Diagnosis and Application of Lean Construction in Building Firms

Abstract

The development of a productive environment in which the elimination of wastes and the need for aggregating value to the final product quickly and efficiently triggered the application of the lean construction philosophy in civil construction with a disruption of old paradigms. Lean Construction is a process model with efficient results in costs reduction, low personnel, price decrease and high quality products. Current analysis measures the application level of the Lean Construction philosophy in a premise with more than twenty-five thousand square meters and proposes improvements for the negative aspects reported. Quality methodology was divided into two stages, or rather, diagnosis and development of a new proposal based on the Lean Construction principles. Strategies that would improve production were prepared through the elaboration of a new physical layout of the work site, movements during the execution and a new approach for buying the required material to decrease stock. Methodology helped in the acknowledgement of neglected factors and in the definition of precise and integrated strategies such that the general aim for the application of the Lean Construction could be improved and its benefits attained.