Occupational accidents are wasteful and non-value-adding (NVA) events in any form of production system. Since Lean principles aim to reduce NVA elements of work processes, it follows that safeguarding construction workers from occupational hazards would be a natural outcome of the Lean Construction ideal of waste elimination. A literature review of the conference proceedings of the Internationa...

Prefabrication is realised as a novel direction to conquer the chronic problems such as low productivity, high waste production, inferior working conditions and insufficient quality in construction. Despite benefits of prefabrication, inherent issues related to inefficiencies have been identified from its production process. Lean Production Principles are recognised as a paramount concept which...

The challenge for developing a “green production oriented economy”, is the definition of sustainable production and consumption models which are able to enlarge the current approach oriented to the greening of single production towards the creation of a comprehensive sustainable system, involving and integrating different supply chains in the same geographical district. The creation of short su...

In this paper we analyse the existing interrelationships between information technology (IT) and the adoption of lean production. More specifically, the level of adoption of lean production is studied in accordance with the degree of use and the kind of IT used (internal and external IT). The results of the study show how companies need to augment the degree of use of internal or intra-organisa...

Lean production theory, as a production management tool, describes a system that delivers a finished product free from defects, to a customer in zero time, and with nothing left in inventory. Recently, the concepts of lean production have been introduced to construction yet have generally been rejected. Lean construction concepts were recently tested in a simulation environment and were found t...

Refining is one of the most energy intensive processes in the manufacture of paper and paperboard. While refining combines a blend of science, art, and operating experience, nearly all papermakers acknowledge that we over-refine our paper machine stock fiber. Series and parallel equipment line-ups are commonplace, and different hydraulic paths are necessary to accommodate the plethora blends of...

In the traditional sense, IT has often been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production. However, as the business world changes and competition from low-cost countries increases, new models must be developed which deliver competitive advantage by combining contemporary technological advances with the lean paradigm. In order to make a contribution within this field of research, we ev...

Lean production and enterprise resource planning systems are often quoted as being the two most important strategies for achieving competitive advantage in today’s global manufacturing environments. Though IT has traditionally been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production, we suggest that modern developments in IT and the onset of hybrid ‘‘push-pull’’ production control mechanism...

In this paper, we examine the applicability of lean production to knowledge work by investigating the implementation of a lean production system at an Indian software services firm. We first discuss specific aspects of knowledge work—task uncertainty, process invisibility, and architectural ambiguity—that call into question the relevance of lean production in this setting. Then, combining a det...