**Abstract**

Lean manufacturing first emerged in the automotive industry. However, low productivity and low efficiency in production are major problems for the majority of industries relying on a heavy workforce. Being one of these, the construction industry suffers from low productivity rates along with inefficient work practices. To prevent those, the industry has shifted its focus from the traditional approach to a more innovative one, which is called Lean construction. Lean construction aims to maximize value while minimizing waste. Therefore, it intends to create safer, smoother, and more efficient processes to eliminate waste. This chapter focuses on Lean construction and highlights the generic Lean tools and techniques practiced in the construction industry indicating its historical journey from Lean manufacturing. The chapter aims to raise awareness towards the efficiency of Lean methods in the construction industry with respect to practices observed in manufacturing.

**Keywords:** lean manufacturing, productivity, efficiency, lean construction, lean methods

## **1. Introduction**

The foundation of Lean thinking dates back to the 1900s, when Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, came up with an entire production process relying on interchangeable parts with standard work and moving conveyance for creating a flow production [1]. Melton [2] defines Lean as a revolution indicating that Lean is not just utilizing tools and techniques or making a few changes in processes, rather he defines Lean as a complete change in businesses to observe supply chain operations, managerial decisions, and daily work of employees in an organization. The authors of the book named "The Machine that Changed the World", which is one of the most influential books implied that the Lean way results in better products at a lower cost as well as encouraging employees to overcome challenges in production processes [3]. Even though Lean manufacturing has first found its roots at Ford, it was later investigated by Toyota Motor Company. The Japanese engineer Taiichi Ohno, who had several visits to Ford factories to observe production processes. However, Taiichi Ohno found some methods implemented at Ford as needing improvements. Therefore, Sakichi Toyoda, his son, Kiichiro Toyoda, and Taiichi Ohno came up with the concept of Lean Manufacturing, which was first called just-in-time (JIT) production [4]. Taiichi Ohno was responsible for implementing

the new ideas that evolved into the Toyota Production System (TPS). Then, Taiichi Ohno hired Shigeo Shingo to work on the setup reduction problem at Toyota. Shingo later named this successful process the famous Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) system. This is how production ideas evolved at Toyota leading to technical innovations.

The lean manufacturing concept was first articulated as a shop floor practice to reach higher efficiency in processes being implemented with JIT and Toyota Production System (TPS) [5, 6]. It was also mentioned that Lean manufacturing in the 1980s rather focused on shop floor techniques and inventory reduction as well as value-added processes in the supply chain [7, 8]. Lean manufacturing is now implemented as a popular manufacturing practice in various countries and industries [9]. The ultimate goal intended by Lean organizations is to have a high-quality organization responsive to customer demands with no waste. On the other hand, most manufacturing organizations fail to realize the transformation for Lean due to a range of challenges faced [6]. The majority of the previous studies implied that even though most Lean organizations aim to implement Lean in the best way, they fail at some point as a matter of fact [10, 11]. However, the organizations are still seeking ways to improve their Lean approach and effectively practice Lean methods.

The success of Lean thinking in the manufacturing industry positively affected the construction industry. However, the construction industry is a conservative and fragmented industry, which makes innovations less welcomed by industry practitioners [12]. On the other hand, low productivity rates and intentions to improve workforce efficiency led the construction industry to implement innovative technologies.

The term 'Lean Construction' was first articulated by the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) in 1993. Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell, the two construction practitioners who first considered Lean in construction projects, started the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) in 1997 to provide and share information about the management of construction projects in the most effective way. They observed that only 50% of the tasks on weekly work plans in construction projects are completed on time by foremen in a given week [13–15]. They proposed that construction practitioners can avoid these problems with active management of variability, starting with the structuring of the project (temporary production system) and continuing through its operation and improvement" [16]. This indicated that the construction industry is facing similar challenges to the manufacturing industry. Hence, the principles of the TPS and methods of Lean productions started to have been practiced in the industry by adapting them for construction.

Considering the similarity of challenges and need for improvement in both manufacturing and construction, the Lean methods have evolved with the methods for implementing. Hence, the main purpose of this chapter is to provide the background of Lean thinking in both manufacturing and construction along with presenting a bunch of Lean methods, which are widely practiced by industry practitioners. The chapter also mentions how Lean methods in production have changed when they are being implemented in the construction industry.

### **2. Background of lean production and lean construction: Interaction in terms of tools, techniques, and methods**

Due to the quick industrialization after the industrial revolution, the world has become a place, where natural resources are unconsciously consumed and environmental problems increase. All these negative conditions have caused the run out of natural resources, distortion in the ozone layer, decrease in biodiversity, increase in

#### *From Lean Manufacturing to Lean Construction: How Principles, Tools, and Techniques Evolved DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96191*

environmental contamination, and global warming. Therefore, the removal of all these problems and negative conditions is one of the most important challenges of today's world. This leads to a considerable increase in the number of studies regarding the prevention of environmental problems, conscious use of natural resources, and a cleaner and healthier environment to be inherited by the next generations. In this context, Lean is a newly emerging concept for the majority of industry encouraging the effective use of resources. One of the major challenges of today's world is to execute projects more efficiently with respect to project objectives. At this point, Lean thinking aims to minimize waste while maximizing value to the customer.

Lean Production was the term coined by [17] to refer to Toyota's offering of high value, low-volume, and cost-competitive production to best address customer desires [18]. After the success of lean production in the automotive industry [19], Toyota's Lean thinking was applied in other industries. The construction industry produces more waste than any other industry in the entire world [20]. The waste oftentimes occurs in the form of workforce loss, safety breaches, material waste, and low efficiency. To avoid these, Lean construction has proven to be an effective means of production management for project delivery, i.e., designing and building capital facilities. Lean Construction is important in that it adopts the principle of minimizing waste and maximizing value while improving the total project performance per customer expectations. The need behind Lean construction comes from the failure of mass production and the persistence of craft-based production in the construction industry. Due to the changing needs of the customer, Lean construction is essential to provide the desired variety. To minimize waste and maximize value, researchers have previously focused on several different Lean construction methods. For example, it was implied that modular construction is effective in reducing waste and achieving resource efficiency [21]. This study also demonstrated that modular is reusable, which evidences the essential function of modular construction. In another study, it was indicated that there are several waste factors in mid/high-rise building projects and the determination of those waste factors is essential [22]. Therefore, Lean construction has proposed an opportunity for estimating the impacts of waste on overall project performance [23].

Sacks et al. [24] implied the importance of Lean production management systems in reducing waste in construction. Kalsaas [25] highlighted that measurement of waste and workflow is essential for the achievement of continuous improvement in construction projects. El.Reifi et al. [26] emphasized that Lean thinking is essential in the briefing process, where the design team develops their designs with respect to clients' desires. Fullalove [27] provided that the use of Lean techniques resulted in significant benefits such as an increase in return on investment and efficiency savings in UK road constructions. Marhani et al. [28] indicated that the application of Lean thinking into the construction industry provides a tremendous opportunity for the reduction of waste and an increase in production. Zhao and Chua [29] demonstrated that the reduction of non-value adding activities has a significant contribution to the construction productivity improvement. Aziz and Hafez [30] concluded that lean projects are safer, easier to manage, completed sooner, cost-effective, and are of better quality by referring to the impact of lean in minimizing waste in construction. Boyce [31] investigated the aspects of Lean thinking and concluded that it helps to improve the design phase of complex projects by emphasizing the essential function of a collaborative planning process in highway design. Going Lean is needed for the defective processes in mass production and craft production. Hence, Lean is an effective approach for customer satisfaction and enhanced project performance as previously implied by several studies [32, 33]. However, there is still a need for more effective Lean techniques to be applied in the construction projects especially given that the industry generally is reluctant to embrace and slow to adopt change.

#### *Lean Manufacturing*

Given this background, this chapter presents the most applied methods of Lean in the construction industry with inference to Lean production. The construction industry is utilizing most of the Lean techniques developed for manufacturing. Hence, it is essential to present these tools and techniques to guide industry practitioners for the proper implementation of the methods.
