Investigating the synergy between lean construction practices and post disaster management processes

Lean aims to maximize value while minimizing waste. Lean practices are likely to reduce the number potential hazards and errors. The use of Lean practices in construction is essential to experience less hazards. Benefitting from Lean practices has gained much attention in the last decade. Especially, the destroying effect of hazards and accidents is of utmost importance in terms of seeking for better strategies. Within this context, Lean practices offer a wide variety of advantages and provide means for achieving greater success in projects. This study investigates the use of Lean practices in post disaster management. Since post disaster management includes the activities to help community in rebuilding, Lean tools and techniques might be employed to better handle post disaster management processes. The study also scrutinizes the integration of Lean practices with the post disaster processes and encourages the community to compete against the destroying effect of disasters thanks to using Lean tools and techniques. The main contribution of this study is that it introduces Lean practices to be used in the post disaster management processes, which might potentially remove safety concerns in construction sites up to a great extent

From Lean Manufacturing to Lean Construction: How Principles, Tools, and Techniques Evolved

Lean manufacturing first emerged in the automotive industry. However, low productivity and low efficiency in production are major problems for the majority of industries relying on a heavy workforce. Being one of these, the construction industry suffers from low productivity rates along with inefficient work practices. To prevent those, the industry has shifted its focus from the traditional approach to a more innovative one, which is called Lean construction. Lean construction aims to maximize value while minimizing waste. Therefore, it intends to create safer, smoother, and more efficient processes to eliminate waste. This chapter focuses on Lean construction and highlights the generic Lean tools and techniques practiced in the construction industry indicating its historical journey from Lean manufacturing. The chapter aims to raise awareness towards the efficiency of Lean methods in the construction industry with respect to practices observed in manufacturing

Assessing Psychological Safety in Lean Construction Projects in the United States

The construction industry is hazardous, which requires careful consideration of occupational health and safety measures. Among various strategies that are proposed to enhance construction safety, Lean construction practices were widely implied and proved to be effective. However, the link between Lean implementation and construction safety has not been completely studied yet in previous research in terms of psychological safety context. This study implies that psychological safety is of utmost importance in terms of explaining the association between Lean and safety. Lean implementation elements such as respect for people, trust, leadership, and continuous improvement positively affect employees’ psychological safety. In this context, semi-structured interviews and a survey were conducted with employees working in U.S. construction companies. The interviews provided that the majority of the construction employees do not feel psychologically safe at their workplaces either in traditional or Lean construction projects due to a number of reasons such as heavy workload, and deadline pressures. However, it was found that construction workers feel safer psychologically in Lean construction projects compared to traditional projects. According to the interview results and literature review, a conceptual model was proposed. Therefore, this study can contribute to the research area of psychological safety in the construction industry

Investigating major challenges for industry 4.0 adoption among construction companies

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the challenges hindering the adoption of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) among construction companies. Design/methodology/approach: The construction industry needs innovative technologies due to its complex and dynamic nature. In this respect, the latest trends such as digitalization, building information modeling (BIM), Internet of things (IoT) are of utmost importance in terms of fostering the change in managing projects and encouraging industry practitioners to adopt the change for better performance. This paper focuses on I4.0adoption among construction companies. In this respect, a questionnaire was designed and administered to construction professionals to reveal the challenges in I4.0 adoption among construction firms. The respondents were requested to fill in the questionnaire on the I4.0 efforts of their companies. The questionnaire was intended to collect the perceptions of industry practitioners working at large construction companies. Based on these, the challenges listed were ranked based on their relative importance and success indices. Finally, the Mann–Whitney U test was conducted to test whether statistically significant responses exist among groups of respondents (i.e. young and old companies, large and small, high and low revenue and main area of expertise). Findings: The results of the study indicated that resistance to change, unclear benefits and gains and cost of implementation are the major important challenges in terms of I4.0 adoption in construction projects. On the other hand, the data analysis implied that the majority of construction organizations successfully deal with the problems arising from lack of standardization, legal and contractual issues and cost of implementing in terms of promoting I4.0 adoption. Research limitations/implications: The study is expected to guide construction practitioners in terms of benefitting from I4.0 applications and deliver projects with better outcomes. This study might be used as a guide for the companies aiming to start their I4.0 transformation knowing the challenges and develop strategies for how to handle them. A concrete plan would help them achieve greater performance and benefit from the I4.0 implementation at the maximum level. Finally, the study implies that construction firms shall prepare action plans for handling each challenge listed and monitor their performance based on the planned and actual data of their projects. Originality/value: This study investigates the major challenges of I4.0 among construction companies. This is one of the important studies, which puts I4.0 focus forefront of the construction industry with a clear identification of challenges that construction organizations have to address to transform their organizations into construction 4.0. The study has the potential to guide both industry practitioners and researchers to develop awareness for the benefits of using the latest technology and fostering innovation. This is expected to create value for construction clients in terms of achieving the product with serious gains such as time and cost

Improving Tolerance Control On Modular Construction Project With 3D Laser Scanning and Bim: A Case Study of Removable Floodwall Project

Quality control is essential to a successful modular construction project and should be enhanced throughout the project from design to construction and installation. The current methods for analyzing the assembly quality of a removable floodwall heavily rely on manual inspection and contact-type measurements, which are time-consuming and costly. This study presents a systematic and practical approach to improve quality control of the prefabricated modular construction projects by integrating building information modeling (BIM) with three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning technology. The study starts with a thorough literature review of current quality control methods in modular construction. Firstly, the critical quality control procedure for the modular construction structure and components should be identified. Secondly, the dimensions of the structure and components in a BIM model is considered as quality tolerance control benchmarking. Thirdly, the point cloud data is captured with 3D laser scanning, which is used to create the as-built model for the constructed structure. Fourthly, data analysis and field validation are carried out by matching the point cloud data with the as-built model and the BIM model. Finally, the study employs the data of a removable floodwall project to validate the level of technical feasibility and accuracy of the presented methods. This method improved the efficiency and accuracy of modular construction quality control. It established a preliminary foundation for using BIM and laser scanning to conduct quality control in removable floodwall installation. The results indicated that the proposed integration of BIM and 3D laser scanning has great potential to improve the quality control of a modular construction project

Structural assessment of traditional stone-timber houses in Turkey

Rad je usmjeren na ponašanje povijesnih građevina izvedenih u kombinaciji kamenih zidova i drvenih okvira. Metodom konačnih elemenata analizirana je izvedba takvih građevina s ciljem predviđanja mogućih mehanizama razaranja i osjetljivosti na potres. Radi se o tradicionalnim kućama u naselju Sirince u Izmiru (Turska). Rezultati analize pokazali su da je kritični presjek takve kombinirane građevine prijelazna zona, između prizemlja i kata. Također je ustanovljeno da su kameni zidovi i drveni okviri u takvim konstrukcijama vrlo osjetljivi na potres.This study mainly focuses on the performance of historical stone-timber structures. The finite element method (FEM) is used to analyse structural performance of such buildings in order to predict possible damage mechanisms and seismic vulnerability. Traditional Şirince houses in İzmir (Turkey) were selected for the analysis. Results obtained show that the critical section of such combined structures is the transition zone between the ground level and upper floors. Furthermore, the results indicate that the "rubble stone masonry and timber frame" of these combined structures is highly vulnerable to seismic action

Investigating the Impact of Blockchain on Project Risk Management Success: A Structural Equation Model

Lately, the construction industry has shown a great deal of openness to utilizing novel and innovative technologies. The industry's complexity necessitates cooperative and efficient process management. Utilizing value-adding technologies is crucial in thar regard. Among them, blockchain has recently gained prominence as an enabling technology for smart contracts, and secure data management for the construction industry. This study employs a structural equation model to quantify the relationship between risk management (RM), a key project management activity, and blockchain technology. To this end, a survey was created and distributed to construction professionals. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was performed on the data collected from 103 respondents. The findings show that construction project RM can be significantly affected by key blockchain features. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting a conceptual framework that captures the essential elements of RM and blockchain. The results also empirically show that RM and blockchain are closely related, confirming blockchain's potential and relevance in RM applications. The paper also discusses the risks associated with adopting blockchain in the construction industry. The results of this study can help construction practitioners and policy-makers to create plans for incorporating blockchain into RM workflows

A lean construction and BIM interaction model for the construction industry

An Analytical Network Process (ANP) was created to test the Lean and BIM concepts with data collected from U.S. companies to find the success factors of the Lean/BIM framework. After an extensive literature review, a total of 17 sub-categories for Lean/BIM are classified into three clusters, namely Communication, Production, and Visualization. An ANP network is then established to station the links between the attributes of the framework while computing their importance weights. Eight experienced civil engineers took part in the questionnaire study to assess the relations between the attributes. The main purpose of this study is to reveal the synergy between Lean and BIM with different components reflecting this synergy and present the Lean and BIM synergy on a comprehensive model. The results indicate that Production is the prominent cluster and Production Control, Standardization and Information accuracy are the most important factors in the Lean/BIM synergy. To validate the model, five construction projects were selected to test and observe the results accordingly. The study is expected to help construction industry leaders set their priorities, benefit more from the interaction between Lean and BIM, and revise their strategies accordingly. This study identifies Lean/BIM categories and subcategories as a roadmap for research and implementation. In this context, the study reveals the relationship between the categories/subcategories along with the weights and most and less important categories for Lean/BIM implementation and research

Critical Success Factors for Safety Training in the Construction Industry

Construction is a hazardous industry. The project-based nature and fragmentation in the industry lead to change and uncertainty requiring special expertise. To handle those, construction firms must develop strategies and action plans along with the experience gained from lessons learned. Among the risks, safety risks are of critical importance leading to accidents. Hence, firms need to strengthen their safety programs, review their strategies for safety management, and develop effective safety training sessions to protect their workers. This study focuses on the success factors promoting safety performance. In this respect, a questionnaire was designed and administered to the Engineering News-Record (ENR) 2020 Top 400 Contractors. The questionnaire data was utilized in conducting a factor analysis to group and name the factors considering the total variance. The analysis of the factors resulted in six-factor groups; namely, project and firm-related factors, demographic factors, practical factors, motivational factors, organizational factors, and human-related factors. Project and firm-related factors were found to be the most essential factor group in terms of promoting the effectiveness of safety training. The results of this study are expected to guide industry practitioners in terms of reviewing and revising their safety training programs