| dc.description.abstract | With the application of many innovative production management methods such as Total Quality Management, Just-in-time management, Vertical Integration, Lean Production, Supply-chain management, and so on, manufacturing industry has enjoyed a great success in the improvement of production efficiency in the past decades. One common ingredient among those methods is to streamline their production operation to pursuit perfection to their products. On the other hand, interest by the construction industry in the study of processes at this level has been negligible. In fact, interest in methods such as CPM has placed a great deal of planning emphasis at the project level. Process level considerations have been neglected or assumed to be covered by the ＂experience＂ of field personnel. According to several research studies, more than 30% of construction cost as well as time can be potentially saved through better planning and scheduling.
＂Lean construction＂ addresses just the issue and implies the optimization of storage and logistics. Its goal is to avoid waste of time, money, equipment, etc. and to focus on productivity improvement and cost reduction. This research employs the principles of lean construction to study the ready-mixed concrete production and placement process operation in construction. The objectives are to improve the overall operating efficiency and to reduce waste by streamlining the operating chain process. Construction job sites and their concrete supply plants will be visited to pinpoint the bottleneck of the operating process. Wastes and inefficiency will be identified. Alternative operating modes will then be evaluated using the computer simulation technique to streamline the concrete supply and placement operation in construction. | en_US |