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Production process improvement of buildings’ prefabricated steel frames using value stream mapping

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Abstract

The ultimate goal of lean philosophy is to eliminate or decrease wastes and deliver value to the customer. After successful implementation of lean principles to the manufacturing sector, researchers have been trying to apply lean principles to the construction sector. However, construction is completely different from manufacturing. Prefabricated and industrialized buildings bear a striking resemblance to manufacturing due to completing most processes in the factory environment. This paper uses value stream mapping (VSM) as a lean technique in the production phase of Pprefabricated steel frames (PSFs) in a case study. The case includes construction of three 16-story residential buildings made of PSFs with bolt and nut connections in Iran. The production processes are investigated, and the current state of the production line is examined. The VSM uses elaboration of maps to identify the current state of production, diagnose wastes and their root causes, and finally, propose improvements in the future state. To investigate the productivity of the production line and implement lean principles, discrete event simulation (DES) was carried out. After identifying and reducing some of the wastes in the current state, the future state was modeled. The results showed 34 % reduction in the lead time of production and 16 % reduction of costs. These results support the hypothesis that lean principles can be successfully applied to industrialized and prefabricated construction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, 16 Azar Ave, P.O. Box: 11155-4563, Tehran, Iran

    Gholamreza Heravi & Mohammad Firoozi

Authors
  1. Gholamreza Heravi
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  2. Mohammad Firoozi
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Correspondence to Gholamreza Heravi.

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Heravi, G., Firoozi, M. Production process improvement of buildings’ prefabricated steel frames using value stream mapping. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 89, 3307–3321 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-9306-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-016-9306-9

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