Agile construction

Last updated

Agile construction is an integrated system of principles and methods, and a philosophy of doing business adapted to jobsites and overall project delivery in the construction industry. It is born from agile manufacturing and project management, which is mostly used in manufacturing production, automotive and software developing teams. [1] It is the application of the Toyota Production System [2] [3] to the construction industry, with two parallel paths: Measuring (ASTM E2691) [4] and improving productivity, as well as segregating and externalizing work through prefabrication and supply chain management.

Contents

Like the Toyota Production System, agile construction principles form a system that relies on input from the source of the work information, both up front for planning the project, as well as throughout the life of a project for real-time feedback. The real-time input produces real-time measurements of productivity and allows for improved responsiveness to changes on the jobsite. Iterative and incremental agile construction methods help manage the design and build of efficient, low-risk processes and activities. This means that each time a process is repeated some changes are made to improve the process. Changes for the better are kept and for the worse are discarded.

The eight agile construction principles [5] are:

Agile construction principles help contractor's to make processes visible, measurable and manageable to improve the ability to rapidly adapt to job site changes, by minimizing the time between when a risk is detected and when it gets corrected. [11] This requires a better mechanism to predict and capture these changes accompanied with a better infrastructure for addressing them. [12] Agile Construction project management [13] can also make gains in pre-design and design phases of construction projects. Accompanied with a well-trained and highly motivated workforce, companies using agile construction operations are able to increase responsiveness and productivity, to reduce cost and to deliver a better customer value. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Construction</span> Process of the building or assembling of a building or infrastructure

Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations, and comes from Latin constructio and Old French construction. To construct is the verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built, the nature of its structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanban</span> Japanese business method

Kanban is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing. Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency. The system takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. Kanban is also known as the Toyota nameplate system in the automotive industry.

Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life coaching, government, and banking.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers. The system is a major precursor of the more generic "lean manufacturing". Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda, Japanese industrial engineers, developed the system between 1948 and 1975.

Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process, i.e. output per unit of input, typically over a specific period of time. The most common example is the (aggregate) labour productivity measure, one example of which is GDP per worker. There are many different definitions of productivity and the choice among them depends on the purpose of the productivity measurement and/or data availability. The key source of difference between various productivity measures is also usually related to how the outputs and the inputs are aggregated to obtain such a ratio-type measure of productivity.

Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is used to distinguish this process from the more conventional construction practice of transporting the basic materials to the construction site where all assembly is carried out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operations management</span> In business operations, controlling the process of production of goods

Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. It involves the responsibility of ensuring that business operations are efficient in terms of using as few resources as needed and effective in meeting customer requirements.

Takt time, or simply takt, is a manufacturing term to describe the required product assembly duration that is needed to match the demand. Often confused with cycle time, takt time is a tool used to design work and it measures the average time interval between the start of production of one unit and the start of production of the next unit when items are produced sequentially. For calculations, it is the time to produce parts divided by the number of parts demanded in that time interval. The takt time is based on customer demand; if a process or a production line are unable to produce at takt time, either demand leveling, additional resources, or process re-engineering is needed to ensure on-time delivery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of manufacturing</span> Overview of and topical guide to manufacturing

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to manufacturing:

Lean construction is a combination of operational research and practical development in design and construction with an adoption of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the end-to-end design and construction process. Unlike manufacturing, construction is a project-based production process. Lean Construction is concerned with the alignment and holistic pursuit of concurrent and continuous improvements in all dimensions of the built and natural environment: design, construction, activation, maintenance, salvaging, and recycling. This approach tries to manage and improve construction processes with minimum cost and maximum value by considering customer needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Electrical Contractors Association</span> American industry trade association

The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) is a trade association in the United States that represents the electrical contracting industry. NECA supports the businesses that bring power, light, and communication technology to buildings and communities. Through advocacy, education, research, and standards development, NECA works to advance the electrical contracting industry.

Integrated project delivery (IPD) is a construction project delivery method that seeks efficiency and involvement of all participants through all phases of design, fabrication, and construction. IPD combines ideas from integrated practice and lean construction. The objectives of IPD are to increase productivity, reduce waste, avoid time overruns, enhance final product quality, and reduce conflicts between owners, architects and contractors during construction. IPD emphasizes the use of technology to facilitate communication between these parties involved in a construction process.

Lean IT is the extension of lean manufacturing and lean services principles to the development and management of information technology (IT) products and services. Its central concern, applied in the context of IT, is the elimination of waste, where waste is work that adds no value to a product or service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Modular construction</span> Structure of the building

Modular construction is a construction technique which involves the prefabrication of 2D panels or 3D volumetric structures in off-site factories and transportation to construction sites for assembly. This process has the potential to be superior to traditional building in terms of both time and costs, with claimed time savings of between 20 to 50 percent faster than traditional building techniques.

Lean integration is a management system that emphasizes creating value for customers, continuous improvement, and eliminating waste as a sustainable data integration and system integration practice. Lean integration has parallels with other lean disciplines such as lean manufacturing, lean IT, and lean software development. It is a specialized collection of tools and techniques that address the unique challenges associated with seamlessly combining information and processes from systems that were independently developed, are based on incompatible data models, and remain independently managed, to achieve a cohesive holistic operation.

Triax Technologies, Inc., also known as Triax, is a Connecticut-based technology company that develops and delivers IoT technology for the construction industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perry Daneshgari</span>

Perry (Parviz) Daneshgari is an Iranian-American entrepreneur, engineer and author born in Ahvaz, Iran. He founded MCA, which appeared on the TV Program World Business Review, in 1990 and has written many books and articles in specialized magazines and websites. Perry has an MBA from Wayne State University and a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, as well as BS. in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. He specializes in Agile Construction, a way of doing business that focuses on adaptation and quick changes on job sites and production lines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Moore</span> American engineer

Heather Moore is an engineer from Michigan known for her research in construction management and construction productivity. She is the Vice President of Operations at MCA. She studied Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, and also holds an MBA from the University of Michigan-Flint, and later obtained a Ph. D in Construction Management at the Michigan State University. Her Ph.D. research focused on information entropy, with specific application in construction. Her papers and research have been used in innovation in construction development. She has co-authored two books on improving productivity on construction job sites and has published many articles in specialized magazines, including work referencing both MCA’s experience in Agile Construction and the ASTM standard in combination with information entropy. She has also contributed to other books and research work conducted at MCA on topics of productivity and process design.

Automation in construction is the combination of methods, processes, and systems that allow for greater machine autonomy in construction activities. Construction automation may have multiple goals, including but not limited to, reducing jobsite injuries, decreasing activity completion times, and assisting with quality control and quality assurance. Some systems may be fielded as a direct response to increasing skilled labor shortages in some countries. Opponents claim that increased automation may lead to less construction jobs and that software leaves heavy equipment vulnerable to hackers.

The industrialization of construction is the process through which construction aims to improve productivity through increased mechanization and automation. The process commonly involves modularization, prefabrication, preassembly, and mass production.

References

  1. ↑ The Profitability of Agile Construction (2006) By (Parviz) Perry Daneshgari & Michelle T. Wilson
  2. ↑ Tatsuhiko, Yoshimura (2002). Mizenboushi Method. Japan: JUSE Press.
  3. ↑ Ohno, Taiichi (1988). Toyota Production System. New York: Productivity Press.
  4. ↑ ASTM E2691 - 11 Standard Practice for Job Productivity Measurement (JPM) - Active Standard ASTM E2691 | Developed by Subcommittee: E06.81 Book of Standards Volume: 04.12
  5. ↑ Agile Construction for the Electrical Contractor by Perry Daneshgari PhD ISBN   978-1508939221 (2015)
  6. ↑ Reducing Labor Waste with Short Interval Scheduling, Construction Executive Magazine by Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore (2015)
  7. ↑ The Secret to Short-Interval Scheduling by Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore - Electrical Construction and Maintenance - Feb 1, 2009
  8. ↑ Partnering With Distributors for Efficiency, CE Magazine by Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore (2016)
  9. ↑ Impact Prefabrication on Industrial Construction Work by Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore (2015)
  10. ↑ Bid to Win: Avoiding Killer Jobs with Better Accuracy, Insights Magazine by Perry Daneshgari and Heather Moore (2016)
  11. 1 2 3 Daneshgari, Perry (2010). Agile construction for the electrical contractor. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. ISBN   0763765627.
  12. ↑ How to Build an Agile Foundation for Change (PDF). PriceWaterhouse Coopers. 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  13. ↑ Johansson, Mattias Yllén. "Agile project management in the construction industry" (PDF). KTH.se. Royal Institute of Technology. Retrieved 11 March 2015.

Additional References

Daneshgari, Perry, and Heather Moore. Prefabrication Handbook for the Construction Industry: Agile Construction Application through Externalizing Work , 2019.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.