Lean and Six Sigma are being used beneficially on construction projects. Let’s explore some examples.
First, the Lean Construction Institute provides a definition of Lean Construction.
“Lean Construction is a respect and relationship oriented production management approach to project delivery, a transformational way to plan, design, and build capital facilities …”
Key concepts are
- Respect for People
- Generation of Value
- Focus on Process and Flow
- Removal of Waste
- Continuous Improvement Mindset
- Optimize the Whole
You can view their brief video here.
Continuing on from the Lean Construction Institute, this brief video lists the benefits of Lean Construction
- Improved Safety
- Greater Customer Satisfaction
- Higher Quality Construction
- Reduced Project Schedule
- Greater Productivity
- Greater Profitability/Reduced Costs
- Better Risk Management
You can watch the video here.
Having gotten a brief overview of Lean Construction, let’s look at an actual construction project that applied integrated Lean Six Sigma. Gaurav Chauhan, currently Executive Director for Dubai-based Unified Workspace, a Project Management company, takes us through the safety-related project.
The project was designed to determine a company’s current safety performance and develop a solution to improve it.
They followed the DMAIC structure with Lean tools incorporated. What follows is a detailed look at all elements of the DMAIC application, from Project Charter to validating implemented improvements.
You can view Gaurav’s video here.
Finally, let’s look at another example. In this paper titled “Implementation of Six Sigma Methodology in Construction Industry For Quality Process Improvement”, by Ar. Priya Swami, and Ar.Bhagyashree Kadiwal, Six Sigma is used to evaluate plastering defects in building projects in a case study of a residential complex of 100 flats.
International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET)e-ISSN: 2395-0056Volume: 07 Issue: 04| Apr2020.
You can access the article here.
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