Applicability of lean principles and practices in industrialized housing production

Abstract

The applicability of lean principles and practices to industrialized housing in Sweden are examined, taking the production culture into consideration. The factory production of industrialized housing shows apparent similarities to manufacturing, but areas related to fully integrated lean production practices, such as error proofing and standardized work floor and equipment maintenance, are scarce. Hence, applicability of lean principles and practices to industrialized housing production is clearly influenced by a production culture that has similarities to a traditional construction culture. Setting up industrialized housing production thus requires careful implementation of lean principles if workers from traditional building are moved into factories, and managers still adhere to the prevailing site‐based production mentality. However, the influence of the traditional construction project culture is not solely a constraint; flexible teams that take their own responsibility are also important in a lean culture. Hence, retaining parts of the existing construction mentality, context and way of working is also central when discussing lean applicability in industrialized housing.

Keywords:

• Lean production
• lean construction
• industrialized housing, culture