An investigation on building information modelling based lean design management

Today, in many sectors, companies are trying to gain sustainable competitive advantage in order to achieve superior performance than rivals and create value for customers. For the sustainability of competitiveness, different products and services must be unique and value creation must be adopted. Achieving productivity and competitive advantage in the construction sector is only possible by introducing better quality products at lower costs. Therefore, lean thinking is needed. Lean philosophy was emerged from Toyota production system. Construction process is not based on serial and uniform production as automotive sector is. As each architectural project is unique, different production techniques can be applied in the stages of construction. Thus, lean philosophy can not be fully adapted to the design process. However, recent scientific researches indicates that the three-dimensional models prepared through the BIM at the preliminary design stages and the planning will allow all participants to foresee the construction stage, and it is possible that the wastes to be generated from lean perspective can also be handled. At the same time, it is emphasized that BIM will considerably increase the production, the quality of the construction sector and the performance in terms of project delivery time. It also eventually reduces the cost. Lean management practices aim to eliminate waste in general or reduce it to the lowest possible level. The concept of waste is defined by lean thinking. Every activity and process not adding value to the production is considered as waste. Within our country, the largest amount of waste in terms of lean thinking is produced in architecture, engineering and construction sector. This emphasizes the importance of supporting the management process of construction projects with lean management principles. The design stage affects the construction process, use and quality of the building after handing over. Design processes and applications, supported by a lean management approach, have positive potential influence to the quality. Supporting the design phase of construction projects with lean management principles will contribute to the development of quality. Design management affects the success of the design process as well as the success of the construction process. The architectural design phase is one of the most important stage of construction project management to create value. The involvement of all stakeholders together with the customer in the preliminary design phase is crucial to share a common goal and to generate the correct project brief. In terms of lean thinking, design errors are regarded as waste. The main reasons of design errors are brief, which is not properly defined due to the stakeholders that are not involved in the preliminary design phase, weak communication in the design development process, lack of cooperative organizations and lack of interdisciplinary collaborations. A project organization in which all stakeholders are involved through Building Information Modelling technology from the preliminary design stage to the hand over stage will largely eliminate design errors and communication-related problems that will occur during the later stages of the project. In this study, BIM was considered as one of the lean design management tools, BIM based lean design process was focused and its positive effects on quality was examined. This study focused on BIM, which is considered as one of the lean design management tool, and its positive effects. The ultimate goal of this research is to investigate the use of BIM based lean design process as a method of eliminating waste in the context of lean thinking and to examine the transition to the BIM based lean design management process. In this regard, the activities that are waste and adding no value with respect to the lean principles in the design process have been determined, the design process has been examined through the BIM and the transition to the BIM-based design process has been addressed. Within the scope of the research, following the literature review, interviews were conducted with the professionals using BIM technology in architecture, engineering and construction sector. Inferences of this research findings are thought to be useful for academicians and professionals in the sector. As a result of the findings of the research, the main reasons for the wastes in the design process are: the lack of determination of common goals and values by all the stakeholders during the preliminary design phase and the poor collaboration and communication problems in the project development. The non-determination of common objectives and values between stakeholders leads to design changes that are considered waste from the perspective of lean thinking. Poor collaboration and communication problems lead to design errors and rework. The solution of communication-related problems can be largely prevented by the integrated project delivery system and big room workshops via Basecamp, Aconex and Egnyte which are ICT softwares as well as BIM. In order to prevent design errors, it is not only adequate to use BIM by the team members, but also to need data based thinking and problem-solving abilities. In order to make the use of BIM under lean thinking in Turkey, it is necessary to raise awareness of the stakeholders involved in the sector, to establish standards and data libraries in government administration and to make public funding obligations. It is important that the relevant institutions and chambers involved in architecture, engineering and construction sector play an active role in the transition to the BIM based lean project process. The involvement of the BIM in the universities' undergraduate and graduate courses in architecture and engineering is essential to the widespread use of BIM within the sector. However, it is not sufficient for students to learn only BIM as a software. In order to improve the communication and coordination skills of architecture and engineering students in undergraduate education, acquiring capstone experience by preparing interdisciplinary graduation projects with BIM will lead to the increase of the number of professionals who use BIM effectively in the sector. In the AEC sector, there are professionals who do not use BIM technology but have experience, and young professionals without experience but use BIM technology. For this reason, BIM will be used more effectively by the architects and engineers who will have the experience within a period of 5 years. For the lean design process, developing communication techniques, technology and new areas of expertise should be investigated. Innovations in the sector should be included in the production process.