Development and Testing of Digital Tools to Sharpen Worker Intuition about Waste Recognition and Productivity Enhancement for the Construction Industry
Abstract
Embedded in most construction activities are multiple forms of waste. Waste adversely affects a project’s delivery in terms of time, cost, quality, safety, and even stakeholder morale. Inherent to enhancing productivity on a lean project is the need to develop flow between activities such that the slopes of successive activities on a line-of-balance schedule become parallel. Achieving this disciplined level of parallel flows requires the ability to recognize wasteful practices. Toyota’s process engineer, Taiichi Ohno, identified eight wastes that need to be recognized and eliminated to achieve flow.
Developing an intuitive understanding of where to place objects so that productivity can be enhanced would be of help to the construction industry which is notorious for cost and time overruns. In other industries, such as manufacturing, graphical tools such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM) are commonly used as a way to plot and measure a sequence of activities that contribute to a larger stream, including the inputs and outputs of individual activities.
Lean practitioners also recognize VSM as a valuable tool for those seeking to implement Lean since it facilitates analysis of the flow of processes, waste, and value. VSMs also help students and practitioners develop an understanding of additional Lean processes such as takt time. However, while traditional value stream mapping methods may make sense for those with a background in manufacturing or industrial engineering, they are arguably neither intuitive to construct nor easy to understand by those in the building industry. There is a need to find simpler ways to communicate opportunities for waste reduction and productivity enhancement that align with the visual management characteristics of those practicing within the construction industry. In this research, a Spaghetti Diagram is introduced as an improvement tool which has the potential to be used intuitively.
This research aimed to develop and test two online activities to determine if a video of a cook making spaghetti in a kitchen as well as an interactive online simulation game that generates spaghetti diagrams can help players develop an intuitive sense for identification and removal of embedded waste. The research methods used for this study were (i) kaizen (e.g., continuous improvement using plan-do-check-act cycles) design research methodology that involves iterative development, testing, and revision, and (ii) controlled experimentation. Feedback on both activities was collected, and modifications made accordingly.
Participant feedback from testing of the developed video and online game showed that both games were enjoyable to play. They appeared to increase participant awareness and were capable of helping participants identify waste and improve their performance.
Subject
Value Stream MappingLean Simulation
Lean Construction
Online Game
Serious Games
Spaghetti Diagram
Productivity Awareness
Citation
Arefazar, Yasaman (2022). Development and Testing of Digital Tools to Sharpen Worker Intuition about Waste Recognition and Productivity Enhancement for the Construction Industry. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /198664.