149,562 research outputs found
Lean construction: Prospects for the German construction industry
No full textThere is little, if any, information available about the range and dissemination of lean concepts among construction companies in Germany. Building on the methodologies and conceptual frameworks used in earlier work in the UK (Common et al., 2000) and the Netherlands (Johansen et al., 2002) this study carried out a similar survey among German construction companies to discover the current understanding of lean principles, perceptions of lean and trends in lean development. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of an email questionnaire sent to large German construction companies indicates that there is little awareness of lean in the German construction industry and that hardly any company uses lean concepts on a company wide basis despite evidence that procedures and techniques that are used on German construction sites are generally consistent with lean construction practice. There appears to be cultural resistance to a manufacturing derived, production-system-view of construction
Improving Construction Processes by Integrating Lean, Green, and Six-Sigma
No full textThe overall goal of this research was to develop and implement methods to improve the performance and the efficiency of construction processes prior to and during the construction phase in Design-Bid-Build (DBB) projects. In order to accomplish these goals, the three methods Lean, Green, and Six-Sigma were implemented in two different scenarios and validated by different case studies.
First, a framework was developed that integrated the three methods Lean, Green, and Six-Sigma with an overall layout of the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) improvement model. The framework was then validated via a construction process of installation of pile caps for an educational institute during the construction phase in Pittsburgh. The framework highlighted two issues with the pile caps construction process. First, disparate quantities of materials (purchased and installed) were determined. Second, the pile caps construction process took a total time of 54 business days while it could have been completed in 30 business days. Using life cycle assessment, environmental impacts of the pile cap construction process were analyzed and results showed that major environmental impacts including global warming potential, release of carcinogenics, negative respiratory effects, ozone depletion, and ecotoxcity could result from the materials used for the process. Next, the root causes behind waste generation were determined via developing and administrating a questionnaire to a local construction company.
Second, the previously developed framework was further validated and applied to a residential development project in Saudi Arabia. The construction sector has been growing rapidly in Saudi Arabia; however, the quality of Saudi Arabian construction is decreasing, resulting in excess waste generation and associated environmental impacts. This case study examined a project with 53 residential units overall but only 10 units acceptable at final inspection. The largest quality issue was determined to be exterior paint blistering. Using the developed framework, defective units were investigated through a field examination, narrowing down the causes of the blistering applying the Pareto method as follows: Inadequate method, untrained workers, weather, and others. Next, the Process improvement tool was applied to reduce the blistering causes and to improve the current process. A new method designed and applied to a separate residential unit for validation. The modified method showed a great improvement and in the end the unit was able to pass inspection.
Finally, building on the previous case studies, the framework was later refined with the goal of applying it earlier in a project, prior to construction, to further reduce potential waste generation and associated environmental impacts. Using Lean Green, and Six-Sigma (LG6) and adopting the same improvement model, DMAIC, the owner can evaluate all steps separately in the process, addressing all resources consumed and analyzing environmental impacts which might be generated; this highlights potential waste and so can help the owner avoid waste occurrence by indicating where the process needs to be amended to create less environmental impact and more efficiency. For this research, the model was used to help evaluate the construction process for the installation of 160 woodpiles. The model identified that four steps out of eight were considered as non-adding value steps or waste. Three steps out of four non-adding value steps were involved with moving down, moving around, and setting up the equipment. The remaining wasteful step was cutting to length all installed woodpiles. The model showed that if these steps were replaced, eliminated or planned well, environmental impacts would be reduced by 9% and expenses by 1%
Implementing lean: UK culture and systems change
No full textFor the IGLC 12 Conference the authors reported the results of implementing Last PlannerTM methods with a large UK contracting company. The projects studied demonstrated some success but also some cultural, organizational and systemic barriers to its effective implementation. Alarcon and Conte’s White Paper for the IGLC11 conference discussed these issues and invited researchers to consider them. In response, the authors have reflected upon and critically re-analysed the research as a means to refocus their future work in implementing Lean Construction methods in UK construction. Based on a review of the literature on construction culture we have identified theoretical factors that, together with Alarcon and Conte's list of critical organizational elements, provide a framework against which the results of the research have been considered. We conclude that the implementation of Last Planner was hindered by not fully considering cultural, organizational and systemic problems and by failing to recognize how deepseated these problems could be. We intend, in future projects, to take a more considered, and wider approach to Lean Construction (possibly using the LCI’s Lean Project Delivery System) and to focus our attention upon construction ventures where efforts at culture change have already started - in particular, where strategic partnering arrangements are in place
Evaluating lean in healthcare
No full textThe overarching aim of this thesis is to evaluate Lean implementation in the
English NHS. Against a background of financial austerity measures and the
ostensible widespread adoption of Lean in the UK public sector, and particularly
by healthcare organisations, the objective is to understand how Lean is being
implemented by NHS hospital Trusts, and whether there is any quantitative
evidence that Lean implementation is improving hospital performance. Adopting
Pettigrew and Whipp’s (1991) framework of strategic change, this thesis aims to
present theoretically sound and practically useful research through an exploration
of the context, process and content of Lean implementation by English hospital
Trusts. In order to achieve this, the research employs a mixed methods research
design incorporating document analysis3, quantitative analysis and case study
analysis to afford an insight into the implementation of Lean from multiple
viewpoints and facilitate the development of new insights relating to the
phenomena of Lean implementation in English hospital Trusts.
The research provides a contribution to knowledge in three key areas: firstly
through the identification and validation of a typology of approaches to Lean
implementation by English hospital Trusts i.e. a characterisation of the method of
Lean implementation; secondly through quantitative analysis and discussion of
the potential link between Lean implementation and increased performance; and
thirdly a set of propositions that provide a narrative and logic to explain the
influence of contextual factors upon the process of Lean implementation in
English hospitals
Towards lean product and process development
No full textSuccesses in lean manufacture have led researchers and practitioners to consider extending ‘lean' to different parts of the engineering enterprise, including product and process development (PPD). Lean product development (PD) has been understood to mean lean manufacture applied to PD, while the roots of lean PD - just like lean manufacture - go back to Toyota. This article presents the methodology adopted in order to pave the way towards a coherent lean PD model that combines lessons from the Toyota product development system (TPDS) with other best practises. The article provides a unique review of the lean PD research area, and a reference framework for the enablers that Toyota has employed for lean PD. An investigation of five engineering enterprises undertaken to search for evidence of the implementation of lean PD enablers through observation, document analysis and interviews is also presented. Some enablers have been informally applied, while few have been formally implemented, and no model was found to formally combine lean PD enablers into a coherent whole. This is the first article to critique attempts to describe lean PD and provide a definition for Lean PD
Identifying Real Cost Saving in Lean Manufacturing
No full textLean manufacturing is well-known as an effective means toward cost savings, but to convince management to support a culture shift to implement a lean manufacturing program there must be confidence in understanding what real effective and measurable lean savings are. This case study analyzes data from one specific lean event and points out areas of deficiency and shows how misreporting cost savings can hurt the lean program and the creditability of the lean practitioners. Often, lean practitioners are so anxious to show what benefit their lean projects have attained, they cite everything they can think of to justify their lean project, some of which can be questionable cost savings and can negatively impact the long term credibility of the lean program. This case study from Boeing’s Ground-Based Missile Defense (GMD) program will evaluate and confirm what constitutes real cost savings as a result of a continuous improvement project to reduce the cycle time of interceptor integration. This evaluation includes professional perceptions of lean cost savings as part of the conclusion of what constitutes real cost savings in a lean program. This case study evaluates one particular event of many events done by companies every day. Another area of research could focus on instances of lean programs not capturing and reporting all the effective cost savings from a lean project which can have some of the same negative effects as reporting more costs saving than are truly being realized as this study addresses
A lean framework for tooling design process in Chinese aerospace
No full textLean Manufacturing (LM) has been used in production processes to help manufacturing companies maintain competitive advantages for decades. However, with the increasingly fierce competition and pressure to sustain survival and long-term growth, enterprises cannot be satisfied with just improving the performance of a single process. Therefore, adoption of lean to the whole product development processes has become a necessity.
There is evidence that lean thinking and some lean manufacturing tools are able to improve Product Development (PD) processes. Thus, terms of Lean Product Development (Lean PD) and Lean Product and Process Development (Lean PPD) are becoming popular in engineering fields.
In this project, the research aimed to improve the tooling design situation in Chinese aerospace by implementing lean techniques to the design process. Tooling is an indispensible part of aircraft manufacturing and assembly. The quality and development time can influence aircraft quality and delivery time. However, there is little research about the lean techniques implementation based on aircraft tooling design characteristics and there are few lean frameworks for aircraft tooling design process. Therefore, this research will be conducted to fill this gap.
The research comprised four phases. In the first phase, a comprehensive literature review about lean (lean thinking and lean manufacturing), Lean PD and Lean PPD, tooling design, lean models/frameworks and the relationship between lean and organisational culture was conducted. In the second phase, data and information from three Chinese aircraft manufacturing companies (Company A, B and C) and literature were collected and analysed, aiming to discover the current lean implementation status in tooling design process and find improvement opportunities. In the third stage, a lean framework for tooling design process was synthesised. Finally, the proposed framework was validated by academic and industry experts. Finally, the research can contribute to companies which need a lean transformation. Moreover, the lean framework also could be used as a reference for research in lean and tooling design field
Lean Thinking: Theory, Application and Dissemination
No full textThis book was written and compiled by the University of Huddersfield to share the learnings and experiences of seven years of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and Economic and Social
Research Council (ESRC) funded projects with the
National Health Service (NHS). The focus of these
projects was the implementation of Lean thinking and optimising strategic decision making processes. Each of these projects led to major local improvements and this book explains how they were achieved and compiles the lessons learnt. The book is split into three chapters; Lean Thinking Theory, Lean Thinking Applied and Lean Thinking Dissemination
Beyond Lean: Simulation in Practice
No full textLean thinking, as well as associated processes and tools, have involved into a ubiquitous perspective for improving systems particularly in the manufacturing arena. With application experience has come an understanding of the boundaries of lean capabilities and the benefits of getting beyond these boundaries to further improve performance. Discrete event simulation is recognized as one beyond-the-boundaries of lean technique. Thus, the fundamental goal of this text is to show how discrete event simulation can be used in addition to lean thinking to achieve greater benefits in system improvement than with lean alone. Realizing this goal requires learning the problems that simulation solves as well as the methods required to solve them. The problems that simulation solves are captured in a collection of case studies. These studies serve as metaphors for industrial problems that are commonly addressed using lean and simulation.https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/books/1001/thumbnail.jp
Partial and Iterative Lean Implementation: Two Case Studies
No full textPurpose of this paper
This paper explores the implementation of lean within two contrasting UK based organizations; a food manufacturer and a healthcare organization. The different contexts provide insight to the strategic desire for efficiency gains and tactical issues and challenges of lean execution and implementation.
Design / methodology / approach
The research questions developed from the review of the literature were tested using evidence from field-based, action research within a food manufacturer and a National Health Service organization. The reported contrasting case studies contribute to the longer term debate on the adoption and adaptation of lean-based „best practice‟ within organizations.
Findings
There are three primary findings: i) that the adoption of lean provides a strategic benefit, as well as providing a basis for a strategy of operational change; ii) that partial, as opposed to full, adoption of lean occurs due to external organizational constraints, such as demand patterns, supplier unreliability, little expertise in deploying change programmes, etc.; and iii) that a company will balance the adoption of the lean ideology against the financial costs and operational risks incurred in full adoption.
Practical implications
The conclusions drawn add substantially to the on-going commentaries on aspects of lean, and develop interesting questions for future research regards the developed „Cycles of Lean Implementation‟ concept.
What is original / value of paper
The conclusion proposes that partial implementation of lean does not necessarily represent a conscious organizational choice, or any lack of conviction, but is representative of external constraints on the organization. This complements previous commentaries on appropriate strategies and develops interesting questions for future research into operational efficiency
- …
