Title : Application of the New Production Philosophy to Construction

The background and development of the new production philosophy are presented. The conceptual basis of the traditional and the new production philosophies, as applied in manufacturing, are examined. The traditional conceptual basis of construction is criticized, and an initial new interpretation of construction is given based on the new philosophy. Finally, the challenges of implementing the new production philosophy in construction are considered. 2. Subject: The term " new production philosophy " refers to an evolving set of methodologies, techniques and tools, the genesis of which was in the Japanese JIT and TQC efforts in car manufacturing. Several alternative names are presently used to refer to this philosophy: lean production, JIT/TQC, world class manufacturing, time based competition. In manufacturing, great gains in performance have been realized by this new production philosophy. With the exception of quality methodologies, this new philosophy is little known in construction. 3. Objectives/Benefits: The goal of this report is to assess whether or not the new production philosophy has implications for construction. 4. Methodology: The study consisted mainly of a literature review and a conceptual analysis and synthesis. In the last stage of the study, four engineering or construction companies were visited to ascertain the present level of implementation of the new philosophy. 5. Results: Construction should adopt the new production philosophy. In manufacturing, the new production philosophy improves competitiveness by identifying and eliminating waste (non value-adding) activities. Traditionally, construction is viewed and modeled only as a series of conversion (value-adding) activities. For example, waste activities such as waiting, storing inventory, moving material, and inspection are not generally modeled by Critical Path Models (CPM) or other control tools. Construction has traditionally tried to improve competitiveness by making conversions incrementally more efficient. But judging from the manufacturing experience, construction could realize dramatic improvements simply by identifying and eliminating non conversion (non value-adding) activities. In other words, actual construction should be viewed as flow processes (consisting of both waste and conversion activities), not just conversion processes. As demonstrated previously by the manufacturing industry's experience, adoption of the new production philosophy will be a fundamental paradigm shift for the construction industry. The implications of this for design is that the process of construction must be developed in conjunction with the design itself. An initial set of design and improvement principles for flow processes is presented that can serve as an implementation guideline. Major development efforts in construction, like industrialization, …