Lean Engineering Concepts

ENMG 642

Lecture 1
Introduction
▪ Name:
▪ Degree(s):
▪ Experience:
▪ Current Employment:
▪ Why are you here?
What is Lean Engineering?
What is “Lean” ?
▪ Lean = not fleshy
▪ Lean = containing little or not fat
▪ Lean = containing little in excess
▪ Lean = thin
▪ Lean = thrifty in management, economical
What is Lean Construction?
▪ A production management-based approach to project
delivery
✓ A new way to design and build capital facilities
▪ Has its origins in the manufacturing industry
✓ Where it has caused a revolution in design, supply,
and assembly
▪ Objectives of lean construction
✓ Maximize value
✓ Minimize waste
How Does It Work?

▪ The facility and its delivery process are designed together

to better reveal and support customer purposes

▪ Positive iteration within the process is supported and

negative iteration reduced

▪ Work is structured throughout the process to maximize

value and to reduce waste at the project delivery level
How Does It Work?

▪ Efforts to manage and improve performance are aimed at

improving total project performance

✓ This is more important than reducing the cost or

increasing the speed of any activity

▪ “Control” is redefined from “monitoring results” to “making

things happen”

✓ The performance of the planning and control systems

are measured and improved
The Value of Lean Construction
▪ The reliable release of work between specialists in design,
supply, and assembly assures
✓ Value is delivered to the customer
✓ Waste is reduced
▪ When is lean construction particularly useful?
✓ On complex, uncertain, quick projects, and “wasteful”
projects
▪ Lean construction challenges the belief that there must
always be a tradeoff between time, cost, and quality
Syllabus
Course tentative schedule
 ENMG642-Lean Engineering Concepts
Course Schedule (Subject to change)
Week Month Date Topic
Introduction and orientation
1 7
Introduction to lean theory
2 14
Theory of production
September
3 21
Process improvement
4 28
Process mapping
5 5
Production control: The Last
Planner System
6 12
October
Project definition/Lean design
7 19
Integrated project
8 26 delivery/Target value design
Choosing by Advantage (CBA),
9 2
Line of balance (LOB)
Special topic (e.g., waste and
10 9
value engineering)
Special topic (e.g., waste and
11 November 16
constructibility, BIM)
Projects Presentation
12 23
Projects Presentation
13 30
* Weekly assignments are due on the specified date (refer to the posted weekly assignment for more details) and are based on the
readings of the previous week
Readings (during the specified week) Online Activities Due*
The Toyota Way ,Liker, Chs. 1-7,
selected readings
Reading: The foundations of lean 1-Submit a question from the
construction , Ch. 14 reading
Ballard, PhD thesis, Ch. 2 2-Submit a reflection paragraph
Reading: The Toyota Way, Liker, 1-Submit a question from the
Ch. 8-14, selected readings reading
2-Submit a reflection paragraph
Rother & Shook, Learning to See. 1-Submit a question from the
selected readings. reading
2-Submit a reflection paragraph
3-TOC discussion Forum
Reading: "Rethinking Lookahead 1-Submit a question from the
Planning to Optimize reading
Construction Workflow"
Whelton & Ballard (2002),
“Wicked Problems in Project 1-Submit a question from the
Definition” reading
Ballard, “Positive vs. Negative 2-Submit a reflection paragraph
Iteration in Design”
Matthews (2005), “Integrated 1-Submit a question from the
Project Delivery” reading
Lichtig (2006), “The Integrated
Agreement for Lean Project
Delivery”
1-Submit a question from the
reading
2-IPD Online Forum
How to write a Research paper?