Waste Control at Construction Project by Adopting Lean Management Tool for Quality Measurement Framework

Abstract

Abstract: Lean manufacturing and lean construction have the same goals according to Paez et al. (2005): elimination of waste, cycle time reduction, and variability reduction. One of the ways of reaching the goals of lean construction is flow according to Paez et al. (2005). When trying to attain flow in construction one need to realize that there are differences between manufacturing and construction, which may make it difficult to attain the same flow between different processes, attained within manufacturing (Koskela, 1992). These differences are certain construction peculiarities such as one-of-a-kind projects, site production, temporary organization and regulatory intervention, aspects more common with construction projects than manufacturing. According to Koskela (1992) however, the same production principles apply and there is room for improvement when it comes to flow in the construction industry. By using lean thinking and lean tools and adapting them to the construction industry this master's thesis purpose is to develop a tool to identify and measure waste, guide in which order waste should be reduced and by this enabling estimations of potential consequences that might occur by implementing a lean approach at a construction site. This is of interest in order to bridge the research gap between conceptual lean construction and research based on empirical studies