Lean Construction Management
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Lean Construction Management . Shang Gao • Sui Pheng Low Lean Construction Management The Toyota Way Shang Gao Sui Pheng Low School of Architecture and the Built Department of Building Environment National University of Singapore The University of Newcastle, Singapore, Singapore Australia (Singapore campus) Singapore, Singapore ISBN 978-981-287-013-1 ISBN 978-981-287-014-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-287-014-8 Springer Singapore Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014939931 # Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2014 This work is subject to copyright. 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Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface The Chinese construction industry has witnessed many remarkable achievements over the past years. Yet it still suffers from many problems, including low product quality, low working efficiency, projects finishing over budget, huge construction wastes and others. As very little past studies have shed light on the Chinese construction industry in the context of implementing lean or Toyota Way practices, this study addresses this research gap with the aim of generating useful insights that may better guide large Chinese construction firms in embarking on a lean transfor- mation exercise by means of deploying the Toyota Way principles. The Toyota Way was historically the first domain, where the practices and principles of lean production or lean construction were formulated and developed. It can be easily seen that lean construction has already borrowed some principles and techniques of the lean concept or Toyota Way and has become an established theme in the construction domain. The aim of this study is to establish the implementation framework of the Toyota Way model for large construction firms in China. It begins with an extensive literature review of the lean concept, the Toyota Way and the relevant frameworks of lean construction. A theoretical framework for the Toyota Way model within the construction context has been developed and is accompanied by a list of Toyota Way-styled attributes, which fit into the construction context. It is worth highlighting that the focus has been put on the Toyota Way model, over other existing frameworks of lean construction, because of the comprehensiveness of the Toyota Way model, which contains four layers—the philosophy model, the process model, the people and partners model, and the problem-solving model. Most importantly, it has addressed the technical and social aspects of the lean concept. In order to assess Toyota Way practices within large Chinese construction firms, a mixed research method was adopted at different stages of the study. For a start, a structured questionnaire based on the identified Toyota Way-styled attributes was developed, and data was collected from building professionals with large construc- tion firms in China. The quantitative data outlines the status quo of the Toyota Way-styled practices implemented in the Chinese construction industry, as well as the extent to which these attributes were perceived. The results showed that all the actionable attributes derived from the Toyota Way model were appreciated by the respondents, but some attributes fall short of implementation. To further investigate why implementation was uneven, and also to understand how these Toyota Way v vi Preface practices could be implemented in real-life projects, interviews and case studies were carried out as part of the investigation. At this stage, from the interview findings, the evaluations of the case study projects and the comparisons with the theoretical model of the Toyota Way, the findings have enhanced the understanding of Toyota Way practices in the Chinese construction context. Furthermore, the results highlighted that the gap between actual practice and Toyota Way-styled practices is enormous, and implementation faces considerable challenges. Based on all the findings, this study then employs the SWOT analysis to present a picture that addresses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the implementa- tion of the Toyota Way in China. It is also confirmed that the Toyota Way model presented in this book is considered appropriate for use in Chinese construction firms and may additionally be used as a holistic assessment tool for measuring the maturity of firms in terms of their Toyota Way implementation. Management would then be in a better position to develop plans for Toyota Way implementation by focusing on weak areas, and thus increasing the likelihood of success in the implementation of the Toyota Way. Keywords: Toyota Way model; Lean construction; Large Chinese construction firms; SWOT Singapore, Singapore Shang Gao Singapore, Singapore Sui Pheng Low Abbreviations ACE Architectural, Engineering and Construction BIQ Built-in Quality BIM Building Information Modeling CCA Chinese Construction Association CCETB China Construction Engineering Third Bureau CCTV Closed-circuit Television CI Corporate Image CII Construction Industry Institute CICA China International Contractors Association CICC Chinese International Construction Company COE Collective-owned Enterprises CSCEC China State Construction Engineering Corporation DI Design Institute GDP Gross Domestic Product GM General Motors HRM Human Resource Management JIT Just-in-Time LCCF Large Chinese Construction Firm LCI Lean Construction Institute LPS Last Planner System MHURD Minister of Housing Urban-Rural Development MOC Ministry of Construction NAOC National Audit Office of China NUMMI New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc NBSC National Bureau of Statistics of China NIE National Inspection Exemption PDCA Plan-Do-Check-Act POM Production and Operations Management PE Project Engineer PM Project Manager PMBOK Project Management Body of Knowledge PPC Percent Plan Complete PPT Project Planning Taskforce vii viii Abbreviations QCs Quality Circles Rebar Reinforcement bar RMB Renminbi SME Small and Medium Enterprises SOE State-Owned Enterprises SOP Standardized Operating Procedure SQC Statistical Quality Control SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats TFV Transformation-Flow-Value TPS Toyota Production System TQC Total Quality Control TQM Total Quality Management WIP Work-in-process WTO World Trade Organization List of Non-English Terms Used 5-S 5-S is the acronym for Sort (Seiri), Simplify (Seiton), Sweep (Seiso), Standardize (Seiketsu), and Self-discipline (Shitsuke): a visually oriented system for organizing the workplace to minimize the waste of time Andon A visual control device to notify management, maintenance staff and operators of quality or process problems Gemba The actual place where the real added-value work is done Genchi Genbutsu Go and see for yourself Guanxi Relationships among various parties that cooperate and sup- port one another Hansei Relentless reflection Heijunka Production smoothing or leveling the production schedule Hoshin kanri Also called policy deployment. It is a step-by-step planning, implementation and review process to manage change Jianli This is the supervision firm in the Chinese construction indus- try. The jianli’s main role is to ensure that a project is constructed safely and to the quality standards as required under the law Jidoka Providing machineries and operators with the ability to detect when an abnormal condition has occurred and to immediately stop work Kaizen Continuous, incremental improvement of an activity to create more value with less waste Kanban A signal, often a card attached to suppliers or equipment that regulates pull by signaling upstream production or delivery Muda Waste or non-value-adding activities Muri Overburden—when workers or machines are pushed beyond their capacity Mura Unevenness—when some workers and machines work below their capacities for some of the time, while others may overproduce