A Protocol for Assessing the Use of Lean Construction Practices

The use of Lean Construction (LC) practices has gradually spread in the construction industry. Accordingly, mechanisms are necessary to evaluate their use so as to facilitate identifying strengths and weaknesses in the LC implementation process. This paper presents a protocol for assessing the use of LC practices, which has distinctive characteristics, such as: (a) assigning weighting factors to each practice, according to their degree of importance as attributed by the perceptions of seven experts; (b) establishing explicit conceptual links between each practice and lean principles, (c) selecting practices to be included in the protocol based on a systematic review of the LC literature; and (d) the use of multiple sources of evidence to carry out the assessment, which increases the credibility of the results. The protocol comprises 103 LC practices, distributed over 15 categories. This paper reports the application of the protocol in a residential building project, which allowed identifying its strengths and weaknesses.

[1]  Lauri Koskela,et al.  An exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction , 2000 .

[2]  Lauri Koskela,et al.  Visual management in construction: Study report on Brazilian cases , 2010 .

[3]  Glenn Ballard,et al.  Kanban in Construction , 2003 .

[4]  Aviad Shapira,et al.  Implementation of Pull Control in Finishing Works With Re-Entrant Flow , 2010 .

[5]  Jin Woo Jang,et al.  USING THE KANBAN FOR CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTION AND SAFETY CONTROL , 2007 .

[6]  Alexander Hofacker,et al.  Rapid Lean Construction-Quality Rating Model (LCR) , 2008 .

[7]  Iamara Rossi Bulhões,et al.  Identifying Lean Construction Categories of Practices in the IGLC Proceedings , 2012 .

[8]  Ossama Salem,et al.  Lean Construction: From Theory to Implementation , 2006 .

[9]  Caroline P. Valente,et al.  LEAN MONITORING AND EVALUATION IN A CONSTRUCTION SITE: A PROPOSAL OF LEAN AUDITS , 2011 .

[10]  James P. Womack,et al.  Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation , 1996 .

[11]  Lauri Koskela,et al.  Application of the New Production Philosophy to Construction , 1992 .

[12]  Leonard Steinborn,et al.  International Organization for Standardization ISO 19011 Guidelines for Quality and/or Environmental Management Systems Auditing , 2004 .

[13]  Glenn Ballard,et al.  LOOKAHEAD PLANNING: THE MISSING LINK IN PRODUCTION CONTROL , 1997 .

[14]  P. Coughlan,et al.  Development of a technical innovation audit , 1996 .

[15]  Yoshitaka Nakagawa.  Importance of Standard Operating Procedure Documents and Visualisation to Implement Lean Construction , 2005 .

[16]  Iris D. Tommelein,et al.  LOGISTICS CENTERS TO SUPPORT PROJECT- BASED PRODUCTION IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY , 2007 .

[17]  Peter McDermott,et al.  Application of kanban in the UK construction industry by public sector clients , 2008 .

[18]  Carlos Torres Formoso,et al.  Integrating Strategic Project Supply Chain Members in Production Planning and Control , 2007 .