What Is Lean Construction?

Lean construction is an extension of lean production. Lean production is the production of mobile products and fixed people, and construction is the production of fixed products.

Lean construction

Compared with the manufacturing industry, the construction industry has low production efficiency, poor working conditions, and difficult to guarantee product quality. Danish scholar Lauris Koskela proposed in 1992 to apply the mature production principles of manufacturing, including lean management, to the construction industry to improve the management level of the construction industry. For the first time in 1993 at the IGLC (International Group of Lean Construction) conference Put forward the concept of "Lean Construction".

Subsequently, many scholars, institutions and construction companies in the world have invested in research in this field. Among them, IGLC and LCI (Lean Construction Institute) have become important promoters and research bases of lean construction research. Through more than ten years of unremitting efforts by the advocates of lean construction theory, lean construction theory has become increasingly rich. The previous research results and recent research topics are divided into the following five aspects: (1) Basic theoretical research. (2) Production planning and control research. (3) Research on product development and design management. (4) Research on project supply chain management. (5) Research on the implementation of prefabricated parts and open engineering projects.

Construction projects have complexity and uncertainty, so lean construction is not simply applying the concept of lean production to construction, but according to the idea of lean production and combining the characteristics of construction, the construction process is transformed to form a functionally complete construction system.

China Lean Construction Technology Center defines lean construction as a system of integrated production management theory, construction management theory, and the particularity of construction production, oriented to the full life cycle of construction products, continuously reducing and eliminating waste, and maximizing customer satisfaction Sexual approach. Compared with traditional building management theory, lean construction emphasizes the whole life cycle of building products, continuously reduces and eliminates waste, and takes the full satisfaction of customer needs as the ultimate goal.

Through the unremitting efforts of many advocates of lean construction theory for more than ten years, lean construction theory and results have become increasingly rich. The main research topics are the following ten aspects: (1) Basic theoretical research. (2) Production planning and control research. (3) Research on product development and design management. (4) Design of building production system. (5) Construction enterprise culture and innovation. (6) Research on project supply chain management. (7) Research on the implementation of prefabricated parts and open engineering projects. (8) Combination of project management and information system. (9) Safety, quality and environment. (10) Contract and cost management.

Lean construction is the application of lean production in the construction industry

Lean construction is a new way to achieve project delivery based on a production management approach

Lean construction is particularly suitable for complex, uncertain and fast construction projects

What is lean construction

The so-called lean construction is the transformation and application of "lean thinking" in the construction industry, completely eliminating waste and uncertainty in the construction process, maximizing the satisfaction of customer requirements, and thereby maximizing the profits of construction enterprises.

Production Theory-TFV Theory

There are three production theories in the production process, namely production conversion theory, production process theory and value theory. With the deepening of research on production theory, Koskela integrated the production conversion theory, production process theory and value theory to form a new set of theory: TFV (Transformation-Flow-Value) production theory. The TFV theory points out that the construction production process has generality with the general production process, and the principle of lean production can be applied to the construction industry.

Change perspective

The production process theory believes that the production process is the flow process of logistics or information flow from raw materials to final products with changes in time and space. Production process theory is considered from the perspective of production management, and its goal is to eliminate waste. In the management process, problems are often reworked, which is usually at the expense of value.

Flow model theory believes that the production process is the logistics or information flow from raw materials to the final product. In flow, materials are processed (converted), inspected, waited or moved, and these activities are essentially different. Processing represents the transformational aspect of the production process; monitoring, moving, and waiting represent the fluid aspect of the production process. All activities are costly and time consuming, and only conversion activities that transfer materials or some information to a product add value. Therefore, in addition to improving the efficiency of conversion activities (value-added activities), the focus of control is to minimize or eliminate non-value-added activities.

Value generation perspective

Value theory believes that the production process is a process of adding value to the end user. Its main goal is to focus on the customer and maximize the value as much as possible. It emphasizes the transformation of the relationship between production enterprises and end users. The goal of enterprise production should be combined with maximizing the satisfaction of customer needs to eliminate the contradiction between the enterprise and customers. The management principle of the value production model is to eliminate value loss, that is, the difference between the value already obtained and the value that may be obtained. In value theory, the purpose and intent of the design drawings are determined by market demand. Therefore, at the beginning of the design, the designer designs the product in accordance with the needs of the customer, thereby maximizing the value of the customer. In the process of production management, members of the project team constantly communicate with customers, and ultimately accurately translate customer needs into design solutions and design personalized products.

Lean thinking

Lean Production is also known as lean production, where "fine" means sophisticated, precise, and exquisite; "benefit" means benefits and benefits. Lean production is to make in time, eliminate failures, eliminate all waste, and move towards zero defects and zero inventory. Lean production combines the advantages of mass production and single-piece production, and strives to achieve multi-variety, high-quality, and low-cost production in mass production.

1. Development history of lean production

Lean Production originated from Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. Although some content of Lean Production was adopted by Japanese companies as early as the 1930s, it was not until the 1970s when Japanese automotive company Ono adopted the Lean The production method improves the delivery time and product quality of Toyota Motor Company to a world-leading position, and then lean production can be completely and accurately described. Its essence is a production management technology, which can greatly reduce idle time, job switching time, inventory, poor quality, substandard suppliers, product development and design cycles, and substandard performance. It is a production method that has a huge impact on human society and people's lifestyle after mass production.

John Krafoik [c1], a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's International Automotive Program, named the Japanese automotive industry's production method lean. After doing a lot of investigations and comparisons, they think that the production method of Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation is a production organization management method that is most suitable for modern manufacturing companies. Many industrial experts have conducted in-depth research on it. A summary of management methods has been developed and lean thinking has emerged.

2. Introduction and development of lean thinking in the construction industry

In 1992, Lauri Koskela submitted a report "Application of the New Production Philosophy to Construction" for the first time to put forward the idea of "lean thinking" in the construction industry. The first to introduce the lean manufacturing method from manufacturing to the construction industry, and in 1993 hosted the first meeting of the Lean Construction International Research Group in Finland. It is believed that the construction process is actually a special production process. Theories and methods that can be successfully applied in the manufacturing industry may also be applied to the construction process. The construction process is a discontinuous work. Each step is only to increase the value of the entire product. Each step of the optimization will ultimately increase the value of the product. Many surveys show that there is a lot of work on the construction site that does not increase Value activities, which is undoubtedly a huge waste, so maximizing the cost of each work step will reduce the cost of the project.

Brad and Howell created a non-profit organization, the Lean Construction Association (LCI), researched and developed a lean project delivery system centered on Last Planner, and actively applied and promoted in member units. Reform of building production management in design, engineering and construction. Hundreds of well-known companies around the world invite LCI for diagnosis and become LCI research partners. In addition, there are many such organizations and institutions in Australia and the United Kingdom, which have made great contributions to the research and application of lean construction.

So far, the ideas and technologies of lean construction have been widely practiced and studied in Britain, the United States, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Peru and other countries. Many construction companies implementing lean construction have achieved significant benefits, such as reduced construction time, reduced engineering changes and claims, and reduced project costs. At the same time, the performance data accumulated by these enterprises in the practice of lean construction has become the source of lean construction research and development. By analyzing and researching these data, it further improves and develops lean construction, which has become the enduring cause of lean construction.

At present, there are very few studies on the application of lean thinking in the construction industry in China. It is still at the academic research level, and has not been applied and tested in practice.

Concurrent Engineering (CE)

Last Planning System (LPS)

Value Engineering (VE)

Just-in-time production system (JIT)

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Activity-based costing (ABC)

Article title "The Road to Realizing" Lean Management "in Chinese Construction Enterprises"

About the author Zhang Hezhi Chen Jiangtao Hu Xiaojin

Article title "Glossary of Lean Management Terms for the Construction Industry"

About the author