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.