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Lean Construction? CURRENT DEPLOYMENT OF LEAN METHODS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY By DANE RYAN GILBERT A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2008 1 © 2008 Dane Ryan Gilbert 2 To my family 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank all of the people who have helped me in the completion of this thesis. I thank my committee (Dr. Raymond Issa, Dr. Esther Obonyo, and Dr. Ian Flood) for helping to guide me through this process. I would also like to thank my parents, Dan and Kathy Gilbert. They taught me to do everything to the best of my ability. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................7 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................8 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................10 What is Lean Construction?....................................................................................................10 Problem Statement..................................................................................................................10 Objective of this Study ...........................................................................................................13 2 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................14 Lean Production......................................................................................................................14 Total Quality Management.....................................................................................................17 Continuous Improvement .......................................................................................................20 Lean Production in Construction............................................................................................21 Previous Research on the Deployment of Lean Construction................................................23 The International Group of Lean Construction ......................................................................25 3 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................27 Sample Selection ....................................................................................................................27 The Survey..............................................................................................................................27 Analysis Performed ................................................................................................................28 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS.................................................................................................30 Survey Response Rate ............................................................................................................30 Demographics.........................................................................................................................30 Survey Results ........................................................................................................................31 5 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................41 6 RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................................................................43 5 APPENDIX A LEAN CONSTRUCTION SURVEY.....................................................................................45 B INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH BOARD SURVEY COVER LETTER..............................48 LIST OF REFERENCES...............................................................................................................49 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................51 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 1-1. Productivity Increases for Various Industries in the U.S. .....................................................12 2-1. Comparison of craft production, mass production, and lean production ..............................15 2-2. Comparison of the conventional CM approach and the lean construction approach ............22 4-1. Number of employees contained within the responding companies .....................................30 4-2. Annual turnover in terms of revenue of the responding companies......................................31 4-3. Typical nature of the projects done by the responding company..........................................31 4-4. Nature of the business done by the responding company .....................................................31 4-5. Customer most often dealt with by the responding company ...............................................31 4-6. Percentage of respondents who are familiar with the term “lean construction” as an approach to managing the construction process. ...............................................................32 4-7. Percentage of companies who currently utilize lean construction methods or concepts on their projects..................................................................................................................32 4-8. Year started and the number of years that have elapsed since the companies began using lean construction. .....................................................................................................37 4-9. Mean and range of the number of years since the companies implemented lean construction as an approach to managing the construction process ..................................37 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1. Definition of productivity.....................................................................................................11 2-1. Six steps of the Continuous Improvement Cycle .................................................................21 4-1. Companies using lean construction based on the number of persons employed by the company.............................................................................................................................33 4-2. Exponential trend of the number of employees in companies utilizing lean construction....33 4-3. Companies using lean construction based on the company’s annual turnover in terms of revenue...............................................................................................................................34 4-4. Companies using lean construction based on the typical nature of the company’s construction project............................................................................................................35 4-5. Companies utilizing lean construction techniques based on the nature of their business. ....36 4-6. Business sector of the customer most often dealt with by the construction companies utilizing lean construction..................................................................................................36 4-7. Groups the companies interface with most with regards to lean construction. .....................39 4-8. Amount of time companies plan on devoting to lean construction in the future..................39 4-9. Definition of lean construction chosen by companies...........................................................40 8 Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science of Building Construction CURRENT DEPLOYMENT OF LEAN METHODS IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY By Dane Ryan Gilbert May 2008 Chair: R. Raymond Issa Cochair: Esther Obonyo Major: Building Construction This report investigates the deployment of lean construction in an attempt to answer the following two questions: 1) what percentage of leading contractors is aware of lean construction techniques, and 2) to what extent has lean construction been accepted into practice by the construction industry in 2008. The source of the data collected for this report was a survey. This survey was distributed to industry professionals representing the 113 companies who attended the University of Florida’s 2008 spring career fair on February 12, 2008. The University of Florida’s spring career fair had Project Managers, Project Engineers, Senior Vice Presidents, Presidents, and Chief Operating Officers from some of the world’s top general contracting firms in attendance. Results of the survey indicate that most of general contractors, specialty contractors, and construction management firms in the construction industry are unfamiliar with the term lean construction as an approach to managing the construction process. Lean is consequently not being utilized in the construction industry. It is likely that many of the techniques encompassed under lean principles are being used; however, companies are not utilizing lean construction principles as the overall approach for completing their projects. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The increasingly competitive construction market
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