Lean Engineering Concepts

ENMG 642

Lecture 3-
The Foundations of Lean Construction
Construction Versus
Manufacturing
Construction Versus Manufacturing Products
▪ Physical nature of the end product
✓ Manufacturing:
o Many copies from a single design
o Mass market
o Finished goods can be moved as a whole to retailers or end customers
✓ Construction?
▪ Onsite production
✓ Manufacturing: controlled environment
✓ Construction?
▪ Uniqueness
✓ Manufacturing: specialized equipment to make standardized units (little customization
by user)
✓ Construction?
▪ Complexity
✓ Manufacturing: specialized facilities with suitable technology and layout ensure reliable
flow of product
✓ Construction: completion of activities is highly inter-related and complicated
What Do These Factors Lead To?
▪ More uncertainty
✓ In manufacturing, uncertainty can be reduced by
increasing control over the process
✓ A steady state is desirable in order to increase
efficiency through repetition
✓ It is much harder in construction!
▪ What about the process? Similarities? Differences?
Construction Versus Manufacturing Process
▪ Extent of operations
✓ Manufacturing
o Well defined from the beginning
o Process will change only if there is a drastic change in costs
✓ Construction?
o Supply chain is more flexible
o Contractors can perform operations based on the resources
and costs of each specific project
▪ Workforce
✓ Manufacturing
o Enjoys stable wage policies and higher employment security
o Positions are well defined
✓ Construction?
Construction Versus Manufacturing Process
▪ Quality
✓ Manufacturing
o Related more closely to process control than to
product conformance
o Common tasks: defect prevention, monitoring, and
intervention
o Rework is not common
✓ Construction?
Construction Versus Manufacturing Process
▪ Supply
✓ Manufacturing
o An order driven activity that is synchronized
through material handling systems
✓ Construction
o A schedule driven activity
o Why is that?
• Because the process span is longer and the
sequence of tasks can be modified, if required,
by unforeseen conditions
Production Control
▪ Construction as Fixed Position Manufacturing
▪ What is production ?
✓ Designing and Making
✓ Role of Deming
▪ What is Control?
✓ Identifying negative variances? (cost, time, quality,
safety)
✓ Feedback and feed forward
▪ What is Push vs. Pull?
✓ Pre-assigned due dates vs. state of the system +
dates + internal customer

Ballard, H.G., 2000. The last planner system of production control (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).
Production Control
▪ Is Construction Unique or Repetitive?
✓ Unique project, repetitive processes
▪ Project control vs Production control?
▪ What is Production vs. Productivity?
✓ Critique of Earned Value?
▪ Managing by breaking down and transformation vs. TFV
✓ WBS (work package as a resource center) vs. TFV
▪ Project as a temporary system connected to other
temporary and permanent systems

Ballard, H.G., 2000. The last planner system of production control (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).
What is a Theory of Production?
Theoretical Considerations
▪ It should be prescriptive:
✓ It should reveal how action contributes to the goals set
for production.
▪ On the most general level, there are three possible
actions:
✓ Design of the production system
✓ Control of the production systemin order to realize the
production intended
✓ Improvement of the production system

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Goals for Production Systems
▪ Getting intended products produced in general
▪ Goals related to the characteristics of the production itself:
✓ E.g. cost minimization and level of utilization (internal
goals)
▪ Goals related to the needs of the customer:
✓ E.g. quality, dependability and flexibility (external
goals)
▪ Furthermore, the theory of production should cover all
essential areas of production, especially production proper
and product design.

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Theories/Views of Production
▪ Transformation view
▪ Flow view
▪ Value generation view

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
 TFV Theory of Production (Koskela, 2000)
Transformation View Flow View Value View

Concept of As a transformation As a flow of info. & As an act of creation

production of inputs into material, made up of
outputs moving, transformation,
inspection, and waiting
Main Hierarchical Elimination of waste; time Satisfaction of purpose
principles decomposition reduction; variability
reduction
Methods and Work breakdown Continuous flow, pull, Testing purpose against
practices structure, MRP, continuous improvement constraints, translating
organizational from VOC, inspecting vs
responsibility chart purpose
Practical Taking care of what Taking care that what is Taking care that the
contribution has to be done unnecessary is done as product allows
little as possible customers to accomplish
their purposes

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
 TFV Theory of Production (Koskela, 2000)
Transformation View Flow View Value View

Concept of As a transformation As a flow of info. & As an act of creation

production of inputs into material, made up of
outputs moving, transformation,
inspection, and waiting
Main Hierarchical Elimination of waste; time Satisfaction of purpose
principles decomposition reduction; variability
reduction
Methods and Work breakdown Continuous flow, pull, Testing purpose against
practices structure, MRP, continuous improvement constraints, translating
organizational from VOC, inspecting vs
responsibility chart purpose
Practical Taking care of what Taking care that what is Taking care that the
contribution has to be done unnecessary is done as product allows
little as possible customers to accomplish
Task Flow their purposes
Value
management management management

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Why conventional construction project management fails?

▪ Traditional theories of production

✓ Focus on transformation from inputs to outputs
✓ Decompose transformations into smaller tasks
✓ Minimize the cost of each one independently of others
✓ Push for starting at earliest date regardless of
readiness or demand

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Traditional versus Lean
▪ Decisions are made ▪ Downstream players are
sequentially by specialists involved in upstream
and ‘thrown over the wall’ decisions, and vice-versa
▪ Product design is ▪ Product and process are
completed, then process designed together
design begins
▪ Not all product life cycle ▪ All product life cycle
stages are considered in stages are considered in
design design
▪ Activities are performed ▪ Activities are performed at
as soon as possible the last responsible
moment

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Traditional versus Lean
▪ Separate organizations ▪ Systematic efforts are
link together through the made to optimize supply
market, and take what the chains
market offers
▪ Participants build up large ▪ Buffers are sized and
inventories to protect their located to perform their
function of absorbing
own interests system variability
▪ Stakeholder interests are ▪ Stakeholder interests are
not aligned aligned
▪ Learning occurs ▪ Learning is incorporated
sporadically into project, firm, and
supply chain management

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Key Features of Lean Construction
▪ The larger system is the focus of management attention,
not local optimization
▪ Stakeholder interests are aligned through relational
contracts
▪ Downstream players are involved in upstream work, and
vice-versa
▪ Product and process are designed together; indeed, all
design criteria are considered when generating and
selecting from design options
▪ All product life cycle stages are considered in design
▪ Standards are the starting point for improving how work is
done

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Key Features of Lean Construction
▪ Activities are performed at the last responsible moment
▪ The rule followed for release of work between connected
specialists is: Flow where you can, Pull where you can’t,
Push where you must
▪ Variation is attacked and reduced —variation in workload,
in process durations, in product quality, in plan reliability,
…
▪ Inventory, capacity, schedule and financial buffers are
sized and located to perform their function of absorbing
variability that cannot yet be eliminated
▪ Necessity, the mother of invention, is self-imposed to
cause innovation and learning

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
Essential Features of Lean
▪ Optimizing the system, not its parts
▪ Controlling processes
▪ Driving out variation
▪ Decentralizing decisions
▪ Rapid learning by everyone at every level every day
Designing Production Control systems
▪ Variability mitigated and managed
▪ Assignments are sound
▪ Realization of assignments is measured
▪ Causes of failure are investigated and removed
▪ A buffer of sound assignments is maintained
▪ Prerequisites of upcoming assignments are actively made ready
▪ Pull vs push
▪ Production control facilitates workflow and value generation.
▪ The project is conceived as a temporary production system
▪ Decision making is distributed in production control systems
▪ Production control resists the tendency toward local
suboptimization

Ballard, H.G., 2000. The last planner system of production control (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).
Moving from lean manufacturing
to lean construction
Lean Project Delivery System

Koskela, L., Howell, G., Ballard, G. and Tommelein, I., 2002. “The foundations of lean construction”. Design and construction:
Building in value, 291, pp.211-226.
The Last Planner System
The Last Planner System
▪ Three-level hierarchy of schedules is used to address
reliability of work flow
✓ Milestone or master schedule using pull from
successor activities
✓ A look-ahead schedule represents an intermediate
level of planning
o Major activities are pulled to meet the milestone
dates in the master pull schedule
o Activities are broken into more detail and
“screened” prior to entering the look-ahead
schedule
✓ A “shielded” weekly planner
The Last Planner System
▪ Role of Last Planners
✓ These are people accountable for the completion of
individual assignments at the operational level
✓ Lead reverse phase schedule (RPS), i.e. a detailed
work plan specifying handoffs between trades
✓ Based on RPS, they develop a “lookahead” schedule
to determine
o Activities to be completed during the coming weeks
o Backlog of ready work
✓ If assignments are not completed on time, planners
must determine root cause of variance and develop an
action plan
The Big Idea
▪ What if every member of the team shared completely the
responsibility for the entire project and set about correcting
deficiencies or problems wherever they popped up without regard to
who caused the problem or who is going to pay for it?
▪ What if all team members were friends looking out for the interest of
the Client and each other, applauding the successes of each other
and sharing the pain of each others' failures?
▪ What if all of the design and construction entities on a project could
be organized in such a way that they all functioned as if they truly
were a single company with a single goal and with no competition
amongst themselves for profit or recognition?

Greg Howell
Glenn Ballard
Lean Construction Institute