Benefits of Visual Management in the Transportation Sector

This paper explores the benefits of Visual Management (VM), a fundamental sensory information management strategy in the lean production system, in the transportation sector in England. Lean construction and VM have recently gained momentum in England’s transportation construction supply chain with high efficiency targets. VM in construction is a scarcely researched topic, particularly outside the building construction context with its quantitative and qualitative benefits. The recorded benefits of four different visual tools/systems (visual workplace structuring or the 5S, visual performance system, visual specification/indicator and visual control) from one highways construction and one metro station upgrade project in England were presented through an action and case study research effort. The findings show that VM systems can contribute to (i) increased self-management, (ii) increased coordination, (iii) increased PPC through better promises, (iv) easier control and (v) improved site conditions in transportation projects. Although both qualitative and quantitative data were collected to triangulate the findings, the main limitation of the research is in abstracting the benefits or contributions of a particular VM tool from an overall improvement in the projects’ performance. Some future research opportunities for VM in the transportation sector were also discussed in the paper.