by Jeffrey C Kadlowec, Registered Architect

The construction industry continues to be plagued by poor final quality, large budget overruns, low worker efficiency, high frequency of accidents, and huge amounts of waste [1]. With a continually growing demand, managers must explore new ideas and methods to improve performance. Although parallels to the manufacturing industry are often made, a comparison illustrates the opposite in many key areas.

Table 1: Aspects of Manufacturing and Construction [1]

To reduce the bottleneck occurring during hand-off of the traditional Design-Bid-Build (DBB) method, the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) was developed to bring contractors and inspectors onboard earlier in the production schedule [2]. The Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS) looks at ways of optimizing various processes through cooperation of that integrated team. This new approach allows for evaluation of design and construction to happen as a continual process instead of through sequential decision making. By looking at the project as a completed assembly, not just a series of intermediate steps, there are more opportunities to improve the overall quality, reduce production time, and reduce construction cost.

Figure 1: Lean Project Delivery System [2]

Several models were created with a focus on general behavior, internal dynamics and individual entities to understand how these factors affect performance [3]. The General Performance Model (GPM) consists of conceptual, qualitative and mathematical structures allowing management to test different combinations of project execution and predict cost, schedule and performance. The Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) look at social, biological and organizational systems, while the Social Network Analysis (SNA) study the interactions and interrelationships.

The level of familiarity with lean thinking is relatively low throughout the construction industry [4]. The need to minimize waste while maximizing value will continue to increase with trends of urbanization and globalization. Professional bodies of architects and engineers must expose their members to these concepts, introduce this method throughout related disciplines, and explore ways of rationalizing design and construction through standardization and modularization. Further efforts must also be made in areas of sustainability and utilization of building information modeling (BIM) [5]. This can be achieved by defining target goals, incorporating context-specific indicators, illustrating new tools or techniques, and mandating compliance with specific metrics.

Advancements in wearable technologies allow for real-time monitoring of physical and physiological data in healthcare, sports, manufacturing and construction. The use of sensors to measure heartrate, respiration, and temperature coupled with accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes provide a whole-body picture [6]. Analysis of this data can provide constant feedback of stress & mental workload and safety & risk perception, and alert users of potential threats when nearing or exceeding fatigue level in attempts to promote overall health, happiness and well-being.

References
[1] Rajab, Omar. (2022). Lean Construction. Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
[2] Mossman, Alan & Ballard, Glenn & Pasquire, Christine. (2013). Lean Project Delivery — innovation in integrated design & delivery. 10.13140/2.1.2713.2804.
[3] Alarcon, Luis & Mesa, Harrison. (2012). A modeling approach to understand performance of lean project delivery system. IGLC 2012 – 20th Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction.
[4] Kpamma, Zoya & Adjei-Kumi, Theophilus. (2010). The Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS): Application at the Design and Documentation State of Building Construction Projects in Ghana.
[5] Moradi, Sina & Sormunen, Piia. (2022). Lean and Sustainable Project Delivery in Building Construction: Development of a Conceptual Framework. Buildings. 12. 1757. 10.3390/buildings12101757.
[6] Shehab, Lynn & Hamzeh, Farook. (2023). Zooming Into Workers’ Psychology and Physiology Through a Lean Construction Lens. 10.24928/2023/0162.