Reshaping Construction Management for Sustainability and Resource Efficiency. Implementation of LeanBIM Concept in Construction

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

ÖZ

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 General
1.2 Construction management and waste control
1.3 Problem statement
1.4 Objective
1.5 Thesis organization overview

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 General
2.2 Waste in Construction
2.2.1 What is waste?
2.2.2 Classifications of wastes
2.3 History of Lean Construction
2.3.1 History of Lean production
2.3.2 Lean Construction (LC)
2.3.3 Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS)
2.3.5 Lean Construction tools and techniques
2.3.6 Differences between Lean Construction and traditional construction management
2.3.7 Applications of Lean concepts in construction industry
2.4 Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
2.5 Building information Modeling
2.5.1 Applications of BIM
2.5.2 Benefits of BIM
2.5.3 Challenges facing BIM adoption
2.6 Sustainability in construction
2.6.1 Economy of resources
2.6.2 Life cycle design
2.6.3 Humane design
2.7 LeanBIM
2.7.1 The relation between Lean Construction and BIM
2.7.2 Benefits of implementing BIM and Lean together
2.7.3 LeanBIM and sustainability

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 General
3.2 Qualitative analysis and deductive approach
3.3 Quantitative analysis and inductive approach
3.3.1 Questionnaire design
3.3.2 Target respondents
3.3.3 Data Collection
3.3.4 Method of data analysis

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 General
4.2 Part A - Respondents’ profiles
4.3 Part B - Causes of waste and factors affecting sustainability
4.3.1 Factors affecting resource consumption
4.3.2 Waste reduction
4.3.3 Sustainability
4.4 Part C - Embracing of LeanBIM concept
4.4.1 Perspective about Lean Construction and BIM
4.4.2 Implementing of Lean Construction
4.4.3 BIM benefits to Lean
4.4.4 The effect of contribution of different sectors on LeanBIMimplementation
4.4.5 Challenges facing LeanBIM implementation
4.4.6 Perspectives about LeanBIM
4.4.7 Effects of LeanBIM on final product
4.5 Limitations

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIONS
5.1 General
5.2 Conclusion
5.2.1 Lean and BIM Synergy
5.2.2 Implementing of LeanBIM
5.2.3 Benefits of LeanBIM
5.2.4 Challenges
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Recommendations for further research

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix A: Introduction Letter

Appendix B: Survey Questions

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Lean tools (O. Salem et al., 2006)

Table 2.2: Lean Principles (Sacks et al., 2010)

Table 2.3: BIM Functionality (Sacks et al., 2010)

Table 2.4: Lean-BIM-Sustainability mutual impact matrix (Koskela et al., 2010) ...

Table 4.1: Factors affecting resource consumption

Table 4.2: Factors affecting resource efficiency

Table 4.3: Factors affecting waste reduction

Table 4.4: Factors affecting Energy, Water and Material conversion

Table 4.5: Factors affecting life cycle design

Table 4.6: Factors affecting humane design

Table 4.7: Professionals’ perspective about Lean and BIM

Table 4.8: Difficulty of Lean implementation

Table 4.9: Difficulty of Lean implementation with BIM

Table 4.10: BIM benefits to Lean

Table 4.11: The effect of contribution of different sectors on LeanBIM

implementation

Table 4.12: LeanBIM Challenges

Table 4.13: Perspectives about LeanBIM

Table 4.14: LeanBIM effect on final product

ABSTRACT

Construction is considered to be a high waste generating industry, in spite of its importance for human lives and economies. A lot of researches have been conducted to find out new ways to improve the way construction projects are managed. The main goals of these researches were to reduce the cost and time for projects as well as increase the quality of the final product.

In 1990’s Lean Construction concept has been founded as an alternative for the conventional construction project management methodologies, based on Lean manufacturing concepts focusing on value and reducing waste in the construction processes.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a modern tool enabling intelligent model based process. BIM implementation has a lot of benefits to the construction, for instance, making use of visualization of the final product to facilitate communication between different disciplines and team members, enable what-if analysis and analyze the constructability of a building.

During the last decade, Pioneering contractors in US have realized the synergic fit between Lean and BIM. The interaction between Lean Construction and BIM has been the topic of many researches since then.

This research introduces the term “LeanBIM”, which refers to the combination of the tools of Lean and BIM, and discuss their effects on sustainability and resource efficiency. An extensive review of literature is carried out and a survey is conducted on the Lean and BIM professionals and researchers from all over the world. The results showed the positive effect of LeanBIM implementation on sustainability of building as well as resource efficiency. LeanBIM is also expected to reduce the overall cost and time required for construction, and increase the quality. The results also showed that there is shortage in Lean/BIM professionals, lack of legal framework to enable the collaboration between all parties, lack of awareness of LeanBIM benefits. It is observed from the result that a considerable investment is required to form an IT infrastructure capable of implementing LeanBIM.

Keywords: Lean Construction, Building Information Modeling, Sustainability, LeanBIM, Resource efficiency, Construction Project Management.

ÖZ

İnşaat endüstrisi insan hayatı ve ekonomideki önemine rağmen yüksek oranda atık üreten bir endüstridir. İnşaat projelerinin yönetimini geliştirmek için birçok çalışmada yeni yöntemler araştırılmıştır. Bu araştırmaların ana amaçları projelerin maliyetini ve süresini düşürmek ve aynı zamanda son ürünün kalitesini de artırmaktı. 1990’larda Yalın İnşaat kavramı, yapım süreçlerinde değer ve atıkların azaltılmasına odaklanan yalın imalat kavramlarına dayanan geleneksel proje yapım yönetimi yöntemlerine alternatif olarak ortaya çıkmıştır.

Yapı Bilgi Modellemesi (YBM), akıllı model tabanlı süreçleri içeren modern bir araçtır. YBM uygulamasının yapım süreçlerini çok büyük katkıları vardır örneğin, farklı disiplinler ve ekip elemanları arası iletişimi sağlamak, ne-eğer analizlerini yapmak ve yapılabilirliği analiz etmek için son ürünün görselliğinden faydalanmak gibi.

Son on yılda, ABD’deki yenilikçi yüklenici firmalar yalın ve YBM arasındaki sinerji uyumunun farkına varmışlardır. Yalın inşaat ve YBM arasındaki etkileşim birçok araştırmanın konusu olmuştur.

Bu araştırmada Yalın ve YBM araçlarının birleşiminden doğan YalınYBM sunulur ve sürdürülebilirlik ve kaynak verimliliğine olan etkilerini tartışır. Geniş kapsamlı bir literatür çalışması yapıldı ve dünyanın çeşitli ülkelerindeki Yalın ve YBM konusunda çalışan uzman ve araştırmacılarla anketler gerçekleştirildi. Sonuçlar YalınYBM’nin kaynak verimliliği yanında sürdürülebilirliğin de olumlu etkisini göstermektedir.

YalınYBM’nin ayni zamanda yapım maliyetini ve süresini de düşürmesi, ve kaliteyi de artırması beklenmektedir. Sonuçlar YalınYBM uzmanlarının eksikliğinden, tüm taraflar arasında işbirliği sağlayacak yasal çerçevenin bulunmamasından, YalınYBM faydaları farkındalık eksikliğini göstermektedir. Yalın BIM uygulama yeteneğine sahip önemli miktarda bir yatırımın da bir BT altyapısı oluşturmak için gerekli olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır.

Anahtar kelimeler: Yalın İnşaat, Yapı Bilgi Modellemesi, Sürdürülebilirlik, YalınYBM, Kaynak verimliliği, İnşaat Proje Yönetimi

DEDICATION

To my beloved family

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to acknowledge my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Yitmen for all his support and advices towards the success of this research in spite of his busy schedule.

A special thanks to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yusuf Arayici from Salford University, who introduced the Building Information Modeling and Lean Construction concepts to us.

At last I would like to thank my friends in Cyprus for their continuous and unlimited support.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Lean Project Delivery System (Ballard, 2008)

Figure 2.2: Some common suggested terms for BIM (Succar, 2009)

Figure 2.3: Conceptual framework for Sustainable Design and Pollution Prevention in Architecture (Kim & Rigdon, 1998)

Figure 2.4: The input and output streams of resource flow (Kim & Rigdon, 1998)

Figure 2.5: Conventional model of the building life cycle (Kim & Rigdon, 1998)

Figure 2.6: The sustainable building life cycle (Kim & Rigdon, 1998)

Figure 2.7: The dependence of benefit realization through process change in construction on Lean Construction principles, BIM, and a theoretical understanding of production in construction (Sacks et al., 2010)

Figure 2.8: Conceptual connections between BIM and Lean (Dave et al., 2013)

Figure 2.9: Interaction matrix of Lean principles and BIM functionalities. represents negative interactions (Sacks et al., 2010)

Figure 4.1: Respondents academic background

Figure 4.2: Respondents' Positions

Figure 4.3: Respondents' Sectors

Figure 4.4: Years of experience within the construction industry

Figure 4.5: Years of Lean Construction experience

Figure 4.6: Years of BIM experience

Figure 4.7: Waste producing rating of construction industry

Figure 4.8: Factors affecting sustainability

Figure 4.9: Professionals’ perspective about Lean and BIM

Figure 4.10: Difficulty of Lean implementation

Figure 4.11: The effect of contribution of different sectors on LeanBIM implementation

Figure 4.12: Challenges facing LeanBIM implementation

Figure 4.13: Perspectives about LeanBIM

Figure 4.14: Effect of LeanBIM on final product

Figure 4.15: LeanBIM, Resource efficiency and sustainability framework

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 General

The importance of Construction Industry is derived from the human need of housing as well as the industry significant contributions to the economic growth of nations, directly through its activities or indirectly through its deliverables of buildings and infrastructures that facilitate business activities.

Construction Industry faces a lot of problems such as poor quality of the final products, time and cost overrun in addition to the harmful environmental impacts during the construction activities and buildings life cycle. The need for improved productivity, reduced waste in time and resources as well as less undesired environmental impacts for the industry is became very urgent with the construction boom we are living today.

In 1998 the Government Statistical service of the United Kingdom has reported that the waste produced by the construction industry is exceeding 70 million tons each year, which is about 4 times the waste production rate produced by every person in the United Kingdom (Keys et al., 2000).

1.2 Construction management and waste control

Construction is seen to be a series of activities intended to reach a certain output (Koskela, 1992). The construction process is usually broken down into main stages, and for each of these stages the cost of materials, machinery and manpower are estimated, a time frame is assigned for the completion of each of these stages. These stages are assumed to consist of activities that convert inputs into outputs and can only be accomplished separately. At each stage of construction or design processes wastes are directly or indirectly produced. The waste reduction through design is complicated as the amount of materials and number of activities can be very large for accomplishing a single product such as a building or infrastructure project (Koskela, 1992). In addition, the process becomes more complicated as more waste creators are added during various construction stages and also by sub-contracting (Keys et al., 2000). In spite of these shortage of the activity model, lack of a theoretical and conceptual framework in construction still exists. The focus on activities hides the waste generated between continuing activities by unpredicted resource delivery or release of work. In other words these current activities and production forms are take activities into consideration and ignore shortcomings and value considerations (Koskela, 1992).

With the increase of international competition and lack of skilled labors, there is an urgent demand to increase the quality, productivity and implement new technology to the industry (Koskela, 1992).

Wastes generated is also affected by many variables and restraints of the design process; such as the design complexity, Choice of the materials, coordination and communications between different disciplines (Keys et al., 2000).

The earlier researches mainly aimed to speed up the construction process and improve the overall productivity with introducing new technologies, tools and equipment keeping the same project management techniques. The focus was mainly on time-cost- quality tradeoff. However, Lean Construction which is a new form of project management reinforced by the powerful capabilities enabled by application of BIM are expected to provide different procedures and results, which are expected to help achieving efficiency in resources and more sustainable buildings.

1.3 Problem statement

The conventional construction management techniques are not suitable for today’s complex projects. The construction boom we are living today raised the need for sustainable buildings and more environmental friendly construction processes which urge for embracing new project management tools and techniques. These tools and techniques should consider the nature of the construction industry with high waste generation, and focus on value delivered to the client. A change in construction industry, which is known by cost overruns, delays, lack of quality and Health & safety, has been long awaited. The synergy between the three concepts (Lean, BIM and Sustainability) can be considered as a major opportunity to reach such a change (Koskela et al., 2010).

1.4 Objective

The main objective of this thesis is to study the effects of embracing Lean concepts alongside with BIM in construction industry on resource efficiency and sustainability, and also identifying the challenges facing the implementation of Lean and BIM concepts. This is carried out through reviewing the previous researches that have been conducted to identify benefits of Lean and BIM as well as the interaction between there concepts. In addition to these, an online survey on industry professionals and researchers is carried out to measure their perceptions regarding achieving sustainability targets and waste reduction within the construction industry by implementing LeanBIM concepts.

1.5 Thesis organization overview

The thesis consists of five chapters; Chapter1 (Introduction) an introduction about the thesis. Chapter2 (Literature review) presents an extensive literature study for different types of waste in construction, Lean Construction and BIM concepts, benefits of implementing them within the industry, their applications and the interaction between them. Chapter3 (Research Methodology) provides a description of the methodologies followed in this research. Chapter 4 (Results and discussion) provides discussion of the results and findings from the survey and literature. Chapter5 (Conclusion) addresses overall summary from the study, important findings, opportunities for improvements and suggested further area of research.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 General

In order to study the benefits of implementing Lean Construction and BIM concepts, a review of literature is prepared, focusing on various types of waste produced in construction. The interaction of Lean Construction and BIM in projects is reviewed to develop the definition of the term LeanBIM. The general requirements for sustainable design are addressed to discuss how LeanBIM implementation can affect the sustainability of buildings.

2.2 Waste in Construction

2.2.1 What is waste?

Waste is defined as anything that is larger than the minimum quantity of equipment, materials, parts and labor time that is absolutely required for production of a building. Waste includes the loss in materials as well as the unnecessary work executed which generate additional costs without adding value to the final product (Koskela, 1992). “ In short, waste is anything the customer is not happy to pay for ” (Tommelein, 2015) .

A lot of researches about waste in construction have been conducted, however the majority of these studies have focused on the waste in materials which represents only one resource of the construction process. This is considered to be the reason that the current construction processes involve huge amounts of wastes, loss of value and nonvalue adding activities (Formoso et al., 1999).

Agopyan et al. (1998) conducted a two year study coordinated by The Brazilian Institute for Technology and Quality in Construction (ITQC) on material waste measurement, involving 15 universities and more than 100 building sites. Formoso et al. (1999) summarized the main conclusions as;

The real values of waste in building materials are higher than the estimated values in companies’ cost estimation.

Waste indices showed high variability from site to site. Furthermore, different levels of waste might have been presented from similar sites for the same material, which indicates the possibility to avoid a significant portion of waste. Some companies seem not to be concerned about waste in material, as they do not apply relatively simple procedures to avoid waste in sites. These companies seemed not to be applying a well-defined material management program or organized material usage control.

Most of building firms are not aware enough about the amount of waste they have, and so how to prevent it.

Problems occur in stages before the production stages such as poor planning, inadequate design, and shortage in material supply system, etc. is the mean reason behind the biggest portion of waste.

According to Formoso et al. (1999) the contribution of this kind of researches for founding waste control systems has been somewhat limited and that is due to the following reasons:

The majority of studies are focusing on the waste of materials which represent only one resource of waste in the construction. That because of the fact that most of these studies was conducted based on the dominant fact that waste of material is considered to be the synonymous of waste.

The huge expenses behind the process of data collection in addition to requirement for a large team of researchers and people to monitor the work on site. Due to that, the waste controlling procedures used in research studies are not easily adapted in real time production control systems.

The impacts of these studies in terms of corrective actions are very limited, as producing results out of these studies usually take a long time. The limitation of learning process resulting from these studies for companies as most of waste control procedures are external to these companies since most of people involved in data collection and analysis are not from the organization.

2.2.2 Classifications of wastes

According to Formoso et al. (1999), waste can be classified into unavoidable waste (natural waste), in which the value gained from its reduction is lower than the investment required to reduce it, and avoidable waste, in which the cost of waste is significantly higher than the cost of preventing it. The amount of unavoidable waste depends on the particular site, nature of the project and the organization (as it depends on the technology implemented).

Waste can also be categorized according to its origins, i.e. the stage in the process related to the root cause of waste. Usually waste is identified within the production stage, however, there is a possibility for the waste to be originated by processes that come before the production stage, such as planning, design, material manufacturing and supply and training of manpower.

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According to Shingo (1989), Waste can be classified into seven types according to its nature, the eighth waste - underutilized workers’ talents - was introduced by Bodek (2007), and that is how it is identified and dealt with in Lean practices:

2.2.2.1 Waiting time

It is the idle time or delay that caused by lack of levelling and synchronization of material flows, and pace of work by different groups or equipment (Formoso et al., 1999). The inactivity periods occurs when people, equipment or process wait for preceding activities to be completed increase the cycle time due to a non-value added activities. This delay usually occur because of lack of communication between field operations, support operations and suppliers. Also when equipment that required to complete the preceding activity breaks down or not adequate to the job. It also happen when a crew in a construction site are waiting for materials, drawings or instruction to start an activity.

2.2.2.2 Movement or motion

The unnecessary or inefficient movements done by workers during their job. Poor arrangement, inadequate equipment or ineffective work methods could be reasons for this waste (Formoso et al., 1999). These extra steps and movements by people not only consume time but it add no value to the final product or service as well.

2.2.2.3 Transportation

The unnecessary material movement on site that do not support the production process. It can be produced due to the use of inadequate equipment, excessive handling or bad condition of roads. The main reasons usually are poor layout and lack of material flows planning. As a result of these activities a waste of time, energy, space on site and material may occur (Formoso et al., 1999). The more movement of materials the bigger will be the chance to damage and waste (Banawi & Bilec, 2014).

2.2.2.4 Processing and over processing

It is directly related to the nature of the processing activity and the processing method applied. For example the wasted mortar when plastering a ceiling (Formoso et al., 1999).

2.2.2.5 Inventories

The unnecessary or excessive inventories exceeding the production requirements lead to material waste; for example, inadequate stock conditions, material deterioration, being susceptible to robbery or vandalism. The tied up capital due to the unused materials is considered a monetary loss as well. Uncertainty of estimation of quantities as well as lack of resource planning might be the main reasons behind this waste (Formoso et al., 1999).

2.2.2.6 Over Production

It occurs when production operations continue when it should be stopped. So, the production is more, faster than or before it is needed, results in unnecessary inventory, material and manpower consumption (Banawi & Bilec, 2014).

2.2.2.7 Correction or defects

It happens when the final or intermediate product doesn’t meet the quality specifications (Formoso et al., 1999). This may lead to extra work making it harder to perform priority activities.

2.2.2.8 Underutilized people

Not making use of people creativity, mental and physical abilities efficiently (Garrett & Lee, 2010).

2.3 History of Lean Construction

2.3.1 History of Lean production

The term “Lean Production” was first introduced by John Krafcik of MIT International Motor Vehicle Program as a new production methodology in which less resources, manpower, manufacturing space, engineering hours, tools and inventory warehouses are used in mass production (Womack et al., 1990). Japanese Toyota’s Engineers Ohna and Shingo have developed The Toyota Production System (TPS) following Henry Ford’s flow-based production management, which includes the advantages of mass production as well as craft production. The main goals of TPS were customer satisfaction, zero waste, zero inventory and product perfection.

Lean thinking is focusing on value generation more than how one activity can be managed (Howell, 1999). Lean thinking considers the entire project as if it was one large operation, unlike the current project management methodologies which consider the project as combination of activities.

In the Lean production model, production is managed with full focus on the value produced to the customer. The total cost and duration of the project have more importance than the cost or duration of any single activity. Generally, coordination is accomplished by central schedule while the workflow details are managed through the organization by people who are aware of and support project goals (Howell, 1999). Value, throughput and the movement of information and materials to completion are the primary objectives of Lean production theory.

In a production system, waste can be defined according to the performance criteria. If the unique requirements of the client are not met, then this is considered to be waste. 10

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