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Sustainable Construction: Is Lean Green?
Abstract
The paper aims to study the novel concept of `Lean Construction' in the world. Another intention is to examine how current Lean construction tools and methods impact the construction and operation of sustainable facilities. The Lean and green Construction philosophy can tremendously improve the needs and result in high productivity of the construction industry. The paper also finds out how these Lean construction tools and methods have evolved to contribute to green construction. In order to achieve the project aim, there are four main objectives: 1. To investigate the concept of lean and its application to the construction industry. 2. To define sustainability and identify its application to the construction industry. 3. To establish a link between the lean and sustainability. The Lean principles emphasise on eliminating process and material wastes and which can further result to the green construction which emphasise on the energy efficiency and the cost efficiency.
... Implementation of lean construction procedures could facilitate waste reduction (Gerth et al., 2013). Lean construction concept is about designing and operating the right resources at the right time with the right system (Ahuja, 2013). The focus is on the improvement of construction process efficiency through waste elimination and productivity optimization. ...
... The focus is on the improvement of construction process efficiency through waste elimination and productivity optimization. It could enhance the material utilization through its key concepts such as the Just-in-time (JIT) concept in reducing material damages (Ahuja, 2013) and the Kaizen in waste elimination by empowering the responsibility, time, and skills of employees (Nahmens & Ikuma, 2012). Incorporation of lean principles into construction industrialization not only promotes resource optimization but reduces safety risks and economic uncertainties as well (Meiling, Backlund, & Johnsson, 2012;Nahmens & Ikuma, 2012). ...
... From the literature (Ahuja, 2013;Crowther, 2005;Kamar et al., 2011;Russell-smith & Lepech, 2015;Sanders, Asce, Parrish, Asce, & Earni, 2013;Swamy, 2001;Yates, 2014), it is apparent that many approaches of sustainable practice could be applied in an integrated way to intensify the sustainability of construction projects in the future. In some way, infrastructure sustainability indicators and the improvement measure also have been discovered (Amiril, Nawawi, Takim, & Latif, 2014;Binney, 2014;Boyle et al., 2010;Dasgupta & Tam, 2005;Gudmestad, 2015;Lenferink et al., 2013;Morrissey et al., 2012;Sahely, Kennedy, & Adams, 2005;Sohail et al., 2005;Ugwu et al., 2006). ...
United Nations' leaders pledged to protect the planet through sustainable utilization of natural resources and work on climate change issues. Apart from that, the concern is about the ecological responsibility of the construction industry towards promoting sustainable development. This underlies the need to explore how and what are the environmental consequences of a construction project, particularly on infrastructure development. Being the largest contributor to the energy and waste generation, there is a growing realization of the irreversible impact of non-replaceable natural resources, which could lead to complete depletion. This paper describes specific ecological concern such as resources utilization and energy consumption throughout the lifecycle of an infrastructure project. Feasible mechanisms and practices that could improve the environmental performance also presented to promote sustainability in infrastructure project development in every project phase. The literature study shows that kind of approaches carries with them various limitations depending on the type of infrastructure. The innovation of new materials, designs, construction methods or techniques for infrastructure in optimizing resource consumption, environmental impact, and waste production need to be developed and assessed over their life cycle. In turn, this will promote a robustly built environment as a result of more sustainable infrastructure, better conservation, and efficient space utilization.
... Reduce air pollution [10,49,[126][127][128][129] c60 ...
... Keep the environment through reduction of construction waste [2,11,46,60,128] c61 ...
... Reduction in material usage [10,11,46,47,110,128] c62 ...
Successful implementation of the lean concept as a sustainable approach in the construction industry requires the identification of critical drivers in lean construction. Despite this significance, the number of in-depth studies toward understanding the considerable drivers of lean construction implementation is quite limited. There is also a shortage of methodologies for identifying key drivers. To address these challenges, this paper presents a list of all essential drivers within three aspects of sustainability (social, economic, and environmental) and proposes a novel methodology to rank the drivers and identify the key drivers for successful and sustainable lean construction implementation. In this regard, the entropy weighted Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was employed in this research. Subsequently, an empirical study was conducted within the Malaysian construction industry to demonstrate the proposed method. Moreover, sensitivity analysis and comparison with the existing method were engaged to validate the stability and accuracy of the achieved results. The significant results obtained in this study are as follows: presenting, verifying and ranking of 63 important drivers; identifying 22 key drivers; proposing an MCDM model of key drivers. The outcomes show that the proposed method in this study is an effective and accurate tool that could help managers make better decisions.
... Sustainable concepts in construction systems require integration with Energy, Materials, Waste, and Pollution related attributes (Ahuja, 2012). Several authors have specified a diverse set of sustainability related criteria during the decision-making exercises. ...
... The concepts and principles of lean are focusing on how to make a production system leaner by eliminating waste and maximising its value stream through continuous improvements in process and product design (Ahuja, 2012). The concept of continuous improvement in design helps obtain customers' satisfaction, which is the ultimate objective in any decision-making problem (Pangsri, 2014). ...
... In addition, (Huovila & Koskela 1998;Ahuja 2012) have insisted that lean philosophy offers the conceptual underpinning for sustainable development in construction (improve a system's economic value but also to offer environmental and social benefits). (Ogunbiyi et al., 2013) have noted that stakeholders' commitment and knowledge are the main parameters that influence the implementation of lean principles within the construction systems' sustainability. ...
In recent years, the increasing demand for innovative sustainable policies in building engineering has shifted the decision rationale from traditional performance-based systems towards systems augmented by life-cycle sustainability notions. This paper investigates a novel optimisation framework, which supports the selection of buildings’ structural alternatives at concept stage by applying multiple performance, sustainable requirements. The established model explores ways to effectively compute and process expert knowledge across different stakeholders groups into a consolidated decision-making platform supported by Lean Theory. A systematic procedure based on the Quality Function Deployment is utilised to successfully translate 16 sustainability requirements into 27 corresponding engineering design requirements. The theoretical and mathematical principles of Analytic Network Process are applied on a pilot study to build general decision clusters, identify feedback links amongst the various engineering criteria and determine their inner dependences.
... Womack and Jones 2003). This understanding of the waste has been the main basis for categorizing it into seven clusters of (i) defects, (ii) delays, (iii) over-processing, (iv) overproduction, (v) excess inventory, (vi) unnecessary transport and conveyance of materials and equipment, and (vii) unnecessary movement of people (Al-Aomar 2012, Ahuja 2013, Banawi and Bilec 2014, Yin et al. 2014. The mentioned definitions of waste and its categories have been dominant also in construction context, despite of the fact that lean production is the flowing products and fixed people to produce while buildings are the fixed products and the flow of personnel. ...
... In the context of construction, like production, waste is primarily understood in seven categories which are (i) Transport-moving products or materials around, (ii) Waiting-waiting in any form, (iii) Overproductionproducing more than what the customer needs, (iv) Defect-any process that fails to transfer inputs to desired outputs, (v) Inventory-Any inventory is considered a non-value-added commodity, even though it may be needed, (vi) Motion-any physical movement by people that does not add value to the process, (vii) Extra processing-any processing that does not add value to the product (Al-Aomar 2012, Ahuja 2013, Banawi and Bilec 2014, Yin et al. 2014. ...
The phenomenon of waste in the construction industry has received considerable attention from the project professionals since the emergence of lean construction. In the research community , however, identifying causes of waste together with waste detection and elimination in the context of construction have been addressed in a limited manner. Moreover, there are very few studies, if any, which have tried to revisit the concept of waste ontologically and to look into the causes of waste through the lens of their relation to other elements in construction projects such as delivery elements and lifecycle phases. Therefore, this study aims to fill this knowledge gap through developing a novel conceptualization of waste and exploring causes of waste in construction projects to reveal their connection to various project attributes. To do so, a systematic literature study was conducted through which relevant studies were located and analysed to achieve the purposes of this study. The findings propose a novel conceptualization of waste and value based on their overlooked components. Moreover, the results present a model which reveals the connection between the identified causes of waste and project attributes (life cycle phases, relevant party, project delivery element, and waste categories in general). The obtained results can be insightful for project practitioners and the research community to reach in-depth understanding of the waste concept.
... The main contributors to the high amount of construction waste are revising project plans often, inadequacies of building materials' quality, organizational skills, procurement, scheduling, and effectiveness of labor (Hussin et al.,2013). The principles of construction and demolition waste management are called 4R (reduce, recycle, reuse, and regulate) (Ahuja, 2012). This is supported by many studies, one of which was done by (Nawaz et al., 2023). ...
The environmental, economic, and social sustainability of construction project management was researched through a literature review in this study. This paper aimed to analyze the trends in studies about issues in sustainable project management and to research the importance and components of environmental, economic, and social sustainability and their interrelationships. In the scope of the bibliometric analysis, the articles were analyzed by their publication years, authors, authors' countries, authors' organizations, and keyword occurrences. Then, the problems in ensuring the sustainability of construction project management and suggestions for overcoming these problems were reviewed. In previous studies, high energy and raw material consumption and waste became the main factors that prevented environmental sustainability. A strong relationship was found between economic sustainability and life cycle cost assessment, and effective stakeholder engagement is considered the major contributor to the social sustainability of construction management. Sustainability regulations and policies, managerial capabilities, and organizational learning also have critical significance for achieving sustainable construction. The dimensions of sustainability in construction management are closely related to one another, and each one is crucial to achieving the other aspects of sustainability in construction projects. Therefore, a comprehensive strategy that takes into account social, economic, and environmental sustainability criteria should be adopted in construction project management.
... It is a procedure planned for people, the planet, and prosperity with the aim of strengthening collaborative partnerships and development (United Nations, 2015). Consequent to the high resource demand in the construction industry, its focus on sustainability has increased (Ahuja, 2013). Sustainability has structured on the maintenance of the equilibrium in social, economic, and environmental aspects to maintain consistency in the persistent world (Roufechaei, et al., 2015). ...
Despite of design and build (D&B) procurement being a feasible solution, the status of the implementation of sustainable construction practices (SCP) in the Sri Lankan construction industry is below the trend. Since unwillingness and unawareness of the D&B contractors have identified as a cause for the issue, strategies to overcome the problem are required. Accordingly, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the SCP, and D&B concepts to provide a basis for a reliable set of strategies. Subsequently, the survey strategy under the qualitative research approach was accompanied to derive strategies. Accordingly, collected data from nine expert interviews from the purposively selected clients, contractors, consultants, and subcontractors have been analysed using deductive thematic analysis under eight main pre-defined themes. Appointment of a sustainability manager, market survey to recognise the status of sustainability, concern on passive construction technologies and identification of sustainable design requirements have identified as key strategies. Finally, this can be used by D&B contractors to identify the loopholes and enhance sustainable development.
... Regarding LC and sustainability, exploring their synergistic effects by addressing their interfaces is one of major aspects which have been studied by different scholars (Ahuja, 2013;Benachio et al., 2021;Cunha and Lima, 2017;Daniel and Pasquire, 2019;Watkins and Sunjka, 2020). Another major aspect has been discovering enablers, challenge and benefits for realizing lean and sustainable construction (Aslam et al., 2021;Bajjou et al., 2017;Jagannathan et al., 2018;Pandithawatta et al., 2019;Wijerathne et al., 2019). ...
Purpose
The construction industry has considerably evolved in the recent two decades due to the emergence of sustainability, lean construction (LC) and building information modelling (BIM). Despite previous research efforts, there is still a gap concerning the multidimensional nature of their integration. Hence, this study aims to fill the mentioned knowledge gap through exploring and comparing the challenges, enablers, techniques as well as benefits of integrating LC with BIM and sustainability in building construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was conducted to fulfill the purpose of this study.
Findings
The findings reveal and compare the challenges, enablers, techniques and benefits of integrating LC with BIM and sustainability in building construction projects. The results suggest that there are eight common challenges for integrating LC with BIM and sustainability, including high initial cost, lack of collaboration, lack of professionals and lack of compatible contractual framework. The discovered challenges, enablers, techniques and benefits seem to be mostly routed in people. The findings also suggest that the synergistic benefits of integrating LC with BIM and sustainability can overcome the common challenges (safety, reliability, productivity, collaboration and quality) in construction projects.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to the literature and practice concerning the integration of LC with BIM and sustainability by exploring, comparing and discussing the relevant challenges, enablers, techniques as well as benefits. Moreover, the findings reveal the significance of the development of people in construction industry, besides processes and technology, as people are always subject of activities in construction while processes and technology are always objects.
... Another research study carried out by Nguyen and Akhavian [94] found that there are six crucial characteristics (e.g., durable value and continuous development, customer satisfaction and waste elimination, communication and achievement metrics) required for an effective coordination between integrated project delivery (IPD), lean construction, and BIM. In addition, Ahuja [95] stated that the combination of lean and green philosophies contributes to achieving sustainability in terms of economic, social, and environmental values. Another study conducted by Mesa et al. [51] addressed IPD and lean project delivery (LPD) as two different delivery models and concluded that the core of IPD and LPD is to facilitate the utilization of integrated project organizations, relational contracting, and integrated process as mechanisms to integrate a project delivery system. ...
Collaborative models and working practices have considerably contributed to the evolution of construction project delivery in the last four decades. The promising performance results of construction projects with collaborative delivery models are mostly attributed to their behavioral elements (e.g., mutual trust), which have been frequently mentioned in the literature. However, the interrelationships between these behavioral elements as well as the enablers of these behavioral elements are two knowledge gaps which need to be addressed. Therefore, this study aims to fill the mentioned knowledge gaps by addressing the behavioral elements of collaborative project delivery models from analytical and conceptual perspectives. To do so, a systematic literature review was undertaken by locating 201 relevant studies and reviewing them. This was followed by the thematic analysis of the obtained research data and the development of a model for meeting this study’s objectives. The findings present a model, illustrating the behavioral elements of collaborative delivery models in construction projects, their interrelationships, as well as their enablers. The model reveals that the establishment of equality and mutual respect between project team members is a fundamental step toward mutual trust and open communication. These findings can be insightful for the research community and project professionals interested in collaborative construction project delivery.
... Notably, a group of respondents does not expect a return on investment. Few authors opined that LC can contribute to reducing operation and maintenance costs [1,12,31,63,64,[66][67][68]81,97,99,101,109,[114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122]. For example, by implementing Lean tools such as BIM, cost overruns in post-construction maintenance processes can be reduced due to the ease of visual analysis of the elements to be maintained and modeling different scenarios that allow cost control throughout the project life cycle [123]. ...
Sustainable building rating systems are developed to reduce the environmental impact of construction and contribute to sustainable development. However, these prioritize the criteria associated with the operation phase, giving less relevance to the sustainability of the construction stage; even certified buildings are built using conventional methods under inefficient and unsustainable processes. Lean construction (LC) arises to improve the neglected aspects of efficiency, contributing to sustainability in the construction phase. LC and sustainable building rating systems are initiatives that are independently developed without an understanding of how their joint implementation can enhance the achievement of their objectives; experts agree that limited understanding of concepts and concern about cost foil their integration. This research aimed to review the contribution of LC to the scope of the qualification criteria of the rating systems and the perceptions of project developers regarding the certification processes and their synergistic application with LC by conducting qualitative descriptive research via literary review, interviews, and surveys to 206 participants from 38 countries. As a result, there is a general lack of conceptual knowledge and a lack of academic research that shows the benefits of LC for reducing environmental impacts during the construction phase and the scope of qualification criteria. Even in an environment of misinformation, developers perceive an opportunity and a positive feeling about it in their joint application (sentiment analysis in Orange3).
... Where the theories of SC fell short in explaining the modalities of how to achieve SC goals within the construction environment (Sarhan, et al., 2018), those LC practices in Table 2 provide a perfect platform for integrating practices to achieve sustainability in construction. Many researchers explored LC practices for their impact on construction sustainability and reported positive relationships or the potential for positive impact (Nahmens and Ikuma, 2012;Ahuja, 2013;Francis and Thomas, 2020). However, LC is still an emerging construction process and has not yet been fully adopted by the entire construction industry. ...
Challenges exist across the three dimensions of construction sustainability (economic; social and environmental) due to low productivity, waste, safety, and environmental hazards attributed to existing construction management practices. Lean construction (LC) has been widely accepted as a robust philosophy to enable sustainable construction (SC) practices. However, the existing literature is more inclined toward defining the integration between LC and sustainability through LC practices and techniques. Little research tackles the challenges of achieving sustainable goals within the current practices. Therefore, this paper aims to present a strategy that can help the construction industry overcome the challenges of SC in the traditional construction management practice by using LC. The challenges of SC are identified through a systematic literature review approach with metadata analysis. Compared with LC principles, tools and techniques, the strategy focused on identifying (1) the power and potential of LC principles and (2) the best LC practices/techniques that help in overcoming these SC challenges. The study results showed 20 out of 32 challenges identified can be overcome by using LC integrated with SC. Finally, a Lean Approaching Sustainability Tools (LAST) matrix is developed to provide guidelines to the construction stakeholders for the selection of LC practices/tools/techniques in overcoming the top 15 most important challenges.
... Several studies have shown that Lean practices manage to reduce construction times and cost, energy consumption and particulate matter; as well as improving conditions of safety, occupational health and interpersonal relationships (Ahuja 2013;Bajjou et al. 2017;Belayutham et al. 2017;de Carvalho et al. 2017;Ogunbiyi et al. 2014;Salgin et al. 2016;Verrier et al. 2016;Weinheimer 2016;Weinheimer et al. 2017). However, most of the research conducted has focused on reducing tangible waste, leaving in a secondary place the reduction of waste from intangible resources that are mainly caused by inadequate planning practices (Hamzeh et al. 2019). ...
Due to the low productivity of the construction sector and current global pandemic conditions, it is essential to analyze interpersonal relationships at work, engagement and labour productivity, through the management of commitments. Therefore, this article seeks to measure and analyze key Linguistic Action Perspective (LAP) indicators to examine commitment management in Last Planner® System (LPS) weekly work planning meetings during the pandemic (virtual and face-to-face meetings). The case of study methodology was used in 27 projects of a construction company in Colombia, in which the authors analyzed the results of LAP engagement indicators and compared them to the PPC, determining Spearman´s correlation coefficient in each indicator and finding that the projects that had strong correlations were those where: the percentage of progress was between 65% and 95%; average PPC was between 60% and 90%; a "Big Room" was used; and the meetings had between 10 and 20 attendees. For future research, we propose the use of other methods of relationship, causation and/or prediction analysis, such as Structural Equation Models or Machine Learning, a future methodology for virtual or semi-face-to-face meetings and the study of other performance indicators.
... Green buildings are designed and constructed following ecological principles [127] and have minimal influence on the natural environment and human health [128], usually consume considerably fewer resources than regular buildings, and promote occupants' productivity, comfort, and satisfaction by providing quality thermal comfort [129,130]. The concept of lean construction shares the same goal as green buildings, and it emphasizes on the importance of reducing wastes, optimization of flows, and eliminating unproductive and unfruitful processes to approach sustainability objectives [131,132]. ...
The building industry is responsible for considerable environmental impacts due to its consumption of resources and energy, and the production of wastes. Circular Economy (CE), a new paradigm can significantly improve the sustainability of this sector. This paper performs a quantitative scientific evolution analysis of the application of CE in the building sector to detect new trends and highlight the evolvement of this research topic. Around 7000 documents published 2005 to 2020 at Web of Science and Scopus were collected and analyzed. The bibliometric indicators, network citation, and multivariate statistical analysis were obtained using Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer. The co-occurrence analysis showed six keyword-clusters, in which the three main ones are: (i) energy and energy efficiency in buildings; (ii) recycling, waste management and alternative construction materials; (iii) sustainable development. The analysis showed that researchers pay close attention to “sustainability”, “energy efficiency”, “life cycle assessment”, “renewable energy”, and “recycling” in the past five years. This paper highlights that (i) the development and use of alternative construction materials; (ii) the development of circular business models; (iii) smart cities, Industry 4.0 and their relations with CE, are the current research hotspots that may be considered as potential future research topics.
... As pointed out by several research approaches, most research in the field of combined Lean and Green Management evaluate cost as the first and greenhouse gas emissions as second key performance indicator (KPI) to be considered (Ahuja 2012, Azevedo et al. 2012, Dhingra, Kress and Upreti 2014, Martinez-Jurado and Moyano-Fuentes 2014, Bortolini et al. 2016, so that these indicators can serve as available comparison standards. In line with this, Bortolini et al. (2016:879) highlight the lack of numerical optimisation approaches as a gap within the existing field of research and therefore recommend to operate a quantitative optimal model based on cost and emission investigations. ...
Analysis of the integration of a contactless energy supply infrastructure based on efficiency, economy and sustainability.
... Whist no significant relation between LT and environmental performance was reported by [29], other studies argue that LT can be actually detrimental to it [14,30,31]. Examples include just-in-time production, which allows contractors to minimize buffers [32] and reduce the various sources of extra inventory, but may increase volatile organic compounds and CO 2 emissions due to the frequent transport of inventory and materials [14]. ...
The construction industry is increasingly moving towards the adoption of sustainable strategies and increased efficiency targets. Lean thinking (LT) aims at removing waste, increasing value, reducing costs, and improving the overall quality of products and processes. Sustainability, in turn, is concerned with the environmental, social, and economic impacts made by the construction industry. Both philosophies share efficient resource usage concerns. A systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out to cover the existing primary research and characterize its evolution and setting; to discuss the available empirical evidence to identify the LT and sustainability benefits and trade-offs; and to provide a holistic setting to promote those synergies. To catalyze the synergies between LT and sustainability, this paper highlights the potential application of LT elements throughout a building’s lifecycle. Knowledge synthetized is helpful for decision-makers to understand and explore combinations of the performance-oriented LT philosophy for the provision of environmentally responsive buildings.
The shortage of constructive philosophies, principles, techniques, and tools in construction project delivery and sustainability before the 1990s, together with the abundance of them after 2000, creates two different eras which are of prime importance. The former one's considerable advantage was a common understanding and set of practices (e.g., the critical path method for scheduling), which seems to be a goal to achieve in the later one. In this regard, the combination and integration of best practices, tools, and techniques in construction project delivery can be considerably helpful for benefiting from their advantages and covering their limitations. Thus, this study aims to develop a conceptual framework for lean and sustainable project delivery in building construction projects. To do so, a systematic literature review was carried out, through which 230 studies were located and analyzed via thematic analysis to realize the purpose of this study. The findings present a conceptual framework for project delivery which combines and integrates sustainability, lean construction, and building information modeling in terms of principles, practices, tools, and techniques. Practically, this study's results inform practitioners in the construction industry on the lean and sustainable delivery of building construction projects.
The construction industry is one of the largest industries creating energy and resources consumption at high levels as well as leading to greenhouse gas emissions. This generates negative impacts in economic, social, and environmental aspects. In order to mitigate these negative impacts, sustainable construction plays a crucial role. At this point, Lean strongly interacts with sustainable construction for the fact that these concepts have similar objectives such as reducing waste, maximizing value, increasing efficiency and productivity, and improving health and safety. A major portion of the studies has investigated the implementation of sustainability and Lean construction simultaneously, which created positive outcomes for the construction firms. In this study, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is analyzed to reveal the impact of Lean practices in increasing project success when it is integrated with sustainable construction. In this respect, a systematic literature review is conducted to investigate the synergy between Lean construction and sustainability. For this purpose, a comparative matrix is structured to integrate Lean construction with the LEED certification processes. Commonalities are revealed to best reflect the level of interaction in between based on semi-structured interviews. This study indicates that Lean construction is strongly associated with sustainable construction and Lean has a strong potential of facilitating the achievement of LEED certification.
This paper explores the synergies that exist between lean construction and green building across all the development phases in a construction project to enhance sustainable development practices in South Africa. Using a systematic literature review, 68 articles were selected and coded. The findings indicate that: (i) lean construction and green building practices, principles, techniques, tools, and technologies can be simultaneously implemented across all phases of development, and offer multidimensional benefits in each; (ii) building information modelling plays a crucial role in assisting and facilitating lean construction and green building, mutually reinforcing each other throughout a development; (iii) prefabricated construction is becoming a popular way in which lean construction and green building are interacting and supporting each other; and (iv) the interaction between lean construction and green building can help to achieve more sustainable development in South Africa.
The current rapidly changing and highly competitive market has put companies under a great pressure towards adopting sustainable practices, in terms of keeping a healthy balance among economic, environmental and social performances. In this context, the lean-green manufacturing approach, which combines lean practices focused on customers' demand, and green practices focused on reducing the business' environmental impact, has gained popularity. Nevertheless, the lean-green manufacturing is still a relatively new practice, lacking a clear and structured research definition, and of significant evidence of successful cases in the practice. In this paper, a literature review is conducted to identify the actual possibility of combining lean and green practices, the current trends for implementing such combination and the potential sustainability improvements such implementation can lead. It is the authors' intention that the findings analysed in this paper can contribute to the state-of-the-art of lean-green manufacturing and provide practitioners with a useful tool towards developing effective strategies for its deployment.
Academicians and professionals in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) field have expressed an increasing interest in sustainability and its application in the development of construction projects, especially with its deemed relationship with lean construction, for the purpose of improving efficiency in the construction processes. Practices framed under the lean philosophy show their potential in reducing environmental, economic, and social impacts during the construction phase, with an increase in the parameters of sustainability in the development of projects. This article is a review of the extant literature, in an effort to establish the relationships and synergies between the philosophies of lean and sustainable constructions, and to determine how the lean construction practices contribute to each dimension of sustainability (i.e., environmental, economic, social) during the construction phase of a project. A matrix is presented to show the positive effects generated by lean practices on the three dimensions. Moreover, this study identifies the lean construction practices more commonly mentioned in the literature and those that bring further economic, social, and environmental benefits. The analyses and findings of this literature review offer a starting point for future research that integrate lean and sustainable construction during the construction phase.
O setor da construção é reconhecido há muitas décadas por sua importância econômica e social
em qualquer parte do mundo. Nele a sustentabilidade ambiental e a mentalidade enxuta são dois
dos principais norteadores. Suas aplicações em canteiros de obras são importantes para que se
possa construir com menos impactos ambientais e com maior geração de valor para os clientes.
Há alguns anos, pesquisadores indicam a existência de interfaces positivas entre as aplicações
dos dois conceitos na construção. Em outros setores, como o da manufatura, a aplicação
integrada dessas duas abordagens já é realizada e proporciona sinergias entre os objetivos da
sustentabilidade ambiental e da mentalidade enxuta. Já no setor da construção, há pesquisas
que indicam que a interação entre os conceitos e a aplicação em canteiro de obras também
existe, mas ainda é superficial a sua discussão. Tendo em vista essa lacuna de pesquisa, definese como objetivo deste trabalho propor diretrizes para a integração da aplicação da mentalidade
enxuta e da sustentabilidade ambiental em canteiros de obras. Para alcançar este objetivo, o
método utilizado foi o de estudo de casos múltiplos. Três empresas construtoras que aplicam
práticas ambientais e ferramentas enxutas em seus canteiros foram selecionadas para o estudo.
Definiu-se como fonte de evidência para coleta de dados: análise de documentação, entrevistas
semiestruturadas e observação direta. Os resultados encontrados evidenciam que a relação entre
a sustentabilidade ambiental e a mentalidade enxuta em canteiros é sinérgica nos níveis
conceitual e aplicado. Também mostram que aspectos estratégicos, organizacionais e culturais
se relacionam diretamente com a difusão e sustentação da integração das abordagens em
empresas construtoras. A partir das análises e dos resultados encontrados, o trabalho possui
como principal contribuição a criação de um conjunto de diretrizes de integração que
proporcionam, ao setor da construção e aos pesquisadores, um norte para a união da
sustentabilidade ambiental e da mentalidade enxuta aplicada a canteiros de obras.
Pavement construction, maintenance and rehabilitation have considerable impacts on
environment, society, and economy. These impacts can be minimized by implementing lean construction
strategies that focus on reducing wastes and improving performance, as well as increasing the overall value
of the facility to the end users. The objective of this study is to identify the adverse effects of work-zones
activities for pavement projects, and demonstrate how lean construction techniques can provide sustainable
solutions. For example, 5S’s can help reducing the waste which is a cause of environmental degradation.
The last planner technique can be used to prevent schedule delays and to accelerate the construction
process, and assist in reducing the excess emissions due to unstable traffic around the work-zones and from
heavy equipment. It can also minimize vehicle operating costs due to congestion and improve the mobility of
work-zone. Increased visualization approaches such as speed advisories, delay advisories; regulatory speed
limit changes merge control and alternate route guidance, can further enhance safety and mobility. Other
impacts such as noise pollution; and reduced accessibility to businesses and emergency facilities can be
minimized using phased scheduling which allows the selection of construction time and duration suitable for
the surrounding community.
To develop a lean and green construction industry, Lean Construction (LC) is proposed as a new construction production method to improve the efficient use of resources and the value of construction supply chains, which has received increasing research concerns from scholars and practitioners. Based on related articles covered by the Web of Science and Scopus databases between 1995 and 2014, this study conducts a sciento-metric analysis. The analysis identifies four core topics in existing research, including: Last Planner System (LPS); production control theory; improvement and evaluation of productivity; and principle of value. Three major directions of LC research: greening LC; Building Information Modeling (BIM) based LC; and lean safety management, are also proposed. Lastly, several recommendations for future LC research and practice are provided in the literature review.
Several studies recognize the existence of a relationship between learning and experience, on one hand, and productivity and quality of work, on the other hand. This paper examines, through the use of a case study, the relationship between productivity, quality, and learning within the unique labor pool of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The analysis of the case study confirms the existence of a positive correlation between task repetition (as a proxy for learning) and productivity. The data for the case study was obtained from productivity logs prepared by subcontractors and from material submittal and shop drawings approval logs prepared by the construction manager. The analysis of the case study did not show a positive relationship between learning and quality. This outcome is in opposition with the literature.
This international CIB W82 Project aimed to answer the following question: ‘What will be the consequences of sustainable development on the construction industry by the year 2010?’ This future study investigated the relationship and defined links between the principles of sustainable development and the construction sector. Drawing on information from 14 countries, the study identified main issues, constraints and current policies, predicted changes and adaptations for the construction sectors in each country, analysed the consequences for the phases of the construction process, provided recommendations to the main actors, illustrated the need for further best practice case studies, design methods, buildings or building products.
Environmental Performance and Lean Construction Concepts: Can We Talk about A 'Clean Construction The Future of Lean Construction: A Brave New World Can Green Be Lean? " paper presented to the Academy of Management meetingsLean and Green: Integrating Sustainability and Lean Construction
- C M Degani
- F F Cardoso
- Brazil Gramado
- S D Green
- S Helper
- P Clifford
- M J Horman
- D Riley
- M H Pulaski
- C Leyenberger
- G A Howell
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