Sustainable benefits in application of lean in prefabrication production process

Abstract

Prefabrication is recognised as an appropriate solution to overcome several problems in construction such as low productivity, high waste production, inferior working conditions and insufficient quality. Even though prefabrication offers many benefits, significant number of inefficiencies could be identified from its production process. Lean Production Principles are recognised as a paramount concept, which enables to address such production process related inefficiencies. This study aims to investigate how application of Lean principles help to mitigate inefficiencies in Prefabrication Production Process (Prefabl'P) and thereby learn how such an application leads to sustainability. Observations and semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data within selected three case studies in Sri Lanka (prefabrication production yards) targeting executive level professionals who engaged in 'prefabrication bridge beam production process. ' The collected data were analysed using code-based content analysis and mapped using tables and matrices. Findings revealed several inefficiency issues in PrefabPP which were highly severe, moderately severe and less severe. The study revealed that by adopting lean principles into PrefabPP that it will offer several key benefits to PrefabPP and its customers. Moreover, the results indicated that the application of Lean Production Principles to PrefabPP offers long-term benefits to construction by contributing towards sustainability. Thereby study offers some useful implications to prefabrication companies, construction professionals, researches and those who deal with sustainability issues.