Benefit from LEAN Construction

Origins of LEAN

The origins of many fundamental concepts of LEAN and LEAN construction date back in time.

1. One of first contempory applications within a production process, including the concepts of continuous improvement, leveraging the capabilities of people actually doing the work, and focus on outcomes was Henry Ford. These represent several of the core elements of what has become to be known as LEAN.

2. Manufacturing process thinking is believe to date even further back to Arsenal in Venice in the 1450s

3. A lean “thought process” was introduced in The Machine That Changed the World in 1990, however, it and subsequent iterations focus largely on FLOW.

4. While FLOW is important, the achievement of efficient flow, must involve the integration of planning, procurement, and project delivery within a common data environment. This aspect has not been address significantly until implemented with a focus upon expedited construction via Job Order Contracting in the 1980s (which has subsequently evolved substantially) and later with Integrated Project Delivery.

Additionally Lauri Koskela, in 1992, challenged the community to consider the inadequacies of the time-cost-quality tradeoff paradigm. Additional contributions focus upon flow include Ballard (1994) Ballard and Howell (1994), and Howell (1998). Analysis of project plan failures indicated that "normally only about 50% of the tasks on weekly work plans are completed by the end of the plan week" and that constructors could mitigate most of the problems through "active management of variability, starting with the structuring of the project (temporary production system) and continuing through its operation and improvement" (Ballard and Howell 2003).

5. Evidence from research and observations subsequently indicated that the conceptual models of construction management and the tools it utilizes (work breakdown structures (WBS), critical methodologies, and earned value management, etc. fail to deliver projects 'on-time, at budget, and at desired quality' (Abdelhamid 2004). With recurring negative experiences on projects, evidenced by endemic quality problems and rising litigation, it became evident that the governing principles of construction management needed revisiting. One comment published by the CMAA its Sixth Annual Survey of Owners (2006), pointed to concern about work methods and the cost of waste:

"While the cost of steel and cement are making headlines, the less publicized failures in the management of construction projects can be disastrous. Listen carefully to the message in this comment. We are not talking about just materials, methods, equipment, or contract documents. We are talking about how we work to deliver successful capital projects and how we manage the costs of inefficiency."

Systems-thinking based frameworks, processes, and tools that focus upon People first, then Process, then Information, then Technology are now emerging.