Remove Watermark Wondershare

PDFelement

International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology (IJARET)

Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2020, pp. 823-830, Article ID: IJARET_11_11_077
Available online at http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJARET?Volume=11&Issue=11
ISSN Print: 0976-6480 and ISSN Online: 0976-6499
DOI: 10.34218/IJARET.11.11.2020.077

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

LEAN CONSTRUCTION: TOWARDS A

DEVELOPED APPROACH OF CONSTRUCTION
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Mahjoub Hariri
Ph. d Student researcher at the laboratory of engineering, industrial management and
innovation at the Faculty of Science and Technology of Settat Morocco and Construction Site
Engineer in a multinational company in Morocco, Morocco.

Boujemaa Danouj
Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Hassan 1 Settat
Morocco and member of the laboratory of engineering, industrial management and
innovation, Morocco.

ABSTRACT
This article will focus on a new philosophy that will revolutionize the different core
of the construction sector: Lean Management in construction; Lean Construction. We
aim to synthesize some works, articles and results of in-depth scientific research of this
new approach.
Keywords: Lean Management, Lean construction, Project Management, waste.
Cite this Article: Mahjoub Hariri and Boujemaa Danouj, Lean Construction: Towards
a Developed Approach of Construction Project Management, International Journal of
Advanced Research in Engineering and Technology, 11(11), 2020, pp. 823-830.
http://iaeme.com/Home/issue/IJARET?Volume=11&Issue=11

1. INTRODUCTION
For many years ago, companies in the industrial world have realized a great revolution due to
a succession of renovations and improvements to their economic model aimed at continuously
developing the production system in order to face the great demographic evolution that requires
a multiplicity of industrial products with different characteristics and better quality at optimal
cost.
Service companies operating in different sectors, particularly in the construction industry,
are also concerned by this principle of development and improvement. However, the
modernization of this sector is proving to be very slow. Indeed, few innovations have marked
our last decades.
Certainly, the arrival of certain digital technologies such BIM (Building Information
Modeling) have significantly improved the act of building. But this remains insufficient and

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 823 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Mahjoub Hariri and Boujemaa Danouj

still does not meet customer needs in terms of quality and lead times, which causes a great waste
of human and material resources: unsatisfied clients and penalized companies.
Contrary to industrial production plants that base their system on a process made up mainly
of machines, construction considers the human being as its principal process (workers,
engineers, architects, transporters, technicians, site managers, etc.).
This makes it difficult to master and control the tasks and blocking situations of a
construction project.

2. WHAT IS LEAN CONSTRUCTION?

2.1. The Historical of Lean Construction
The concept LEAN appeared at the beginning in the industrial production sector, specifically
in the automotive industry. Indeed, it is the engineer Ohno who set up a production system
called LEAN PRODUCTION or LEAN MANUFACTURING or the Toyota approach (bearing
the name of the company and the car mark where he worked) (WOMACK and al.1991).
Ohno, director and innovator of this philosophy, analyzed Ford's manufacturing process. In
this company where Americans saw perfections all along the production line, Ohno noticed
wastes everywhere. So he decided to move to a higher level of value maximization by
eliminating all types of waste.
Moreover, unlike Ford who was producing standard cars (same model with the same color
: “BLACK”), Ohno wanted its new system to be able to produce customized products according
to the demands of its various customers and even go further: Produce a car according to a
customer's requirements, deliver it instantly without holding stocks or buffer stores. The wastes
in this system is defined by the criteria of its performance. However, Failure to meet the unique
requirements of a client is waste, as is time beyond instant and inventory standing idle (Howell
1999).

Figure 1 The positive effect of Ohno’s principles

Ohno's vision converged towards the realization of a "perfect" system: he worked on
establishing a system with ZERO waste as its primary goal and shifted the focus from
improving the business to the company's delivery system. This new philosophy aims to improve
the entire production chain instead of neglecting efficiency and focusing on keeping the
machines running and the assembly line moving. This can only lead to production at all costs!
This mode can only result in mass-produced cars with a high defect rate and a large intermediate
stock, which Ohno called "the waste of overproduction"! This is why this engineer criticized
the American approach and opted to set a standard of multidimensional perfection that prevents
under-optimization and promotes continuous improvement.

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 824 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Lean Construction: Towards a Developed Approach of Construction Project Management

This system has given rise to a set of good practices and production methods (Six SIGMA,
5S, FIFO, KANBAN, JUST-IN-TIME, VSM, etc.). Those tools make, today, factories
indispensable in terms of flow control.
This great improvement in the performance of industrial production companies has pushed
researchers and professionals in the construction sector to follow in their footsteps by adopting
the concept of Lean Management while taking into consideration the constraints of the sector.
As a result, the construction industry has been led to make adaptations to the Lean approach in
order to allow the optimization of flows, from where LEAN CONSTRUCTION comes from.
The construction industry has accepted the standards and the bases of the Ohno concept
(LEAN MANUFACTURING) in order to perfect its system in its turn. But the question that
arises is: How can Lean Production be applied in the construction sector taking into
consideration its various constraints?
The construction sector is a living sector but conditioned by parameters very different from
those of the industrial sector. Construction projects are known by their complexity; they are
CUQ (complex, uncertain and quick) projects. For this reason, they need a well-adapted
approach (Lean Construction) and this is what Salem and al (2005) confirmed.

2.2. Definition and Concept of Lean Construction (LC)

After noting several improvements in the manufacturing industry through the implementation
of Lean Management principles (KHANCHAPONG and al. 2014), the Lean approach has been
adopted by other sectors including the health industry (CREMA and VERBANO 2015) and IT
(HICKS and al. 2015).
Construction saw the birth and development of Lean Construction with KOSKELA in 1992
who confirmed in his book "Applications of the new production philosophy in construction"
(LAURI KOSKELA 1992) the possibility of integrating the principles of Lean Management in
the construction sector while adapting Lean Manufacturing concepts which are mainly based
on the TFV model made up of three indissociable and complementary pillars (Transformation
- Flow - Value). This theory led to the birth of LEAN CONSTRUCTION (L. KOSKELA,
2000).

Table 1 TFV theory of production (Koskela, 2000)

Transformation view Flow view Value generation view
As a flow of material, As a process where value
Conceptualization of As a transformation of composed of for the customer is created
production inputs into outputs transformation, inspection, through fulfilment of his/her
moving and waiting. requirements.
Elimination of value loss
Getting production Elimination of waste (non-
Main principle (achieved value in relation
realized efficiently value-adding activities)
to best possible value)
Work breakdown
Continuous flow, pull Methods for requirement
Methods and structure, MRP,
production control, capture, quality function
practices organizational
continuous improvement. deployment
responsibility chart.
Making sure that Taking care that customer
Taking care of what has
Practical contribution unnecessary things are requirements are met in the
to be done
done as little as possible best possible manner
Suggested name of
practical application Task management Flow management Value management
of the view

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 825 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Mahjoub Hariri and Boujemaa Danouj

Other authors have contributed to the definition of LC such as (Howell and Ballard, 1998)
who believe that Lean principles cannot be projected to the construction world without
adaptations. They have thus criticized researchers who have always considered that
construction management is quite different from production management and that it was
therefore impossible to adopt the principles of the latter. Howell and Ballard believed that
despite the peculiarities of the construction trade, if construction managers and researchers had
focused on developing their own body of knowledge, they might have been able to do so
without knowing the progress of the way manufacturing industries were doing it. On the other
hand, the development of an approach and concept specific to construction carries the risk of
remoteness and the difficulty of exchanging ideas with researchers from other sectors.
Lean construction, according to Gregory A. Howell (1999), is an approach resulting from
the application of a new form of production management (Lean Manufacturing) to construction.
This approach is characterized by very clear objectives for the delivery process; it aims at
maximizing performance for the client at the project level, the simultaneous design of the
product and the process, and the application of production control throughout the life of the
product, from design to delivery. In another way, Howell defines LC as an approach that aims
to satisfy the customer's need by meeting all their requirements and optimizing the company's
resources.
In 2010, Lukowski comes to support and join Howell's definition by aligning with the first
Koskela definition. According to Lukowski, LC is the practical application of the principles of
Lean Manufacturing, or Lean Thinking, to the building environment.
And to complement these three definitions, Malaysian researchers Yahya and Mohamad
define LC as an approach that involves managing and improving the construction process to
ensure cost-effectiveness; delivering what the client needs by eliminating waste in the
construction flow; and using the right principle, resources, and measures to get things right the
first time.
Since its inception, LC has been continuously analyzed and defined to frame this new
approach that the construction industry has been using to improve its performance and KPIs,
optimize its various resources and satisfy its customers.
In order to understand the concept of Lean Construction, one must always go back to the
basis from which Lean experts have been inspired to deploy it: Lean Manufacturing.
The basic concept of Lean Manufacturing is to allow the flow of value-creating work steps
while eliminating steps with added non-values (the Mudas) by focusing on fast cycles. When
waste is eliminated from the production process, cycle times decrease until physical limits are
reached. However, value-added activities are first improved through continuous internal
improvement and tuning of existing machines. Only after these improvement potentials have
been realized is the use of new technologies considered.
Lean Construction is also based on the concept of eliminating non-added value activities in
order to optimize processes as much as possible.
The LC recommends simultaneous product and process improvements. According to
Howell (1999), management in the construction field using Lean is very different from
management without Lean: LC makes it possible to set clear objectives regarding maximizing
performance for the project's end user. By implementing the Lean concept, production control
must be applied throughout the life of the project. Walter and Johansen (2007) saw that the
application of the LC concept in the construction industry at that time was limited and slow. In
addition, many ideas were rejected by stakeholders as they still saw that the two industries
(industrial and construction) are two totally different industries, hence the application of Lean
in the two areas will be neither in the same way nor with the same parameters (Howell, 1999).

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 826 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Lean Construction: Towards a Developed Approach of Construction Project Management

The characteristics of construction projects: their uniqueness, non-repeatability and

uncertainty (Koskela, 1992) in addition to the great pressure that accompanies the notion of
time... are characteristics that make this type of project different and the exact opposite of
manufacturing industry (Ballard and Howell, 1998).
The concept of Lean Construction can only be valid if it is based on well-defined principles.
Indeed, several authors have shown that LC is based on a set of principles.
On the hand, Koskela (1992) identified eleven principles of LC that should be implemented
in the construction industry flow: reduction of non-value adding activities, increasing the output
value, reduction of variability, reduction of cycle time, minimizing the number of steps, parts
and linkages, increasing the output flexibility, increasing process transparency, focusing on the
complete process control, building the continuous improvement into the process, balancing the
flow improvement with conversion improvement and finally the benchmarking.
On the other hand, Womack and Jones (1996) discovered five principles of LC: specify
value from the customer's view, make the value-creating flow, achieving customer pull at the
right time and pursue perfection for continuous improvement. In addition, Lim (2008), Lean
Enterprise Institute (2009) and Bashir and al (2011) have aligned themselves with Womack and
Jones and shared the same views on the LC principles.
According to the different points of view of the various scientific researchers and
authors who have taken the LC as the subject of their reflections and analyses, it is quite
remarkable that they strongly suggest the concept of the LC and recommend it for adoption by
companies operating in the construction field with the aim of managing, improving and
optimizing its process not only for the satisfaction of customers in this field, but also for the
well-being of the company itself and in addition to the benefits that this new concept will bring
to their environment and communities in general.
In addition to this, Howell (1999) emphasizes continuous improvement and sees that it must
be carried out simultaneously in the construction process. He believes that the participation of
all stakeholders will influence the success or failure of a construction project in implementing
the LC concept.

3. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEAN CONSTRUCTION AND LEAN

MANUFACTURING
Even if the lean construction approach derives mainly from the principles of lean management,
it has its own specificities, even pillars and ways of application (Zakaria DAKHLI and Zoubeir
LAFHAJ, The lean construction revolution. 2018). Even if the variations differ, the
fundamental principle remains the same: "Eliminate waste throughout the value chain while
respecting the customer's needs" Table 3.

Table 3 Notion of waste in the manufacturing and construction industry

Manufacturing Industry
Overproduction Production exceeds demand
Machine downtime or operator
Waiting
inactivity
All unnecessary movement of
Transport
products, materials and informations. on site, sterile use of equipment, etc.
Construction Industry
The installation of equipment not
included in the specifications
Necessity of accomplishing a task in
one lot before starting work on another
(e.g.: installation of plumbing systems
before siding and tiling).
Unloading and handling of material

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 827 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Mahjoub Hariri and Boujemaa Danouj

Manufacturing Industry Construction Industry

Slippage of working hours scheduled
Process activities that exceed for the completion of a task, more
customer specifications without manpower than necessary,
Overprocessing
producing added value and that cumbersome administrative
generate costs. procedures, completion of an out-of-
scope service, etc.
Storage of materials not necessary Long-term storage on site (poor
Overstocking
for value creation. supply management).
Several movements of the workers
Unnecessary movement of people
Movements (Motion) between the warehouse and the
(eg. Walking)
workstation.
Rework of non-conform work which
Non-quality Non-conforming products rework not according to the issue for
construction drawing
Skills Unskilled or over-qualified labour
There are, however, differences between the manufacturing and construction industries,
particularly with regard to their fundamental structure. (O'Brien and al.2008) have summarized
these main differences among several axes (Table 4).

Table 4 Main differences between Lean Manufacturing and Lean Construction

Characteristic Production Line Construction Line
Operational Practice Production Management Project Management
Strongly consolidated Highly fragmented

Large entry barriers Low barriers to entry

Structure Fixed premises Transitional Premises

Strong interdependence Low interdependence

Global market Local market

Highly integrated Information flow recreated
several times between
stakeholders

Shared
Lack of sharing between
Information Flow companies

Fast Slow

Fully integrated production line Lack of information technology

management tools to support the construction chain
Long-term relationships Conflicting practices
Collaboration
Shared Benefits Benefits in silo
Less unstable (the quantity of
Very unstable (seasonality,
The demand material is known a little in
competition, innovation, etc.)
advance)

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 828 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Lean Construction: Towards a Developed Approach of Construction Project Management

Characteristic Production Line Construction Line

Open environment (external
Automated environment (Machines, constraints), tools, lack of
Robots); standardization, well- standardization and management
Production variability
defined production line, low tolerance, availability of space,
variability... complexity of flow exchange,
great variability.
The first fundamental difference is operational practice. Manufacturing is based on
production management (continuous production and a diversity of products) while construction
is based on project management (one final product). The manufacturing industry is
characterized by high barriers to entry (level of investment required, agreement on long-term
framework contracts with suppliers) whereas construction is known by reinvention during each
project (selection of suppliers and subcontractors, partner search, decisions change from one
project to another, etc). The manufacturing industry has an arsenal of techniques for inventory
management and supply chain, whereas in construction, logistics is generally underestimated,
and the subjects of procurement and storage are considered to be outside the core business.
For all these and other differences, lean construction differs from lean management. It is
difficult to project an approach coming from a completely different field without modifying
and adapting it to the constraints of construction projects generally characterized by their
complexity, tight deadlines and very high rate of hazards. We will see in the next article the
different Lean practices adapted to the construction sector.

4. THE DARK SIDE OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION

The new concept brought by the different authors, based on the concept of Lean Management,
is a concept that is still emerging in a world where the field of construction is not yet well
understood or even mastered. As a result, this new approach is considered to be still fresh and
subject to several criticisms and meditations.
Stuart D. Green is one of the researchers who have looked at the subject of Lean
Construction with a critical eye and with complete objectivity. "It is important to emphasize
that this paper is written self-consciously from a critical perspective," says Stuart D. Green
(1999) about his paper.
The various studies draw on the traditions of critical theory (Habermas 1978, Held 1980) to
question accepted conformity as advocated and imposed by powerful interests. Stuart insists
that his critical analysis should not be judged by its "usefulness to industry". On the contrary,
the development of a critical perspective on the LC aims to bring out hypotheses, thus allowing
workers and managers to develop their own opinion on the basis of a balanced and informed
debate.
During this critical analysis, it has been shown that the current LC debate is based on an
extremely one-sided interpretation available. Any meaningful debate is stifled by the global
propaganda of customer responsiveness, which explains the subjectivity of many researchers,
with a few rare exceptions, who see that the LC is only a "good" approach far from having
drawbacks, weak points or even counter-arguments that show the "DARK SIDE" of the LC.

5. IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION

Lean Construction has become the new management method in the construction sector.
Implementing this approach in existing organizations or with people trained in current practices
will not be easy enough. Project management based on the Lean method requires, first, changes
in individual behavior and greater organizational development efforts to overcome the ways in
which the current practice contradicts the new one. The implementation of LC requires the

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 829 editor@iaeme.com

 Remove Watermark Wondershare
PDFelement

Mahjoub Hariri and Boujemaa Danouj

progressive application of a new way of designing project production systems while taking into
consideration the various constraints related to the project. During this implementation, the
notion of a learning curve becomes apparent. The project's entourage (starting from the workers
and going up to the project stakeholders) must adapt with the new concept. The change required
is both conceptual and practical. Changing traditional ways of thinking and acting is hard work,
but it is rewarding work that will reap its rewards. In addition to this, the adopting company
must also change its procedures, techniques and systems to align them with the Lean approach;
changing minds is the real challenge.
In order to introduce this concept to the individuals involved, Womack and Jones (1996)
through their book, in addition to several articles and books that make up the Lean literature,
have brought readers full of stories about companies and people making the transition. The
themes of urgency, leadership, direction, structure, discipline and trajectory are evident in these
stories and in the construction.

6. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

Lean construction is a set of methods and techniques aimed at improving the performance of
the production process in the construction sector. However, the purpose of the Lean is to
eliminate waste and transform it into value from the customer's perspective.
The various researchers in this domain have tried to adopt the practices and ideas of lean
management while adapting them to construction projects that are characterized by their
complexity, rapidity and several contingencies.
Our opinion: We believe that improving the performance of construction sites is essential.
In our country, Morocco for example, the majority of projects exceed the budget and the
deadline allocated to them. It is therefore necessary to implement the lean construction in order
to eliminate the great human and material wastes.

REFERENCES
[1] Gregory A. Howell (1999). “What is lean construction.” 26-28 July 1999, University of
California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Proc Seventh Annu Conf Int Gr Lean Constr 1999
[2] Koskela L, Ballard G, Howell G, Tommelein I (2002). “The foundations of lean construction.”
Des Constr Build Value 2002; December 2015.
[3] Marhani MA, Jaapar A, Bari NAA (2012). “Lean construction: towards enhancing sustainable
construction in Malaysia.” Proc – Soc Behav Sci 2012.
[4] Subhav Singh, Kaushal Kumar (2019). “Review of literature of lean construction and lean tools
using systematic literature review technique (2008–2018)”. Ain Shams Engineering Journal,
journal homepage: sciencedirect.com 2019
[5] Ballard, G. (1997). “Improving Work Flow Reliability.” Proc. 7th Ann. Conf. Int’l. Group for
Lean Construction, Berkeley, CA, July 26-28, 1999
[6] Koskela, L. (1992). “Application of the New Production Philosophy to Construction”. Technical
Report 72, Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering,
Stanford University, CA.ech. Report No. 72, CIFE, Stanford Univ., CA.
[7] Zakaria DAKHLI and Zoubeir LAFHAJ (2018)? “The lean construction revolution” Self-
publishing (15 novembre 2018)

http://iaeme.com/Home/journal/IJARET 830 editor@iaeme.com