Use of lean and building information modeling (bim) in the construction process; does bim make it leaner?

Abstract

Construction productivity lags behind most industries. In general, the process of construction is carried out in several smaller processes. For the overall construction process to be successful, continuity between these smaller processes must be achieved. This has been the persistent goal of construction productivity improvement for decades now. Waste is generated between the continuing activities by the unpredicted release of work and the arrival of resources. However, in recent decades the construction industry has a great need to improve its productivity, quality and incorporate new technologies to the industry due to increased foreign competition. In the late 1980s, researchers started looking at solving this problem in a more general and structured way based on the philosophy and ideology of lean production. In lean, adopting waste identification/reduction, or meeting the client's needs with minimal resources addresses the performance improvement. With recent developments in the construction industry, introduction of building information modeling (BIM) has had a significant influence on leaner construction. They are both complementary in several important ways. Various studies conducted exhibit that BIM is very crucial in reducing the project cost, site conflicts, project duration, error reduction, better and faster design development, and so on. This brings the question; can BIM be used as a tool for leaner construction?

The objective of this thesis is to determine how BIM is helping achieve a leaner construction. More and more companies are adopting BIM as an acceptable waste reduction tool. A comprehensive study of lean theory and BIM was conducted, underscoring ways for BIM to help achieve leaner construction. The research was broadly conducted in three different parts. In the first part, a synthesis is drawn from a literature study to show that BIM helps reduce waste, helps in implementing lean techniques, and achieves lean principles. The second part focuses on the data acquired from a construction company to show that BIM helps reduce project cost, duration and conflicts. The third and the last part focused on getting the perspective view of different professionals in the construction industry on BIM by conducting focus interviews. A comprehensive conclusion was derived based on the findings from the three methods adopted.