Talk:Lean in building and construction industry

Anna: It is very interesting to look into Lean management and the benefits/limits of this. However, it is a very broad subject and i suggest you try to pick one tool/method that is used within Lean Management and really focus on this. I can see that you have created headings for a lot of different tools, so you already know some of the topics you can choose from. You could for example choose the tool you find the most relevant for the building and construction industry

Sarac Reviewer 1

First impression:

• The topic is interesting and there is still a lot to learn about Lean construction.

Formal aspects:

• The article follow the ”methods” structure of article and that is very easy to understand. The author has almost fulfilled the expected structure of this type but I feel that it would have been rewarding for the article if a section about the limitations of Lean construction would have been addressed.
  • Answer: I have added a paragraph about limitations of Lean construction. Thank you for the tip!
• The article is written in a more short and precise sentences-style where the facts are clear and concise. For me though, I would like the text to be more fluent and soft so that I can read it without feeling that I have to stop.
  • Answer: I have tried to change some sentences to get a better flow in the article.
• Unfortunately there are no figures in the article. It would have been nice to have some pictures or figures to illustrate the philosophy of Lean and to make the text more interesting to read.
  • Answer: I have added some figures.
• There are some formatted errors in this article. It haven’t been properly re-assessed and it would be good to have that done before the final hand-in of the article. There are a few sentences that need to be rewritten but I think that if the author read through the article once more those small issues can easily be fixed. The article need to be honed for both language and appearance but over all a good job.

Content aspects:

• I think that the topic of this article is interesting for a practitioner but it would be more interesting if there was a reflecting section with the authors own thoughts about the topic.
  • Answer: I have made the topic more easy reading, and included some reflection at the Limitations paragraph.
• The article is clearly related to the course and project, program and portfolio management. Lean is a tool/philosophy that can be implemented on all three topics.
• The length of the article is appropriate, it’s about 2800 words.
• The article covers many different topics of Lean but I feel that it is hard to get a clear view of what the meaning is with this article and what the red line is. The text and sections feels a bit “piled up” and I’m missing the soft feel between the sections. Maybe an summery of the article would help with that as I mentioned earlier or that some of the sections could start with a softer introduction, not fact right away.
  • Answer: This is a good tip! I have tried to get a better flow in the text.
• I would like to have a summery in the beginning of the report to state what the article is about and what will be addressed. That will improve the overall understanding of the article and it will be easier for the reader to follow the red line. It would also be interesting in the summery to read about why you choose this topic.
• The recourses are good but they do not contain a brief summary. It would be good to add that so that the reader will have an understanding of what kind of reference it is and what information can be find from this source.
  • Answer: I have added it.
• There is not much of the authors “own opinion” in this article and I think that that is a shame. The article would be much more interesting if the author would add one section for own thoughts and reflections over the topic. I get the feeling that there is no “copy & paste” plagiarism in this article.

Notes for changes:

• I would like to have a summery in the beginning of the report to state what the article is about and what will be addressed. That will improve the overall understanding of the article and it will be easier for the reader to follow the red line. It would also be interesting in the summery to read about why you choose this topic.
• I liked the start with a small introduction to the history of Lean but I think it would be clearer if that section falls below the contents list and maybe with a headline of something like “History of Lean” or “Introduction to Lean”.
• Section “LEAN”: The word Lean should be written with small letters, of what I can remember Lean is not a short term for something else, it a word with a meaning, but I may be wrong. This section could have been put together with the first section that I called “Introduction to Lean” because this section is for me just a short but consist introduction to what Lean is about. I don’t understand what the author mean with “in order to call a change for Lean”. Is there a need to change the use of Lean or is Lean needed to make a change? Please use another word or rewrite the sentence so that it becomes more understandable.
  • Answer: I have changed this.
• Section “What is Lean Construction?”: The text is easy to read and informative. It has a flow and I think it’s easy to understand what is written.
• Section “Seven preconditions for flow in construction project”: Under the third condition the author has written “Aids” two times. I’m not sure if the author missed to put in a sign of some sort after each precondition because the following conditions have the same fault with strange start of sentence.

S150801 Reviewer 2

Overall impression

• A tidy article, with a good overview.
• The structure is nice and logical built up.
• I think is an interesting text, and easy to read.

Rooms for improvement

• I did not find any explanation of what “Muda” is, could you make a short description or link to an hyperlink about it.
  • Answer: This is now included.
• Maybe bullet point the seven unnecessary wasting activities. Transportation, inventory/stock, motion, waiting, over-processing, over production and defects.
  • Answer: Done!
• I did not quite understand what “shift in the industry”, and which industry are you talking about in Chapter “Lean management versus Lean construction” at the end.
  • Answer: Changed it.
• I am Missing Bibliography to read some more.
• And it would be nice with some illustrations, to make your points clearer.

But overall a really good article.

s141931 Reviewer 3

• In general, the writing style, the academic language and format are good
• The article has a nice logical flow and the parts are well tied together
• Since LEAN is a general optimization tool, you could try to define a stronger relation to project management
  • Answer: Thank you for the tip, I have tried to do that.
• You could expand the description of IPD by explaining how this tool actually works
• The parts of Kaizen, LPS and JIT look a bit out of the context. Not that they are irrelevant, but it would be nice to relate them to the previous parts in order to improve the logical flow.
  • Answer: I have removed Kaizen, and tried to relate the text better to the two others.
• The article is missing graphical aids. It would be beneficial if you could complement it with any relevant figures or graphs in order for the reader to grasp and memorize the idea easier.
• In general, a good article. It is easy and interesting to read, it provides with useful knowledge, and is based on an extensive list of references, however the annotated bibliography is missing.