The functions of visual management

Visual Management has been evolving and effectively employed in some manufacturing and service organisations for a long time. In order to facilitate a cross-industrial learning process and to advance in detailed research the understanding of how the Visual Management concept may serve in an organisation is necessary. The aim of this paper is to identify Visual Management functions and the theoretical base for the construction industry. A detailed literature review and an analysis of the findings were performed accordingly. The necessity of a holistic approach in order to make more use of the Visual Management process and some research opportunities were identified

Visual management/visual controls implementation pilot : 5S in Highways Construction and Maintenance

This report presents a collaborative research effort between the University of Salford and Highways England on the implementation of the Visual Management (VM) concept,a fundamental element of lean construction, in the highways construction supply chain. After 10 visits to 5 different highways construction sites to identify VM implementation opportunities for the project, the 5S, which is a systematic visual workplace structuring methodology and the very first step to creating a visually transparent workplace, was implemented in one of the highways construction sites. The recorded benefits include a significant reduction in item transaction times (circa 50% reduction on average), savings in space (both vertical and horizontal), and improvements in the overall health and safety conditions. Alongside demonstrating the captured benefits, the report also explores the current 5S condition and how to disseminate the 5S concept further through the highways supply chain. A discussion of the 5S pilot and the 5S in general as per Highways England’s KPIs was also presented

Markiz Pastanesi açıldı

Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya No: 112-Lokantalarİstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033

Investigation of Visual Management Cases in Construction by an Analytical Framework from Manufacturing

Along with the progress of globalization, speed and efficiency have become more critical for any industry than ever before. In this sense, the concept and methods of lean management, promoting these performances, have been deployed from manufacturing, its origin industry, to other industries. This paper deals with this management style in the construction industry, called lean construction. In particular, visual management (VM) as one effective tool in this scheme is focused on. A number of VM cases, 306 in total, was collected from both construction and manufacturing sites and investigated by the so-called 5W1H analytical framework developed in the manufacturing industry. Obtained results suggest that the VM cases in construction have common attributes such as purpose and location, target to attain, users’ attributes, timing to use and elemental technologies for case development. A comparison analysis of the VM cases from construction and those from manufacturing was also carried out, for a mutual transfer of this technology between these industries

Minimizing value-at-risk in the single-machine total weighted tardiness problem

The vast majority of the machine scheduling literature focuses on deterministic problems, in which all data is known with certainty a priori. This may be a reasonable assumption when the variability in the problem parameters is low. However, as variability in the parameters increases incorporating this uncertainty explicitly into a scheduling model is essential to mitigate the resulting adverse effects. In this paper, we consider the celebrated single-machine total weighted tardiness (TWT) problem in the presence of uncertain problem parameters. We impose a probabilistic constraint on the random TWT and introduce a risk-averse stochastic programming model. In particular, the objective of the proposed model is to find a non-preemptive static job processing sequence that minimizes the value-at-risk (VaR) measure on the random TWT at a specified confidence level. Furthermore, we develop a lower bound on the optimal VaR that may also benefit alternate solution approaches in the future. In this study, we implement a tabu-search heuristic to obtain reasonably good feasible solutions and present results to demonstrate the effect of the risk parameter and the value of the proposed model with respect to a corresponding risk-neutral approach

Benefits of visual management in construction: cases from the transportation sector in England

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the benefits of Visual Management (VM) systems in transportation construction projects in England. Design/methodology/approach: Following a comprehensive literature review, the benefits of VM were investigated through action and case study research executed within two construction projects in England. Findings: The main findings are; VM can contribute to (i) increased self-management, (ii) better team coordination, (iii) better promises or an increasing Plan Percent Complete (PPC), (iv) easier control for the management, and (v) improved workplace conditions in the transportation sector. It is important for the management to obtain the engagement of their workforce for VM through increased participation and demonstrating the actual benefits. However, managerial monitoring and control on the systems should not be underestimated. Originality/value: The transportation sector in England has been systematically deploying lean construction techniques in its operations for a while. One of those lean techniques is a close-range visual communication strategy called Visual Management (VM). The literature on the VM implementation in construction is scarce and generally limited to the building construction context. This paper documents the benefits of VM systems for the transportation sector by using data captured through both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. The paper also identifies a set of recommendations for similar research efforts in the transportation context in the future

Visual controls at the workface of road construction and maintenance : Preliminary report

Visual Management (VM) is a fundamental element of the lean production system that relies on the effectiveness of sensory communication to realise the lean production/construction goals. VM can be implemented by following certain frameworks in an incremental fashion. Visual controls are one of the main tools of VM that are used to limit and guide process outcomes. They are generally adopted in production management, process, safety, quality, and maintenance management efforts. VM and visual controls have extensively been an important part of lean construction initiatives for a while. Their implementation is also envisioned to be relevant to highway construction and maintenance projects. A set of critical points, general recommendations and possible areas of implementation for VM and visual controls identified from both research and practical experience are presented in this report