orders needed for operations, making the logistics better, using bottom up to manage the operations and using errors as a learning opportunity (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 62).

Integration of the design is the next problem. Requirements such as fast completion are expected to be part of nearly every construction project. This occurs in a setting that is dynamic and one that is mainly characterized by changes.

In future, the general situation could be simultaneous engineering and construction. This requires that in the engineering process, there should be development and keeping of alternatives for a long period of time.

“Also, value engineers must be redefined from managing the process to delivering the specified value to the lowest cost and into how to meet the except value criteria at an acceptable price (Bertelsen, 2004, p. 56).”

There is also the problem that has to do with coordination and the design process. “Multifunctional work requests a great co-ordination effort to assure that all design professionals are informed of any change along the design process to be successful.

If there is a really fast exchange of information, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of mistakes, incoherent specification and incompatibilities that can demand future revisions in the design developed, increasing the time until design completion (Melhado, 2004, p. 5).”

Playing forward to the project goal should be the role of the design coordination. This can be achieved by each member of the team being able to play their role fully.

This is with regard to integration of data, exchange of knowledge, devising a design solution that is compatible and coherent and ensuring that value has been added to other design parts and to the entire project. Consequently, building companies will come up with a new method of building design. A wide professional field will be then be created out of this new approach (Melhado, 1998, p. 5).

Moreover, there is the problem of decision making. Making a decision is the most important factor in construction management. It will have effects on the project in both short and long term ways especially in the design process.

Even more, every design is based on several factors. However, the process for decision making include: to define the problem, collect all information that related to the problem, thinking of all solution, comparing all advantages and disadvantages and to choose the best option.

For example, with regard to the systems perspective, it is imperative to look at the purchasing process before making procurement decisions that are coherent (Eriksson, 2010, p. 6).

Finally, there is the problem of maintaining finishing material. To keep the material in a standard condition during construction work is an issue facing site managers because of late use of these materials. To get over this, the finishing material should be available at any time in a safe place that keeps it in standard condition in any weather condition.

Conclusion

The contemporary lean construction problems can only be solved by the application of lean construction principles and remedies. Lean construction has waste reduction and value increase has its main aims. Maximising value is important in ensuring that the needs and expectations of the client have been met.

On the other hand, waste reduction is important in increasing the efficacy of the work environment and ensuring that workers can conduct their duties effectively. It is these two parties: clients and workers that play a crucial role in the construction process and meeting their needs besides involving them in decision making is very crucial in the construction project delivery.

The construction site is riddled with numerous problems. These have to do with waste, safety, coordination, handling clients, manufacturing quality, continuous production, product lifecycle, the supply chain and project delivery, just to name a few. These problems can only be solved through the application of lean strategies and principles through the Toyota way.

Applying the procedures of construction and control into building construction reveals the limitations of the conventional construction process if the construction process has to be strictly specified and defined.

Requirements of the production process cannot be addressed by a conceptual design that has mere details. It must have a close correlation with the procedures that various designers had not learnt of but which they need to apply in their jobs.

Reference list

Ballard., G. Harper., N. & Zabelle., T. 2003. Learning to See Work Flow: An Application of Lean Concepts to Precast Concrete Fabrication. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, 10 (1).

Bertelsen., S. 2004. Lean Construction: Where are we and how to proceed? 1 (1).

Eriksson., P. 2009. A Case Study of Partnering in Lean Construction.

HSE. 2010. Provision of Welfare Facilities at Fixed construction Sites: Construction Information Sheet, 18 (1). Web.

Melhado., S. 1998. Designing for lean construction.

Pasquire., C. & Connolly., G. 2002. Leaner Construction through Off-site Manufacturing..

Salem., O. et al. 2006. Lean Construction: From Theory to Implementation: Journal of Management in Engineering, 22 (4).

Song., L Liang., D. & Javkhedkar., A. 2008. A Case Study on Applying Lean Construction to Concrete Construction Projects.

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