TY  - CONF
TI  - So Many Flows!
AU  - Tommelein, Iris D.
AU  - Singh, Vishesh V.
AU  - Coelho, Rafael V.
AU  - Lehtovaara, Joonas
AD  - Professor, Civil and Envir. Engrg. Dept., Director, Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL),  University of California, Berkeley, CA, tommelein@berkeley.edu, orcid.org/0000-0002-9941-6596
AD  - PhD Student, Civil and Envir. Eng. Dept. and Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL), Univ. of  California, Berkeley, CA, USA, visheshvs@berkeley.edu, orcid.org/0000-0002-6999-9727
AD  - PhD Student, Civil and Envir. Eng. Dept. and Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL), Univ. of  California, Berkeley, CA, USA, rvcoelho@berkeley.edu, orcid.org/0000-0003-3298-3622
AD  - Doctoral Candidate, Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University, Finland, and Visiting  Researcher, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Project Production Systems  Laboratory (P2SL), University of California, Berkeley, CA, joonas.lehtovaara@aalto.fi, orcid.org/0000- 0002-4761-3811
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/07/27
T2  - Proc. 30th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC)
C3  - Proc. 30th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC)
CY  - Edmonton, Canada
SP  - 878
EP  - 889
DO  - 10.24928/2022/0199
SN  - 2309-0979 (ISSN)
AB  - Flow is one of three perspectives in the Transformation-Flow-Value (TFV) conceptualization of project production systems. Accordingly, many papers published in the IGLC proceedings and elsewhere have addressed flow on a theoretical or practical basis. This notwithstanding, quite a few of these papers describe various flows only loosely without defining them formally. For example, a term such as workflow is widely used in the Lean Construction literature, but what exactly does it refer to? This paper poses the question: What kinds of flow can be distinguished? In response, different kinds of flow are listed, some already well-described and others (e.g., assembly flow) seemingly overlooked in the Lean Construction literature. The contribution of this paper is distinguishing and defining a certain number of flows in construction, using a vocabulary that is internally consistent. Flows need comprehensive attention in the design and execution of Lean Construction systems, so it is important to be clear on terminology. The goal of providing definitions regarding flows in Lean Construction is to facilitate research and communication of ideas with scholars and practitioners around the world.
KW  - Flow
KW  - assembly flow
KW  - equipment flow
KW  - location flow
KW  - material flow
KW  - operation flow
KW  - process flow
KW  - product flow
KW  - resource flow
KW  - service flow
KW  - tool flow
KW  - trade flow
KW  - value flow
KW  - worker flow
KW  - workflow
L1  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/2015/pdf
UR  - https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/2015
DB  - IGLC.net
LA  - English
N1  - Export date: 04 October 2026
ER  -