The lean manufacturing approach is one of the process improvement and business development philosophies that can be applied in all sectors. In this context, lean construction enables the development of common applications by combining the production sector and the construction sector under the name of lean in order to improve and develop construction processes . This study was carried out in order to help the creation of a lean construction system by selecting the most appropriate lean techniques to determine and eliminate the waste in construction processes and to reduce costs by increasing the efficiency of the processes. Within the scope of the study, the wastes arising in the construction processes and the selection of lean production techniques that can eliminate these wastes were discussed as a multi-criteria decision making problem. In this problem wastes were determined as decision criteria and lean techniques were determined as solution alternatives. The problem structure consists of 8 main criteria that are about overproduction, waiting, transporting, inventory, operation, movement, production and work accidents, 24 sub-criteria, namely, construction waste and 5 alternative lean techniques such as 5S Technique, Just in time production, Kanban, Total productive maintenance and Visual Management. In the solution phase of the problem, the criteria weights and importance order of wastes in the processes were obtained by using SWARA method, lean construction techniques were evaluated by using Fuzzy VIKOR method under fuzzy environment. As a result of the evaluations, on one hand among the 24 criteria in the construction processes, faulty construction due to the lack of integration between design and production and improper processes due to the operational mistakes made by the employees were determined as the most important waste and on the other hand Kanban and Visual Management were determined as the most suitable alternative lean techniques for the construction processes. According to this result, Kanban that can convey the demands of all the elements in the lean system to the previous process with all the details in line with their needs and Visual Management that can visualize all the work done in the system as much as possible should be used in construction processes primarily.

Sequential SWARA and fuzzy VIKOR methods in elimination of waste and creation of lean construction processes

To improve the performance of the construction industry, innovative methods were introduced to make them better. Industrialised building systems (IBS) and prefabrication construction are the popular methods used and studied. However, these methods are still unable to meet the demands of the stakeholders. Design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) is a design principle that is seen as capable of improving the situation. The uptake of DfMA in the construction industry needs to be analysed to obtain a better picture of the existing condition of the method and its manner of implementation it going forward, but there are still too few studies performed on this topic. This paper gathers relevant articles from the previous studies on DfMA. With the available data, the main benefits, hindrance factors, and enabling factors for DfMA uptake in the construction industry were identified in this study. The authors also identified the research trend among the research themes and the benefits of building information modelling (BIM) integration with DfMA. By synthesising the information from previous studies, a conceptual framework was developed. Knowledge gaps and future potential research topics are also discussed in this paper, forming a simple research framework for future effort guidance. With a suitable strategy and guidelines, the application of DfMA could improve the performance of the construction industry in Malaysia and other places with similar construction environments and approaches.

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DfMA for a Better Industrialised Building System

Determinants of workers' pro-environmental behaviour towards enhancing construction waste management: Contributing to China's circular economy


Purpose
This paper aims to develop a decision-making model to analyze and select the most appropriate lean technique (LT), considering success factors to improve site management and reduce waste in the construction phase.


Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review identified six LTs and the 11 most critical factors affecting the efficiency of the construction phase. Then, the appropriateness of these LTs to improve the identified factors were assessed using the analytic hierarchy process. At last, a sensitivity analysis of the results was performed to validate the findings.


Findings
The results show that the most effective LT to improve success factors in the construction phase is “Daily Huddle Meetings”, and the most critical factor with the greatest impact on LT selection is determined to be “Efficient Construction Management”.


Originality/value
Few studies have evaluated the suitability of LTs in terms of construction success factors (CSFs). Hence, given the vital role of the construction phase in the whole project life cycle and the impact of LTs in improving the productivity of this phase, this research investigates the correlation between LTs and CSFs to promote efficient site management.


Evaluating lean techniques to improve success factors in the construction phase

The Internet of Things is a comprehensive system of connected computing devices and sensors that provide extensive data sharing capability for any specific purpose. For the construction industry, the applications of the Internet of Things have been increasing over the past few years, and it is because technology can provide full support to construction projects in attaining significant efficiency. The most critical part of construction products where the internet of things can be adopted is safety management because hundreds of accidents happen every year that result in significant injuries to construction workers and even death in some cases. For small construction projects, the situation is much worse, as there are never enough resources to adopt the latest technology, such as the Internet of Things. This study is structured with the aim of identifying the critical implementation barriers of the internet of things that affect small construction projects in Malaysia specifically. A mixed methodology study design is followed in which, after identifying the implementation barriers of the internet of things from existing literature, they are filtered with expert opinion. A pilot survey was conducted on which exploratory factor analysis was applied to further identify the significant barriers relating to the Internet of Things in small construction projects in Malaysia. A main survey was conducted afterwards, on which the structural equation modelling was done to develop the model involving the final 16 barriers divided into 5 formative constructs. The most critical barriers are found to be related to databases and technology, while the least impact is created by management barriers. Positive theoretical and managerial implications are indicated for future researchers and construction workers, respectively, by which they can improve the implementation of internet of things in small construction projects in Malaysia.

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Assessment of Challenges to the Adoption of IOT for the Safety Management of Small Construction Projects in Malaysia: Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Liang Qian

Papers

Implementing lean construction techniques and management methods in Chinese projects: A case study in Suzhou, China