LEAN CONSTRUCTION: DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT CRITERIA &
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY FOR INDIAN CONTRACTOR COMPANIES
By
Ranjeet
Sandeep Pundlik
Abstract
The construction industry in India is one of the highest
contributors to the national economy for over the past five decades and is one
if the biggest in terms of generating employment in the nation after
agriculture industry. This industry is a victim of low productivity, poor
performance, lack of mechanization & sophistication, lack of skilled
labors, shortage of professionally qualifies employees, cost over runs and
delays. Lean construction is a recent development in the field of construction
which aims for waste reduction and value generation for the client by
increasing the efficiency of the construction processes by improving the
processes and flows in the construction activities. Lean construction is
successfully implemented by various companies the western countries and is also
an important topic for researchers across many universities in the west. So
this study aims to develop a system for the construction contractors in India
to be able to use and incorporate the techniques of this domain of construction.
The research has broadly identified 12 lean principles applicable to
construction, especially in India. Development of a Generic model for the lean
functioning of the departments of a construction contractor companies was done
and lead to the identification of 33 lean practices in the five departments of
the contractor companies. This lead to the development of assessment criteria
for the lean compliance of the departments of the contractor companies in
India. This model and criteria, after being verified and validated by 3
academic and 2 professional experts in India, was used for collection of data
of compliance from 4 Indian Contractor companies, functioning in Central India.
Detailed analysis of the working of each department of each company has been
done to determine the strength & weakness of each department and also
determine the reasons of non-compliances of the practices.
After the detailed analysis process, a strategy for the
implementation of these lean practices in the departments of the contractor
firms in India has been developed. The three stage strategy, along with the
weaknesses and non-compliance reasons can be used together to combat the
problems for implementation and hence the lean practices can be successfully
implemented by Indian Contractor Companies.
Executive summary
Rationale
of research
This research has been conducted to develop assessment criteria
and implementation strategy of lean construction for Indian contractor
companies
Objectives
of study
To develop a model for assessment of
departmental functioning of contractor companies and perform detailed analysis
to find strengths and weakness, to propose implementation of lean practices in
contractor companies.
Methodology
The
exploratory research method is used to study lean practices in Indian
construction industry, through literature review, expert verification and by
studying four cases from Indian construction industry..
Findings
and conclusion
Development
of the generic model and assessment criteria for the lean functioning of the
departments of a construction contractor company
The first objective
of the study was to develop a model and assessment criteria with the use of the
lean principles for the lean functioning of the departments of a contractor
construction company. The research started with the investigation and
identification of the lean principles and their selection and segregation as
per the applicability to the field of construction, primarily to the
construction contractor companies. 12 lean principles were identified along
with their lean features & effects. After that, a model of general
functioning was made for contractor companies. Now, for the purpose of
incorporating the lean practices into the model, the features & effects of
the lean principles were converted as the objectives for the general practices
so as to make them lean and after this the lean practices were incorporated to
generate the final lean functioning model for a construction contractor
company. This completed the development of a generic lean functioning model for
construction Contractor Company. The practices identified in the model were
then incorporated into a tabular form to generate the checklist or the assessment
criteria with few more additions for the purpose of assessment of the
contractor companies as the second objective of the study.
Assessment
and detailed analysis of the functioning of the departments of the contractor
companies
This developed model
and criteria was verified and validated by a panel of 5 experts in India to
check the relevance and applicability of the practices as per the Indian
construction industry and scenario. This process generated a final model and
criteria to be used for the assessment of the companies in India. A case study
protocol was developed in this process and 6 companies were contacted for data
collection. Finally, 4 companies out of them were selected and proceeded for
data collection based on the criteria of company selection, as explained in
chapter 3. Primary and secondary data collection was done in India and then the
data analysis was started after coming back to Thailand. A detailed analysis of
all the practices was done as per the compliance status of the practices. All
the practices for each of the case was described and synthesized to obtain the
strengths and weaknesses of the practices of each department of each company.
During summarizing the lean
practices for the four cases, it was observed that there were 8 practices which
were compiled in all the four companies, whereas 10 practices out of 33 which
were not compiled in any of the four companies. Reasons of non-compliance were
primarily determined for the practices which were not complied in any of the
four companies and were analyzed in depth. This also lead to tabulate the
department wise reasons of non-compliance as per the four cases considered and
are as the last part of chapter
Recommendations
·
The initiation and support for the top management level for the
improvement of the basic processes including the ones which do not require much
of the expertise training etc. Some academic-industry knowledge exchange
programs can be organized. The top management should establish a system of involving
the operational staff in problem solving, decision making, planning etc. Some
permanent and trusted staffs are to be chosen who can be trained to be the last
planners etc. The procurement department also has to make a database of trusted
suppliers for the long term relationships ad partnering in the next stages.
·
The second or the preparatory stage is for the preparation of the
company’s staff and systems for the implementation of the lean practices.
Development of formats, guidelines have to be done in this stage. The companies
can use and modify the formats proposed by the researcher as per their needs.
Skill development sessions, knowledge exchange sessions, professional training
sessions, preparation of related contractual arrangements etc should be
organized for the trusted employees selected in the above stage for the
capacity building of the company.
·
Application of the systems developed in the above stages. Trained
staff should be in touch with the professionals for continuous improvements.
Incentive based system can be practiced for some site practices like hygiene
& housekeeping, safety compliance, adherence to the guidelines laid,
performance etc.
