Barriers to the application of lean construction techniques concerning safety improvement in construction projects

Axiomatic design for safe construction considering lean and ergonomic principles: an application in Turkey

This study proposes a systematic approach based on axiomatic design incorporating lean and ergonomic principles within the proposed design. The contribution to the body of knowledge is to keep construction workers safe by fostering a secure construction environment. Axiomatic design and lean approaches are combined to address human factors and eliminate wastes that hinder a safe construction environment. The application of the proposed system is set in the context of the construction industry. The methodology provides the construction sector with a road map toward reducing the occurrence of accidents and serves as a complementary approach between lean and ergonomic principles. The design solution has been validated and partially applied in a metro construction firm. Results show that the design solution can improve the efficiency of the construction phases by adopting a value-maximization strategy and has the potential to improve the safety and ergonomics of construction projects.

Perception of lean construction implementation barriers in the indian prefabrication sector

Prefabricated construction, increasingly recognized as a sustainable method, enhances productivity while mitigating the drawbacks of traditional approaches. Lean construction, pivotal for sustainability, targets waste reduction and cost efficiency while delivering value to customers. In India's prefabrication sector, numerous barriers impede the implementation of lean principles, necessitating their identification and resolution to advance lean practices. This study aims to identify and analyze primary barriers to implementing lean principles within India's prefabrication industry, focusing on professionals' perceptions. Employing exploratory factor analysis, it examines these barriers' interconnections and causal relationships, providing actionable recommendations for enhanced lean construction effectiveness. Through a review of the literature, 26 significant barriers were identified and primary data was obtained with the help of a questionnaire. 25 barriers were discerned after pre-exploratory factor analysis, culminating in ten common components. Notably, the study highlights a primary barrier: understanding of lean construction. Drawing from expert insights, substantial recommendations are provided, intending to guide the prefabricated building sector in overcoming barriers to on-site lean construction. These findings and recommendations offer valuable direction for industry stakeholders.

Reducing non-value added (NVA) activities through lean tools for the precast industry

Lean management is a strategic approach that is used in construction industry, specifically aims at minimizing and ultimately eliminating non-value-adding activities, commonly referred to as waste, within construction projects. However, an increase in non-value added (NVA) activities within the precast industry has the potential to diminish both productivity and efficiency. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of lean tools for minimizing NVA activities in the construction industry. A comprehensive literature review, the study identified Unnecessary Inventory (UI), Waiting Time (WT), Overproduction (OP), and Unnecessary Movement (UM) as major NVA activities that affect the precast industry. A structured questionnaire was designed and conducted among precast industry professionals and lean experts to collect data. The data was then analyze using partial least square test-structural equation modelling, including reliability and validity tests, to ensure data quality. Results indicated that the precast industry professionals widely utilized Just-in-time (JIT), Continuous Improvement (CI), and Total Quality Management (TQM) as lean tools to reduce NVA activities. A conceptual path model was developed to assess the impact of Lean tools on NVA activities. The results of the analysis reveal a strong positive relationship between Lean tools and NVA activities, with a β value of 0.654. The findings of this study can be used for improving the productivity of construction projects by focusing on how to minimize NVA activities using lean tools in precast industry.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Neuroscience Tools Use in Construction Health and Safety Management

Despite longstanding traditional construction health and safety management (CHSM) methods, the construction industry continues to face persistent challenges in this field. Neuroscience tools offer potential advantages in addressing these safety and health issues by providing objective data to indicate subjects' cognition and behavior. The application of neuroscience tools in the CHSM has received much attention in the construction research community, but comprehensive statistics on the application of neuroscience tools to CHSM is lacking to provide insights for the later scholars. Therefore, this study applied bibliometric analysis to examine the current state of neuroscience tools use in CHSM. The development phases; the most productive journals, regions, and institutions; influential scholars and articles; author collaboration; reference co-citation; and application domains of the tools were identified. It revealed four application domains: monitoring the safety status of construction workers, enhancing the construction hazard recognition ability, reducing work-related musculoskeletal disorders of construction workers, and integrating neuroscience tools with artificial intelligence techniques in enhancing occupational safety and health, where magnetoencephalography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), eye-tracking, and electrodermal activity (EDA) are four predominant neuroscience tools. It also shows a growing interest in integrating the neuroscience tools with artificial intelligence techniques to address the safety and health issues. In addition, future studies are suggested to facilitate the applications of these tools in construction workplaces by narrowing the gaps between experimental settings and real situations, enhancing the quality of data collected by neuroscience tools and performance of data processing algorithms, and overcoming user resistance in tools adoption.

Sustainable Sand Substitutes in the Construction Industry in the United States and Canada: Assessing Stakeholder Awareness

The United Nations has declared a global sand crisis, called for reduced sand consumption, and proposed solutions to address the crisis, including adopting sustainable substitutes for sand. The construction industry is a major consumer of sand, yet a recent study found a very low level of awareness by stakeholders of the crisis. The purpose of this study is to assess the familiarity of construction industry stakeholders with 27 sand substitute materials, grouped into five components that emerged from a factor analysis. Data were collected using a survey designed by the authors. Respondents consisted of 156 construction industry professionals located in 35 US states and 7 Canadian provinces. Stakeholders were classified according to a framework considering the level of power and interest of each stakeholder in sustainable construction projects. Hypotheses of no differences in awareness for two types of stakeholder groups were generally supported. First, no differences were found for decision makers responsible for ordering sand vs. non-decision makers. Second, for professional roles, academics were more familiar with some substitutes than those in other roles. The article concludes with implications for research and practice, with recommendations on how to increase awareness of sand substitutes among stakeholders in the construction industry.