350

Lean construction implementation and its

implication on sustainability: a contractors case
study
Lingguang Song and Daan Liang
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14

Abstract: The lean construction concept has been introduced successfully into the construction industry to reduce con-
struction wastes. While lean concepts require a rethinking of existing construction processes and practices, there is also a
need for new tools to implement lean thinking. In addition, while lean can improve project time and cost performance, it
may also have an impact on sustainability, which mainly focuses on reducing environmental impact of construction. This
paper describes the implementation of lean construction and its implication on environmental sustainability from a contrac-
tor perspective through a case study. The study observed waste in both project-level contractor coordination and operation-
level construction performance. A vertically-integrated scheduling system that features location-based look-ahead schedul-
ing and graphic weekly work planning was developed to improve project-level contractor coordination. To implement
waste elimination solutions at the operation level, construction simulation and 3-D visualization were applied to facilitate
lean implementation. Meanwhile, the impact of lean on sustainability were observed and discussed.
Key words: lean construction, concrete construction, sustainability, scheduling, simulation, visualization.
Resume : Le concept de construction allegee a ete introduit avec succes dans lindustrie de la construction afin de reduire
les dechets de construction. Bien que les concepts alleges demandent de repenser les procedes et les pratiques de construc-
tion actuels, il existe un besoin de developper de nouveaux outils pour implanter la pensee allegee. De plus, la methode al-
For personal use only.

legee peut ameliorer le temps consacre au projet et le rendement economique, elle peut aussi avoir un impact sur la
durabilite, qui porte principalement sur la reduction de limpact environnemental de la construction. Cet article decrit lim-
plantation dune construction allegee et de son implication sur la durabilite environnementale du point de vue de lentre-
preneur grace a une etude de cas. Letude a examine les dechets du point de vue de coordination de lentrepreneur au
niveau du projet et le rendement operationnel de la construction au niveau de loperation. Un systeme dordonnancement a
integration verticale qui comporte un ordonnancement a lecture anticipee base sur lemplacement et une planification gra-
phique hebdomadaire a ete developpe afin dameliorer la coordination avec lentrepreneur au niveau du projet. Pour im-
planter les solutions delimination des dechets au niveau operationnel, une simulation de la construction et une
visualisation tridimensionnelle ont ete utilisees pour faciliter limplantation allegee. Entretemps, limpact de la methode al-
legee sur la durabilite a ete note et examine.
Mots-cles : construction allegee, construction en beton, durabilite, ordonnancement, simulation, visualisation.
[Traduit par la Redaction]

Introduction process (e.g., Ballard 2000b). These efforts have resulted in

Lean is a proven management strategy for achieving sig-
nificant and continuous improvement through elimination of
all waste of time and other resources (Womack and Jones
2003). Lean construction has been used to improve planning
practice, construction operations, and the project delivery
Received 7 February 2010. Revision accepted 20 January 2011.
Published on the NRC Research Press Web site at cjce.nrc.ca on
15 February 2011.
L. Song.1 Department of Construction Management, University
of Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
D. Liang. Department of Construction Engineering &
Engineering Technology, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX,
USA.
Written discussion of this article is welcomed and will be
received by the Editor until 31 July 2011.
1Corresponding author (e-mail: LSONG5@uh.edu).
the development of lean construction methodologies such as
the last planner (Ballard 2000a) and the lean project de-
livery system (Ballard 2000b). The practical value of lean
construction has been demonstrated in many case studies.
For example, Salem et al. (2005) evaluated the effectiveness
of lean construction techniques, including last planner, in-
creased visualization, daily huddle meetings, and first-run
studies, and their case study showed that these techniques
achieved successful outcomes.
While the construction industry is often associated with a
conservative and change-resistant image (Davis and Songer
2009), the acceptance of lean construction is also chal-
lenged. Lean thinking is new to many contractors, and
adopting lean construction requires a change of mindset
with regard to current practices (Howell and Ballard 1998).
To promote this mindset change, much effort has been fo-
cused on providing training in lean construction, developing
lean methodologies, and demonstrating lean principles and
their benefits through case studies (e.g., Salem et al. 2005).

Can. J. Civ. Eng. 38: 350359 (2011) doi:10.1139/L11-005 Published by NRC Research Press
 Song and Liang
Another barrier to the adoption of lean concepts is the lack
of effective implementation tools to support lean-construc-
tion applications. The lack of acceptance may not be be-
cause of the lack of theories, but a lack of understanding following two subsections describe waste identified as well
of the implementation process and tools necessary to support
the implementation. Traditional construction management
practice is well supported by a wide variety of tools, such
as the critical path method (CPM), databases, and computer-
ized applications. Lean construction takes a different ap-
proach in managing construction processes (Ballard 2000a),
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
and existing tools based on the traditional management phi-
losophy may either find new uses in the lean construction
environment or need to be updated for lean applications.
The primary purpose of this study is to illustrate the need
for lean implementation tools and their development from a
contractor perspective through a case study. The pilot imple-
mentation of lean construction principles in a concrete con-
struction company was studied. Another objective of the
study is to evaluate the impact of lean on environmental sus-
tainability during the construction stage, which aims at using
sustainable materials, reducing waste generation, soil pollu-
tion, water usage, and transportation, as well as minimizing
noise and disruption to local communities. While lean fo-
cuses on improving time and cost performance and can
bring immediate economical value to a contractor, environ-
mental sustainability is aimed at a different aspect of value,
For personal use only.
which is reducing environmental impact. Due to this differ-
ence in their focuses, there is a need to evaluate how lean
applications affect sustainability. While past studies are pri-
marily focused on analyzing the impact from an integrated
design and construction perspective (e.g., Bae and Kim
2008), this study is to describe the impact during the con-
struction stage from a contractor perspective through the
aforementioned case study.
The following section describes field observations and the
justification for applying lean construction concepts. It is
followed by a discussion of the need for supporting tools in
facilitating lean implementation and their development
through three field studies. The impact of these lean applica-
tions on environmental sustainability were also observed and
discussed.
Field observations
The concrete construction company involved in this study
was new to lean and sustainability applications and the com-
pany intended to conduct a pilot study to better understand
the application of lean in concrete construction and its po-
tential impact on sustainability. A typical project of the con-
tractor was identified as a case study and the project
involves a mixed-use, 30-story, reinforced concrete residen-
tial building. Daily field observation of the concrete con-
struction operation was made for three consecutive months.
In the context of lean construction, waste refers to any re-
sources consumed by activities that do not add value to meet
the needs of a client. Traditionally, many productivity stud-
ies have been mainly focused on improving individual con-
struction activities. Lean construction also focuses heavily
on the management of interactions among different trades
and the elimination of waste associated with coordination is-
sues (Ballard 2000b). Therefore, in this case study, it was
351
decided that field observations would be made on both indi-
vidual activities at the operation level and the coordination
of different trades or subcontractors at the project level. The
as lean-inspired solutions.
Waste at the project level
At the project level, close coordination of different trades
is crucial to project success. The concrete construction proc-
ess consists of formwork erection, rebar and embedment in-
stallation, concrete placement and curing, and formwork
removal. In addition to the concrete contractor, several other
contractors were involved in the sample project, including
the general contractor and several subcontractors for rebar,
plumbing, insulation, and electrical systems. Coordination
issues among contractors were found to have caused sched-
ule delays, and several observations that are of representa-
tive nature are briefly described below.
First, during weekly planning, there was inadequate re-
view and analysis of constraints, which caused delays. For
example, the direction of post-tensioning cable runs was
changed by the contractor to ease concreting work, and this
change was implemented but without appropriate approval
from the engineer. The general contractor spotted this
change, halted the construction, and called for an engineer-
ing review to evaluate its impact. Although the change was
eventually approved, delay had been incurred. Had this issue
been identified and solved through more proactive look-
ahead scheduling, the delay would have been avoided. Sec-
ond, delays due to unbalanced crew productivity rates and
space conflicts were not uncommon. For example, a slab
formwork crew had to slow down to avoid space conflict
with a crew working on a shear wall. In addition, when a
crew was rushed or several trades were stacked together,
safety and quality also became real concerns. Third, some
subcontractors took a very narrow view of weekly schedul-
ing by focusing only on their own work. This resulted in co-
ordination problems and contributed to the chaotic behavior
of the operation. From a sustainability perspective, these de-
lays and idleness of crews and equipment can also cause un-
necessary energy consumption and air emissions. In fact, the
power and fuel consumption represents about 1.2% of the
total cost of a building construction project (DOC 2005),
while construction activities produce approximately 1.7% of
total US greenhouse gas emissions (EPA 2009). Although
this impact appears to be small from an individual contrac-
tor standpoint, the cumulative impact on sustainability can
be significant considering the enormous size of the construc-
tion industry. In summary, these observed issues are directly
or indirectly related to the lack of effective team coordina-
tion and look-ahead scheduling practice. The last-planner
methodology was proposed for the look-ahead scheduling
process.
Last planner is a lean-production-based project-planning
methodology that integrates a multiple-level planning frame-
work that includes master scheduling, look-ahead schedul-
ing, and weekly work planning to improve the reliability of
work flow (Ballard 2000a). The master schedule identifies
work packages and the overall execution strategy of a proj-
ect. The look-ahead schedule is a detail plan showing work
to be done within a look-ahead time window, such as six
Published by NRC Research Press
 352
weeks. Work tasks are screened for their readiness through a
constraint analysis, which evaluates the potential impact of
contracting, resource, engineering, and prerequisite work on
task performance (Choo 2003). This constraint analysis re-
duces work-flow variability and shields downstream proc-
esses from upstream uncertainties. Look-ahead scheduling
also encourages a pull-driven approach that pulls upstream
material and off-site work to match the progress on site
(Tommelein 1998). After look-ahead scheduling, ready
work tasks of the upcoming week are then transferred to a
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
weekly work plan, where specific field conditions are eval-
uated. Based on this evaluation, realistic commitments for
work progress can be made by last planners i.e., superin-
tendents or foremen who decide the work that is to be
done the next day (Ballard 2000a). To facilitate implementa-
tion of the last-planner methodology, an integrated schedul-
ing system was developed. The system along with its
implication on sustainability is discussed in a later section
entitled A vertically-integrated scheduling system. solutions.
Waste at the operation level
Industry research suggests that approximately 30%35%
of construction costs are wasted and do not add value for
clients (Forsberg and Saukkoriipi 2007). Waste in construc-
tion includes over-production, unnecessary inventory, double
handling of materials, delays and waiting, unnecessary
For personal use only.
movement of people and equipment, over-processing, and
rework (Koskela 1992; Mastroianni and Abdelhamid 2003).
Similar types of waste were observed in this study, and root
causes of this waste are many. Other than poor trade coordi-
nation and the lack of effective scheduling, as described
above, several other causes were also observed, such as
less-optimal work procedures. Waste elimination, in a broad
sense, refers to the effort to eliminate waste by improving
and standardizing activities and processes.
From a sustainability standpoint, waste elimination efforts
from a lean perspective were found to have environmental
impacts of different natures (e.g., negative, positive, or neu-
tral) and magnitudes (e.g., negligible or significant). For ex-
ample, during the early construction stage, almost 30% of
the columns had excessive height that had to be chipped off
to ensure quality rebar placement at the upper floor sup-
ported by these columns. This issue was caused primarily
by a unique slopped-floor design and this issue was resolved
by an additional survey measurement and formwork marking
procedure. While the column height problem was resolved,
excessive noise and dust associated with the rework were
also eliminated. Other waste-elimination efforts of the con-
tractor, such as reducing rework, idling, and double handling
of materials, also have a positive environmental impact.
However, if a contractors view of lean is limited only to
improving economical performance, this narrower view site layout, and space must be considered. Critical path
of lean may not always result in a positive environmental
impact (Lapinski et al. 2006). In this study, for example,
the ready mix concrete was often found to be over designed
to avoid any quality issue and related schedule delay.
Although this has improved productivity, over-designed con-
crete also consumed more resources to produce and gener-
ated more pollutants. Similarly, while just-in-time delivery
of materials reduces on-site inventory, it also results in fre-
quent deliveries, which generate more air emissions (Bae
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 38, 2011
and Kim 2008). On the other hand, several proposals for re-
ducing environmental impact were dropped by the contrac-
tor due to various cost and contracting reasons. As an
example, the concrete supplier was selected solely on the
cost basis regardless of transportation distance and associ-
ated environmental impact, since the project is a lump-sum
contract and the contractor has little incentive to address
sustainability issues. Other environmentally friendly solu-
tions, such as self-consolidating concrete and concrete recy-
cling, were not considered during design and contracting
stages and they would have been applicable if the contractor
had been involved in the design stage. In summary, the
value concept of lean must be aligned with that of sus-
tainability to ensure a winwin of both lean and green.
Additionally, the traditional contracting method also needs
to be adjusted to emphasize the environmental aspect of
construction and promote contractors early involvement in
design to provide better sustainable design and construction
While there are many forms of wastes identified through
the pilot study, two representative types of wastes that are
related to slab formwork installation and bulkhead installa-
tion and removal were presented in this pilot study. The ob-
jective was to demonstrate waste elimination, challenges
encountered, solutions developed, and the implication on
sustainability. These case studies are discussed in a latter
section titled Promoting changes at the operation level.
A vertically-integrated scheduling system
The need
Because master scheduling is determined by general con-
tractors, the last-planner implementation effort within the
concrete contracting company was focused on look-ahead
scheduling and weekly work planning. During the pilot
study, look-ahead schedules were prepared for the upcoming
six weeks in bar chart format in CPM-based scheduling soft-
ware. These schedules were shared with other contractors
during a regular contractor meeting. Although CPM and
bar-charts have been widely used for master scheduling,
their use in look-ahead scheduling has been questioned by
many researchers for its limited capability in modeling non-
value-adding activities, such as various constraints, interrup-
tions, waiting, and moving (Koskela 1992; Kenley 2005). In
particular, when CPM is applied to scheduling repetitive ac-
tivities, such as repetitive high-rise concrete construction in
this study, the early start CPM schedule is not optimal be-
cause floats attached to the activities represent a significant
amount of waste (Harris and Ioannou 1998). Furthermore,
constraint analysis is a complex, multi-dimensional problem
in which various constraints e.g., time, productivity rate,
method and bar-charts are less optimal in expressing some
of the constraints and these limitations affect a project
teams capability to articulate and negotiate the constraints
with other contractors. For these reasons, a better form of
look-ahead scheduling format is thus required for the con-
crete construction involved in this study.
After look-ahead scheduling, ready work tasks of the up-
coming week are then transferred by the concrete contractor
to a weekly work plan, which is in a calendar format. Un-
Published by NRC Research Press
 Song and Liang
fortunately, the calendar format was found to be less effec-
tive in conveying scheduling information for the day-to-day
crew coordination. For example, the spatial interaction
among different crews, material layout, and access con-
straints are not explicitly shown in a calendar schedule, thus
discourage the crews to discover potential performance is-
sues. Therefore, there is also a lack of an effective weekly
or daily scheduling method that can facilitate scheduling at
the crew operation level.
In summary, a better integrated scheduling method that
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
supports scheduling efforts at different organization levels
with different levels of details and time horizons is desired.
Proposed scheduling system
The proposed vertically-integrated scheduling system sup-
ports scheduling at three different levels: (1) project master
scheduling at the general contractor level, (2) 3 to 6 weeks
look-ahead scheduling at the subcontractor level, and
(3) weekly or daily work planning at the field operation
level. Moreover, these schedules of different resolutions
must also be integrated so that information can be shared
freely among them. A literature search was conducted with
an attempt to find a system that meets the above require-
ments. Chua et al. (2003) developed a look-ahead planning
tool, integrated production scheduler (IPS), based on last
planner and the theory of constraints. Also based on last
For personal use only.
planner, Choo et al. (1999) developed a program, WorkPlan,
to guide foremen in doing constraint analysis and weekly
work planning. However, both programs are essentially
based on CPM and bar charts, or their variations, whose
drawbacks have been discussed previously. While CPM and
bar-charts remain as the methods used for master schedul-
ing, it was concluded that a new system for look-ahead
scheduling and weekly or daily work planning were needed.
Location-based look-ahead scheduling
One of the primary goals of look-ahead scheduling is to
shape a continuous and smooth work flow by fine-tuning
work sequence and balancing the work-progress rate. Kenley
(2005) argued that construction projects involve activities
that are repeated in varying quantities in multiple locations
and that these activities should be viewed as a continuous
flow instead of as discrete activities, as they are in CPM.
Based on this definition, a location-based scheduling (LBS)
method, also called flow-line or linear scheduling, was sug-
gested for look-ahead scheduling, and commercial software
packages, such as DYNAProject and Vico Control, were
used to show that lean principles are better supported using
LBS (Kenley and Seppanen 2009). For the same reason, in
this study, LBS was adopted as the underlying algorithm for
the look-ahead scheduling of repetitive concrete construction
work.
An example of an LBS chart for a concrete construction
operation is shown in Fig. 1. An activity such as formwork
installation is represented by a sloped line, called a flow
line, in a two-dimensional time-and-space coordinate sys-
tem. Activities are represented by different flow-line colors
or styles. The horizontal axis represents time, and the verti-
cal axis is the location of an activity e.g., a concrete pour
section. The slope of a flow line represents its productivity
rate, which can be affected by many factors, such as work
353
quantity and complexity, crew composition, and labor skill
levels. Below, we summarize how the look-ahead schedul-
ing can be effectively implemented using some features pro-
vided by LBS.
 Constraint analysis. LBS can graphically display con-
straints related to activity precedence logic, productivity
rate, and time and space buffers among different crews.
Other constraints, such as those related to resources and
weather, can also be traced.
 Work continuity. In LBS, the same activity performed in
different locations is represented as line segments of the
same style, and disconnected line segments indicate inter-
ruptions. This allows work continuity to be graphically
examined and manipulated.
 Work flow coordination. In LBS, parallel flow lines gen-
erally indicate a well-balanced and well-coordinated op-
eration. Planners can study and shape the work flow in
the best achievable sequence and productivity rate based
on project objectives.
 Pull-driven scheduling. LBS allows planners to move a
flow line or a group of flow lines to a different start
time so that unnecessary waiting time and interruptions
can be eliminated.
Daily graphic schedule
For the more detailed weekly or daily work planning at
the crew level, a number of different scheduling formats
were evaluated, such as check lists, daily schedule forms,
crew planning charts, and pre-task planning forms (Hinze
2008). Jongeling and Olofsson (2007) presented a method
for the planning of work-flow by the combined use of loca-
tion-based scheduling and 4D CAD. The introduction of 4D
CAD into daily work planning would definitely make field-
level communication more efficient, but 4D CAD is still a
fast-growing field and their applications to daily operation
of building construction has not been fully investigated.
Therefore, considering the practicality of various potential
solutions, a daily graphic schedule format, which overlays
daily activity scheduling information onto facility layout
drawings, was chosen as the basis for the weekly work plan-
ning. This graphic schedule format was chosen over other
formats because it closely resembles the actual site layout,
which makes it attractive to last planners.
Figure 2 shows a sample of a manually prepared graphic
schedule for a working day for a concrete construction oper-
ation. Activities and their locations are marked on the build-
ing floor plan, and a set of such scheduling charts can be
prepared based on the look-ahead schedule for each day of
a specified period. The graphic schedule places activities in
their working locations on the site-layout drawing, and thus
interference among activities, site logistics, and other types
of project information can be highlighted and analyzed
graphically. These features have greatly facilitated weekly
work-planning and schedule presentation by displaying com-
plex data in an easy-to-understand way.
In summary, the proposed vertically-integrated scheduling
system uses three different scheduling methods, namely
CPM or bar-charts, LBS, and graphic scheduling, for master
scheduling, look-ahead scheduling, and weekly or daily
work planning, respectively. However, preparing and updat-
Published by NRC Research Press
 354
Fig. 1. Sample location-based schedule.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
Fig. 2. Sample graphic schedule.
For personal use only.
ing LBS and graphic schedules manually proved to be very
time consuming because of the rather frequent changes of
project conditions. It is for this reason that the first attempt
to implement the proposed manual system failed. To make
the system practical to use, a decision was made to com-
puterize the system. Due to the dominating popularity of
bar-charts, the contractor insisted on the use of bar-charts as
the primary way to create look-ahead or weekly schedules,
which means that the computerized system must be able to
allow schedulers to easily convert bar-chart schedules into
LBS or graphical schedule formats.
System development
The scheduling system allows users to create look-ahead
schedules and weekly work plans using commercial CPM
or bar-chart software, and then converts these schedules
easily into LBS or graphic schedules. After the conversion,
users can analyze, optimize, and communicate these LBS or
graphic schedules based on the last-planner methodology.
From a system development perspective, the scheduling sys-
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 38, 2011
tem contains two software components, which are LBS-
based look-ahead scheduling and graphic weekly or daily
work planning. These components were developed using
Microsoft Excel and Visual Basic for Application (VBA).
The system also interfaces with two popular CPM-based
scheduling tools, Microsoft Project and Primavera Project
Planner, with which schedules in the form of CPM and bar-
charts are developed. Integration of these three scheduling
methods simplifies the sharing of scheduling information
and eliminates almost entirely the need for data re-entry.
Discussion of the software development is beyond the scope
of this paper, but the main features of the developed system
are described below from an end-user perspective.
Look-ahead and weekly schedules are first developed in
Microsoft Project or Primavera Project Planner and then
they can be converted into the LBS format for look-ahead
scheduling. Before the conversion, the system allows users
to define and filter activities and to specify flow-line style,
the look-ahead time window, and the sequence of work lo-
cations. Screenshots of the user interface are shown in
Fig. 3. The look-ahead schedule in bar-chart format and the
converting options are shown in Fig. 3(a), and a converted
LBS chart is shown in Fig. 3(b), along with a dialog box
showing a tasks attributes.
The converted LBS schedule provides a base schedule
that allows users to add detailed tasks, shape work flow, ad-
just buffers, and balance productivity rates. For constraint
analysis, in addition to the time and space constraints shown
in LBS, other types of constraints can be traced as task at-
tributes, such as those shown in Fig. 3(b). While some at-
tributes can be transferred from CPM schedules, new data
can be added manually or even automatically from external
applications. For example, the system can pull weather fore-
casting information automatically from an online weather
forecast service (National Weather Service 2005), as shown
in Fig. 3(b). This function enables users to factor weather
conditions into scheduling. Easily accessible attribute data
and constraint information allow users to better analyze con-
straints and to track outstanding issues.
Published by NRC Research Press
 Song and Liang
Fig. 3. Bar chart and converted LBS chart. (a) Master schedule and exporting options; (b) LBS chart and task attributes.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
For personal use only.
In the weekly work-planning component, users can gener-
ate a base daily graphic schedule by transferring information
from a look-ahead schedule. To achieve this, users must first
define task locations in a construction layout diagram, which
can be prepared with the drawing tools embedded in Micro-
soft Excel or by importing a layout drawing from CAD pro-
grams. Based on these inputs, the system can automatically
generate daily graphic schedules for each working day
within a user-specified time frame, as shown in Fig. 4.
These schedule charts describe activities and their locations
on the site-layout diagram, and additional constraint infor-
mation can be added graphically to the chart, and then
shared with others.
The use of this computerized program made the second
attempt of applying the proposed vertically-integrated sched-
uling method successful. The time required to manually pre-
pare LBS and graphical schedules were eliminated and
355
schedulers spent more valuable time in analyzing, optimiz-
ing, and sharing information with other project participants.
As a result of this careful scheduling and closer coordina-
tion, several schedule delays related to unnecessary work
discontinuity and stack of activities were forecasted and
avoided later.
On the sustainability front, the new scheduling system
does not appear to immediately affect sustainability. How-
ever, effective scheduling improves work flow and mini-
mizes conflicts, which reduce project duration and
unnecessary idling, thus making less of an environmental
impact. For example, the pull-driven approach of last plan-
ner effectively minimizes unnecessary floats attached to re-
peating activities and ensures a continuous work flow that
is more economically and environmentally efficient. Better
yet, there is no or little additional cost associated with better
management practices to achieve positive sustainability im-
Published by NRC Research Press
 356
Fig. 4. Daily graphic schedule.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
pact. This practically makes green free. Waste elimination that this operation was rather unpredictable and that there
through lean-improved management practices provides a
For personal use only.
unique approach for achieving this free green concept. performance ranged from a perfect, continuous flow of in-
Promoting changes at the operation level
To put lean thinking to work, changes to traditional prac-
tices are almost inevitable, and unfortunately these changes
frequently face resistance, as was the case in this study. Re-
sistance to change is considered a significant factor in the
failure of many improvement initiatives (Bovey and Hede
2001). There are various reasons for this resistance, but this
study was particularly focused on the lack of (1) understand-
ing of the need for and benefits of changes, and (2) training
on changed processes. Two case studies are presented below
that show how simulation and visualization can improve the
understanding and training along with a discussion on the
implication on sustainability.
Identifying the need for and benefits of changes
Many change initiatives fail at the very beginning because
people fail to see the need and benefits associated with the
changes. Simulation techniques have been used as a valua-
ble tool for evaluating the potential level of productivity im-
provement that can be achieved by lean (Tommelein 1998;
Halpin and Kueckmann 2002). In this study, simulation was
used to demonstrate the benefit of changes in an effort to
overcome the inertia of the status quo. A simulation study
of slab formwork installation is presented here as an exam-
ple. The formwork installation operation involves lifting and
installing prefabricated timber slab panels and the subse-
quent carpenter finishing work. Major resources required by
this operation are a formwork crew, a tower crane, and pre-
fabricated formwork panels.
Ideally, these resources should be coordinated to ensure a
continuous flow of work that minimizes waste i.e., wait-
ing and interruptions. However, field observations showed
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 38, 2011
was no clear and stable pattern of work flow. The actual
stallation work without any interruption to a flow that was
frequently disturbed for various reasons. One of the scenar-
ios of the current practice was captured in a simulation
model using CYCLONE (Halpin and Riggs 1992), shown in
Fig. 5, which represents the scenario in which a formwork
panel is lifted by the tower crane, settled in place, and then
completed with carpenter finishing work. After one panel is
done, the same work cycle is repeated to install the next
panel, and each pour section is assumed to have six panels.
This work procedure represents the worst-case scenario be-
cause the formwork crew is frequently forced to wait for
the crane between two such work cycles whenever the crane
is relocated to satisfy requests made by other crews.
To keep the focus on the formwork operation as a sched-
ule-critical activity, crane requests made by other crews are
modeled as a random process with an exponentially distrib-
uted arrival time and normally distributed service time. It is
desirable to reduce waiting time of the formwork crew and
unnecessary movement of the crane. Based on the pull-
driven concept, an ideal solution is to complete all panel
lifting and settling for a pour section at once so that the
crane can be released and carpenter finishing can then com-
mence. This scenario is represented in a simulation model
shown in Fig. 6. Panel lifting and settling activity has a
higher priority than carpenter finishing and request process-
ing, and this mechanism ensures that all panels are lifted
and settled continuously and without interruption. Many
other variations based on models shown in Figs. 5 and 6
can be configured for comparison studies. In this paper,
only the performance of the above-mentioned models is
compared and described below.
Although a seemingly easy solution, its implementation
relies on reliable formwork panel supply and collaboration
among crews sharing the tower crane. When the revised in-
Published by NRC Research Press
 Song and Liang
Fig. 5. A scenario of the current installation process.
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
Fig. 6. Ideal installation process.
For personal use only.
stallation process, as described in Fig. 6, was presented, the
superintendent and several foremen involved were initially
skeptical about the benefits and effect of the proposed
change. As a result, there was a lack of motivation for the
change. To promote a common understanding of the need
for and benefits of the recommended change, a comparative
simulation study of the two installation processes was con-
ducted. In this study, the benefit of the change is measured
by the percentage improvement of the formwork installation
productivity, which is measured by hours per panel. While
most inputs to the simulation models are relatively fixed
(e.g., panel lifting, settling, and finishing time), the arrival
time of crane requests made by other crews and the service
time of these requests depend upon how busy the job site is.
These inputs can vary considerably along the project time-
line. A factorial experiment was conducted to determine the
sensitivity of productivity improvement against varying lev-
els of crane demand, and the levels of request arrival time
were modeled as exponential distributions with mean values
of 5, 10, 15, and 20 min. Levels of service time were mod-
eled as normal distributions, with mean values of 5, 10, 15,
and 20 min, and the standard deviations were assumed to be
20% of the mean value. Simulation experiments were con-
ducted, and Fig. 7 shows the magnitude of productivity im-
provement against different levels of crane request and
service time. The experiments also show that, while the
formwork installation productivity is improved, the cranes
service to other requests is not affected. This result is con-
357
Fig. 7. Productivity improvement against the crane demand.
sistent with the actual observations in the field. More impor-
tantly, the experiment results inspired discussions among
different crews regarding the impact of this change and the
need for collaboration. From a sustainability perspective, re-
ducing waiting time of the formwork crew and unnecessary
movement of the crane represents a positive environmental
impact. For example, tower crane is often regarded as a top
energy guzzler on a building construction project and a large
amount of fuel and energy is needed to support its operation.
Although the overall spending on power and fuel represents
only about 1.2% of building construction costs (DOC 2005),
considering the enormous size of the construction industry,
even a small improvement can lead to substantial economic
and environmental savings.
Training on changed processes
Bulkhead installation and removal are presented here to
illustrate how process visualization has helped in communi-
cating a changed process to the operation-level workforce. A
bulkhead is a temporary formwork strip that blocks fresh
concrete from a section of forms or closes the end of a
form at a construction joint. Holes are first drilled into the
strip to allow rebar, cables, and conduits to run through,
then the bulkhead is installed along the edges of a slab
formwork. This is followed by the placing of rebar, cables,
and conduits, and finally by concreting. After the concrete
has cured, the bulkhead is removed using prying tools. Car-
penters normally install the bulkhead as one piece to save
time, but this makes bulkhead removal difficult and time
consuming because the bulkhead as a whole piece is blocked
by conduits, rebar, and cables running through the concrete
slab. Intense prying actions may also break the concrete slab
edge and cause quality problems. These problems can be
avoided by revising the installation process. The new proce-
dure calls for an additional step of cutting the bulkhead hor-
izontally into two pieces along the centerline, through which
most of the rebar and cables run. The bottom piece of the
bulkhead is installed first, followed by the routing of cables,
conduits, and rebar, and finally by the installation of the top
piece of the bulkhead.
Published by NRC Research Press
 358 Can. J. Civ. Eng. Vol. 38, 2011

An issue in implementing this change is educating work- Fig. 8. Visualization of bulkhead installation.
ers about the change. The majority of workers in the sample
project cannot communicate very well in English, and they
also relocate frequently from job to job. These issues made
the proposed change difficult to implement effectively and
consistently throughout the company. Therefore, effective
training was necessary, and the training format was expected
to be highly graphical and easy to understand without rely-
ing heavily on verbal or written instructions. Three-dimen-
sional process visualization can easily illustrate the process
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14

change, and the underlying model can be updated for future

continuous-improvement efforts. Therefore, process visual-
ization of the bulkhead installation process was developed
using Autodesk 3ds Max. The viewing perspective is fixed,
and the scene, consisting of about 3000 frames, is then ren-
dered. Figure 8 shows a screenshot of the process animation,
which proved to be very effective in explaining the changes.
With the new procedure, the time required for bulkhead in- Fig. 9. Bulkhead removal with (a) the old procedure and (b) the
stallation is slightly increased, but bulkhead removal time is new procedure.
significantly reduced, and damage to concrete is minimized.
Figure 9 shows a comparison of bulkheads removed with the
old procedure and the new procedure. These two pictures in-
dicate that the new procedure allows the top and the bottom
pieces of a bulkhead to be removed easily without painstak-
ingly shattering it into debris for removal, as is the case with
the old procedure. Some of the bulkheads can also be re-
For personal use only.

used. The 3-D visualization was easily understood by the

crews and it was also used in several other job sites. From
the sustainability perspective, according to EPA (2009),
wastes from construction projects account for about 25% of
the total US solid waste volume and about 50% of these
construction wastes are disposed in a landfill. Although a
minor change, the revised bulkhead work process not only
improves time and quality performance but also brings posi-
tive environmental impact by reducing construction wastes
and promoting material re-use.

Conclusions
As shown in this case study, waste in construction can be
found in areas from contractor coordination to individual
work procedures, and much of this waste can be traced to a
lack of planning and to a resistance to changing the status
quo. At the project level, lack of coordination among con-
tractors and crews was cited as the major factor contributing
to project delay. To improve the coordination, a vertically-
integrated scheduling system was developed and it features
an interface with CPM-based schedules, a location-based
look-ahead scheduling algorithm, and a graphic weekly
planning method. Although the immediate application of
this system is for repetitive concrete building construction, in identifying the need for changes and evaluating the bene-
day-to-day operations performed by many subcontractors fits of lean thinking prior to field implementation. More im-
are essentially repetitive, and these contractors face schedul- portantly, it can inspire the talk among project members for
ing problems similar to those that are addressed in this pa- collaboration and continuous improvement. Furthermore, ef-
per. fective training is an important step for implementing
At the operation level, waste is pervasive, and many solu- changes. Three-dimensional process visualization offers a
tions are seemingly straightforward. However, their imple- self-explanatory way to educate work-force on revised work
mentation may well be resisted by the operation personnel processes.
for many reasons. Among them are a lack of understanding From a sustainability perspective, lean can result in envi-
of the benefits of change and inadequate training on the re- ronmental impacts of different natures (e.g., negative, posi-
vised processes. Simulation was found to be very valuable tive, or neutral) and magnitudes (e.g., negligible or

Published by NRC Research Press

 Song and Liang 359

significant). A contractors narrower view of lean that fo-
cuses only on economical measures may actually result in a
negative impact on sustainability. Therefore, the value de-
fined in lean must be aligned with that of sustainability to
achieve green-value while improving time and cost per-
formance. Furthermore, at the project management level,
improving management practices using lean concepts incurs
little or no additional cost for achieving both lean and
green values. This free green approach provides a
unique and low-cost strategy in achieving sustainability. At
Can. J. Civ. Eng. Downloaded from www.nrcresearchpress.com by Depository Services Program on 11/22/14
Construction, East Lansing, Mich., 1820 July 2007, Interna-
tional Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), pp. 6776.
Halpin, D.W., and Kueckmann, M. 2002. Lean construction and si-
mulation. In Proceedings of the 2002 Winter Simulation Confer-
ence, San Diego, Calif., 811 December 2002. Edited by E.
Yucesan, C. Chen, J.L. Snowdon, and J.M. Charnes. WSC Foun-
dation (WSCF), pp. 16971703.
Halpin, D.W., and Riggs, L.S. 1992. Planning and analysis of con-
struction operation. Wiley, New York.
Harris, R.B., and Ioannou, P.G. 1998. Scheduling projects with re-
peating activities. Journal of Construction Engineering and Man-

the field operation level, to promote effective waste-elimina-
tion that is of value to both lean and sustainability, innova-
tive contracting methods should be applied to emphasize the
environmental aspect of construction and promote contrac-
tors early involvement in design to provide better sustain-
able design and construction solutions.
References
Bae, J., and Kim, Y. 2008. Sustainable value on construction pro-
jects and lean construction. Journal of Green Building, 3(1):
156167. doi:10.3992/jgb.3.1.156.
Ballard, G. 2000a. Last planner system of production control. Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK.
Ballard, G. 2000b. Lean project delivery system. Lean Construction
Institute. Available from http://www.leanconstruction.org/lpds.
htm [Accessed on 29 July 2008].
For personal use only.
agement, 124(4): 269278. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-
9364(1998)124:4(269).
Hinze, J.W. 2008. Construction planning and scheduling, 3rd ed.,
Pearson Education, Upper Saddle Rive, NJ.
Howell, G.A., and Ballard, G. 1998. Implementing lean construc-
tion: Understanding and action. In Proceedings of the 6th An-
nual Conference of the International Group for Lean
Construction, Guaruja, Brazil, 1315 August 1998, International
Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), pp. 19.
Jongeling, R., and Olofsson, T. 2007. A method for planning of
work-flow by combined use of location-based scheduling and
4D CAD. Automation in Construction, 16(2): 189198. doi:10.
1016/j.autcon.2006.04.001.
Kenley, R. 2005. Dispelling the complexity myth: Founding lean
construction on location-based planning. In Proceedings of the
13th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean
Construction, Sydney, Australia, 1921 July 2005, International

Bovey, W.H., and Hede, A. 2001. Resistance to organizational
change: The role of defense mechanisms. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 16(7): 534548. doi:10.1108/EUM0000000006166.
Choo, H.J. 2003. Distributed planning and coordination to support
lean construction. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California,
Berkeley, Calif.
Choo, H.J., Tommelein, I.D., Ballard, G., and Zabelle, T.R. 1999.
WorkPlan: Constraint-based database for work package schedul-
ing. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management,
125(3): 151160. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1999)
125:3(151).
Chua, D.K.H., Shen, L.J., and Bok, S.H. 2003. Constraint-based
planning with integrated production scheduler over the Internet.
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 129(3):
293301. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2003)129:3(293).
Davis, K.A., and Songer, A.D. 2009. Resistance to IT change in the
AEC industry: Are the stereotypes True. Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management, 135(12): 13241333. doi:10.
1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000108.
Department of Commerce (DOC). 2005. 2002 economic census, in-
dustry summary: Construction. Subject series, EC0223SG-1,
Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau,
Wash.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 2009. Potential for redu-
cing greenhouse gas emissions in the construction sector. Avail-
able from http://www.epa.gov/sectors/pdf/
construction-sector-report.pdf [Accessed on 8 December 2010].
Forsberg, A., and Saukkoriipi, L. 2007. Measurement of waste and
productivity in relation to lean thinking. In Proceedings of the
15th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean
Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), pp. 245251.
Kenley, R., and Seppanen, O. 2009. Location-based management
for construction: Planning, scheduling and control. Spon Press,
London, UK.
Koskela, L. 1992. Application of the new production philosophy to
construction. Tech. Rep. 72. Center for Integrated Facilities En-
gineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Stanford University,
Stanford, Calif.
Lapinski, A.R., Horman, M.J., and Riley, D. 2006. Lean processes
for sustainable project delivery. Journal of Construction Engi-
neering and Management, ASCE, 132(10): 10831091.
Mastroianni, R., and Abdelhamid, T. 2003. The challenge: the im-
petus for change to lean projet delivery. In Proceedings of the
11th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean
Construction, Blacksburg, Va., 2224 July 2003, International
Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), pp. 112.
National Weather Service. 2005. National Digital Forecast Data-
base (NDFD) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web ser-
vice. Available from http://www.weather.gov/xml/ [Accessed on
29 July 2008].
Salem, O., Solomon, J., Genaidy, A., and Luegring, M. 2005. Site
implementaiton and assessment of lean construction techniques.
Lean Construction Journal, 2(2): 121.
Tommelein, I.D. 1998. Pull-driven scheduling for pipe-spool instal-
lation: Simulation of lean construction technique. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, 124(4): 279288.
doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1998)124:4(279).
Womack, J.P., and Jones, D.T. 2003. Lean thinking: Banish waste
and create wealth in your organization. Free Press, Detroit,
Mich.

Published by NRC Research Press