Just In Time Construction Method

RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENT Description Report Objectives & Task framework

Page No. 3

Chapter 1: Introduction and Understanding of JIT 1.0

History of JIT Concept

4

1.1

Definitions

5

1.2

The Concept And Philosophy

7

1.3

The JIT principles

7

Chapter 2 : JIT in Manufacturing 2.0

Implementation in Automobile Manufacturing

11

2.1

Ford KA in JIT

13

Chapter 3 : JIT in Construction Industry 3.0

Application in Construction Industry : An Overview

3.1

Factors That Influence Housing Developers to use JIT concept

17

in Construction Industry

18

3.2

Issues And Challenges in Construction Industry

25

3.3

Problem Areas

30

3.4

Strategy in Construction JIT

33

3.5

Conclusion

35

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

Chapter 4 : JIT and IBS 4.0

JIT and IBS

37

4.1

Classification of IBS

38

4.2

Value Stream Mapping

42

4.3

Example Structural Steel Supply Chain in Building Construction

44

Chapter 5 : Case Studies 5.0

Case study 1

49

Case Study 2

53

Case Study 3

56

Chapter 6 : Case Study Malaysian Scenario (PUTRAJAYA)

60

Chapter 7 : Conclusion

68

References

70

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

Report Objectives : 1. To get a better Understanding of Just-In-Time (JIT) Philosophy and Concept 2. To identify the factors that influence the housing developer firms to innovate, that is by adopting new ideas, new concept, new process or introducing new idea, or new procedure of doing things in to their organization. 3. To identify the factors that stop, discourage, or deterred the firms from innovation JIT concept in the Construction Industry

Task Framework : Understanding of JIT concept

Implementation in Manufacturing Industry

Implementation in Construction Industry

Issues and Challenges in implementing JIT concept in Construction Industry

Recommendation and Solutions towards the implementation

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION OF JUST-IN-TIME

1.0

History of the JIT concept JIT is a technique developed by Taichi Ohno and his fellow workers at Toyota.

Ohno's fundamental purpose was to change production's directives from estimates of demand to actual demand--a purpose originally rooted in the absence of a mass market and the need to produce small lots of many product varieties. It was based on lean manufacturing, that an outgrowth of the Toyota Production system was developed by Taichii Ohno in the 1950s. Ohno had observed mass production at Ford Motor Corporation’s manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and recognized that there was much waste everywhere.

Ohno identified seven wastes in mass production systems – overproducing, waiting time, transporting, processing itself, having unnecessary stock on hand, using unnecessary motion and producing defective goods. Very importantly, Ohno visualized a failure to meet customers’ needs as waste. The Toyota Production System was based on the “Just –In – Time (JIT) philosophy; its three tenets were minimizing waste in all forms, continuous improvement of processes and systems, and maintaining respect for all workers. It resulted in reduced inventories (and space) higher human productivity; better equipment productivity and utilization, shorter lead times, fewer errors, and higher morale. JIT is a pull system that responds to actual customer demand. In essence, products are “pulled from ” the JIT system. JIT only commits the resources needed to meet the customer’s needs. In the mid – 1970’s Toyota reduced the time needed to produce a car from fifteen days to one day, using JIT.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

Supply Chain Management (SCM) emerged as part of the Just in Time delivery system; its primary focus was logistical to control the interface between suppliers and Toyota, facilitating the provision of supplies precisely on time, in required quantities. A supply chain encompasses all the activities that lead to having an end user provided with a product or service – the chain is comparable to a network that provides a conduit for flows in both directions, such as materials, information, funds, paper, and people. It typically effects major economies by reducing inventories. SCM has been developed further as a management concept and incorporates features of JIT.

1.1

Definitions : Reviews of JIT Philosophy JIT has gained considerable interest because it allows a company to produce

high quality products with reduced waste and with increased levels of productivity. Several authors have discussed the JIT philosophy, including Sugimori et al, Mullins, Monde, Hoeffer, Nelleman and Smith, Schonberger, McElroyHall, Harper, and Richard. Schonberger describes the JIT system as to: "produce and deliver finished goods just in time to be sold, sub-assemblies just in time to be assembled into finished goods, and purchased materials just in time to be transformed into fabricated parts". Schonberger also categorises the benefits of JIT into the following five groups: (1) Part cost — low scrap cost, low inventory cost. (2) Quality — fast detection and corrections, and higher quality of parts purchased. (3) Design — fast response to engineering change. (4) Administrative efficiency — fewer suppliers, minimal expediting and release papers, and simple communication and receiving. (5) Productivity — reduced rework, reduced inspection and reduced parts delay.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

Monden describes JIT as "a production system to produce the kind of units needed, at the time needed and in the quantities needed". Whilst Harper describes it as "the hottest and most controversial subject facing manufacturers and distributors". The interest in JIT amongst manufacturers, suppliers and distributors is understandable especially if their products have to face home and international competition from

manufacturers

who

have

implemented

the

JIT

principles

effectively. Monden also discusses the various factors which constitute smoothed production at Toyota under the various types of Kanbans and their usages and rules. He describes the techniques Toyota applied to achieve a short supply lot production time, waiting time and conveyance time. He also identifies four concepts that comprise the Japanese approach to reducing set-ups. Hall states that JIT "is not confined to a set of techniques for improving production defined in the narrowest way as material conversion. It is a way to visualize the physical operations of the company from raw material to customer delivery". There is no aspect of management which JIT does not touch. It eliminates waste in all areas of manufacturing — including marketing, planning, sales and production — whilst maintaining and possibly improving customer services because it identifies and changes manufacturing conditions which cause waste to exist. According to Hoeffer, the JIT system is a combination of purchasing, inventory control and production management functions. Materials are purchased in small quantities with frequent deliveries just in time when they are needed. Under the JIT system, the parts needed for one day's operations in a manufacturing or assembly line are supplied by in-plant sources of suppliers for immediate use.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

The benefits of using the JIT philosophy became of particular interest forconcerns because of rising manufacturing costs arising from increasing labour and material costs in the late 1970s, its efficiency being achieved through: (1) suppliers' co-operation and support; (2) commitment of every person within the organisation, and (3) small size purchasing, smoothing production, designing flexible processes, standardising jobs and employing Kanban.

1.2

Concept and Philosophy The JIT concept was developed by Taiichi Ohno (Hartley, J. R. 1981) of

Toyota to improve Toyota’s competitiveness in the global market and soon it was adopted by many Japanese industries. By early 1980s, many Western managers found themselves losing ground in the manufacturing “race” against the Japanese. Imai (Imai,M. 1991) liked many other Japanese, attributed the Japanese industrial success to the concept of JIT. According to Pooler (Pooler, V. H. and D. J. Pooler. 1997), a common misconception of many managers in the eighties (and even today) is that JIT, in a narrow sense, was another planning tool that simply requires all the supplies to be shipped exactly as needed on time. In fact JIT has a much broader perspective than that understanding. It is a broad-based philosophy of management, which embraces everybody in the organization and covers every process towards a culture of never ending or continuous improvement by removing wastes and non-value-adding processes.

1.3

The JIT Principle The JIT philosophy, also commonly known as the Toyota production system,

originates from Japan. Toyota was the first company to implement this system which streamlined production with minimum holding inventory. Land costs in Japan are high due to its scarcity. Inventory takes up space and down capital. In the JIT philosophy, raw materials are not stocked up. Instead, they are delivered in the Page 7

RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

right quantities, in the right condition, to the right place, and at the right time for production. JIT has proven to work well in the manufacturing sector (Lim and Low, 1992; and Chan 1997). The fundamentals of JIT are very much intertwined and related to another. To simplify this management philosophy, its concept can be explained using the following six key principles: 1. Kanban or pull system One of the principle of JIT concepts is the kanban or “pull” system. This principle can be effected only if the other principle of JIT are executed in totality. The essence of this principle is simply that the flow of materials is “pulled” by the demand side. Without authorized kanbans (or “pull” demands) from a workstation is not allowed to sent any materials forward. 2. Top Management commitment and employee involvement Top management is the driving force and executive power for JIT implementation. Management’s efforts and time commitments are necessary to ensure that disciplined and correct operations are carried out accordance with the JIT concept. A motivation and workforce will provide the desirable for production. Management and employee must constantly seek continuous improvements to existing work. Process so that the production system can be further streamline and its lead time shortened. JIT is about improvement and should be regarded as a means to an end and not an end itself. Continuous improvement is only possible if employee involvement stays commuted to the philosophy. 3. Elimination of waste Under the JIT concept, waste is defined as anything that does not as add value to the final product. Excess inventory is regarded as waste since no value is added by stoking up inventory. In addition, inventories takes up space, tie down capital, incurs storage cost, as well as security and insurance costs; not to mention the risk of damage during storage as well as the risk of obsolescence.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

The JIT concept therefore calls for zero inventory or buffer stocks. Waiting time, inspection time and time spent at rectifying defects deemed wasteful. Thus, getting things done the first “time right” is another doctrine of the JIT concept. 4. Total Quality Control (TQC) Production operations can be proceed in the JIT and the fashion only if the part delivered are the of good enough quality for the use. Rejection of materials due to poor quality will grievously disrupts the whole production workflow and schedule. Any savings and productivity gains from JIT will be wiped away. Hence, the JIT concept must also encompass the total Quality Control concept for smooth, just-in-time execution of the work processes. 5. Uninterrupted work flow JIT production warrants an interrupted work process. Since each workstation pulls materials from the previous one, without keeping any backup inventory, any disruption at any point in the production line would impact the entire chain of activities, it is therefore, essential to ensure that the manufacturing process is uninterrupted. Simplifying the work processes and striving to reduce the process set-up time are useful ways to better ensure continuous operations. 6. Supplier relation: single-sourcing With materials flowing into the factory on a JIT basis, coordination with suppliers is utmost importance in order to ensure that the right materials come at the right time. Too many suppliers will cause management to have less time with each supplier for liaising, expediting orders, and feedback and coordination efforts. JIT therefore emphasizes on the need to reduce the pool of supplier and, eventually, work towards a single supply source. This requires the forging of long term business relationship founded on mutual trust and benefits. The single supplier, with assured business over the long term, will then be able to invest in machinery and automation to improve productivity and reduce costs.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

This is, in turn, works well for the production company as the supplier is able to supply better quality materials and at the lower cost. It would be easier to manage smaller group of suppliers. Manager will be able to spend more quality time with the reduce number of suppliers. Managers will be able to spend more quality time with the reduce number of suppliers and ensure that the JIT production is well supported by all the crucial JIT deliveries.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 2 JIT IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY 2.0

Just-In-Time

(JIT)

and

Its

Implementation

in

Automobile

Manufacturing Industry JIT is one of the examples of early-landed future manufacturing idealism that requires continuous collaborated refinements throughout its supply chain elements. It has been used since 1950s by Japanese automotive industries and yet, according to Karlsson (1994), none of the most developed countries would have even considered this methodology until early 1980s. Researchers tried really hard to explain JIT concept in a short descriptive sentence and none of them were able to come up with a single answer that represents everyone’s definitions. Those who were trying to bring them together were ended up with another new more complex definition. JIT goes beyond ordinary

management theory or a company’s

manufacturing procedures; it comprises production planning, HRM, material management,

distribution,

customer

services

not

only

involving

individual

organisation furthermore requires collaborated cross-companies dedication to continuously refine the business process of one and another. Svensson (2001) in his journal argued that the basic of JIT is “no nonessential activity should be committed prior, during and after any production phases and wherever beneficial outsourcing is regarded as good as in-house production”. JIT is understood as event driven production concept which has been carefully planned and structured to ensure all its components are ready whenever needed. It is also known as inventory-less production method which allows minimum stock level only needed for the current manufacturing phase. Automotive manufacturing industry has become an ideal instance on how JIT methodology may improve the efficiency of the whole production processes (Karlsson, 1994). By involving thousands manufacturing steps, there are always chances for refinement.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

This is to minimize lead times which in turn will boost the production capacity of the industry as well as its flexibility to response to the market needs. Since this industry requires large stock to meet the production needs, a better inventory management system such as JIT will be helpful in reducing costs (Claycomb, 1999). Ramarapu (1995) stated that, most authors agreed that successful JIT implementation requires five key elements to be considered. •

Waste reduction: This element’s aim is to eliminate all non-value-added tasks (Bowen, 1998). The main problem with traditional production method is resulting from the focus on producing large number of items. With level of competitiveness and flexibility requirements, this is no longer an appropriate method to be performed.

•

Value-adding production oriented: This element brings the terminology of “pull-system” which allow customer order to trigger the production process. Pull system requires immediate respond in order to satisfy customer requirement therefore avoiding “the goal of producing large batches” (Bowen, 1998). By grouping products based on their production process similarity, manufacturer may also add-value to the products by lessening production complexity, shortening travel and idle time.

•

Customer participation in quality improvement: In every business, customer will have the final say therefore the success of the business can be determined based on customer satisfaction. This element heavily emphasis the needs of customer involvement in product development and delivery (Bowen, 1998). Customer may also be included in development team to direct them to the right manufacturing plan.

•

Employee empowerment: Empowering employees mean dividing problem solving and decision making responsibilities from management level to its individual team directly related with the task. With careful planning and adequate team work, this element will increase quality, productivity and flexibility of the manufacturing process (Bowen, 1998).

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

•

Vendor/supplier integration: Undoubtedly, specialized suppliers will normally produce a better product since they can concentrate in a particular thing. By outsourcing to those suppliers, a company will be able to put all its time and resources in its core function which in turn will improve the quality of the final products (Ramarapu, 1995).

2.1 Ford KA In Just In Time Production of Ford latest small car, the Ford KA has been a dramatic improvement compared to Ford previous product, Fiesta (Kochan, 1997). This is a real example of successful JIT implementation with all its outsourcing strategies. The production target of 1,100 KA cars per day has been reached only within 8 weeks since the launch date, compared to 15 weeks required for Fiesta. Ford found that the initial bottleneck was caused by material handling, assembly time and inbound logistic. Some of the components in Fiesta are supplied by various suppliers and these components had to be made, loaded in the container and scheduled for delivery before finally delivered by trucks. This common process is found to be inefficient as every part has to be continuously handled by human and this causes big risks of damages, misplaced and imperfection in quality, especially for cosmetically sensitive and fragile parts such as instrument consoles, electrical wiring and airbags.

With the new developed JIT system supported with sophisticated aerial tunnels connecting Ford with its suppliers, production lead times can be minimised, product quality can be improved, responsiveness towards customer demands can me boosted and the most important thing is inventory, space requirements, handling and transportation cost can be dramatically reduced (Kochan, 1997). Ford is now connected with more than 50 suppliers in Valencia with specifically designed aerial tunnels. These tunnels are also very useful to transport bulky and heavy items such as seats and fuel tank. The brain of this amazing system is DAD (direct automated delivery) which will integrate the whole processes virtually as one extended manufacturing warehouse.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

DAD will enable a smooth manufacturing process by applying Ford scheduling system so that all the supplied components being delivered right on time they are needed. In addition, DAD and its tunnels enable the integration of manufacturing equipment so that the component being delivered can be immediately installed with the

main

body

or

other

components

in

Ford

factory.

Summary

of

Ford Valencia manufacturing system prior JIT implementation: •

Minimum of 15 weeks to reach full production capacity

•

Required at least 3,000 parts to be assembled for each car

•

Very small outsourcing involve for car components

•

All parts from suppliers are delivered on trucks

•

Stock must be kept at certain level to assure the continuity of production

•

Parts are often damaged during packaging, handling or delivery

•

Spent over $6 million for inefficient delivery system (250+ trucks per day)

•

80 per cent automation in overall

•

Manual seats and battery placement and this may cause injury for employee

In a dynamic market trends, pre-JIT system clearly is not responsive enough as an answer. There are minor inefficiencies throughout the system which accumulate into serious problem that may cause Ford being less competitive in the market. 2.1.1 Improvement Process Analysis The main objectives of JIT are obtaining low-cost high quality products and on-time production as well as eliminating waste and stagnant stock (Svensson, 2001). Even though most of JIT implementation has similar aim and purposes, the strategies involved may differ from industry to industry or company to company. Ford has smartly chosen the right methods and strategies by reducing the barriers in relation with its suppliers. Through JIT, Ford is achieving the highest efficiency in car manufacturing industry. Its plant in Valencia has become the standard and being adopted in its other plants in many other countries. Apart from its tangible benefits such as

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

saving on transport costs, stock/inventory costs, quicker manufacturing process and minimized risk/wastage, JIT will also bring immediate intangible benefits such as improved customer satisfaction through immediate responses and shorter timeframe to respond towards market trends. Improvements being achieved through JIT implementation: •

Only 8 weeks required to reach full production capacity

•

Only 1,200 parts need to be assembled, the rest have been done by its suppliers

•

All the outsource-viable production parts are outsourced

•

Automatic delivery system and aerial tunnels are developed to minimise transport

•

There is barely any stock required as most parts are made to order

•

The whole manufacturing process including the suppliers are working as one system

•

The need of conventional truck delivery is minimum

•

98 percent automation

•

Seats and battery placement are being done by automated high-precision machines. There is not enough detail to measure the benefit of JIT implementation

against the pre-JIT system, however from rough analysis Ford will gain the benefit immediately and get the investment back in virtually no time.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

2.1.2 JIT Cost/Benefit Analysis for Ford Valencia COSTS

BENEFITS

—

— Speed-up production process 8weeks

Extending outsourcing (losing control)

—

— Smaller number parts

$500 million pilot plan and analysis

or manufacturing

— Concentrating

on

core

business

functions — 25% shorter time production time needed — Accuracy of production on plan — —

Building aerial tunnels Setup

Direct

— Less handling = less damages / costs

Automated — Less

Delivery DAD —

$16 million delivery system

conventional

transport

dependent — Time saving —

Manufacturing seamless integration

—

Further interest from more suppliers

—

Saving $6+ million per year on

transport

Figure 1: Cost and Benefits of JIT Implementation in Ford Valencia.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER 3 JIT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY 3.0

Application of JIT in Construction Industry : An Introduction

Much had been discussed on raising the productivity level of the construction industry which consistently lagged behind other sectors of the economy. The use of buildable designs was singled out as a means to improve productivity. In so far as construction management is concerned, the Just-In-Time (JIT) philosophy can be applied for logistics management on worksites to help raise productivity levels (Akintoye, 1995). The JIT philosophy originates from the manufacturing sector. It helps to smoothen the production process through the efficient handling of materials, i.e. by providing the right materials, in the right quantities and quality, just in time for production. Given the very different conditions in the construction setting, it is inevitable that modifications have to be made to some of the JIT principles where application

is

concerned

(Low

and

Chan,

1997).

Nevertheless,

both

the

manufacturing and construction industries require active movement of materials from the suppliers to the production area in both the factory and the worksite. With the JIT management system in place, materials may be delivered to site on the actual day of use or just the day before (Lim and Low, 1992). Explorative studies have been completed in recent years to see how JIT can be applied into the construction industry to reap the benefits of the system. Most of these studies have concluded that it is possible to apply the techniques of JIT in the construction industry with some modifications. Given the very different conditions in the construction setting, it is inevitable that modifications have to be made to some of the JIT principles where application is concerned (Low and Chan, 1997).

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Nevertheless, both the manufacturing and construction industries require active movement of materials from the suppliers to the production area in both the factory and the worksite. With the JIT management system in place, materials may be delivered to site on the actual day of use or just the day before (Lim and Low, 1992).

Therefore, in this chapter, the discussion will view on the application of JIT in construction whether this approach can be applied on the construction industry.

3.1

Factors That Influence Housing Developers to use JIT concept in

Construction Industry The successful implementation of JIT is dependent on the suppliers’ flexibility, users’ stability, total management and employee commitment as well as teamwork. Through the elimination of waste, JIT aims to improve product quality and productivity. Waste is considered as non-value adding to an activity. In any operation, it comprises motion and work. However, only work is a value-adding activity. Hence, motion is regarded as a form of waste. Wastes include overproduction of components and products, delays in materials and information, material transportation, unnecessary processing, excess stocks, unnecessary human activities and defects in material and information. The seven principles of JIT used to overcome the above problems are now outlined.

(a) Elimination of waste

The fundamental philosophy of JIT is to eliminate waste and under the JIT concept, construction waste can be classified into the following categories: 1. Waste from over-production 2. Waste from delays 3. Waste from transportation 4. Waste from unnecessary processing 5. Waste from excess inventory

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

6. Waste from unnecessary motion 7. Waste from defects.

Construction is schedule driven. Given a well-structured schedule, if everyone stays on their part of the schedule, the work flows smoothly and maximum performance is achieved. However, as we all know, it is rare that projects perform precisely to their original schedule. Business conditions change, deliveries slip, a design requires correction, etc. If a schedule has sufficient slack in the impacted activities, changes may not impact end dates. When there is little or no slack, players are pressured to make it up in accelerated production. 3.1.1 Types of Construction Buffers There are two types of inventories that can serve the function of buffering downstream construction processes from flow variation. The most familiar type is piles of stuff; materials, tools, equipment, manpower, etc. These piles of stuff may originate in decisions to insert certain time intervals between scheduled activities, e.g. between fabrication and installation of pipe spools. Consequently, while they take the form of stuff, they often also represent time added to project duration, so it call these as "schedule buffers". Less familiar are inventories of workable assignments, produced by planning processes that make work ready for downstream production These buffer by enabling a reliable, predictable flow of output from each process. They need not imply the existence of piles of stuff, depending upon the predictability of flow between supplier and customer processes. It will call these inventories of workable assignments "plan buffers."

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

3.1.2 Functions of Schedule Buffers In the construction of process plants (petroleum, chemical, food processing, pulp and paper, etc), projects are frequently fast track; i.e. construction begins before design is completed. Late delivery of drawings and materials has led construction contractors to demand earlier delivery, reducing the time available for engineering to complete design, resulting in more delivery problems and demands for even earlier deliveries. This is clearly a vicious circle. Large schedule buffers between suppliers and construction may shield the contractor from the impact of late deliveries, but does nothing to address the root causes of variation. Further, the shielding is expensive, both in time and money. There is a better way. A suggested rule: Place schedule buffers just after processes with variable output. For example, that suggests placing schedule buffers between engineering and fabrication, rather than between fabrication and installation. The fabrication and delivery processes are highly predictable, unless drawings are incorrect or incomplete, or drawings are pulled out of fabrication to be revised. A schedule buffer in front of fabrication would provide more time for engineering to complete its work and do it correctly. It would also provide the fabricator an opportunity to select and bundle work to meet his needs for production efficiency and the contractor's needs for quantities and sequence.

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Another suggested rule: Size schedule buffers to the degree of uncertainty and variation to be managed. Research has shown that schedule buffers are sized without regard to the toughness of projects; i.e. their level of uncertainty. This amounts to wasting time and money accumulating piles of stuff not all of which is needed 3.1.3 Functions of Plan Buffers Schedule buffers do not replace plan buffers. Plan buffers are necessary even when schedule buffers are in place because having a pile of pipe does not provide a piping crew with workable assignments. Pipe spools must match with valves, controls, hangers, etc. Structures for supporting the pipe must be in place. Preferably, the spools that can be installed are those that should come next in an optimum constructability sequence. Assembling physical components, reserving shared resources, determining optimum sequencing, and sizing assignments to absorb the productive capacity of the crew is best done prior to making assignments and committing to what work will be done in the plan period, usually one week. Plan buffers, sometimes called backlogs of workable assignments, are the outputs of make ready processes. They determine what CAN be done as distinct from what SHOULD be done. Obviously, commitment to what WILL be done next week can only come from CAN, regardless of the pressure for production and the need to make up schedule slippages. The common practice of pressuring for production regardless of CAN is rooted in a theory of construction project management that disregards capability and management of flows in favor of schedule push and management of contracts. By monitoring the match of DID with WILL using the measurement of PPC, the percentage of planned activities completed, and acting on the root causes of non-completions, we can learn how to produce better plans and how to do what we plan to do. The implications for work flow, project durations and productivity are enormous. Think of the complete construction process, from engineering through installation and start-up, as a complex of work processes, with work flowing from one to the next. When a downstream process attempts to plan its work and determine the resources it will

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

need, it may have shielded itself from unreliable inflow using piles of stuff or schedule spacing. However, it only needs those piles of stuff if supplier processes cannot reliably do what they say they are going to do. If supplier processes consistently achieve PPCs near 100%, customer processes can plan their work and match resources to it. Reduction of schedule buffers and better matching of resources to work flow both contribute to reduction of project time and cost.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

(b) The Kanban or Pull System Methods of production can generally be organized in two ways, namely the pull and the push system. In the pull system, organizations produce on demand whereas in the push system, organizations forecast the demand or maintain stock level. The advantage of the push system is that since the amount of production is known in advance, the scheduling of activities needed is predictable. However, a forecast may be required and therefore there is a possibility of over-production. The advantage of the pull system is that it is less dependent on estimates when compared to the push system. However, in the Kanban system, responding to unexpected demands is not possible.

(c) Uninterrupted workflow Uninterrupted workflow means that the schedule for the final assembly must be smooth flowing. Hence, rationalization and simplification of the production process is necessary. Every process should be reduced to its simplest form before considering mechanization or automation and the aim is to replace a complex and expensive process with one that is simple and cheap.

(d) Total Quality Control (TQC) In order to achieve zero inventories, errors and defective components must be eliminated in each task. Under TQC, all workers are responsible for ensuring that their work is defect-free before proceeding to the next stage of operation.

(e) Employee involvement As noted earlier, the success of JIT implementation is dependent to a great extent on the teamwork and commitment of every employee. Each employee should be given adequate training and responsibilities in various areas like timeliness of production and quality assurance. Employees should be able to set up and maintain various type of machinery. Involvement can be extended to suggestion schemes and participation in quality improvement teams.

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RMB 511 CASE STUDY: INNOVATION IN THE MALAYSIAN HOUSING INDUSTRY

(f) Supplier relations Building a good supplier-user relation is no longer a choice but a necessity. The quality of the supplies purchased is a critical factor to the quality of an organisation’s finished products. Hence, an organization must treat suppliers as long-term business partners so that the quality of materials delivered will always be maintained at a high standard. This would greatly reduce paperwork, inventory levels and storage space.

(g) Continuous improvement An organization should not remain content with its status quo. To maintain its competitiveness, it should continuously strive to improve operations and the ways in which activities are carried out. Audits and benchmarking are some of the tools which an organization can adopt to ensure that its operations are improved continuously.

The successful implementation of JIT would require a consideration of the seven principles mentioned above. Once this is achieved, the advantages of implementing JIT would include: • Reduction in inventory level (work-in-progress and raw material) • Reduction in storage space • Reduction in factory overheads • Reduction in production costs • Reduction in rectification works • Improvement in quality • Improvement in productivity (Low and Chan, 1997a)

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3.2

Challenges in Implementing JIT in Construction In reality the application of JIT on construction differs from manufacturing

industry due to its characteristic. The different characteristics exist for the both industries are in context of different types of production, and because of the greater complexity and uncertainty of construction. There are several reasons why the construction industry becomes uncertain and complex. The construction industry involves a lot of people with different of body knowledge, skills and experiences. Furthermore, the parties involved in the construction industry have their own objectives and target to be achieved in certain period of time. The situation becomes harder because a single actor’s action, ideas and egos at every stages of construction development may bring different effects to the whole project. Beside of multiple participants in construction development, the number of parts, relative lack of standardization and constraining factors easily make the construction of an automobile factory more difficult than the production of an automobile in that factory. When this complexity is joined with economic pressures to minimize time and cost that uncertainty arises in construction is not surprising.

In Manufacturing , Ohno, in order to allow a downstream process continued working when a feeder process failed, he has removed the safety stock by minimizing the inventories between the processes. When the problems occur during the production process, Ohno required the operators to stop the work if they are unable to fix that problems. Logically, it is necessary to fix the problems rather than simply passing bad product down the line. The problems which arise also became highly visible because it may result in line stoppages. Forced confrontation with problems together with analysis to root causes produced a progressively more streamlined and smoother running production process, with fewer end-of the-line defects and higher throughput. How might this concept work in construction? As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the construction development is a complex task. Therefore, it must be well

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organized by the management in order to achieve the maximum performance in the project.

However,

the

well

structured

schedule

provided

by

the

management is not only the one key factor of project successful. The other party should stay on their part of the schedule in order to have a smooth work flow and minimize the problems during the whole process of construction project. In reality, it is rare that the projects perform precisely to their original schedule. This situation happened due to changes on internal and external factors related to

construction

development,

such

as

business

conditions

change,

deliveries slip; a design requires correction, etc. The changes made by the parties may not impact the end dates if the original schedule has sufficient slack in the impacted activities. The situation will be different compared to the construction project which is the schedule has a little or no slack. The players are pressured to make it up in accelerated production. In fact, this situation may caused delay to construction project which is could bring waste of times, money, energy, man power and etc. In order to implement the application of JIT, the priority objective of this application is to eliminate or minimized the variation and wastage. By the fact show above, is it possible to implement the JIT on construction? As we know, the construction industry is also known as 3d’s industry; danger, dirty and demand. This discussion will concern on the part of dirty because this item has relation with JIT philosophy. For an example, in 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency of United States of America estimated that 136 million tons of building-related waste is generated in the U.S. annually, which is 25% to 40% of the national solid waste stream. A 2003 update shows an increase to 164,000 million tons annually, of which 9% is construction waste, 38% is renovation waste, and 53% is demolition debris. This situation shows us increasing of construction waste in certain period of time. This figure is only in U.S. and it is believed that the other countries have also faced this problems.

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Can we imagine that how much more our land can afford for construction waste? The disposal of the construction waste need a large scale of land whereas all over the world faced a shortage of land in order to fulfill the demand of accommodation, agriculture, manufacturing, education and etc. C&D waste disposal triggers a sequence of adverse effects that are not always apparent to building professionals. These include the loss of useful property, wasted materials and embodied energy, greenhouse gas generation, and environmental stressors associated with producing new materials instead of using existing materials. The number of C&D landfills is declining, which means fewer disposal options, greater hauling distances, and increased fuel consumption and vehicle emissions. Capping, closing, and monitoring landfills, and cleaning up leaking or contaminated landfill sites drain public funds. So far it is clear to us that, the implementation of JIT on construction seems unclear because any application of any method not only just all about take the whole method from other industry and then simplify implement it into the construction industry. The construction industry is complex and uncertain. It needs a lot of improvement in many aspects such as, efficient management of waste materials, co-ordination between parties, wellplanned management and etc. the discussion above about the waste materials is absolutely adverse from the priority of the objective of JIT application. For the fast track construction of process plants such as petroleum, chemical, food processing, pulp and paper, etc, frequently the construction begins before design is completed. Therefore the contractors demand to have earlier delivery which is reducing the time available for engineering to complete the structure drawings. These situations exist due to late delivery of drawings and materials and it is possible caused more delivery problems and demands for even earlier deliveries. In order to avoid or shield the contractors from the impact of late delivery, the management may provide a large schedule buffer between the suppliers and construction. However, it does nothing to address the root cause of variation in construction projects. Even more, the shield is expensive for time and money.

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Therefore, recommended rule has been suggested by Glenn and Gregory. They suggest of placement of schedule buffers just after processes with variable output. For example, the management placed the schedule buffers between engineering and fabrication, rather than between fabrication and installation. The fabrication and delivery processes are highly predictable, unless drawings are incorrect or incomplete, or drawings are pulled out of fabrication to be revised. The engineers have the sufficient time to complete its work and do it correctly if there is a schedule buffer in front of fabrication. It is not just good for the engineers but also to fabricators which is they have an opportunity to select and bundle work to meet his needs for production efficiency and the contractor's needs for quantities and sequence

Sizing the schedule buffers to the degree of uncertainty and variation to be managed is another recommendation from Glenn and Gregory. Research has shown that schedule buffers are sized without regard to the toughness of projects; i.e. their level of uncertainty.

The other challenge of implementation of JIT on construction is about the supply chain. As we know, the industrial supply chains in manufacturing industries often have a long-term horizon rahter than the practice of competitive bidding in the construction industry ensures that every new project means a new constellation of partners. The long-lasting supply chains of the manufacturing sphere means the members of the chains optimize their operations with each other to deliver the best possible product at least costs to the end customer. For the members, the incentives structure direct them toward viewing the supply chain as one integrated chain competing with other supply chains and success is ensured by making one own supply chain the best one. For actors in the construction industry, every project is a one-off happening where the incentive structure motivates them to make the most profit out of each project. This discontinuity is detrimental to construction project productivity and can probably only be changed by altering the practices of how “construction chains” are

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composed. A possibility for the construction industry could be to aim at more lasting relations between the actors in both the value chain of materials and in the value chain of actors. Why the supply chain so important in JIT? In manufacturing industries, the operation is based on the long-term production and keep produce the same product as long as they have demand from their customers. Therefore, as long as they keep produce their product that’s mean they keep using the same suppliers for their production. This is important to have co-ordination with the same suppliers because the manufactures of production already know the quality of workmanship of their supplier and what are characteristics of their suppliers. Meanwhile, differs exist in supply chain of construction as mentioned earlier. The short term of supply chain in construction has caused the uncertainty. New projects mean new consultants, contractors and suppliers. Changes of parties in every projects caused the relationship between those parties is just for short period. That’s mean for new projects, everybody needs to know each other again which is everybody did not know how their job are, what quality of work they can produce and other aspects which can give different effects to the construction projects. The long-term relation with the supplier also plays a big factor in effecting the construction project. The good track record of supplier should be recommended for other construction project in order to achieve the objectives of the projects. However, it is rarely happened in construction industry because it involves other factors such as transportation, limited materials and etc. Therefore, in order to run a construction projects within the available budget, the management have to avoid any extra expenses especially in context of getting the right materials and amount from the suppliers. This situation related to another concept of JIT; producing the right part in the right place and the right time. So, it is important to ensure that the supplier can produce the right part of materials as been asked in contract and also they can guarantee that they can supply the materials on the right time. However, even the suppliers can supply the

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materials on the right times, the construction site must have efficient place to store the materials to avoid any damages which caused extra expanses. Even more, the delivery of the materials from suppliers is much depends on the transportation which may involve unexpected traffic. From this view, it shows that a lot of things need to put into consideration in implementing the application of JIT on construction industry. 3.3

Problem Areas in Construction Industry

From the presentation paper by Veiseth, Rostad and Andersen (2003) the actors that they have interviewed have identified several problem-areas. In this paper we will focus on three of them: •

The problems in the interface between the builder, the advisers and the executors. This problem is often referred to as “early phase- problems” that emphasize the whole project.

•

Logistics problems for building materials and other products used during the construction process.

•

Problems in the construction project planning and management.

Most of the actors we have interviewed argue that the problems in a typical construction project come into being in the interface between the builder, the advisers and the executors (see figure 1). The advisers are the architect and the consulting engineers, while the executors are the building contractors and supporters.

Builder

Advisers Executors

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Fig 2: Problem area; the interface between the builder, the advisers and the executors Builder Advisers Executors In their opinion they interfaces are of a special interest because much of the premises for the ensuing productivity and logistics are created here. The problems could be due to several things like communications problems between different professions and cultures and that the architects are thinking too little about the building process in their drawings. But the thing we will point out is that the actors in the three categories, most of the times do vary from project to project. This is in contrast to e.g. manufacturing industries where the bindings between actors in e.g. a supply chain are more often a long-term relationship. Furthermore, in the very beginning of a typical project, in the idea-phase, it is often just the builder and the architect who are participating. This can maybe also explain the fact that many of our respondents claiming that there often are a lack of technical expertise in this phase. When it comes to logistics planning it seems to be a potential for improvements in both the planning of how to organize the construction site and of the logistic of the building itself. For the logistic of the construction site, a well-known problem is that equipment and construction goods are delivered or placed at wrong geographical places and not on time. This could be the result of defective storage planning or that a storage plan does not exist at all together with lack of routines for the receiving of goods (e.g. logistics planning). The result of this is also that many building sites look much disorganized. The inability by the contractor to deliver materials at the right time and the right place is identified as one of the most common problems in the construction industry (Thomas, Horman, de Souza and Zavriski (2002:2). Another impotent area is purchase routines. Today, most of the purchases are done by telephone, even though most of the interviewed actor’s wish to do most of this through the Internet. This could be due to that many are not familiar with a computer.

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More Internet-based purchase routines are believed to be more cost-efficient than telephone-based purchase, for instance to help decrease the normally huge numbers of rush orders, which is looked upon as a problem. Those of the interviewed subjects who have carried out the change from telephone to more automated purchasing routines support this. Planning has always been a theme when it comes to improvements of the productivity in all businesses, and the construction industry is no exception. Several actors in the industry emphasize that projects are behind schedule due to that plans are not finished in time. In addition, plans that also take care of the interfaces between the actors in the project are often missing. The interviewed actors in the Norwegian

construction

industry

do

specially

mention

insufficient

planning

regarding detail plans. Several do also want more milestones and better overview of dependencies in their projects. It is nevertheless important to realize that there is no point to “over-plan” the projects. An identified trend in the construction industry is that the actors only plan what is within their own field of expertise and disregards planning of elements/factors outside their own domain. Insufficient planning could also be due to that the project management in construction projects could have been better. Furthermore, the respondents especially single out the technical project management. Many claim that the plans consist of too few subsidiary goals and that the project management should control the projects more strictly. This relates especially to the project and the project management’s ability to meet the deadlines in form of the milestones. A typical problem, pointed out by many of the interviewed subjects, is that a lot of actors are utilizing the slack in the plans completely, i.e. never starts work until they really have to start to reach the deadline. This leads to that the project decreases its possibilities to catch up for unforeseen problems. Another aspect pointed out is the meeting-procedures: How often should the different meetings be held, who should participate and how should the meetings be structured. This could be the reason why some claims that many decisions are taken too late and that they often to fuzzy.

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3.4

Solution and Recommendation : Strategy for Construction JIT The desire of JIT is elimination of physical buffers (materials or time)

between production processes, and the achievement of one piece flow within processes. Ohno successfully eliminates such in-process inventories because production scheduling provided sufficiently stable coordination of flows compared to unstable of construction scheduling. Therefore, we cannot simplify eliminate the physical buffers because the first thing before come to this step is attacking the causes

and

uncertainty

in

construction.

Even

though

manufacturing

and

construction share the same ultimate objective of reducing variation and waste, their strategies for achieving that objective must be different.

The strategy recommended by Glenn and Gregory in implementation of JIT in construction are:

1) Better Location and Sizing of Schedule Buffers •

Will require developing better assessments of project uncertainty and determining

the

quantitative

relationship

between

buffers

and

the

uncertainty they are intended to buffer. It will also require experimentation with relocating schedule buffers, to test the principle of locating buffers just behind processes that are the source of flow variation.

2) Place Plan Buffers and Make Ready Processes Ahead of Each Production Process the Last Planner (LP) initiative, has been described in some detail in previous papers . Although it has been experimentally tested in both the United States and South America (Venezuela), it may be helpful to consider it as a research hypothesis. Hypothesis: Production can be shielded from upstream uncertainty through planning.

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Benefits of the Research: The Last Planner method of detailed production planning shields production from upstream uncertainty thus improving productivity, revealing sources of uncertainty and variation, releasing resources for further improving performance "behind the shield," and providing a highly predictable nearterm work flow to downstream processes. Methodology: •

Solicit engineering and construction projects from industry.

•

Evaluate the crew/squad level planning systems of each

•

Help participants conform their systems to the Last Planner Model.

•

Develop measurements of comparative productivity

•

Before and after LP

•

Between LP and non-LP

•

Collect measurement data; i.e. percent planned assignments completed, planned productivity, and actual productivity.

•

Analyze measurement data and test hypothesis

Characteristics of the Last Planner Method: •

Written weekly work plans for each front line supervisor and work group.

•

Assignments drawn from a backlog of workable assignments created by screening for constraints and by acquiring necessary resources.

•

Assignments expressed at the level of detail necessary for screening -Weekly work plans sized to target productivity.

•

Front line supervisors participate in the selection and sizing of assignments, provide

reasons

why

planned

work

was

not

done,

-Craft

superintendents/Discipline supervisors see that others act on reasons beyond the reach of the craft or discipline.

3) Progressively Replace Schedule Buffers with Plan Buffers The long term goal of replacing schedule buffers with plan buffers. Hypothesis: Work flow variation can be reduced.

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Benefits of the Research: 1) Project duration can be reduced by reducing the buffers between EPC functions, and buffer sizes can be reduced if work flow variation can be reduced. 2) If work flow can be made more predictable, labor and other resources can be better matched to work flow, thus improving productivity. Methodology: Phase I: Identify and analyze examples of successful efforts (tools and techniques) to increase the predictability of work flow. Phase II: Test tools and techniques in experiments sponsored by industry members. Examples of Tools and Techniques: •

Developing more accurate assessments of project uncertainty.

•

Adjusting schedules using work packages and milestone screening. station, until limits of predictability are met. Act on constraints to push back limits.

•

Buying information to extend the accuracy and range of forecast deliveries.

•

Producing more advance warning of changes in design, -Integrating supplier and customer schedules at the item (e.g. isometric)

3.5

Conclusion

In order to achieve advancement in construction JIT, it is permitted to develop new tools and techniques by demonstrate techniques and industry research to test the theories. As mentioned earlier, the construction and manufacturing are different types of production. However, the application of JIT is still applicable to construction in which physical buffers may ultimately be replaced by better managing uncertainty and eliminating the causes of flow variation. As the implementation

of

plan

buffers

propagates

certainty

throughout

projects,

productivity will improve from better matching labor to work flow, and project durations will shorten as physical buffers shrink with the flow variation they are designed to absorb.

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For instance, In Denmark, Bertelsen (1995) reported a 10 per cent increase in productivity in the first phase of a social housing project that experimented with the use of the JIT philosophy in building logistics; the second phase of the project resulted in an average 7per cent increase in productivity. It was also noted that savings were not evenly distributed among the participants and that the project itself was not delivered at a lower price. The rationale for this study is to see application of Just in Time (JIT) in construction industry. In this context, the JIT philosophy appears to hold tremendous potentials for improving the movement of construction site. The space constraints for storage and the traffic congestion at the worksite can then be alleviated.

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CHAPTER 4 JIT : AN OVERVIEW OF IBS 4.0 JIT and IBS The term ‘Just-In-Time’ (JIT), used for instance to describe the delivery of materials to a construction site, suggests that materials will be brought to their location for final installation and be installed immediately upon arrival without incurring any delay due to storage in a laydown or staging area. JIT is a concept developed by the Japanese who created the Toyota Production System, later translated into English as the lean production system. The ultimate objective of JIT production is to supply the right materials at the right time and in the right amount at every step in the process.

Thus, IBS is one example of JIT in construction. Rahman and Omar (2006) defined IBS as a construction system that is built using pre-fabricated components. The manufacturing of the components is systematically done using machine, formworks and other forms of mechanical equipment. IBS is defined as products, systems and techniques used in making construction less labour-oriented, faster as well as quality controlled. It generally involves prefabricated products, factory manufactured elements that transported to the construction sites and erected. (Shaari, Bulletin Ingénieur, 2003)

According to Abraham Warszawski (1999), IBS is defined as a set of element or component which is inter-related towards helping the implementation of construction works activities. He also expounded that an industrialisation process is an investment in equipment, facilities, and technology with the objective of maximising production output, minimising labour resource, and improving quality while a building system is defined as a set of interconnected element that joint together to enable the designated performance of a building.

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4.1

Classification of IBS According to Badir- Razali, generally, there are four types of building systems

currently available in Malaysia’s building system classification (Badir et al. 1998), namely conventional, cast in-situ, prefabricated and composite building systems. Each building system is represented by its respective construction method which is further characterised by its construction technology, functional and geometrical configuration.

Fig. 3 : Type of building system in Malaysia

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Nonetheless, according to CIDB (2003), the structural aspects of IBS of the systems, divided into five major types as follows:

1. Precast Concrete Framing, Panel and Box Systems Precast columns, beams, slabs, 3-D components (balconies, staircases, toilets, lift chambers), permanent concrete formwork, etc;

Precast concrete wall 2. Steel Formwork Systems Tunnel forms, beams and columns molding forms, permanent steel formworks (metal decks, etc;

Steel formwork system

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3. Steel Framing Systems Steel beams and columns, portal frames, roof trusses, etc;

Steel roof trusses 4. Prefabricated Timber Framing Systems Timber frames, roof trusses, etc;

Prefabricated timber framing system for a double storey house.

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5. Block Work Systems Interlocking concrete masonry units (CMU), lightweight concrete blocks, etc.

Lightweight concrete blocks are used for wall construction

The

pre-cast

concrete

components

are

among

the

most

common

prefabricated elements that are available both locally and abroad. The pre-cast concrete elements are concrete products that are manufactured and cured in a plant environment and then transported to a job site for installation. The elements are columns, beams, slabs, walls, 3-D elements (balconies, staircase, toilets, and lift chambers), permanent concrete formwork and etc. The steel formwork is prefabricated in the factory and then installed on site. However the steel reinforcement and services conduit are installed on site before the steel formwork are installed. The installation of this formwork is easy by using simple bracing system. Then concrete is poured into the formwork and after seven days, the formwork can be removed and there is some system whereby the formwork served as a part of the structure itself after concreting. The steel formwork systems are used in tunnel forms, beams, column moulding forms and permanent steel formworks.

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The elements of steel framing system are rolled into the specific sizes and then the elements are fabricated that involves cutting, drilling, shot blasting, welding and painting. Fabricated elements are sent to the construction site to be then erected whereby welding and the tightening of bolts at joints are conducted. The elements include steel beams and columns, portal frames and roof trusses. The prefabricated timber framing system is normally used in the conventional roof truss and timber frames. The timber is prefabricated by joining the members of the truss by using steel plate. It is important that all members are treated with the anti pest chemical. Then, the installation is done on site by connecting the prefabricated roof truss to the reinforcement of the roof beams. The elements of block work system include interlocking concrete masonry units (CMU) and lightweight concrete blocks. The elements are fabricated and cured in the factory. The elements are normally used as bricks in structures and interlocking concrete block pavement. 3.2

Value Stream Mapping Koskela (1992) pointed out that architects, engineers, and construction

practitioners have for the longest time focused on conversion activities and overlooked issues of flow. Flow is important because work or materials that do not flow sit idle in inventory, tying up money (including the procurement cost of ingredients plus labor and machine time to bring them to the stage of completion they are in) as well as space. They stand the risk of being damaged or becoming obsolete due to design changes or market competition. Inventory means product waits: its cycle time increases, that is, it takes longer for the product to traverse all production steps it needs to go through before reaching its customer. As a result, project durations are larger than they would have been had flow not been inhibited.

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Most tools used today by practitioners who manage construction, such as those fordesign, planning, scheduling, and costing, do not acknowledge flow: they do not explicitly capture changes of resource characteristics over time. Process modeling tools for discrete event simulation are an important exception and warrant more attention by the lean construction community. Such models can incorporate input regarding individuallycharacterized components, uncertainties of numerous kinds, and sequencing rules (e.g., Tommelein 1997) and then produce output data regarding buffer sizes, cycle times, idle times, production rates, etc. The symbols commonly used to depict process models for construction, however, have yet to distinguish how processes are being managed, for instance, whether or not a JIT system has been implemented. Practitioners in manufacturing, working for Toyota and then later for other companies ‘going lean’ developed their own pictorial language to help focus attention on what matters in their transition.

We borrowed such symbols from Rother and Shook (1998) and used them to map structural steel supply chains. Boxes

denote value-adding processes or

tasks, such as ordering raw materials, fabricating steel, and transporting shipments to a site. A triangle

denotes work in progress or inventory. It represents an

accumulation of product (materials or information) possibly of unlimited amount and for an indeterminate duration. An inverted triangle

is an order to batch.

Kanban (introduced in Figure 1) denote orders to withdraw or produce

product, in order to deplete or replenish a supermarket. A

supermarket, represented by

, refers to controlled inventory in terms of how

much material is kept on hand and how replenishment takes place. The FIFO symbol

denotes the first-in-first out release of resources output by a task.

The circular arrow

denotes a physical pull of materials from a supermarket. It

differs from the withdrawal kanban in that it pertains to the amount of product needed at the time of the withdrawal and not necessarily a predetermined

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fixed quantity. A dashed line with an arrow solid white line

designates the flow of product. A

is transportation of product to the customer site. A black-and-

white dotted line

shows that product is pushed into inventory.

Rother and Shook (1998) use these symbols for so-called “value stream mapping” where the term “value” pertains mainly to reducing work in process inventories and product cycle times. Our use of this notation stems as much from our desire to engage in mapping the structural steel supply chain as it does from our

desire

to

test

the

adequacy

of

those

symbols

in

representing

architecture/engineering/construction processes and in capturing value.

4.3

Example Structural Steel Supply Chain for Building Construction The structural steel supply chain for building construction differs in several

regards from the one for industrial construction. The building’s frame may in fact be more complex, especially when it supports a very tall structure, so the major steel sections require extra procurement effort.

The industry is also organized differently. On design-bid-build projects, a common delivery method for buildings, the owner typically hires an architectural engineering (AE) firm, which in turn hires a structural designer. When the AE has prepared all bid documents, the project is put out for bid. A general contractor (GC) is then selected. The GC subcontracts the steel work to the fabricator, who in turn subcontracts field installation work to a structural steel erector. The latter essentially provides the crane and skilled labor, whereas the former is responsible for acquiring, fabricating, and shipping the materials to site in the sequence needed for erection. The fabricator may also subcontract the structural steel detailing work.

Fabricator and erector work as a tightly knit team. The GC will meet with them during bid preparation. They must assess the project site constraints to position the erector’s crane, as it determines not only the steel erection sequence but also the layout of other temporary facilities and thus the flow of many construction resources. This sequencing in turn drives the fabrication schedule.

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It must of course meet the GC’s master schedule but must also be efficient4. The fabricator who subcontracts the erection work has an incentive to minimize that work and does so by thoroughly planning the sequencing and site delivery of steel pieces in the order they will be needed.

As for logistics, a big difference between the industrial and the building sector is that more often than not building space is very tight, especially on projects located in an urban environment. Industrial projects tend to be more remotely sited. Materials deliveries to building projects accordingly are constrained by traffic patterns and transportation permit requirements. Trucks parked in the street along the edge of a site ready to off-load steel may not remain there for any extended time. When deliveries take place, the crane gets dedicated to off-loading and moving pieces to a staging area, namely the highest floor with decking, from where steel will subsequently be picked up and moved into final position. Only in exceptional cases will steel be erected directly off the flatbed truck. This saves extra handling steps but can be done only when it is acceptable to tie up the truck longer and provided the steel has been loaded in inverse order needed.

Differences

in

value

stream

maps

between

industrial

and

building

construction are therefore expected at least near the end of the chain, especially in the way delivery to the project site is organized. If JIT is practiced in industry today one possible way is depicted in figure 3.

Figure 3 includes two supermarkets, which illustrate the presence of pull mechanisms. The steel mill (IV) still takes special orders. The resulting output is stored in a generic buffer (triangle). The buffer is not specifically controlled in size but it is filled only based on firm customer orders. That product is sold so it is unlikely to become obsolete (waste). The mill also produces run-of-the-mill product in anticipation of customer orders. As was the case in figure 2, this is denoted by a supermarket where quantity-on-hand will not exceed a threshold value and gets replenished at appropriate times.

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A second supermarket is shown in figure 3 to handle output from fabrication (III). For instance, the fabricator of a 20-story building could complete the steel for stories 1 through 3, then await orders from the construction site (withdrawal kanban) to ship them steel for story 1 before starting work on story 4 (production kanban). A smaller inventory buffer may be well suited provided fabrication can keep pace with erection. Since there is virtually no storage space on site, no buffer of materials is shown preceding ERECT[ion] (VI).

The creation of large buffers either at the contractor’s or fabricator’s site is contrary to JIT production system design. As the word JIT suggests, materials must be fabricated or delivered on time, which means not too late but not too early either. This implies that variability regarding timing, actual pieces released, as well as quality must be limited and controlled.

In a true JIT system, this timeliness pertains not only to a single hand-off between two production steps, but rather, one aims at achieving JIT flow between all production steps. In the idealistic extreme, this means having no buffers at all! In practice, this means buffers must be determined strategically. Admittedly, doing so is not an easy task, especially in a production system of complex products that involve several organizations as is the case for structural steel. But this is what lean

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production systems design is all about: achieving flow where possible and thoughtfully locating buffers and sizing them to achieve cost-effective decoupling with minimal impact on cycle time.

A significantly amount of additional data is needed to describe the structural steel supply chain at a level of detail that makes it possible to strategically locate and size buffers. The difficulty is doing so stems in part from the fact that structural steel is custom designed and every project requires a variety of components that change as construction progresses.

Because of construction’s one-of-a-kind project nature, the structural steel supply chain differs from manufacturing systems for more standardized products, which can be likened to the Toyota Production System. The manufacturing symbols used here for mapping the steel supply chain provide no room for defining individually-characterized resources or detailed sequencing rules. While their ability to show processing durations and delay times has not been used in this paper (we expect to do so in future work), we doubt that using only deterministic values will suffice. Some representation of uncertainty will have to be incorporated in the maps.

The current practice of buffering stems from the desire to optimize labor and machine utilization and from admitting that uncertainties exist in the supply chain. Many uncertainties are the result of variability, which could be understood better if at least it were measured and explicitly accounted for. This is not the current practice in construction. Uncertainties and variability should not be taken for granted. They should be acknowledged, managed, and minimized to a reasonable degree. In fact, one technique to identify them is to reduce buffer sizes in-between various production steps in order to see and learn the extent to which they are needed. Process improvement efforts can then focus on those steps where the impact on throughput of the system as a whole will be most significant. Example improvements in construction are those that aim at reducing uncertainty, as is done

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for instance through reliable planning by the Last Planner (Ballard and Howell 1998), work methods design, and work structuring (Ballard et al. 1999).

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CHAPTER 5 JIT : CASE STUDIES 5.0

CASE STUDY JUST IN TIME A case study pertains contractors who bids on projects from County of San

Francisco, the Public Utilities Commission as well as the Water Department. Most of these jobs include concrete of a well-defining and widely-used kind through quantities usually small in comparison to what is needed for residential or office building projects. Concrete is a very common construction material. Projects ranging from a single family home to a high-rise building all may need concrete for their foundation, slabs, columns, beams, walls, etc. to be constructed. In urban settings, the task of delivering concrete moreoften than not has been delegated to ready-mix batch plants and contractors has to rely on the timing and reliability of their service. Although this set-up puts the contractor’s project somewhat at the mercy of the batch plant, most batch plants perform at their very best to meet their customers’ schedules. On-time delivery is part of the product they sell. The interplay between contractors and batch plants is interesting. On one hand, the contractor must order a large enough quantity, sufficiently long ahead of time to ensure available batch plant capacity and timely delivery service in order to maximize productivity of their placing crew.

On the other hand, the batch plant tries to time its deliveries so that all projects are served according to the contractors’ needs and the plant as well as the trucks and drivers have little idle time. This balancing act between the two parties is not always achieved due to the nature of concrete and the nature of the production systems being used.

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In addition to contractors and batch plants, this balancing act also involves the suppliers of raw materials to the batch plant, crews on site that erect formwork and tie reinforcing basin preparation for concrete placement, as well as others. Although the interdependence of all these parties typically results in uncertainties rippling through the supply chain, the focus of this paper is limited to the downstream-, namely the contractor vs. batch plant relationship. The batch plant could, in order to level its load, vary its unit price of ready-mix concrete based on the time and day of the week at which concrete is to be delivered. This would illustrate a market mechanism at work, however, we are not aware of such differential pricing being advertised in the industry today. As one can imagine the city imposes limits on working hours in order to avoid congestion during peak traffic times, excessively long closure of a road for vehicular or of a sidewalk for pedestrian traffic, undue inconvenience of road users and complaints about noise from citizens or area residents. In addition, contractors must obtain a work permit from the city in order to work at a specific location. This contractor s main concern has been tardiness of deliveries made by batch plants. Because most of these jobs have restricted working hours, punctual delivery is of paramount importance. However because each order is small ( a few cubic yard at a time),this contractor cannot get any plants attention. Went plant truck arrive late to his jobs, he loses that time for the concrete to set and may therefore not be able to open the site to traffic when needed. To achieve on-time performance this contractor has acquired a fleet of small revolving-drum trucks as well as dump trucks (used to fill ‘potholes with concrete) to meet his projects concrete transportation needs, The latter trucks are not so good as the former for transporting concrete as the mix may segregate.

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This contractor has its trucks pull into any batch- plant during operating hours and order concrete. The contractor-owned trucks simply join the line of plant trucks waiting to be loaded. The driver then goes to the operator’s walk-up window and orders the needed mix design and quantity. The batch plant fills these trucks in the same way as it fills its own in a first-in-first-out manner. The contractor then gets billed on a regular basis for exact amount loaded. At the site, the driver works with the crew in placing concrete. Providing one’s own ready-mix trucks does not mean that the unit price of concrete is any cheaper but it overcomes many scheduling hassles. No advance order needs to be placed to reserve plant capacity as only a few cubic yards of commodity mix are needed each time. By taking control over the transportations process and the contractors crew can work at their own pace and not have to fret over when concrete would arrive. This kanban system work well especially on these projects where timing of need is not dictated exclusively be the contractor, but as is the case here also to a significant extent by the owner. This contractors has its trucks pull into any batch-plant during operating hours and order concrete. The contractor-owned truck simply join the line of plant trucks waiting to be loaded. The driver then goes to the operators walk-up window and orders the needed mix design and quantity. The batch plant fills these trucks in the same way as it fills its own, in a firstin-first –out manner. The contractor then gets billed on a regular basis for exact amount loaded. At the site the driver works with the crew in placing concrete. Providing ones own ready mix trucks does not mean that the unit price of concrete is any cheaper but it overcomes many scheduling hassle. No advance order needs to be placed to reserve plant capacity as only a few cubic yards of commodity mix are needed each time.

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By taking control over the transportation process and using trucks as kanban each time concrete is needed, the contractor’s crew can work at their own pace and not have to fret over when concrete would arrive. This kanban system works well especially on these projects where timing of need is not dictated exclusively by the contractor, but as is the case here, also to a significant extent by the owner. This contractor thus controls what is otherwise a system variable controlled by an upstream supplier, namely the batch plant’s delivery of concrete. As a result, the contractor can better schedule his work and be more reliable in making project due dates. Should one batch plant not be able to serve his needs, he can easily go elsewhere. The contractors pays for this ability. He now needs to have capital tied up in trucks and is responsible for hiring and training drivers. Because he has a fairly steady need for concrete from one project to the next(contrary

to many

other who need concrete only for one phase of their work.)he can keep them gainfully employed. Ready-mix concrete is a prototypical of a JIT production system in construction. Two practices regarding ready-mix batching and delivery were described in this paper and depicted using value stream mapping symbols. Each case highlighted the presence of buffers of information, materials, and time as well as production order and withdrawal mechanisms positioned at strategic locations to meet specific system requirements, as defined by the nature of the contractor’s work. One alternative is favored over the other depending on the amount of control the contractor wants in terms of on-time delivery of concrete and the variability in the contractor’s demand for concrete project after project. While these practices clearly exemplify JIT production, the paper was limited in scope. No data was included to characterize the actual performance in terms of timeliness, buffer sizes, error rates, etc. Moreover, the paper focused on batching and delivery, which are only parts of the entire concrete production system.

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Current practices for managing the concrete supply chain upstream in terms of raw materials acquisition or prerequisite work on site are not geared toward JIT production. Further investigation is therefore warranted and significant process improvements may be achieved by those working towards fully implementing a lean construction system. Case Study 2 : Fakuda Production System (FPS) The construction companies that adopted the Toyota Production System and Just in Time on a large scale in Japan are Fakuda Corporation in the field of building construction and couple of companies in the field of housing construction. Fakuda Corp. is a Niigita-based construction company having annual sales of $ 946 million(in 2003).With the objective of making construction work more efficient and reducing construction costs, the company introduced the system in construction work in 2002. In order to introduce the system the company received guidance from consultants CULMAN CO.LTD who were former employees of Toyota Motor Corp. This building production system is called the Fakuda Production System( FPS)

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Setting the goal

Establishment of indices to attain goal. Establishment JIT. Establishment of standard operating procedure documents (SOPD) for each work type.

Setting of target figures for the indices

Implementation

Check and confirm that target figures have been attained

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The material distribution facilities were established so that materials can be delivered to the site JIT. In addition, the JIT material distribution network was set up to link the field office,branch offices, and material distribution facilities, Necessary materials are delivered to the predetermined location( Room C on Floor B at Site A,for example)in time. To visualize the JIT delivery process, the JIT delivery system board is posted to boost awareness. Time is Money among workers. The JIT ideal is elimination of physical buffers (materials or time)between production processes, and the achievement of one piece flow within processes, i.e. batch sizes of one.JIT was able to virtually eliminate such in-process inventories because production scheduling provided sufficiently stable coordination of flows. Construction scheduling does not provide such stabilization. Consequently, it is not appropriate to simply eliminate physical buffers without first attacking the causes of variation and uncertainty. Even though manufacturing and construction share the same ultimate objective of reducing variation and waste, their strategies for achieving that objective must be different. Materials constitute a huge proportion of the cost of construction. Materials are sometimes ordered weeks or even months ahead of requirement leading to uneconomical inventory on construction sites or contractors' warehouses.

Building material inventory represents cost to procure, cost to store and insure, cost to guard against theft and cost incurred when inventory becomes obsolete. This paper presents an overview of the Just-in-Time (JIT) production system and discusses application and implementation issues for the control of material inventory in building construction.

JIT ensures that suppliers deliver directly to the production floor to achieve either a reduction in inventory or zero inventory and consequently a reduction in production

costs.

Implementation

of

JIT

building

material

management

in

construction has the potential to realize the same far reaching benefits experienced in manufacturing.

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Relevant factors to consider in JIT implementation for material inventory management in construction are implications for construction output and quantities, production planning, design planning, construction contractor and suppliers' relationships, material sourcing, and education and training.

Case Study 3 : The Byggelogistik project Up till now Byggelogistik has been tested on six housing schemes, the first being Sophiehaven approximately 20 miles north of Copenhagen. The project is a typical Danish social housing project comprising 100 flats in two stories blocks, erected in two phases - not a big project on an international scale (Bertelsen 1993, 1994-1, 1994-2). Contractually the project was undertaken by a general contractor and approximately 10 trade contractors. The general contractor's staff participated in the whole planning of the project. It was also from the staff of the general contactor that the provider was recruited and his job developed, as the project progressed, into being the production manager of the construction site. He planned the day-to-day operations, he provided the materials required, he coordinated the individual trade contractors' works and he followed up on the co-operation with the wholesale dealers. In order not to overreach the experiment in the first phase it was decided to restrict the logistics to a minor number of the trades. This decision caused a great deal of trouble. Those not participating were repeatedly in the way of those who were. In the second phase all trades participated and this problem was solved. Even though the methods were developed with EDP in mind the first tests were restricted to management by paper and pencil only. EDP was used in the usual manner in the participants' own operations but no attempt was made to use IT in the logistics.

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Inspired by the Toyota Production System the aim of Byggelogistik is to reduce cost by eliminating waste of all kinds. Foremost waste of materials, but also waste of labour time and transportation. In this the Byggelogistik concept is an instrument for making the whole building process more effective. The main objective is to look not only at direct transportation costs but at all costs in the building procesrelated to materials delivery. Materials are not considered delivered until the workers lay their hands on them in the exact quantity as the first step in the construction. Packing, temporary storage, on site transportation, on site losses and breakage, and low effectiveness due to badly and impedingly delivered and stored materials are all considered as belonging to the transportation costs. A Swedish study (Hammarlund 1989) has shown that approximately a third of the time used by the worker on the building site is spent procuring his materials in the widest sense, equalling about 10 percent of the total building cost. The hypothesis of Byggelogistik is that a near-optimum form of supply will increase costs only marginally, but will reduce waste of time considerably. This means that materials delivery in Byggelogistik is looked upon from the point of view of an optimum building process primarily. Byggelogistik (Bertelsen 1994-1) makes use of a two level logistics with a planning approach for the over all logistics and a JIT consumption approach for the daily deliveries. The logistics are considered already on the drawing board. Materials are, where it is possible, specified as belonging to the separate building operation during the detailed design. In the planning of the operations all supplies are described in detail aiming at JIT supply once a day, comprising only materials needed until the next day, and packed for the various trades and heir individual tasks and work areas. Such assemblies of materials are named 'units'. Each type of unit is carefully specified to include all materials needed for the particular task, and form of packing as well as equipment for the delivery is detailed. Each type of unit is given a specific number for identification.

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Several participants in the project consider the unit the most original element in the whole concept. The idea is taken from the Swedish furniture chain Ikea who sells furniture in parts to be assembled by the customer but with all the parts - and often tools and assembly instructions

in the same box.

In order to manage

sorting, packing and delivery a close co-operation with the wholesale dealers must be established. In Denmark 3 kinds of dealers cover all necessary materials, and their warehouses are used as store room for the building site. A few kinds of materials are Delivered directly in units packed by the manufacturer, but most materials are delivered to the warehouse to be sorted and packed in units, ready for transportation as the work progresses. In order to reduce the costs of external transportation joint deliveries are used containing all units from the dealer regardless of contractor, and to minimize internal transportation delivery of units takes place as close to the work area as possible. The dealers' drivers are considered as part of the building team in as much as the aim is to employ the same drivers to load the trucks and deliver the materials every day thereby making them familiar with the ever changing lay out of the building site and choose the best sequence for the unloading. Byggelogistik is characterized by careful planning, daily management executed from the building site - not the head office - and immediate and direct feed back of all mistakes. Careful planning demands that detailed design is fully completed before the building process is started, in order that all materials may be counted and specified in units. In this way delivery schedules on a weekly basis may be worked out right from the start, covering the entire building period, and all materials may be ordered bindingly. Planning must take place in close co-operation between designers and trade contractors, and the wholesale dealer's employees should take part in this. Tests have shown that this kind of co-operation has resulted in a good deal of suggestions for more appropriate solutions and choice of materials. At the same time better terms for delivery are obtained since favorable prices may be offered by the producers due to early notice.

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Construction JIT will be advanced by implementing demonstrated techniques and industry research to test theoriesand develop new tools and techniques. Research topics have beenproposed that constitute a strategy for implementing

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CHAPTER 6 JIT: CASE STUDY IN MALAYSIA (PUTRAJAYA) 6.1 AN OVERVIEW ON THE CASE STUDY PROJECT Presint 9 is the selected project to be used as our case study in this task. The selection was made because Presint 9 is one of the examples of constructions using the IBS technique. Located in our Government administration areas, this Presint 9 is one of the projects in the development of Putrajaya areas. Presint 9 is the residential area construct by Setia Putrajaya Sdn. Bhd. The company had managed to complete the construction of Presint 9 in a minimum time by using the IBS method of construction. Based on the observation carried out by Putrajaya Holdings, noticed that the contractor only need four (4) month to complete the full structure of the apartment until level six (6) comparing to the used of conventional method that can only construct full structure of the building until level four (4) in the same period. Based on this statement prove that by using the IBS system to the construction of the building may reduced the time for the completion. It also be noted that this IBS system not only give the advantages in term of time to this construction but also give benefit in term of cost for the development. The contractor managed to reduced cost on labor because this method will reduced the used of labor in the construction. Moreover, there will be a reduction in the cost of project, this is because this method will reduced the waste in the construction that will contribute to the minimizing the cost of project. These prove that the application of IBS method is one of the techniques that can achieve the implementation of JIT approach.

FIGURE 2: PICTURES OF THE PRESINT 9 PROJECT USING IBS

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6.2 Problem in the implementation JIT Approach into the Construction Industries JIT gives a lot of benefits to our construction industries, but there are several problems that may contribute to the failure on its implementation. The problems that occur may contribute to the inefficiency and ineffectiveness for JIT approach been implemented. The problems may occur based on the unique characteristic of the construction industries itself. Below are several problems that been identified faced in the implementation of JIT approach in the construction industries. 6.2.1 Material Shortage Material is one of the crucial items in the process of production in the construction industries. Shortage in the material supply is one of the problems in our industries. Therefore, the material cannot be distributes to the site on time and this situation may affect the time factor for the project progress. 6.2.2 Weather The production place for the construction is unique and not similar to other manufacturing production. Generally, construction activities located in the open space known as site comparing with manufacturing production that were conducted in the building. Weather is one of the factors that may contribute to the interruption in the construction activities. The uncertainty of weather may contribute to the problems in the JIT implementation. 6.2.3 Design Changes To fulfill the client satisfaction, most of the procurement methods in our industries give a space for the client to makes changes in the design during the construction progress. This factor may effect the time and the cost for the project. We cannot achieve the completion dates because the changes may influence to extend and add the time of completion for the project. Therefore, JIT approaches are not applicable to this kind of construction. 6.2.4 Cost IBS system been said as the effective construction technique in the implementation the JIT approach. IBS system may cut the time factor for the construction industries and reduce the numbers of delays on the project. The problem is the cost to be used in this system is higher compared to the conventional techniques used in this construction industry.

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Analysis between JIT and IBS

6.3 ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK originate from

Manufacture

originate from

•Improve quality IBS

•Reduce wastage

•Quality of work

•Less labour

JIT •Right Materials •Right Quantities

•Speed up of construction process

•Faster

•Increase production

•Economies (large scale production)

•Right Quality Step 1: To achieve JIT philosophy required to fulfil JIT 6 key principles

•Cost Saving •Applicable to all type of buildings

1 Fabrication

Assignment Framework

3 Case Study: Contractor or Project that using IBS in Malaysia

Step 3: Analyze that what is the correlation with the project result and IBS advantages

2

Theory Framework

JIT Key Principles •Pull System •Top Management Commitment & Employee Involvement •Elimination of Waste

Step 2: Analyze the case study with the JIT 6 key principles implementation

•Total Quality Control (TQC) •Uninterrupted Work Flow •Supplier Relation = One Source

Assignment Flow

FIGURE 3: Analysis I - JIT Principles to Project That Using IBS

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6.4 ANALYSIS

No 1

Analysis I - JIT Principles to Project That Using IBS JIT 6 Key Principles Case Study: Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd Pull System
Strong joint effort with the Project Supplier (Setia Precast Sdn. Bhd), allows the technical department and the contractor to have a better managed on ‘pull’ demands system from the workstation without overproducing unrelated prefabrication components. This effort had help in expedite the construction of various types of multilevel apartments of Presint 9.

2

Top Management Commitment & Employee Involvement


The determination of the top management of Putrajaya Holdings in handling IBS project in a mechanical intensive way, suits with their corporate vision that leads them to be the greatest Property Developer in the country.

3

Elimination of Waste


IBS method emphasized on the usage of the natural environmental techniques and reduction of construction waste material. Conventional techniques that involve unskilled labour; such as laying up bricks, brickwork, plastering and concrete work done off-site, will only caused accidents to occur, due to untidy and messy site especially for big project in Putrajaya.


The application of IBS system in Putrajaya had also proved the high commitments of Putrajaya Holdings in undertaking the Malaysian government’s challenge that encourage the increment of construction productivity from the benefits of less wastage, low risk and damage and higher innovation.


IBS system in Presint 9 has not just increased the work productivity but it also reduces the local currency exchange by the foreign workers to their origin country. IBS also reduce the foreign labour

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supply into Malaysia, as reported by Setia Putrajaya, the application of IBS System had reduce to 30% of excessive reliance on unskilled foreign workers for the project.

4

Total Quality Control (TQC)


IBS System maintain the quality and high aesthetic end products for the whole building structure and envelope as it ensure a proper arrangement of prefabricated beam and column that fits to the building. This method will gives a fine look of the building without any design or material discrepancies that will spoil the architectural style of the building.

5

Uninterrupted Workflow


With IBS approach, construction units of apartments could be done with a systematic approach as compared to the conventional methods. According to Setia Putrajaya, the contractor only took four (4) months in order to complete one six storey apartment type Parsel 8 in Presint 9. Where else, within the same time line, the building could only be completed up to level four (4) if the conventional method is used.

6

Supplier Relation = One Source


The successful application of IBS System must be accredited to the effort of Setia Precast Sdn Bhd; one of the local IBS experts. The IBS specialist conceived, planned, fabricated the components at their factory before it were transported and erected on site. This process allows Setia Precast to ensure that the right components are produced at the right time, in the right order and without defect. The systematic approach will not only sustain the quality of the project but it also ensures that the project is completed on the right time.

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NO 1

Analysis II – IBS Advantages with JIT project case IBS Advantages Correlation with the result of JIT Analysis Quality of work
From applying Total Quality Control (TQC) principle, we can see that Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd can maintain the quality and high aesthetic end products. They admitted that the quality of work is satisfying from the fine look of the building. So having TQC in implementation IBS system gives maximal advantages in the term quality of work.


From applying supplier relation with only one (1) source of supplier, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd also get the benefit because this method allows the supplier, Setia Precast to ensure that the right components are produced at the right time, in the right order and without defect. 2

Speed up of construction process


From applying uninterrupted workflow principles, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd gets the advantages of a fast construction period comparing the conventional method. With the project in Presint 9, the have proven that it only take four (4) month for six (6) storey building. If the workflow was interrupted, then there will be a big chance that the advantages of IBS regarding speed up of construction process can not achieved.


From applying supplier relation with only one (1) source of supplier, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd admitted that the systematic approach will not only sustain the quality of the project but it also ensures that the project is completed on the right time. 3

Increase production


From applying top Management Commitment and Employee Involvement principle, one of the benefit of Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd that this lead to their corporate vision as the greatest Property Developer in the country where this will

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influence their productivity.
From applying elimination of waste principles, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd proved that encourage the increment of construction productivity from the benefits of less wastage, low risk and damage and higher innovation.
From applying elimination of waste principles, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd also manage to increase the work productivity and also reduces the local currency exchange by the foreign workers to their origin country.

4

Cost Saving


From applying supplier relation with only one (1) source of supplier, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd admitted that it really influences the efficiency of project. In a construction project, good efficiency means good cost saving.

5

Applicable to all type of buildings


From applying pull system in their IBS project, Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd admitted that it helps in expedite the construction of various types of multilevel apartments of Presint 9. Even though this still in one (1) project case but even in one (1) project required a variety of apartments type. From this project, it is optimistic that it can be applicable in other kind of buildings.

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6.5 CONCLUSION After doing two times analysis (see analysis I and II) we can see for this particular project how the correlation between adopting JIT principles and advantages in IBS system. Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd doing IBS system in their project in Presint 9. We can see that in their process of implementation IBS project they fulfill six (6) JIT key principles in the first analysis. Then we try to relate with the main advantages of IBS in second analysis. We can see that Putrajaya Holding Sdn Bhd also can obtain all the main advantages of IBS.

From this case study

analysis, as a conclusion we can say that if a contractor doing an IBS project and applying JIT six (6) key principles completely, there is a big opportunity that the contractor can obtain the maximal of IBS system. From the theory framework (see figure 2), it could be explained that this parallel correlation between JIT and IBS because both of it comes from the manufacture philosophy. And with this case study, we can recommend that if you want to gain maximal advantages of IBS system, by applying JIT in the process can give you a big guaranty of the successful of the project. This recommendation can be use if Malaysian promoting IBS system in their construction industry in the future.

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CHAPTER 7 JIT : CONCLUSION

Successful implementation of JIT would be able to reduce several elements such as inventory level, storage space, factory overhead, production costs, rectification works which will lead to improvement in quality. However, Low Sui Pheng (1999) concluded that the mentioned fundamentals of JIT can only be achieved with the cooperation from all parties as a working team. Therefore, it's very important for everyone involved in construction project to understand the objective, the fundamental of Just In Time method and his or her roles in order to ensure a successful implementation of JIT system. Construction

and

manufacturing

are

different

types

of

production,

nonetheless a form of JIT is applicable to construction, in which physical buffers may ultimately be replaced by better managing uncertainty and eliminating thecauses of flow variation.

As the implementation of plan buffers propagates

certainty throughout projects, productivity will improve from better matching labor to work flow, and project durations will shorten as physical buffers shrink with the flow variation they are designed to absorb. A new way of conceiving the tasks and tools of construction project management has been proposed. Instead of relying simply on schedule-push, managers are advised to systematically employ plan-pull as a means of adjusting to uncertainty and insuring that resources are employed to maximum advantage attach point in time. Instead of concentrating management attention and effort on managing contracts and enforcing obligations, managers are advised to manage the flow of work across production processes and the various specialty organizations brought into a project to execute those processes.

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Low and Mok (1999) suggested a more practical application of JIT principles for site layout in reducing and minimizing the occurrence of waste, and concluded that the Kanban system can be modified for use in ordering and delivering materials to site. People-related problems were, however, singled out as the main difficulties in the implementation of the JIT philosophy (Low and Mok, 1999).

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12) Ockree, K.A., 1993. A just-in-time production philosophy: empirical analyses and field study. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, School of Business, University of Kansas. 13) Peters, T., 1990. Time-obsessed competition. Management Review 9, 16– 20. 14) Bowen D. & Youngdahl W. (1998). Lean Service: In Defence of a Production-Line

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