21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Fortaleza, Brazil - 2013

Challenges and Opportunities in Implementing Lean and BIM on a Infrastructure Project

Bhargav Dave1, Stefan Boddy2 & Lauri Koskela3

1Project Specialist, Civil and Structural Engineering Dept, Aalto University; Finland. Phone +358 50 4364717; [email protected]
2Programmer, Manchester, UK. [email protected]
3Professor, School of the Built Environment, University of Salford; UK. Phone +44 161 2953178; [email protected]

Abstract

It has been realised through research and practice that lean construction and Building Information Modelling (BIM) have significant synergies, and can bring benefits if implemented together. VisiLean has been developed as research software, which provides integration between the lean workflow and the BIM model, enabling simultaneous visualisation of the product and process model. VisiLean supports the Last Planner™ workflow, and is aimed to be used by the construction teams on projects. The main purpose of the research is to partially evaluate the findings from a brief pilot project, where VisiLean was implemented on an infrastructure project. Through this paper the authors wish to highlight the challenges and opportunities that were identified during the pilot implementation. Specific challenges were encountered pertaining to the level of detail, and the parametric nature (or the lack thereof) of the existing Building Information Model of the project. Also, issues were identified regarding the synchronisation of the lean workflow with the BIM model. Overall however, the project team perceived the integration of Lean and BIM through VisiLean positively. As the implementation of lean and BIM is relatively new to infrastructure projects, the findings are of importance to potential lean and BIM implementers in the infrastructure field. However, on a broad level the findings are of interest to those in the construction industry wishing to implement Lean and BIM on projects.

Keywords

Lean Construction, BIM, Lean and BIM, Product and Process Visualisation, Infrastructure.

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Reference

Dave, B. , Boddy, S. & Koskela, L. 2013. Challenges and Opportunities in Implementing Lean and BIM on a Infrastructure Project, 21th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 741-750. doi.org/

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Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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