22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Oslo, Norway - 2014

A Lean-TRIZ Approach for Improving the Perfomance of Construction Projects

Brahian Román Cabrera1 & Guillermo Juárez Li2

1Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, National University ofEngineering. E-Mail: [email protected]
2Civil Engineer, Innovation Coordinator, Department of Construction Management, COSAPI Peru. E-Mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Process improvement and waste reduction are important in optimizing the performance of projects, to achieve these goals Continuous Improvement and Quality Management are methodologies which have been used successfully in construction. However, both are now no longer sufficient due to the competitiveness of the construction industry and the increasing complexity of projects, especially in infrastructure such as highways, tunnels and dams. Being also necessary to incorporate innovative elements. This paper proposes an optimization cycle that complements the principles of Lean and TRIZ (the Russian acronym for the "Theory of Inventive Problem Solving”) as an alternative to improve the efficiency of resources. Then, the Lean tool Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to assess the issues and wastes during production and the principles of TRIZ to get innovative solutions to the most difficult problems will be used. The application of this “Lean-TRIZ” approach to a highway project of 50 km ($ 45 MM) located in the Peruvian Highlands whose scope included works of flexible pavement maintenance and rehabilitation is presented as a case study, in which paving works were thoroughly studied for 2 months. The results showed that TRIZ increases the effectiveness of Lean to improve the performance of the production flow through the generation of innovative ideas.

Keywords

Continuous Improvement, Value Stream Mapping, Waste, TRIZ, Innovation

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Reference

Cabrera, B. R. & Li, G. J. 2014. A Lean-TRIZ Approach for Improving the Perfomance of Construction Projects, 22nd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 883-884. doi.org/

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