Insights and Advice for Enabling More Efficient and Sustainable Construction

What Is Lean Construction: An Overview

26 July, 2024
21 mins read
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It is no secret that construction productivity and efficiency have decreased over the years. In the 1970s, the construction industry was one of the most productive sectors in the US. But the situation has changed dramatically with studies from 2020 showing that productivity in the building sector is significantly lower than the overall labor productivity in the entire country.

The consequence is that projects finish over budget and schedule, which makes them less profitable. This is enhanced by an inherent lack of trust in how the different processes are carried out, leading to multiple checks that delay everything.

So, how do construction companies fight all the challenges the modern world presents? The answer is lean construction.

Lean construction methods help decrease wasted time, effort, and materials to provide an optimized and more productive construction process. No matter the project’s size, lean principles can add significant value and enable sustainable construction for better, smarter, and greener buildings. The goal is to enhance construction efficiency from the start to the final handover.

In this RIB guide, we’ll explore the concept of lean construction in detail, offering insights into its benefits, challenges, and tips for implementing a successful lean strategy. Let’s dive in!

What Is Lean Construction?

Lean construction is a people-centric approach aiming to maximize stakeholder value while minimizing waste for more efficient construction projects. The concept is derived from lean production, with collaboration and transparency as key elements to drive success.

A myriad of resources are used for the most basic construction projects, and, in most cases, there is a substantial amount of waste. Aiming to reduce wasted resources is something that all construction managers hope to achieve. Still, the critical aspect of this is understanding what allowances have been made for waste on any given project. Identifying the parameters of the wastage provides a benchmark for project and construction managers. Lean construction methods are used to maintain these benchmarks and improve and provide a knock-on effect for sustainability.

Lean construction is a form of setting up construction systems in a project to save on wasted resources, including time, materials, and effort. Lean construction aims to get the project done more efficiently and with minimal costs without compromising on quality. The principle is to maximize the value of the project and increase the ROI.

Origins Of The Lean Concept

Lean philosophy originated in the early 1900s when Henry Ford introduced an assembly line for the mass production of cars. The system was developed by breaking down the manufacturing process into smaller, repetitive tasks, where each worker specialized in a specific task, leading to faster production and reduced waste. However, while Ford’s system was revolutionary, it was reduced to mass-producing the same car model, even in the same color. Plus, employees started getting bored of performing the same repetitive tasks all the time, and quality issues like production defects were only caught in the end, leading to costly reworks. This meant that as revolutionary as the system was, it was also limited and required improvement. 

These improvements came at the hands of another car manufacturer, Toyota. After WWII, Toyota was forced to think about ways to do more with fewer resources, which led to the creation of the Toyota Production System (TPS), developed by Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda.

The TPS shifted the focus of the manufacturing process from individual machines to optimizing the product flow throughout the entire process. Key actions included just-in-time production, which meant parts were only produced if needed, avoiding inventory overproduction, stopping production any time a defect was found to fix it immediately and avoid costly reworks later, and flexible production lines that allowed them to manufacture different models and parts without extensive retooling, among other things.

The TPS also introduced the 5S Methodology, which aimed at fostering a collaborative culture in the workplace to boost efficiency and reduce waste. The methodology consisted of 5 Japanese words that described a systematic approach to organizing the workforce:

  • Seiri (Sort): Eliminate any tools, materials, and equipment that is not necessary. Keep only the resources that are essential to the job.
  • Seiton (Set in Order): Organize and arrange the remaining items to improve efficiency and avoid wasting time looking for them.
  • Seiso (Shine): Regularly clean and organize the workspace to ensure safety and productivity. This step also helps identify potential problems, such as leaks.
  • Seiketsu (Standardize): After sorting and cleaning, implement processes, such as checklists and audits, to maintain these conditions.
  • Shitsuke (Sustain): Sustain all the improvements made in time by training employees to implement these practices as habits to be followed over time.

The implementation of the TPS positioned Toyota as the leading expert in lean philosophy. The company is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world, and it has decades of unmatched success, which has led to hundreds of papers, books, and research surrounding the topic of lean manufacturing. Today, lean has spread into various industries, including healthcare, retail, logistics, and especially construction.

While it is believed that lean construction practices started as early as the 1930s, the term Lean Construction was officially coined in 1993, involving the entire industry and not just the actual construction phase. Four years later, the Lean Construction Institute was founded to spread information and best practices to improve construction projects.

Benefits Of Lean Construction

Benefits Of Lean Construction
Benefits Of Lean Construction

As you just learned, implementing lean practices significantly enhanced the efficiency and productivity of the manufacturing industry. This legacy has spread into the construction industry, where many companies have realized the value it can bring to their processes and projects. But what are the tangible benefits? Let’s explore them below!

  • Reduce project costs: One of the main principles of the lean construction methodology is improving the flow between a project’s different processes. This means teams are connected to each other, preventing delays and increasing overall efficiency.
  • Increase site safety: Construction projects come with substantial health and safety risks. While there is more awareness about these risks, many accidents still happen on-site. These accidents can be significantly mitigated with lean construction. The methodology is centered on communication and collaboration, which leads to better planning and risk management.
  • Enhance sustainable construction: By identifying and mitigating waste, construction companies can produce only what they need to complete the work. This helps reduce the project’s environmental impact, as processes are more efficient in terms of time, costs, and materials.
  • Boost productivity: By giving all employees a voice and allowing them to use their expertise and knowledge, you generate a collaborative culture in your organization that motivates employees and boosts productivity.
  • Faster project turnaround: The Lean approach can help companies in the building sector eliminate all the inefficiencies from their processes to avoid delays that affect the project’s timeline. This translates into more efficient results with faster turnaround times.
  • Increase customer value: The collaboration-based approach of the lean construction methodology allows for a better understanding of client expectations. This helps identify the processes that deliver the expected value and eliminate the ones that don’t. Over time, this translates into increased efficiency and better outcomes.
  • Continuous improvement: One of the principles of lean is the ability to sustain change over time. This means that all the processes and methods implemented in a project can be used to improve the efficiency and quality of future projects, making construction companies more profitable.

The 6 Lean Construction Principles

Lean Construction Principles
Lean Construction Principles

As you’ve learned by now, lean construction is all about maximizing the efficiency and productivity of a construction project while minimizing waste, costs, and delays. That said, it is more than just implementing processes; Lean is a mindset that needs to be part of the culture of modern construction companies. It requires serious change and commitment for an organization to become Lean.

No two construction projects are identical, so unique approaches always need to be developed. However, the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) recognizes six key principles that any project should abide by to be successful. It all starts with the people!

Respect for People

The “Respect for People” principle is the most important of the six and is central to Lean Construction. After all, people need to do the work, and if they don’t feel valued and respected, the outcome will be affected. This is a common issue in the building industry, as workers are often seen as assets rather than people.

Lean proposes a different approach, where everyone’s voices are heard and respected, and all skill sets are recognized and used. The benefits of this principle can be seen in project stakeholders trusting and learning from each other, which turns into motivation and increased efficiency and productivity, ultimately adding more value to the project.

How do you make this happen in your organization? The change needs to start from the top, at a leadership level. Strong leadership is fundamental for successful Lean implementation, as leaders are the ones who can enforce the Lean mindset in the organization. Collaboration is also fundamental. Team members need to listen and learn from each other to ensure an efficient workflow of all construction activities. Trust and collaboration eliminate the need to double-check everything and lose time.

Optimize the Whole

Issues with collaboration in construction projects are common. The traditional way of doing things in the building industry has led workers to focus only on their work instead of seeing the project as a team effort, leading to a “not my problem” mindset that can result in costly mistakes and delays.

Lean in construction management proposes switching to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), a method in which all parties involved in the project’s completion are joined together under a single contract. This forces the design and construction teams to think of success as a whole instead of individually, boosting communication and collaboration. Even in projects that don’t use the IPD method, it is still recommended to think of the project as a team effort, which requires transparency, accountability, and a deep understanding of how individual work impacts the other team’s work.

Some benefits of optimizing the project include reducing conflicts between teams for better and faster results and enhanced efficiency and innovation due to teams combining their knowledge and experience to complete each task. Professional construction collaboration software is a great tool to support your efforts. 

Eliminate (or Minimize) Waste

Waste is a broad term used in construction, as various types of waste occur; it is not just material waste but also resource waste. When focusing on lean construction principles, there are various types of waste to consider. Some of them are:

  • Quality standards and non-compliance
  • External quality costs
  • Lack of constructability
  • Poor materials management, which can include double handling and certain storage principles
  • Excess utilization of materials on site, a good indicator is the ability to be able to identify the wastage at the estimation stage and continuously measure and control
  • Unused creativity of team members
  • Excess inventory and unnecessary transportation
  • Working time is used for non-value activities, i.e., inspecting certain elements, waiting for areas to open for work to commence, and moving (logistical reasons).
  • Lack of safety

Reduce waste wherever possible. This will significantly streamline the entire construction process, reduce expenses, and make the workflow more efficient. Remember, the key goal of Lean is to maximize value while reducing or eliminating waste. Therefore, identifying areas where your company is wasting resources is a great way of mitigating it.

Focus on Flow

In construction projects, teams are constantly stuck waiting for the previous task to be completed or approved, which is often the cause of schedule delays and waste. The Lean Methodology proposes enhancing the project flow as one of the best methods to minimize waste. Doing so helps reduce or eliminate waiting times, boosts workers’ morale because they don’t need to wait for their part to begin (or end), and enhances team trust thanks to improved collaboration.

Enhancing the flow is relatively easy in Lean Manufacturing, as each production line has a clear order with minimum pauses. The situation is slightly different in construction, as many more elements are involved in the flow. However, it is not impossible, and similarly to manufacturing, some key considerations can be implemented to ensure a smooth flow.

  • Training team members to identify instances of waste in the workflow. In some cases, waste can even be unnecessary steps that are making other teams wait to start their part.
  • Implement a communication flow so everyone is aware of waste instances and can inform others about potential areas of waste.
  • Fostering a culture of trust and collaboration between employees to eliminate the need for constant double-checking that leads to higher waiting times.

Understand & Generate Customer Value

Delivering value to the customer is the key goal of Lean, and reducing waste can have a positive impact on it. So, the solution would be easy: eliminate waste and increase customer value. However, it is more complicated. To generate value in a project, it is necessary to understand what “value” even means for your customer. There is more to construction than just building what the customer wants as drawn on the plans. Understanding the customer’s real values goes beyond this.

The LCI defines a “customer” as “anyone to whom you provide information, services, or products.” This does not automatically mean that the project owner is your customer. The LCI believes all project stakeholders act as customers at a given point in the lifecycle, as persons who request information. Therefore, it is fundamental to understand what value means for each customer in the project context.

To really tap into the customer’s value system, it’s important to start building trust from the very early stages of the project. The entire construction team should aim to provide a streamlined and efficient service to meet the customer’s wants throughout the project instead of just delivering a final result.

To do so, you need to know what the customer’s value is, and then you need to set up a value stream. This includes all processes and equipment needed to complete the project. To enhance lean production, a continuous flow of production by reducing non-value flow activities should be focused on while the conversion activities are better controlled and improved.

Continuous Improvement

Finally, we have the principle of Kaizen, the Japanese word for the mindset of continuous improvement. In Lean project management, teams and leadership are encouraged to speak up and actively improve the different processes. It’s about looking for ways to improve things every day, no matter how small the improvement seems.

The Kaizen mindset is all about focusing on the process rather than the people, as it is believed that a large portion of project issues are due to process inefficiencies. This might seem contradictory with the first and most important principle of Lean, which is about respecting people and putting them at the center. However, the Kaizen mindset and any other Lean methodology start with respecting people and their opinions.

So, to achieve a successful Kaizen mindset, businesses should ask themselves: Why are we doing this process this way, and how can we make it more efficient? Where do we need more help? Where are areas producing long waiting times?

Doing so will ensure that small and big inefficiencies are spotted and solutions are implemented to improve the flow continuously. Once a process is improved, it should be standardized to ensure the new way of doing things becomes the norm.

Barriers To Lean Construction

Barriers To Lean Construction
Barriers To Lean Construction

As positive as lean construction practices are, it is still difficult for some organizations to adopt this mindset into their projects and processes. Most of them face common challenges like resistance to change or a lack of knowledge. Let’s explore some of these barriers and how they can be overcome.

  • Resistance to change: The construction industry is known for resisting change. This is mainly because traditional practices and mindsets are deeply ingrained in the workforce, and it is difficult to let them go. Implementing a well-planned construction change management plan is an excellent way to tackle this resistance by integrating every team member into the process and explaining the value they provide to this new change. Rember people are central to Lean Construction management; ensuring everyone is committed to it is paramount for success.
  • Limited management commitment: Implementing organizational change needs to start from the top. Without strong leadership commitment, it is very unlikely that the workforce will be motivated to integrate lean construction techniques into their workflows. A good way to eliminate this barrier is to educate management on the value of Lean by showing them success cases and the potential benefits for the organization. Once lean has been implemented, set clear goals to show tangible results to management.
  • Upfront costs: Just like any process, implementing lean practices requires the company to invest in training and, in most cases, new technology to support the processes. This can seem concerning for some organizations as the returns might take longer. However, as mentioned earlier in the post, the benefits of lean construction are so substantial that the investment will seem minor compared to the returns, even if they take a bit longer. Going into the process well-informed and with trust is a good way to mitigate this barrier.
  • Undefined roles and responsibilities: Undefined roles and responsibilities are the enemy of successful lean implementation. Lean construction principles are built around collaboration, trust, and transparency, which means everyone needs to know their role and how they can contribute to the project for the workflow to succeed. To mitigate this barrier, it is necessary to define clear roles and responsibilities, assign accountability to employees and teams about specific tasks, and encourage a culture of collaboration and communication in construction.

Conclusion

As you learned throughout this insightful guide, the lean construction project management process can vastly improve a project’s efficiency. Applying lean principles in construction can reduce waste, maximize efficiency, and enhance all construction sectors, from time and cost management to sustainability. In this competitive environment, offering value to stakeholders through collaboration can significantly enhance productivity and project outcomes.

Using specialized solutions like RIB Software can present a significant competitive advantage for companies wanting to dive into lean. Our solutions assist you in optimizing processes like planning, takeoff, estimating, and more, supported by the latest technology and innovative thinking. If you are ready to build better, get a demo of RIB’s toolkit today!