Impact of Lean Practices in the Planning of Design Tasks: Evidence From Two Projects in France

Abstract

Lean construction, through its different tools, has enriched the construction industry with several ways to present reliable planning for the construction process. Nevertheless, the focus on planning design tasks is still incomparable to that devoted to the construction tasks. Additionally, lean construction and its planning tools and principles are still not routinely practiced in many areas of the world. This article tries to contribute to the existing efforts and shows the integration of lean construction with digital tools to improve the reliability of planning activities for design tasks in two projects in France in time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The article results show that the use of lean practices helped avoid delays in design, better consider the client's expectations, and improve the collaboration between the participants in the design phase. The current study brings new insights into the applicability of lean practices in improving design management in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry.

Lean Construction and Building Information Modeling (BIM) in Design Management: Survey Results From French Companies

“…Concerning lean adoption, the results of the study are consistent with some claims in the literature that lean is not fully or routinely adopted in France (Chaize et al, 2022;Dakhli & Lafhaj, 2017). Nevertheless, due to the lack of studies about the challenges facing lean adoption in France, it is difficult to define the exact reasons behind this result.…”

“…However, the implementation of these tools is only found in around 25% of the companies and there is no evidence that these tools are implemented routinely or perfectly. The lack of lean implementation in the design may cause losses of opportunities to improve trust, communication, collaboration, cost saving, and on-time delivery of the design (Chaize et al, 2022;Khan & Tzortzopoulos, 2015).…”

“…It is widely believed that decisions in the design phase of construction projects result in changes that cannot be adjusted without affecting the time, cost, and/or quality of the project (Haponava & Al-Jibouri, 2009;Sweis et al, 2008). As a result, design management is believed to be a critical factor that affects the success of construction projects (Chaize et al, 2022;Hattab & Hamzeh, 2013).…”

“…Lean construction, with its principles and tools, helps to facilitate the generation of the value of the client and improve the social system during the design process. For instance, the presentation of the Last Planner System (LPS) during the design process can contribute to improving transparency, communication, trust, efficiency, and quality of the design (Chaize et al, 2022;Hamzeh et al, 2009;Khan & Tzortzopoulos, 2015). Big room/iroom/co-location is also effective to increase collaboration, decreasing design errors, and reduce latency in decision-making (Tauriainen et al, 2016) and Design structure matrix (DSM) is helpful to improve planning for the entire design phase (Rosas, 2013).…”

“…In France, a limited number of investigations have been carried out about this integration. Additionally, there is still some missing information about the adoption of both concepts in all phases of the construction despite different calls to adopt them (Chaize et al, 2022;Joblot et al, 2017;PLANBIM, 2022;Tranchant et al, 2017). Additionally, despite the global efforts to study lean-BIM integration, there has still insufficient studies that link between lean-BIM integration and design performance.…”