Logistics: A Step Towards Lean Construction

Jean-Luc Salagnac1 & Madjid Yacine2

1Head of project “Site and Industry” at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, 4 avenue du recteur Poincaré, 75782 PARIS Cedex, France, +33 (1) 40 50 28 39, fax: +33 (1) 40 50 29 10, [email protected]
2Is preparing a PhD on the development of logistics in construction at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées and is presently responsible for studies at the transport and logistics engineering company EUROSIRIS, 60/62 rue d’Hauteville, 75010, PARIS, +33 (1) 44 79 91 41, fax : +33 (1) 47 70 11 93, [email protected]

Abstract

Some factors are likely to impel a deep change in the construction industry in France. As in other European countries, this activity remains traditional in spite of a significant flow of innovations concerning both industrial products and execution of works on site. Experimental building operations have been carried out within the frame of a national five year programme focused on the improvement of the activity on site. The consequences of these experiments on the relations between actors have been studied from different points of view. Nearly one hundred operations will have been supported by the end of 1999. This paper is based on the evaluation of several of these experimental operations with a special emphasis on site logistics, which is considered as a step towards lean construction, because it clearly reveals where are the limitations to improvements. The variety of projects, of size of contracting companies, and of constraints of industrial products involved in these experiments allow concluding remarks concerning the conditions of development of lean construction in France

Keywords

Logistics, lean construction, quality, transport.

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Reference

Salagnac, J. & Yacine, M. 1999. Logistics: A Step Towards Lean Construction, 7th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 121-132. doi.org/

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