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Abstract
Lean construction is an applied form of a concept practiced in production and operations management in the manufacturing sector. It mainly focuses on continuous improvements in the production processes be eliminating redundancies from the value chain, resulting in improved delivery of the finished goods offering more value to the end customer. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is a lean tool which enables the user to map a process with respect to the value addition activities for the customer. It gives a visual representation of the flow of information, processes and their durations involved in the production process. A non-value added activity is identified as waste on a value stream map. Using VSM, a current state map of the production process is prepared and analyzed. On identification of the potential wastes, an improved process map called ‘Future State Map’ is prepared. In this research work, the authors have focused on the construction process of a residential construction project and attempted to implement VSM to gain an enhanced lean construction system. The authors have planned to prepare the current state for the floor-floor production process of a residential project. After performing a systematic analysis, a future state map shall be prepared to state the benefits of minimizing the waste activities in the process. The following work is an attempt to build up the application of VSM for lean construction practices
Key words: Value Stream Mapping, Lean construction, Residential, Wastes, Continuous improvement.
INTRODUCTION
Lean Construction emerged as a modern aspect in construction planning by the application of lean concepts that approach value rather than cost. It served as a predictable and robust management system that benefits the all the project participants by making every individual voice out better opinions, commit to those opinions and perform to those commitments. This helps in continuous improvement of the processes which will provide a high quality and low cost project to the end customer.
Lean Construction is defined as the process of generating the maximum amount of value by designing the production system in such a way that waste is minimized. The waste can be in terms of materials, time and effort (Raghavan, Kalidindi, Mahalingam, Varghese, & Ayesha). Construction industry in India has been suffering huge loss due to late delivery of projects in within the stipulated budget and the quality as demanded by the customer (Desai & Shelat, 2014). Prolonged delivery time and substantial amount of waste generation in the construction process has resulted in increased efforts from the project management to look for effective ways in which the lead times can be reduced and process reliability can be improved along with quality to the customers (Resident VSM).
There are several indicative studies on the construction productivity which reveals that enormous waste is generated in the production process (Desai & Shelat, 2014) that can originate at any stage of the project. Waste generation can be prevented by effectively managing the flow of information, materials and resources. This can be achieved by training the site management to cleverly distinguish value adding activities and non-value adding activities which are generally termed as waste and eliminate them.
Among the various tools for implementation that are available, Value Stream Mapping permits a systematic view of the process, identify the process flow and pull the waste according to lean principles. VSM is a static tool and doesn’t capture the variation in processes in different scenarios. Further it helps in the identification of wastes and bottlenecks and suggest for improvements (Sawhney, 2011).
OBJECTIVES & METHODOLOGY
Value Stream Mapping focusses on continuous improvement of the production process by
eliminating redundancies along the value chain, resulting in improved delivery of finished
goods offering more value to the end customer.
To elaborate this advantage of VSM, a construction process of a residential construction project is selected for case study and current state map is prepared and analyzed for potential wastes. By eliminating them, an improved process map called the Future state map is prepared which aims in achieving an activity based improvement from the existing process. These improvements are made iterative to generate a value creation process benefitting the end customer. The lean improvements and suggestions that are suggested for enhancements of the current state are developed based on the discussions with the project management and a hypothesis of solutions are generated.
Value Stream Mapping
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is described as an iterative method for mapping and analyzing value streams. Its purpose is to quantify and communicate production process characteristics such as material and information flows as well as non-value adding activities. VSM consists of the elements of “The Current State Mapping” and “The Future State Mapping”.
The Current State Mapping – The goal of current state mapping is to create the clear picture of the existing process and to identify waste. Mapping the current state reveals both value and non-value adding activities.
The Future State Mapping – The focus of future state mapping is to eliminate the root cause of wastes and to link the value stream in a smooth flow. The objective of the future state (to-be scenario) is to create
