Effectiveness of lean management in construction

Document Type:Dissertation

Subject Area:Engineering

Document 1

I am well aware of how congested the construction industry can be and I appreciate the time and effort they spared to be a part of the research. To conclude, I must thank my family and university colleagues to the continuous support and motivation to complete my studies even through struggle. Abstract The following report presents the results of the investigation into the effectiveness of lean management in construction and whether or not it makes real impacts to a project. The study focused on four elements which are implemented within lean management. These elements have been comprehensively defined in the study. However, the study confirmed that individuals do not have an in-depth understanding of the benefits Lean brings to even the smallest of construction projects for both short and long-term investments.

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This study recommends that further research will provide a clear indication for management to use as lean as a tool. Operational definition of terms Lean Management: This is an approach to running an organization that supports the concept of continuous improvement, a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency and quality (Forbes and Syed, 45). Lean Project management: This is the comprehensive adaption of the other lean concepts, such as lean construction, lean manufacturing and lean ideas/thinking. These factors are integrated into a project management context (Forbes and Syed, 45). Owing to the fact that the entire project management aspect using lean management is a broad topic, this section presents four basic techniques of lean management that will be covered in the study.

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Research Background Lean production was developed by Toyota and led by Engineer Ohno. He was a smart if not difficult individual who dedicated countless days to eliminating waste within his production. 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 (Forbes and Syed, 45). Engineer Ohno shifted attention to the entire production system from the narrow focus of craft production on worker productivity and mass production on Machine. The four topics chosen are quality control using total quality management, planning and process improvement, productivity and workforce or teamwork management. Quality control using total quality management is a management principle that works by using TQM as a tool to improve the quality of management, construction phase and the final product.

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Obtaining a good quality for the final product starts by setting better quality management schemes among the workers in the organisation. In construction, the quality of the final product depends on the manner in which he initial steps were carried out. For instance, in modular construction, the units cannot match properly if the engineer failed to effectively perform his assignments (Forbes and Syed, 230). In some instances, where managers are not keen on following up, workers may be productive in accomplishing tasks that may cause future collisions of schedules. Productivity can be brought to term by a management element known as delegation of duties. In a large project where many activities are progressing synchronously, a single manager may not be able to monitor all the activities. The best way to handle such projects is to delegate duties to the other employees who can double up as supervisors (Forbes and Syed, 23).

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The workforce forms a very basic element of management. It will create an understanding of why firms implement lean management and the impacts it has on the projects. Once this objective has been met, it can then be presented to the firms and feedback will be given. To reflect on the attitude towards lean management, shown from a construction firm. The objective to reflect on the attitude of small construction firms will allow the report to state the position of the companies. By reflecting on the attitude, the report can critically analyse how easy implementing lean management can be. It also defines the challenges faced during the research and other elements of research. Chapter 4: Results and discussions This chapter forms a very basic portion of this study. It presents the results obtained from the administered questionnaires, interviews and personal statement analysis.

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It also gives an evaluation and a conclusion of the findings based on statistical methods. Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation This portion of the study presents a summary about the findings and the researchers standpoint. Eliminating irrelevant activities which eat on time and resources also needs proper planning. Lean management is keen on improving the planning exercise in an organisation. Lean management is a new concept of management that can be applied in the construction industry (Salem, 165). Despite being a new management principle, it touches on the key areas which affect the initial design phase, the construction phase and the maintenance phase of the construction. Other than touching on the basic components of managing a construction project, it also offers new concepts that can be used to handle these areas. Increasing Productivity Focusing on the workforce, where managers increase the expectations of subordinates, leading to a boost in day-to-day productivity.

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·         http://psycnet. apa. org/record/1990-97657-000 Improving teamwork through lean concepts Better and/or more effective communication between parties. Internal or external parties, improving teamwork techniques to impact a construction project. The definition of waste can be divided into two elements which define its relevance in the construction field as it pertains management. Firstly, waste relates to an activity. Secondly, waste can also be related to value (Forbes and Syed, 47). The construction process is all about a combination of activities set in order in a bid to come up with the desired project. The final value of the project is evaluated in terms of time, money spent and quality attained. The findings established by the study can then be used by project managers as a resource to support the implementation of lean management to their project, as well as, provide a safety net into effectiveness of lean project management.

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Chapter Two-Literature Review Introduction Lean construction is a philosophy based on the concepts of lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing principles and techniques provide the foundations for minimising or total elimination of the waste faced by the industry. After many attempts to find previous literature linked with this study, it has been concluded that the ideas for implementing the four specific methods are unique to this study and information on Lean management in construction isn’t available to the general public. Therefore, the following information given will be based on topics surrounding the methods and the definitions given by previous literature from a variety of sources and simply extracted so it can be summarised in construction management context. Taking months in the design process was the case when the design was done manually.

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Moreover, any corrections made on the drawings would mean that the drawing had to be redone. Most modern construction companies have embraced the use of these modern construction tools. However, there is a new aspect of lean construction management that emphasizes on teamwork. By applying this aspect of lean construction, it is possible for a company to combine the efforts and ideas from the architects, engineers and quantity surveyors in coming up with a design that is all rounded. In construction projects, quality has two dimensions. There are several functions of specifications regarding the quality of the building. The first and overall one is to ensure that the completed project is functioning as the owner intended. The second, concerns with the build details involved such as materials, management and waste. Specifications can only be applicable if the person on site has the ability to understand and interpret the language used by the architect.

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This can be related to the context of management that implements lean management techniques such as Bill Smith’s Six Sigma. In this technique value will be increased due to the elimination of defects, hence; the quality. Six sigma and lean will provide a structure of methods of improvement to quality, production times, and accelerating activity times. This study will use this technique and aim at improving quality with management. The concept of Six sigma With the introduction of six sigma, lean productivity links in nicely with the literature of Lean productivity and a small private practice by David Eaton. In some cases, it may call for future demolition due to structural failure (Eaton, 277). As such, lean management does not only cast its wings in the construction site. It also spreads to the suppliers of building materials.

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The essence of applying lean management is to make a manager think broadly. It pushes the clerk of works to see the limits of his managerial work beyond the boundaries of the site in which he is managing. The construction industry is also rapidly changing in terms of materials and machines being used. Lean management recommends the training of the work force in order to ensure they understand how to use the new materials or use the advanced machines (Forbes and Syed, 64). Rework figures also contribute greatly to waste in terms of financial resources. Rework figures emanate from the works that have to be done for a second time due to the poor quality attained. Another contributor to the amount of waste in a construction site is the number of design errors and omissions.

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In most scenarios, the client, architect engineer, contractor and any other party to a construction project agree to implement a change in the project (Forbes and Syed, 223). Though changes are inevitable, they ought to be greatly reduced. Through the application of simulation applications, the design of the building can be shown to the client with regard to all possible circumstances. Simulations also allows the client to have a virtual tour through the completed building. Through such tools which affect the level of total quality management change orders can be reduced. This may push the contractor into incurring an extra cost of replacing the misused cement. Implementing lean construction; stabilizing work flow Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell establish that managers in the construction industry devote a tremendous amount of energy and resources to planning projects and developing the schedules, budgets and other requirements that collectively tell project personnel what they should do.

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Planning begins right at the time when the client tables his idea about the building. In this stance, the architect has to put his ideas in order as tabled by the client. At this initial stage, some activities in the planning may include scheduling meetings with the client and fellow professionals (Ballard and Howell, 101). Project size This report will be based on the exploitation of lean project management and the benefits the techniques bring too small/medium construction projects. In order to increase accuracy, this report will base the size of the project by total financial resource available, number of team members involved, number and size of deliverables to be produced and timeframes involved in delivery (Project sizes). Research Designs Based on the current literature, the topics discussed previously within the review acted as a guide line to the direction taken by this research.

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This study adopted a survey approach, which presents procedures for collecting, analyzing and linking both quantitative and qualitative data to provide a better understanding of the variables used in the study. Both primary and secondary data were collected from the secondary sources and the participants in the study respectively. The questionnaire will be administered to a number of different minor construction organisations within the midlands UK. How familiar are you with lean project management methods? = 0(No) – 4(Very Familiar. Interviews The second method of data collection will be the responses. With the development of new technologies, this study has applied the use of these new technologies to interview individuals using software such as webcam interviews. This allowed the researcher to perform the interview away from the study location and collect data out of the stated area.

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The study will rely on the cooperation of these organisations in order to be successful and accurate. Reliability and validity of data collection instruments Validity refers to the phenomenon that the evidence presented by the data collected supports the projected result of the study (Mugenda, O. In this study, the researcher sought to establish the effectiveness of lean construction in relation to other forms of management in the construction industry. To establish validity results from the secondary sources and information collected from the respondents was compared to see if the data collected supported the projection or the information on the secondary data sources that were consulted. The similarity in the data proved the instrument was valid. However, with consideration of the location and facilities available, the accessibility of the data wanted should not be an issue.

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It is reasonable to comment that there was no 100% cooperation between the individual and the organisations asked to comply however there must be a majority. Figure 5: Order and procedure of study To summarise the research method, the figure above shows how the study was conducted and the order proceeding. The layout is simple and coordinated, each step will follow a report and a critical appraisal. Each activity will be given a time frame and a set of objectives to meet, once the activity is completed and the objectives are met the next will follow accordingly. Data analysis and Presentation The questionnaires were first examined to ensure they are consistently completed. Data from the questionnaires was coded and fed into the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) spreadsheet for analysis. Descriptive information was used to portray the sets of categories formed from the data and was expected to enable the researcher to meaningfully describe a distribution of measurements.

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Descriptive analysis consisted of frequency distribution and percentages from the responses which have been presented using tables and graphs as a summary. Qualitative data required the respondents to give opinions and suggestions that were discussed under themes consistent with the objectives of the study such as total quality management, waste reduction, planning and teamwork. Delays in delivery was listed by 60% of the respondents. Damage on materials was also listed as a challenge by 60% of the respondents. Variation in form of measurements, quality or quantity was also listed as a challenge by 60% of the respondents. Reworks due to errors was also listed as a challenge by 40% of the respondents. Another challenge that was listed by 40% of the respondents was defects in construction. That is, while one site required total quality management to improve its performance, another firm required productivity and process improvement to make its performance better.

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Importance of lean management in managing construction sites The result in this section were obtained from forty percent of the participants in this study. The reason behind this is that the respondents in the field study who did not know about lean management lacked a practical experience of applying the same. As such, generating the importance of the lean management methods from the responses they gave would make the results and discussions made in this paper irrelevant. Some importance of applying lean management included reducing he cost of construction, reducing waste, and facilitating co-operation of employees. Alternatively, one (1) represented 0% while five represented 100%. The first questioned inquired about the response of the respondents concerning how they deemed the importance of the lean construction management to construction projects. The average importance of lean management in construction was ranked at 90%.

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The second question sought to inquire on the effectiveness of lean management in managing construction projects. The effectiveness of lean management in the management of construction was ranked at 70%. This average was attained from all respondents since the impact of waste was an independent question which did not depend on the knowledge of the respondent on lean management. The results obtained from this section were very useful in establishing the quantitative result about the study. Chapter Five - Conclusion and recommendation Conclusion Several findings have been established in this study. One of the most alarming challenge in construction as noted in the quantitative analysis of the result is the impact of waste on construction sites. Waste has a rating of eighty-four per cent in terms of the impact it has on construction sites.

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Just in time construction focuses more on the timely accomplishment of the construction tasks. However, lean construction is all-rounded and covers various aspects of construction other than covering the aspect of time alone. This confirms that lean construction management is a better management tool in the construction industry as compared to other forms of management tools that are available in the industry. Recommendations It has been noted through the survey that majority of the construction manages have not embraced lean construction. Sixty percent is a relatively big number with regards to knowledge about the management technique. Appendix I Works Cited Forbes, Lincoln H. and Syed M. Ahmed. Modern construction: lean project delivery and integrated practices. Crc Press, 2010. mpmm. com/project-sizes. php Tezel, Algan.  Implementing Lean Construction: The Major Pitfalls.  [online] available from: http://leanconstructionblog.

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“Lean construction: Prospects for the German construction industry. ” Lean Construction Journal 3. Available from: http://nrl. northumbria. ac. google. co. ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=LY58xuo0RGwC&oi=fnd&pg=PT11&dq=Modern+Construction+Management&ots=wrT06gUKJ-&sig=IigAImUG8OhfSXAK2gnnNTKu2rs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Modern%20Construction%20Management&f=false Alarcón, Luis. Lean construction. CRC Press, 1997. “Implementing lean construction: stabilizing work flow. ” Lean construction (1994): 101-110. Available from: https://books. google. co.

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