Sudan University of Science and Technology

College of Graduate Studies

Applying Lean Construction Concepts to

Construction Industry in Sudan
‫تطبــيق مفاهيم التشييذ الرشيق على صـناعة التشـييذ في السودان‬

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the

Degree of Master in Civil Engineering (Construction Engineering)

By: Supervisor:
Ibrahim Mohammed Omer Awad Dr. Salah Abdalaziz Ajban

September 2016
 Dedication

I am endlessly grateful to my parents for their

affection, efforts, and their supports in helping me
reach this far.

Special dedication to the soul of my dearest sister,

Manasik

I also would like to dedicate this study to my

brothers and sisters.

Lastly, my dedication goes to my friends and

class-mates during all my levels of education.

Ibrahim Mohammed-2016

I
 Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank Allah for helping me

completing this research successfully.

It is my pleasure to acknowledge with gratitude the help of

my supervisor Dr. Salah Abdalaziz Ajban for his kind
guidance, patience, encouragements and immeasurable
advices.

I would like to thank all my friends who helped me in

distributing and collecting the questionnaire of this study
and for their efforts to bring this study into life.

I would like to thank all my teachers and professors for

giving me guidance and knowledge during all my years in
education.

II
 Abstract
The construction industry in Sudan plays a major role in the economy
via its significant share in the Sudanese Growth Domestic Product (GDP). The
Sudan's construction industry faces numerous problems and obstacles which
lead the projects to sink into troubles, and negatively affect the workflow.
Lean construction is a technique newly implemented in many countries to
overcome most of the problems that hinder the projects' success via more
optimum productivity, better usage of resources and eliminating the wastes.

The main objectives of this study are to determine the awareness

about lean construction within the engineers who work in the construction
industry in Sudan, and to identify the factors that affect the workflow of
construction projects in Sudan. The main question of this study is about the
challenges that may face the implementation of lean construction in Sudan. The
methodology of the study adopted both qualitative and quantitative methods in
identifying the problem statement, literature review, collection and analysis of
data and discussion of the results.

After results interpretation in the light of the theoretical part, the study
ended with many results which are: The majority of the engineers who work in
construction industry in Sudan have no idea about lean construction, while they
have high potential to work in a lean construction site, the main factor that
impacting the workflow of construction project in Sudan is the delays in
financing the project, and in delivery of the materials and the main two
challenges will face the implementation of lean construction in Sudan are the
resistance of the top management to adopt the concept, and the difficulties in
understanding the concept itself.
III
 ‫المستخلص‬
‫حهؼب صُاػت انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ دوراً رئُضا فٍ اإلقخصاد يٍ خالل يضاهًخها‬
‫انكبزي فٍ انُاحج انقىيٍ اإلجًانٍ‪ .‬حىاجه صُاػت انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ انؼذَذ يٍ‬
‫انؼقباث انخٍ حقىد إنً دخىل انًشزوػاث فٍ انؼذَذ يٍ انًشكالث‪ ،‬كًا حؤثز صهبا ً ػهً‬
‫صُز انؼًم‪ .‬انخشُُذ انزشُق ػبارة ػٍ حقُُت حى حطبُقها حذَثا ً فٍ انؼذَذ يٍ انذول يٍ‬
‫أجم حخطٍ يؼظ ى انؼقباث انخٍ حؼُق َجاح انًشزوػاث ػٍ طزَق انخحضٍُ انًثانٍ‬
‫نإلَخاجُت‪،‬ححضٍُ اصخخذاو انًىارد ‪ ،‬و اصخبؼاد كم اَىاع انهذر‪.‬‬
‫يٍ األهذاف انزئُضت نهذا انبحث قُاس يذي يؼزفت انًهُذصٍُ انؼايهٍُ فٍ‬
‫صُاػت انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ ػٍ انخشُُذ انزشُق ‪ ،‬و نًؼزفت انؼىايم انخٍ حؤثز صهبا ً‬
‫ػهً صزَاٌ ػًهُت انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ‪ .‬انضؤال انزئُش نهذا انبحث حىل انؼقباث انخٍ‬
‫ًَكٍ أٌ حىاجه حطبُق انخشُُذ انزشُق فٍ انضىداٌ‪ .‬انًُهجُت انًخبؼت فٍ هذا ابحث هٍ‬
‫انًُهجُت انكًُت انىصفُت ػٍ طزَق حؼزَف يشكهت انبحث ‪ ،‬أدبُاث انبحث ‪ ،‬و حجًُغ‬
‫انبُاَاث و ححهُهها و يُاقشت انُخائج‪.‬‬
‫بؼذ حفضُز انُخائج ػهً ضىء انجزء انُظزٌ اَخهج انذراصت إنً انؼذَذ‬
‫انذراصت يٍ انُخائج يُها أٌ غانبُت انًهُذصٍُ انؼايهٍُ فٍ قطاع انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ‬
‫نُش نذَهى أٌ يؼزفت بانخشُُذ انزشُق‪ ،‬نكٍ نذَهى حًاس ػانٍ نهؼًم فٍ يىقغ َضخخذو‬
‫يفاهُى انخشُُذ انزشُق‪ ،‬انؼايم انزئُش انًؤثز ػهً صزَاٌ انؼًم فٍ يشزوػاث‬
‫انخشُُذ فٍ انضىداٌ هٍ انخأخُزاث فٍ حًىَم انًشارَغ و حىرَذ انًىاد و انخحذَاٌ‬
‫انزئُضُاٌ انذا ٌ صىف َىاجههًا حطبُق انخشُُذ انزشُق فٍ انضىداٌ هًا يؼارضت‬
‫اإلدارة انؼهُا نخبٍُ هذا انًفهىو و انصؼىباث فٍ فهًه‪.‬‬

‫‪IV‬‬
 Table of contents
Chapter Title page
Dedication I
Acknowledgements II
Abstract III
‫انًضخخهص‬ IV
Table of Contents V
List of Tables VIII
List of Figure IX
List of Abbreviations X
Part One: Introduction
Introduction
1-1 Background 1
1-2Research Objectives 2
1-3Research Problem 3
Chapter 1-4 Research Questions 3
1-5 Research Importance 3
One 1-6 Research Hypothesis 4
1-7 Research Methodology 4
1-8 Research Structure 5
Part Two: Literature Review
Sudan's Construction Industry
2-1 Preamble 6
2-2 The construction Industry
2-2-1 Definition and Principles 7
Chapter 2-2-2 The characteristics of Construction 8
Two 2-2-3 The role of Construction in Economic 9
Development
2-2-4 Challenges and Obstacles of Construction 11
Industry in Developing Countries
2-2-5 Future Vision of Construction Industry 12
2-3 Construction Industry in Sudan
2-3-1 The Role of Construction Industry in Sudan's 15
Development
2-3-1-1 Sudanese Economy Overviews 15
2-3-1-2 Role of Construction Industry in 16
Sudan's Economy
2-3-2 An overview of Sudan‟s construction 17
industry
2-3-3 Challenges Facing Sudanese Construction 18

V
 Industry
Lean Construction
3-1 Preamble 22
3-2 Lean Production
3-2-1 What is Lean? 21
3-2-2 Toyota Production System (TPS) 22
3-2-2-1 Historical Background 22
3-2-2-2 The Toyota Production System Model 24
3-2-2-3 Types of Wastes in Toyota Production 24
Chapter System
Three 3-2-3 Lean Production Principles 28
3-3 Lean Construction
3-3-1 General Overview 32
3-3-2 Lean Construction Definition and Principles 32
3-3-3 Waste in Construction Industry 31
3-3-4 Lean Construction Tools 34
3-3-4-1 Concurrent 36
Engineering
3-3-4-2 Just In Time (JIT) 37
3-3-4-3 Visual Management (VM) 39
3-3-4-4 5S Work Organization 42
3-3-4-5 Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) 41
3-3-4-6 Last Planner System (LPS) 42
3-3-4-7 Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS) 44
3-4 Lean Construction Application in Foreign
Countries
3-4-1 An Overview of Applying Lean 46
Construction in Different Countries
3-4-2 Comparative Study 52
Part Three : Data Analysis, Conclusions and
Recommendations
Data Compilation
4-1 Preamble 54
4-2 Research Population 54
4-3 Research Sampling 54
Chapter 4-4 Research Tool (Questionnaire(
Four 4-4-1 Preamble 55
4-4-2 Questionnaire Design 55
4-4-3 Piloting of the Questionnaire 56
4-4-4 Distribution of the Questionnaire 57

VI
 4-4-5 Data Analysis 57
Data Analysis, Conclusion &
Recommendations
Chapter
Five
5-1 Preamble 58
5-2 Data Analysis 59
5-3 Results Interpretation 76
5-4 Conclusion 79
5-5 Recommendations 79
5-6 Future Researches 80
References
References 81
Appendices ( Questionnaire English & Arabic version)

VII
 List of Tables
No. Title Page
2-1 Comparing Construction Project Management: Present 14
Day to 2025

2-2 GDP by Sector (percentage of GDP) in Sudan's 16

economy comparison between years 2006-2011

3-1 Examples of waste types in Construction projects 32

3-2 Comparison between Lean Manufacturing and Lean 34
Construction Waste
3-3 Classification of Lean Methodologies/Tools 35
3-4 Experienced benefits of lean construction 48
5-1 Respondents' Specialties 59
5-2 Respondents' Level of Education 62
5-3 Respondents' Years of Experience 61
5-4 Sectors Respondents Work for 62
5-5 Role of the Firm in the Project 63
5-6 Evaluation of workflow processes in the projects 64
5-7 To What Degree the Workflow should Improve 65
5-8 Factors Affect Workflow of Construction Processes 66
5-9 Are there any procedures follow to prevent stoppages 66

5-10 Respondents' Awareness about Lean Construction 67

5-11 Reason behind Non-application of Lean Construction in 68
Sudan

5-12 Challenges will face the implementation of lean 72

construction in Sudan

5-13 To what degree do you have knowledge about lean 74

construction?* education level cross tabulation
5-14 To what degree do you have knowledge about lean 74
construction?*Years of experience cross tabulation

5-15 To what degree do you have knowledge about lean 75

construction?*Potential of use lean construction cross
tabulation

VIII
 List of Figures
No. Title Page
3-1 The seven wastes 27
3-2 Construction Waste Classification 33
3-3 Last Planner System 43
3-4 Lean Project Delivery System 45
3-5 Countries using lean construction and realized 52
performance improvement
5-1 Respondents' Specialties 59
5-2 Respondents' Level of Education 62
5-3 Respondents' Years of Experience 61
5-4 Sectors Respondents Work for 62
5-5 Role of the Firm in the Project 63
5-6 Evaluation of workflow processes in the projects 64
5-7 To What Degree the Workflow should Improve 65
5-8 Respondents' Awareness about Lean Construction 67
5-9 Potential of working in a lean construction site 69
5-10 Suitability of Lean Construction to Sudan 71
5-11 Impact of Improving Construction Site on the 72
Productivity
5-12 Allocation Money and Time to Train the 73
Employees about Lean Construction

IX
 List of Abbreviations
BIM……………………… Building Information Modeling
CII……………………….. Construction Industry Institute
CPM……………………... Critical Path Method
GC………………………. General Contractor
GDP……………………... Growth Domestic Product
IGLC…………….............. International Group for Lean Construction
ILO……………………… International Labor Organization
JIT………………………. Just In Time
LC………………………. Lean Construction
LCI……………………… Lean Construction Institute
LP………………………. Last Planner
LPDS…………………… Lean Project Delivery System
LPS……………………… Last Planner System
P-Value…………………. Probability Value
SPSS……………………. Statistical Package for the Social Science
TPS……………………… Toyota Production System
TQM…………………….. Total Quality Management
UK………………………. United Kingdom
USA……………………... United States of America
VM………………………. Visual Management
WWP…………………….. Weekly Work Plan

X
 Chapter One

Introduction

I
 Chapter One

Introduction

1-1: Background:
Construction industry is a significant sector which plays
basic role in both developed and developing countries by creating
employment, establishing social infrastructures such as hospitals,
schools, bridges, highways, water resources, etc., hence
contributing to the gross domestic product(GDP) of those countries
(SSE 2008) . The Sudan's construction industry plays very
important role via its gigantic contribution to the development of
country's economic, it presents many employment opportunities
and attracts the foreign investments which contributes to the
country's GDP grossly (Mohamed 2015).
Sudan, as a developing country, has gained obvious
developments during the previous decades. These developments
took place in many fields, of which the construction industry is a
significant one (Elkhalifa & Shaddad 2008). However, the
construction industry in Sudan faces many problems and obstacles,
such as: shortage of materials, fluctuation of construction materials
prices, inaccurate estimation of the time, defects during the process
of construction, cost overrun, too much pressure on project
stakeholders, etc. (Mohamed 2015).
To overcome all above challenges, managing construction
nowadays requires knowledge of modern management

1
philosophies, techniques and tools. One of the new revolutionary
practices which rooted from the industry of car manufacturing is
"lean production". Since the early 1990s, lean production has taken
the attention of numbers of researches in the field of construction
industry, those people who refer to lean production, created the
new term "lean construction" (Tezel 2007).
Lean construction became one of the most important trends
in the construction industry recently (Mehay 2015), it is a
combination of practical development and original research in both
design and construction with an adaptation of the concept of lean
production principles and practices to the design and construction
process (Dhivyamenaga & Kothai 2014). The lean production in
construction industry "lean construction" has its movements that led
to form an institute, a group and a refereed journal dedicated to lean
construction completely, especially via the universities which
located in the continent of America and Northern Europe (Tezel
2007).

1-2:Research Objectives:
The research objectives are:
 To discuss the factors that affect the workflow in construction
projects in Sudan.
 To provide enough information about lean construction.
 To determine the awareness of lean construction within the
engineers who work in construction industry in Sudan.
 To discuss the suitability of applying lean construction among
the construction in Sudan.

2
1-3: Research Problem:
Out of the researcher's experience in the field of
construction in Sudan and his observations, there are many
obstacles and problems facing the construction industry in Sudan.
The construction management suffers from the misunderstanding
and sometimes ignorance of new managerial tools and techniques
such as lean construction.
The lean construction concepts are not widely applied
among the construction industry in most of developing countries; in
spite of the positive results can be obtained from the application.
This study focusing on how the Sudanese construction industry can
implement Lean construction to benefit from its advantages to
overcome and solve all problems and obstacles that hinder the
projects' success in Sudan.

1-4: Research Questions:

1- Can lean construction be successfully implemented in Sudan?
2- What are the challenges will face the implementation of lean
construction in Sudan?
1-5: Research Importance:
This research is considered to be of a great significance
impact on the construction industry in Sudan. Now that the current
situation of the industry in Sudan has its problems and obstacles,
such as lack of quality, lack of safety, inferior work conditions, cost
overruns, lack of skilled labor, lack of productivity, etc. All the
above difficulties can be solved if new managerial concepts such as
lean construction be successfully implemented; thereby engineers
and contractors should be aware about lean construction.

3
 To the best of the researcher's knowledge; this study in this
field (lean construction) is the very first one in Sudan. This will
provide basic information for future researchers in Sudan to
investigate on lean construction particularly or any other related
area of studies.

1-6: Research Hypotheses:

 The main factor affecting the workflow of construction
processes in Sudan is the delay in material delivery.
 The majority of the engineers who work in construction
industry in Sudan have no knowledge about Lean
construction.
 The reason behind non-application of Lean construction in
Sudan so far is the ignorance of the concept.
 The major obstacle will face the application of Lean
construction in Sudan is the difficulties in understanding the
concept.

1-7: Research Methodology:

The research methodology included how the structure of the

framework for this study was conducted. The main methods were
descriptive, explanatory and quantitative. Literature reviews have
been taken from books, articles, researches, websites, papers as well
as printed materials to describe main concepts about Lean
construction.

The quantitative was done by collecting data by

standardized questionnaire which was distributed to the participants'
sample, then all outcome data of the survey was analyzed by using

4
the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software
program.

1-8: Research Structure:

Chapter One: outlines the background, research objectives, problem

statement, research questions, research importance, hypotheses, and
methodology.

Chapter Two: Comprises of the literature review about construction

industry in Sudan which contains of the definition of construction
industry, characteristics, challenges of the industry, and future
vision of the industry.

Chapter Three: Comprises of the literature review about lean

construction which involves the historical background about lean
construction, definition, principle of lean, waste types, lean
construction tools, and an overview about applying lean
construction in different countries.

Chapter Four: Describes the Methodology used to conduct the

research. Precisely the respondents, the data collection tool
(Questionnaire), the sampling techniques and the analysis
procedure.

Chapter Five: Discusses the data analysis and the result obtained
from the study. Also the chapter deals with the conclusion and
recommendations.

5
 Chapter Two

Sudan's Construction Industry

 Chapter Two

Literature Review: Sudan's Construction Industry

2-1: Preamble:

One of the fundamental sectors in economy is construction industry,

which permeates most of the other sectors as it directly transforms the
resources into constructed physical infrastructure necessary for socio-
economic development. It embraces the process by which the physical
infrastructure are planned, designed, procured, altered, repaired,
constructed or produced, maintained, and demolished (Construction
Industry Policy 2004).The construction industry's major participants
include the architects, management consultants, engineers, general
contractors, subcontractors, labor, owners, operators, and users of the
facilities of construction (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

From the normal arrangement of construction, the process includes

necessary activities match to effectively control final output of the
production of the project, and the input of the process which decided by the
owners' demands to the project, through a number of series of cooperated
and interactional activities. The final output of construction project process
management is the product of construction project which can meet the
owners' demands, and the life span of construction process contains several
main steps: project idea, feasibility studies, project development, pre-

6
design, design, tender, building or production and finally handing over
(Ren2012).

2-2: The Construction Industry:

2-2-1: Definition & Principles:

Construction can be defined as an activity of the physical structure

of infrastructure, superstructure and related facilities (Wells 1984).The
activities include the procuration of raw materials, the manufacturing of
construction materials and components (Plescis 2002).The construction
industry can be also defined as, "the sector of an economy which, plans,
designs, construction, alters, maintains, and eventually demolishes
buildings of all kinds of civil engineering structures and other similar
works" (Ofori 1990).

The construction industry divided into many categories, heavy sector

(sewer lines, pipe lines, highway, etc.), house building sector (the on-site
building, repair, maintenance, decoration, demolition, etc.), industrial,
commercial, and institutional sector (manufacture, assembly, installation on
a construction site of any equipment, machinery, fixtures, etc.) (Salim
2010). There is another classification that construction normally falls into
one of two general categories: (1) Repetitious and routine activities which
fulfill volume needs, such as highway and bridges, manufacturing,
commercial and industrial buildings. (2) Socialized and sophisticated
activities which fulfills one or two-time needs, such as huge dams and
power plants (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

Construction industry contains of persons and organizations that

include individuals, companies, or firms working as consultants, main

7
contractors, equipment suppliers, labors, builders, dealers, etc.
(Construction industry policy 2004). All duties in the construction industry
are done by contractors. A contractor can be a man or company, the general
contractor (GC) or builder is a company that does rehabilitations of
structures or build a new structure. General contractors usually manage and
hire different subcontractors to build structures or do major renovations
(Salim 2010). Construction's manpower requirements range from highly
skilled professionals to completely unskilled laborers. In developing
countries physical construction activities alone employ from 2 to 6 percent
of the total labor force, while the ancillary operations provide an additional
2 to 4 percent (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

2-2-2: The Characteristics of Construction:

Construction is an old industry, its culture and many of its basic

methods have their roots to periods before explicit scientific analysis.
However, especially after the World War II, there have been different
initiatives to understand construction and its problems for developing
corresponding solution and improving methods (Wells 1984). The nature
and size of construction's operations make an attractive area for
development, adaptation, and transfer of technologies consistent with the
developmental goals of any country (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

The construction industry is labor-intensive; this is the main

characteristic of the industry in both developed and developing countries.
Characteristics of construction industry's products, include the nature of
custom-made, immobility, fluctuation of labor demand, complexity, and
many other features of the industry in both developed and developing
countries (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).The construction system
contains variety of sub-systems, which interrelated, interacted and

8
influenced each other, the system of the industry is influenced by internal
and external factors, such as weather conditions, country's policies, budget,
technique issues and resources, each of these factors can affect the
construction project (Ren 2012).

The immobility of the construction product, which requires final

assembly at the place to be readily used, that makes construction a unique
industry. The constructed facilities definitely cannot be transported, the
stability of local demand is of particular importance. The specialized
character of each facility, seasonality, the project-oriented, nature of
production, and the industry's susceptibility to demographic and economic
influences, that all combine making construction demand inherently
unstable. To better understand the nature of construction is by useful
looking at the construction process itself, a complex procedure involving a
variety of steps and participants (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

The participants in the construction industry are traditionally

divided into three groups, the clients, the professionals, and the contractors,
an arrangement which is quite different from that in manufacturing where
the designer and producer are in a single sector and the client enters only at
the end. The temporary nature of construction work due to its project-
orientation and the periods of unemployment which most workers
encounter between projects are probably equally serious in both developed
and developing countries (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

2-2-3: The Role of Construction in Economic Development:

The main purpose of development is growth of the economy, during

the early development process economic growth seems to be generally
high, and construction, along with manufacturing, tends to play an
increasingly important role in the economy (Moavenzadeh & Rossow

9
1975). The construction industry has historically linked with the process of
urbanization and industrialization, particularly since the industrial
revolution. Canals and railways systems played an important role in the
connecting of different areas of Europe, North America and in some
regions of Latin America (Rostow 1963).Transport infrastructures played a
major role in facilitating trade and co-operation between countries, also the
construction industry played a key role in the reconstruction of the war-
ravaged Europe. The clear example of the industry's contribution in the
reconstruction of Europe is the vast construction improvement of housing
and social infrastructure, beside its contribution to the national output
(Ruddock et. al. 2010).

The importance of the construction industry also has been

recognized obviously in the context of nations affected by natural hazards
(Ruddock et al. 2010), besides its multiplier effect on other infrastructure
sectors which can protect the natural and built environment and contribute
to sustainable development (Lopes et al. 2011).While the direct
contributions of construction to development are significant, it also
stimulates a sizeable amount of economic growth. Requirements of
construction for goods and services from other industries are considerable;
the development of the construction industry therefore stimulates these
ancillary industries, thus encouraging for more economic growth
(Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

The construction industry normally contributes intensively to

economic development by ensuring some of the basic objectives including
generation, support, creation of employment, and improving the income
(Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975). Construction is the only sector of an
economy that is recorded twice, firstly in the national account as a
component of GDP and Gross Domestic Capital, secondly the International

11
Labor Organization (ILO) reports construction employment as a separate
entry in the labor statistics report (Turin 1980). Most developing and
developed countries put more than 55% of their GDP investing to create the
physical facilities, including infrastructure (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).
The construction contributes 7% to 10% into GDP of developed countries,
and about 3% to 6% for developing countries (Lowe 2013).

2-2-4: Challenges & Obstacles of Construction Industry in

developing countries:

Construction industry has numerous challenges and problems facing

it recently, some are old and some are new to the industry. Majority of
these challenges are a direct result of operations of construction, whereas
others a result of indirect activities (Muir 2005). As a result of construction
industry, no country free from major problems and challenges of these
industry. Some of the problems are concern in all nations but, generally,
developing countries suffer more from the problems, and resources more
scarce (Ofori 1980).

Construction is viewed as one of the most undesirable industries in

attraction to work. The nature of construction is dangerous, dirty, unstable
and hard work, other industries often preferred work environments which
are safer, cleaner, and more desirable (Muir 2005). The main problems in
construction industry at the phase of construction can divided into four
categories: management, capital, labor, and materials (Moavenzadeh &
Rossow 1975).

Management of manpower has its problems almost in all developing

countries, management training and education is time consuming, and
difficult because it relies basically on the in-site training. Immobility of the
labor force and the problem of remoteness of the most construction sites,

11
erratic availability of the labor force because of a seasonal return to the
agriculture, worker's poor health and inadequate nutrition, di-skill, and law
productivity(Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

There are many problems related to capital are high interest rates,
lack of credit with rental equipment, delays in payments, and practice of
withholding a portion of the payment as a guarantee against poor quality of
workmanship. The main problems of the materials in construction of
developing countries is the lack of material's availability in local markets,
problems in the materials' production, quality and control, the price of the
building materials is sensitive to both the transportation costs and the
amount of production (Moavenzadeh & Rossow 1975).

2-2-5: Future Vision of Construction Industry (Medermott 2009):

Construction industry has been studied widely to predict the future of

this industry. The main goal of each study is to develop a better
understanding of the construction industry's future. There is no specific
standard model to show how to conduct a study, future studies of all types
have some bias of the researchers involved embodied in the findings.
Conferences often try to address the state of affairs of the future. They have
the advantage of being in an environment with some of people responsible
for making decisions present at the conference.

In construction industry there is an overlap between the design and

the execution. Normally, Design solutions impact delivering the project. In
design of project there are many developments that are changing the way
future projects will be designed. There are many technologies give the
designer tools to be better in design; another departure from present design
will be much greater use of standardized design solution. One of the
technologies which has allowed for better coordination between project

12
design and execution, is Building Information Modeling (BIM). The basic
concept with BIM is to assemble as much project information tied to a
visual three-dimensional model a possible prior to a project actually being
constructed. As BIM adopted by more and more players within the
industry, its uses and applications will have a major impacts to
construction. By making a large scale of implementing BIM, the
construction may begin to gain increases in productivity.

Recently, there are wide variations of methods that employed for

construction projects. In some applications, project teams have been able to
use fully modular construction in which projects are constructed in a
controlled environment using manufacturing and factory techniques. These
large modules are then lifted into place and installed with minimum field
labor. The construction sites have its developments. Since the early 1980s,
predictions have been made that robotics would be used commonly on
construction projects. As of yet, the prediction has not become a reality,
there are some using of robotics in today's construction sites that make the
exciting to envision the construction site of the future probably to happen.

Construction craft workers may have personal assistant machines that

eliminate much of the physical exertion they endure on daily basis. The
tasks of these machines could be overhead pipe fitting and welding,
transporting and lifting materials, as well as operating vibratory equipment
that can lead to physical damage after extended period of use. Construction
sites may also implement integrated safety systems in which all personnel
are outfitted with communication equipment to track safety. When one
worker spots a situation that may create a safety hazard they can create an
electronic tag in the location. The system would also be equipped with
proximity sensors that could defect equipment locations and other hazards.
The following table shows a comparison between construction management

13
currently and the future construction management. The main points of
comparisons consists of the role of project manager, Location of
construction site, project design, and organization structure:

Table 2-1: Comparing Construction Project Management: Present Day to

2025:

Construction Project Management - Construction Project Management -

Current 2025
Role of the Project Manager
*Reactive problem solver *Proactive system designer
*Emphasis on technical knowledge *Emphasis on interpersonal skills
*Known stakeholders *Many stakeholders
Location
*Mostly onsite management *Centralized Location
*Largely regionally focused * Global Teams
Project Design
*2D contract drawings *BIM for integrated information
*Non Standard Design * Rule based design
* BIM for coordination and planning
Project Execution
*Onsite fabrication *Prefabrication, modularization
*Physical Labor *Automation techniques
* Paper Documents *Digital and virtual documents
*Automated knowledge management

Organizational Structure/ Corporate Strategy

*Adversarial relationships *Collaborative partnerships
*Contracts often split by trade *Contract structure to allow new techniques
*Fragmented industry *Constant training and education
* Project-based metrics *Program and portfolio management metrics

Source: Medemott (2009)

14
2-3: Construction Industry in Sudan:

2-3-1: The Role of the Construction Industry in Sudan‟s

Development :

2-3-1-1: Sudanese Economy Overviews:

Sudan is a low income country, its income per capita of less than
$400, with its vast geographic area and varied natural resources (Salim
2010). Instability is the main characteristic that dominates the performance
of the Sudanese economy. Since independence and till now, a number of
plans were put under application, most of these plans were not carried out
properly and had not follow the time schedule set for the plans. The
political instability was the main reason behind the failure in the
application of different economical plans. The economical instability
resulted clearly on higher inflation rates, instable and fluctuations in
exchange rates, and low level of investments. Similar to many developing
countries, corruption has been a major characteristic of the Sudanese
economic scene (Elkhalifa & Shaddad 2008).

The Sudan's GDP growth declined from 5% in 2010 to 2.8% in

2011 due to the secession of South Sudan reducing the population by about
20% and oil revenue by 75%. Average inflation surged to 20% in 2011, up
from 15% in 2010, owing to the rise in food prices and the depreciation of
the Sudanese pound. The current account deficit fell to 7.5% of GDP in
2010, but it is expected to rise to 10.5% of GDP in 2011. Sudan‟s budget
deficit was 5.0% in 2011 and is estimated to increase to 5.4% of GDP in
2012 due to the loss of oil revenue, intensifying armed conflicts and
increased security threats, the creation of new states and the financing of
peace agreements (African economic outlook 2012).The following table

15
shows the percentage of participation of the economic sectors in Sudan's
GDP.

Table 2-2: GDP by Sector (percentage of GDP) in Sudan's economy

comparison between years 2006-2011:

Sector of economy 2006 2011

Agriculture, forestry, fishing & hunting 32.9 33.1
Mining and quarrying 9.6 10.1
Manufacturing 7.4 8.6
Electricity, gas and water 2.2 1.8
Construction 4.4 4.7
Wholesale and retail trade, hotels and 15 15.6
restaurants
Transport, storage and communication 13.9 12.5
Finance, real estate and business services 6.7 6.6
Public administration, education, health & other 5.6 5.3
social & personal services
Other services 2.1 1.9
Gross domestic product at basic prices / factor 100 100
cost
Source: African Economic Outlook 2012

2-3-1-2: Role of Construction Industry in Sudan's Economy:

Sudan continued to witness a dynamic construction activity as a

result of infrastructure rehabilitation and the increased demand upon
private and business property. No doubt that the performance of all the
markets and submarkets in the construction industry is subject to the
goodness or badness of the general economy performance in the market

16
boundaries. The highest rate of growth the sector ever enjoyed was as high
as 161.4% in 1998(Alkhalifa 2011).

The contribution of the construction industry to the Sudanese

national income has fluctuant considerably during the past twenty years but
has average of 4% of the GDP (the value of one's year production of goods,
and services by the nation) compare to 10% of the GDP accounted for the
manufacturing industry, the contribution of the construction amounts to one
third of the total industrial output. It is therefore a major source of
employment in construction amount, to one third of employment in the
entire industrial sector as a whole (Hassan 2002).

From 1997 up to date, Sudan has been working with the

international Monterey fund to implement economic reform, including a
manage float of the currency exchange rate. The average share of the
industry's total contribution to GDP is as follow (Salim 2010):

-Manufacturing: 56% of total sectorial contribution of GDP.

-Construction: 30% of total sectorial contribution of GDP.

-Electricity and petroleum refining: 14% of total sectorial contribution of

GDP.

2-3-2: An overview of Sudan‟s construction industry:

The Sudan's construction sector is characterized by many small and

large projects, and high labor intensity, it is also highly dependent on public
regulations and public investments. The construction industry of Sudan also
has a number of factories, and material suppliers that provide building
materials and special fittings. The scope of Sudanese construction industry
is very wide, includes residential construction, building construction of
commercial, irrigation, roads, tunnels, transportation, facility building, and

17
heavy engineering construction which refer to infrastructure construction
and industrial construction (Gaber et al. 2014).

The construction sector has been thriving in Sudan lately. The sector
is benefiting from the revamping of the urban infrastructure estimated to
cost some US$ 7 billion. The Merowe Dam is one of the major
infrastructure projects estimated to cost some US$ 2 million, with China
heavily investing in it. Another example is the US$ 500 million the new
Khartoum airport. In addition, a number of new projects targeting
businesses and foreign investors are coming into the country. The current
capacity of cement plants in Sudan is only about 500,000 tons, whereas the
overall demand is projected to rise up to 4 million tons over the next few
years (Abdalrahman 2009).

The economic policies and strategies imposed by the present

government now days, encourage investment, encourage the imported of
trucks, encourage foreign companies to invest, etc. all that caused a positive
effect on the construction industry productivity. In Sudan, construction of
building segment includes contractors usually called general contractor
(GC), who build residential, industrial, commercial, and other building.
Heavy construction contractors responsible to build roads, sewers, bridges,
and other projects. Such contractors are international with cooperation with
national contractors (Salim 2010).

2-3-3: Challenges Facing Sudanese Construction Industry:

The Construction everywhere, given its special problems and

requirement, faces problems and challenges are present a long side a
general situation of socio-economic stress, chronic resource shortages,
institutional weaknesses and a general inability to deal with the key issues
(Ofori 2000). Sudan's construction industry in general is characterized by

18
the unfavorable environment, with corruption, favoritism bias, and high
risks and uncertainties due to the political instability (Elkhalifa & Shaddad
2008).

The main challenges of construction industry in Sudan is the lack of

motivation, traditional methods, and the lack of training program had been
behind the deterioration of the productivity in Sudan. The absence of
motivation and training programs is leading to declining productivity of
site's workers. That is not mean there is no progress in the construction
productivity in Sudan is cooping the improvement which taking place
worldwide (Salim 2010). The country in general suffers from the high level
of taxes and fees on the production, transportation, and sales of building
materials, taxation, custom duties, zakat, highway taxes, and provincial fees
beside other types of fees contribute to the high prices of building materials
(Elkhalifa & Shaddad 2008).

Delay in construction projects has been a major issue in the

Sudanese construction industry over the past decades (Mohamed 2015). In
fact, there are many external factors such as lack of materials on the
market, lack of equipment and tools on the market, poor weather
conditions, poor site conditions (location, ground, etc.), poor economic
conditions (currency, inflation rate, etc.), changes in laws and regulations,
transportation delays, and external work due to public agencies (roads,
utilities and public services) ( Abdalrahman et al. 2009).

19
 Chapter Three

Lean Construction

I
 Chapter Three

Literature Review: Lean Construction

3-1: Preamble:

Manufacturing and construction differ in the physical features of

the end product significantly. In manufacturing, finished products can be
moved as a whole to the end customer or to the retailers; on the other hand,
construction deals with larger units that cannot be transported. The
construction generally has other features which distinguish it from
manufacturing: on-site production, complexity, and one-of-a-kind projects
(Koskela 2002). Manufacturing and construction strive to add value to their
products via high returns on investment, both employ different methods
and means to achieve their objectives (Salem et al. 2006). Although there
are many differences between manufacturing and construction, the
construction has some characteristics of both production and services
systems which led the construction to take some steps toward applying
some manufacturing concepts such as lean production (Howell 1999).

After World War II Japan adopted the Toyota production system

(TPS), which was based on a scenario of fluctuating demand the required
swift assembly line alterations due to the large number of different parts to
be produced (Ohno 1988). Lean production was developed by Toyota
motor company led by Engineer Taiichi Ohno. The term "lean" was coined
by the research team working on international auto production to reflect
both the reduction nature of the Toyota production system to contrast it
with craft and mass forms of production (Womack et al. 1991).

21
 Ohno (1988) shifted attention to the entire production system from
the narrow focus of craft production on worker productivity and mass
production on machine. He also followed the work of Henry Ford and
continued the development of flow based production management, but
unlike, Ford who had an almost unlimited demand for a standard product;
Ohno wanted to build cars to customer order. Starting from efforts to
reduce machine set up time and influence by TQM, he developed a simple
set of objectives for the design of the production system: produce a car to
the requirements of a specific customer, deliver it instantly, and maintain
no inventories or intermediate stores (Howell 1999).

In construction the application of the lean production model stems

from a discussion of Professor Lauri Koskela's work in 1992, as well as
aspects related to converting inputs into finished products as an important
element to the creation of value over the life of the project (Koskela 1992).
Lean standard of perfection, but the construction industry has rejected some
ideas from manufacturing, because of the belief that construction industry
is different. Managing construction under lean is different from typical
contemporary practice because (Howell 1999):

- It has a clear set of objectives for delivering process.

- It is aimed at maximizing performance for the customer at the project
level.
- It applies production control throughout the life of the project.

3-2: Lean Production:

3-2-1: What is Lean? :

Lean is a term used to describe a high performance and effective

method for managing organizations and delivering their main aim in the

21
most effective and efficient manner. Lean is an ethos, a way of doing
business. It looks for maximizing the generation of customer value by
driving all forms of wastes out, ensuring high quality, reducing timescales
and minimizing cost (O'Connor & Swain 2013). Thinking of the process as
a lean, means high quality machine, no wasted efforts, everything works
smoothly, and efficiency at all-time is high (Anthony& Konka 2011).

Lean is a set of concepts, principles, approaches, and methodologies

that can be applied individually or organizationally. When lean principles
are used a method to management they are continuously performed and can
become a long-term philosophy for directing organizations to be easy, clear
and well-managed. “Lean” operating principle began in manufacturing
environments and is known by a variety of synonyms; Lean Manufacturing,
Lean Production, Toyota Production System, etc.( Kilpatrick 2003).

It is commonly believed that Lean started in Japan (Toyota,

specifically), but Henry Ford had been also using similar concept about
Lean as early as the 1920‟s, as evidenced by the following quote:" The
most important reason about keeping the price of Ford products low is
gradual minimizing the production process. In manufacture process,
developing long production cycle must be increased the production
budget"( Kilpatrick 2003).

3-2-2: Toyota Production System (TPS):

3-2-2-1: Historical Background (Toyota production system 2016):

The Toyota production system (TPS) arose out necessity in

response to the circumstances surrounding the company. Many of the
fundamental concepts are old and unique to Toyota while others have their
roots in more traditional sources. The oldest part of the production system
is the concept of Jidoka, which was created by Sakichi Toyoda the founder
22
of Toyota in the year 1902. This concept pertains to notion of building in
quality at the production process as well as enabling separation of man and
machine for multi-process handling. The origins of this notion began in the
Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company which was started by Sakichi
Toyoda. Sakichi invented a loom that automatically stopped whenever it
detected that a thread was broken.

Later on in 1924, he created an automatic loom that allowed one

person to operate multiple machines. The rights to manufacture the loom
outside of Japan for were eventually sold to the Platt Brothers Ltd. in
England. This money was then partially used to start an automotive
division that was later spun off in 1937 as a separate business and company
under Kiichiro Toyoda, the Sakichi's son. After World War II, a promising
engineer in the Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Corporation called Taiichi
Ohno was brought over to the automotive side of the business. He was
given the task of improving operational productivity and driving in the
concepts of Just-In-Time and Jidoka. He was eventually appointed
machine shop manager of an engine plant and experimented with many
concepts in production between the years of 1945-1955.

The effort and work of Ohno is largely what resulted in the

formulation of what is now acknowledged as the Toyota Production
System. There are numerous other people inside the company that
contributed to the overall development of the company and the production
system. There are also many other tools and techniques that were
developed in Toyota such as 7 Wastes, Standardized Work, 5S, Visual
Control, Error Proofing, as well as many others. Other influences such as
Henry Ford, Fredrick Taylor, and Dr. W. Edwards Demming.

23
3-2-2-2: The Toyota Production System Model (Toyota production system
2016):

There are two primary pillars of Toyota Production System. The first
and most famous pillar of the system is Just In Time (JIT). The JIT
concepts aim to deliver and produce the right parts, in the right amount, at
the right time using the minimum necessary resources. This system reduces
inventory, and strives to prevent both early and over production. The
second pillar of the system is Jidoka (Build in quality) which means
automatic or automation. Jidoka has two elements: (1) Building in quality at
the process and, (2) Enabling separation of man from machine in work
environments.

Jidoka aspires for processes that are capable of making intelligent

decisions and shutting down automatically at the first sign of any unusual
condition such as defects, or any other problems. The goal is not to work
continuously, but stopping the work automatically when trouble arises.
This automatic stop function helps stop defects from escaping downstream,
limits machine damage, prevents injury, and enables a better look at the
current condition whenever there is a problem. The second component of
Jidoka is separation of man from machine. When machines possess the
ability to stop in the event of a problem then there is no need for workers to
stand and watch machines.

3-2-2-3: Types of Wastes in Toyota Production System:

In the Toyota Production System (TPS), and in lean today, waste is

divided into three main categories: Muda, Mura, and Muri.

Muda (Ren 2012) (Anthony& Konka 2011) (Toyota production system

2016):

24
It means traditional waste, which is divided into seven subcategories, as
follow:

1-Transportation:

Wasted motion occupies time and energy. Ideally all unnecessary

movements or actions are eliminated from the work process. Much of this
wasted motion is often overlooked because it has become such a part of the
process. Work processes should be designed so that items are positioned
close to each other. Unnecessary amounts of turning, lifting and reaching
are eliminated.

2-Waiting:

Time is a limited resource. In the manufacturing world, time is

money, customer requirements are calculated to the second. Any waiting
due to changeovers, delays, breakdowns, poor layout or work sequence
needs to be eliminated. Thorough preventative maintenance and rapid
changeovers are essential to global competitiveness. Reducing cycle time
by eliminating waiting within the work sequence can also have a profound
effect on productivity.

3-Overproduction:

There are two types of overproduction, producing too much and

producing too early. Overproduction invites more waste because it hides
problems beneath a veil of inventory, producing more than the customer's
demands. The amount of production is depending on a pull system, which
means the manufacture will produce the market real needs. The number of
market products will be ordered from the market, the manufacture must
produce according to the market requirements. In this way, the production
will avoid waste and help the customer save budget.

25
4-Defects/ Correction:

Any defects in production process will bring a series of negative

effects. Materials are wasted when production errors occurred, according to
this; labor force must be in need to make a correction, extra labor force will
cause extra budget. Obviously, defects will cause a series of drawbacks.

5-Excess Inventory:

Preventing unnecessary inventory is critical to the success of the

Toyota Production System. The smooth and continuous flow of work
through each process ensure that excess amounts of inventory are
minimized. If work-in-process develops because of unequal capabilities
within the process, efforts need to be made to balance the flow of work
through the system.

6-Excess Motion:

The wasted motion is often undesirable because it has become such a

part of the process. Work processes should be designed so that employees
and workers in manner to eliminate unneeded movement.

7-Overprocessing:

Over processing is as wasteful as insufficient processing. Any

process step that is not adding value to the production is by definition a
kind of wastes. It means doing more than is required to meet design
requirements, which leads to excessive time and/or cost. The following
figure illustrates the 7 Muda wastes:
26
 Figure 3-1: The seven wastes (Ahrens 2006)

Mura:

It means unevenness or variation. Variation is the enemy of quality;

it is a classification of waste because the variation expends time and energy
to measure the product to determine the amount of variation present, and to
see whether the product can satisfy the customer. If the organization
produce exactly the same every time, that would eliminate all waste steps
(Anthony& Konka 2011).

Muri:

It means overburden, it has to do with asking too much of employees

and processes of the organization. Working overtime is often considered a
good thing by employees looking to pick up a little extra money, but for
example working too much overtime can tire the employees, and increase
the probability of safety incidents on the job(Anthony& Konka 2011).

27
3-2-3: Lean Production Principles:

Lean production eliminates the figure of the foreman supervising

the work of many specialized workers that perform repetitive tasks. The
lean production idea is to create teams of multi-skilled workers led by a
team leader. Members of a team are expected to perform any activity
within the team‟s operation and work collectively to improve the process.
Additionally, any member of the team may stop the entire production line
in case there is any problem. The team leader accesses the conditions of the
problem, and any member has the opportunity to participate in the solution.
Lean production also eliminates the space in the assembly line reserved for
rework. The reasoning is that rework should not be a part of the production
process and therefore should not exist. Likewise, no dumpers are placed in
the assembly plant; if a part has to be thrown away, the production line
stops and corrections are made (Almeida 2002). There are five main
principle of lean production as follow (Womack & Jones 2003):

1-Identify Value:

To make a clear vision and mission from customers and through

negotiate with customers to build a common goal and pursue the jointly
value.

2-Map Value stream:

The value stream is a series of actions produced by an organization to

create value for the customer. Analyzing the value stream aims to identify
value-adding activities that are necessary for producing and delivering a
product or service to the customer. Through Map Value Stream can clear

28
the task details and identify the unnecessary steps. To build a common goal
with stakeholders can avoid divergence in the later process.

3-Create Flow:

The objective is to make parts move from one value-adding step

directly to the next value-adding step, and then to the customer without
waiting downtime or waste within or between the steps. To create steps by
logical order according to the value stream that helps the task finish
smoothly by logical flowing. And it is easier to see the defects from the
flow.

4-Establish Pull:

Pull means that nothing should be produced upstream until the

downstream customer asks for it. In an ideal one-by-one flow, the product
flows continually to the customer only after the signal from the requesting
customer. The rational business relation from customer and manufacture is
formed through Pull system which is the amount of manufacture produce is
according to the customers need.

5-Seek Perfection:

The drive for perfection becomes very strong when you are able to make
the value flow faster and expose more hidden waste that needs to be
removed. It dawns on those involved that there is no end to the continuous
process improvements while offering value that is increasingly closer to the
customer‟s real needs.

29
3-3: Lean Construction:

3-3-1: General Overview:

The construction industry has adopted the lean production

philosophy, which has contributed to the manufacturing industry under
name "Lean Construction". Lean construction concept has been tried to be
created and promoted by some researchers, institutes, governmental
reports, some occupational organizations…etc. The most two famous
organizations which have been working to develop the lean thinking in
construction, are the International Group for Lean Construction(I.G.L.C),
and the Lean Construction Institute(L.C.I) (Tezel 2007) (Almeida 2002).

The first research introduced the lean movement in manufacturing

to the construction industry in the year 1992 was by Professor Lauri
Koskela by presenting of the initial investigations involving lean
construction through a technical report developed at Stanford University .
He also hosted the first conference of IGLC in Espoo, Finland in 1993. In
that conference a group of researchers adopted the name "Lean
Construction". Since 1993, the IGLC has been organizing academic
conferences annually, hosted by local universities and institutes from
different regions around the globe. The LCI in America was founded in
1997, which has been publishing an international refereed journal devoted
to lean construction practice journal. This journal includes papers, reports,
and book reviews from industry practitioners and academia (Tezel 2007).

3-3-2: Lean Construction Definition:

Lean construction defined as:" a way to design production systems

to minimize waste of materials, time, and effort in order to generate the

31
maximum possible amount of value" (Koskela et al. 2002).
Abdelhamid(2008) defined lean construction as " a holistic facility design
and delivery philosophy with an overarching aim of maximizing value to
all stakeholders through systematic, synergistic, and continuous
improvements in the contractual arrangements, the product design, the
construction process design and methods selection, the supply chain, and
the workflow reliability of site operations".

On the other hand, Lean Construction Institute (2004) defined

lean construction as: "a production management-based approach to project
delivery -- a new way to design and build capital facilities. Lean production
management has caused a revolution in manufacturing design, supply and
assembly. Applied to construction, Lean changes the way work is done
throughout the delivery process. Lean Construction extends from the
objectives of a lean production system - maximize value and minimize
waste – to specific techniques and applies them in a new project delivery
process".

3-3-3: Waste in Construction Industry:

Waste defined as any inefficiency that results in the use of equipment,

material, capital, or labor in larger quantities than those considered as
necessary in the production of a building. Waste includes both the
incidence of material losses and the execution of unnecessary work, which
generates additional costs but do not add value to the product (Ingle &
Waghmare 2015). Construction industry has numerous processes that cause
wastes; the cost of poor quality for example turns out between 10 to 20 %
of the total project costs (Garas et al. 2001). Another study by Raghavan et
al. (2014) showed that the total cost of wastes varied from 5.4% to 14.7 %
of the cost of the projects which has been studied. The waste in reinforcing

31
steel in Egypt was 5 % , while in Brazil was 21 %, waste in cement of
average 5 %, waste in timber frameworks in an average of 13%, waste of
sand was 9% .

Bossink and Brouwers (1996) classified stages of construction that

generates waste into six groups:

1- Operational. 2-Design.

3-Residual (Debris). 4- Procurement.

5-Other (Theft etc.). 6- Materials handling.

The following table illustrates examples of waste types in Construction

projects

Table 3-1: Examples of waste types in Construction projects:

Waste in time due to: Material waste due to:

Idle (waiting periods) Overordering/ excess
Stoppages Overproduction
Clarifications Wrong handling
Variation in information Wrong storage
Re-work Manufacturing defects
Ineffective work Theft or vandalism
Interaction between various specialities
Delays in plan activities
Abnormal wear of Equipment
Source: Garas et al. 2011

Zhao and Chua (2003), performed a detailed network analysis on

various 8 projects from a flow point of view, stated the most man-hour
consuming wastes in order of importance:

32
 1- Waiting due to crews 5- Waiting for instruction.
interference. 6- Rework due to design
2- Waiting due to inspection. change.
3- Equipment used by other 7- Stock problem.
crew. 8- Material vendor delay.
4- Waiting due to equipment‟s
installation.
The following figure shows classification of waste in construction:

Figure 3-2: Construction Waste Classification (Raghavan et al. 2014)

The following table shows a Comparison between waste in lean

manufacturing and lean construction:

33
Table 3-2: Comparison between Lean Manufacturing and Lean Construction
Waste:
Type of Waste Manufacturing Construction
Overproduction Production of too many units or Overbuilding a particular aspect of a
parts due to push nature of project, either because it was over-
manufacturing. engineered or a process was started
before it was really needed.
Waiting Time spent waiting for the next Time spent waiting for other work
batch of parts to arrive from the crews to finish their particular
previous conversion process. conversion process so that the next
Time spent waiting for a machine conversion process may begin. Time
to finish. spent waiting on crew members of a
specific team. Time spent waiting for
parts or instructions.
Transport Wasted effort to transport Wasted effort to transport building
materials, parts or finished goods components or tools into or out of job
into or out of storage between trailers or storage between processes.
processes.
Extra Processing Doing more work than is Waste associated with rework, re-
required. handling or storage caused by defects
in design, fabrication or construction
activities.
Inventory Maintaining excess inventory of Maintaining excess inventory of
raw materials, parts in process or construction components, equipment
finished goods. or tools.
Motion Waste associated with Waste associated with unnecessary
unnecessary worker/equipment worker/equipment movement around
movement between work stations. the construction site.
Defects Repair or rework. Deficiencies in the finished product
that require additional work or rework
to correct punch list items.
(Source: Diekmann et. al. 2004)

3-3-4: Lean Construction Tools:

Lean Construction is using the same principles as lean production to
reduce waste and increase the productivity and effectiveness in construction
34
work. The most important determinants of construction are supposed to be
workflow reliability and labor flow, but lean construction has changed the
traditional view of the project as transformation, and embraces the concept of
flow and value generation. Similarly, it shares the same objectives of lean
production, e.g., cycle time reduction, elimination of waste, and variability
reduction. Continuous improvement, pull production control, and continuous
flow have been the direction for the implementation of lean construction (Paez
et al. 2005).
The tools of lean construction can be classified the operative
techniques utilized in lean construction through three levels. The classification
is summarized in Table 3-3 (Paez et al. 2005):
1- Level One: Direct application of the techniques from lean
manufacturing.
2- Level Two: Modification of the techniques taken from lean
manufacturing.
3- Level Three: The all-in-all lean construction specific techniques.

Table 3-3: Classification of Lean Methodologies/Tools:

Levels Lean Construction Related Lean

Technique Manufacturing Technique
Level One -Material Kanban Cards -Kanban System
Level Two -Visual Inspection -Visual Inspection (Poka-Yoke
-Quality Management Tools Devices)
-Concurrent Engineering -Multifunctional Layout
-T.Q.M

Level Three -Last Planner System -Kanban System

-Plan Conditions of Work -Production Leveling
Environment ( P. C. W. E.) -Toyota Verification of Assembly
-Daily Huddle Meetings Line (T. V. A. L.)
Source: Paez et al. 2005
35
 The following section will discuss some of the lean construction tools/
techniques which are: Concurrent Engineering, JIT, visual management, 5Ss,
Kaizen and Last Planner System

3-3-4-1 Concurrent Engineering:

Concurrent engineering is “the parallel execution of different

development tasks in multidisciplinary teams with the aim of obtaining an
optimal product with respect to functionality, quality, and productivity” (Paez
et al. 2005). Also concurrent engineering defined as: An attempt to optimize
the design of the project and its construction process to achieve reduced lead
times, and improved quality and cost by the integration of design, fabrication,
construction and erection activities and by maximizing concurrency and
collaboration in working practices (Evbuomwan & Anumba 1998).

Many enhancements can be accomplished by using concurrent

engineering. Scheduling could be recovered by network analysis (CPM and
PERT). Many other opportunities can be achieved through overlapping
activities, splitting activities and reducing the transfer time between different
activities (Paez et al. 2005). It is a combined effort that incorporates the parties
involved in a product or a production system design with a strong client needs
orientation. While simultaneously executing their own tasks, multi-
disciplinary teams should sustain extensive communication and information
sharing with customers and each other and some serious risk analysis and
resource allocations under time pressure (Tezel 2007).

The basic principles of an extended concurrent

engineering/construction: integration of the design phases, simultaneous
inclusion of the information related to the construction life cycle (design,
procurement, commissioning and so on.), multi-disciplinary composite teams,
36
division of the work into smaller parts and proactive integration of the work
and the information throughout a construction life cycle (Jaafari 1997).

3-3-4-2: Just In Time (JIT):

JIT represents a management philosophy created and developed

within the Toyota Production System shortly after the end of World War II
and involves three basic aspects: people, plant, and systems. Initially
introduced as a methodology for reducing inventory levels. The system
evolved into an extensive managerial philosophy that optimizes quality-cost
related elements (Almeida 2002).

The term „Just-In-Time‟ (JIT), used for instance to describe the

delivery of materials to a construction site, suggests that materials will be
brought to their location for final installation and be installed immediately
upon arrival without incurring any delay due to storage in a laydown or
staging area. JIT is a concept developed by the Japanese who created the
Toyota Production System, later translated into English as the lean production
system. The ultimate objective of JIT production is to supply the right
materials at the right time and in the right amount at every step in the process
(Tommelein & YiLi 1999). Following is a short view of the three elements of
JIT(Almeida 2002):

1) People: A fundamental element of JIT refers to the involvement and

support of people that are related to the mission of the organization,
such as stockholders, employees, labor organizations, suppliers,
managers, and costumers.
2) Plants: The implementation of JIT requires substantial changes in plant
layout for maximum flexibility and flow. Also, the plant layout should
facilitate de implementation of “pull-strategy”, where demand indicates
when (and how much) production should initiate. Finally, the plant

37
 organization must allow workers the flexibility to inspect the production
and halt the system whenever he/she encounters a defective part.
3) Systems: Involve the processes applied to coordinate activities and
materials. JIT envision the involvement of a limited number of
specialized suppliers for each part or material the firm buys. Those
suppliers work in conjunction with the organization and receive
financial and technical support as well as the assurance of long-term
contractual relationship. In exchange, suppliers are expected to
promptly deliver defect-free parts in the quantities needed. Quality is a
key issue as the parts must be ready for assembly; the supplier must
comply with the “quality at the source” thinking, which is the opposite
of the traditional “after the fact” inspection/quality control.

JIT system reduces the cost of material handling and storage. In

accordance with Taiichi Ohno‟s vision of non-value added activities, the JIT
method eliminates waste resulted from any activity that adds cost without
adding value, such as moving and storing. Moreover, it reduces waste from
overproduction, transporting, unnecessary motion, and waste resulted from
producing defectives parts. Some of the most important characteristics of the
JIT process are (Almeida 2002):

 Limited number of suppliers: In order to operate, JIT companies must

rely on a few suppliers who will make frequent deliveries in small lots.
Suppliers must be willing to make deliveries as much as several times a
day, and in the exact quantities specified by the buyer. Dependability is
essential for the process.
 Plant Layout: To implement JIT in a proper manner, companies must
improve the manufacturing flow lines. All machines needed to make a
particular product are put together in one location, called manufacturing
cell, a “factory within a factory.”

38
  Flexible workforce: Workers on a JIT line must be multi-skilled and
flexible, they must perform minor repairs, and they must do
maintenance when their cell is idle.
 Setup time: Efforts toward decreasing setup time in a JIT manufacture
is essential. Most equipment are dedicated to a single product or a single
product line so setups are largely eliminated and products can be
produced in any batch size.
 Defective parts: Companies that apply JIT are committed to a
minimum level of defective parts because it is critical to avoid any
delay in the process. Those companies tend to reach a goal of zero
defects.

3-3-4-3: Visual Management (VM):

Visual Management is done to make things easy to see. The principle

behind VM is that people are usually attracted by what they see. It is used in
every part of an organization where there is an immediate need for
unambiguous information to be clearly communicated and understood at a
glance. Visual management is already used in many forms on construction
sites, such as notice boards signs used to indicate dangerous or hazardous
situations, color-coding of fire extinguishers and electrical wiring etc. In a
Lean construction environment it would also use (O'Connor & Swain2013):

 Team or work area based communication boards to display look-ahead

work plans, site layouts marked up to show areas of work and often
color-coded by trade, traffic and material logistics plans, performance
measures displayed on charts or graphs, issues and action sheets,
improvement successes etc.
 Markers to define the amount of work to be completed in a given time
period and to show progress of work to an agreed rate of working.
39
  Floor markings to highlight walkways and the location of tools,
materials and plant to ensure safe and efficient working condition.

Good visual management enables consistent high performance through

effective communication processes. This makes it easy to see and understand
the plan, the status and achievement to plan, performance, any issues that have
affected the plan and/or performance and the status of any actions to resolve
any outstanding issues, supports safe and efficient working improves quality
and productivity, supports collaborative working etc (O'Connor &
Swain2013).

3-3-4-4: 5S Work Organization:

5S is a fundamental building block of Lean and continuous improvement.

5S provides a structured method for achieving, maintaining and improving the
standard set-up, organization and layout of a work area so as to ensure safe
and efficient operations, with minimal waste. The Five S‟s (5S) are some rules
for workplace organization and in-house keeping which aim to organize each
worker‟s work area for maximum efficiency and to reduce waste associated
with the workplace organization (O'Connor & Swain 2013).

The Five S‟s are in every internal customer‟s responsibility to create a

working environment of which people are proud. It is believed that people
who are proud of their workplace can produce high quality products easier. 5S
applies to any work area (i.e. site areas of work, materials storage areas,
offices). It can also be applied to improve the set-up and organization of a
desk or office. A 5S improvement activity should be carried out by the people
who work within the area/process. The five S's are (Tezel 2007) (O'Connor &
Swain 2013):

1. Seiri (Sort):

41
 Sort frequently needed things and lesser needed things so that
frequently needed things are available nearby and as easy to find as
possible.
2. Seiton (Set/Straighten):
Arrange essential things as accessible as possible to reduce the waste
related to a worker‟s motion in locating or acquiring a needed thing.
3. Seiso (Shine):
Keep work areas and machines clean in order to reduce the waste
related to uncleanness and increase workers‟ satisfaction.
4. Seiketsu (Standardize):
Standardize and diffuse the first 3 S‟s throughout the working place by
means of clear procedures.
5. Shitsuke (Sustain):
Sustain through training, promotions, control, and consistent application
to become part of the everyday way of doing work.

The 5S's activities are very useful for the construction site, because they
create a safer working environment, make things in site easier to see, promotes
a good working environment resulting in improved morale and image.

3-3-4-5: Kaizen (Continuous Improvement):

Tazel (2007) mentioned that continuous improvement is of the very basic

core elements of the lean production system. In fact, there are two types of
continuous improvement; gradual improvement and periodic big leaps. The
form of continuous improvement in the lean production philosophy has been
gradual, yet frequent continuous improvement (Kaizen) from the beginning
(Ohno1988). It is about being unsatisfactory with the current situation,
correcting defects on their actual places, implementation of the agreed ideas
immediately, aiming for high, appreciating and rewarding effort, finding

41
opportunities in difficulties, searching for the real reasons, holistic thinking,
taking ideas from different people, experimentation of ideas and believing in
infinity of development.

Continuous improvement is in the focus of every process, training

mechanism, equipment and principle of a lean production system.
Additionally, creating a fulfilling and safer work environment with satisfied
workers is also in the scope of Kaizen. In order to perform an effective
continuous improvement within a system, both quantitative (statistical) and
qualitative tools are highly employed. Continuous improvement takes place
within the Deming‟s famous P. D. C. A. (Plan- Do- Check- Act) improvement
circle. Processes are constantly measured. A challenging improvement target
is determined and compared to the current situation. Improvement suggestions
are applied and processes are re-measured. The working or bettering
suggestions are standardized. The cycle turns back to the measurement stage
(Tezel 2007).

3-3-4-6: Last Planner System (LPS):

The Last Planner System defined as a system for collaboratively

managing the network of relationship and conversations required for program
coordination, production planning delivery, by promoting conversations
between trade foremen and site management at appropriate levels of detail
before issue become critical( Mossman 2005). The Last Planner System based
on principles of Lean Construction was developed by Glenn Ballard. It is
based on a “Should, Can and Will” approach (Ballard 2000). Last planner
System has been demonstrated to be a very useful tool for the management of
construction process, and continuous monitoring of planning efficiency
(Mossman 2005).

42
 Last Planner System aims to shift the focus of control from the
workers to the flow of work better assignments to direct works through
continuous learning and corrective action, and to cause the work to flow
across production units in the best achievable sequence of rate (Aziz & Hafez
2013). Last planner System is based on a traditional planning system, and is
performed by field foremen; the condition of (Should- Can- Will – Did) is
implemented (Howell& Ballard 1998). Fig 3-3 represents the diagram of the
Last Planner System:

Figure 3-3: Last Planner System (Howell & Ballard 1998)

The Last planner is the individual, who decides the work that is to be
done tomorrow. He is typically a superintendent, foreman, or site supervisor
(Javkhedkar 2006). Last planners can reasonably commit to completing the
tasks on weekly work plans that meet these criteria. To be effective,
production management systems must tell what should be done, what can be
done, and what will be done; then, they compare what was done to improve
planning (Howell & Ballard 1998).

43
 The term SHOULD is considered as: Hopefully; CAN means:
Probably; and WILL means: Absolutely. In figure 3-2 above, a reliable
assignment determines what WILL be done, after considering what SHOULD
and CAN get done based on the situation at hand (Aziz & Hafez 2013). The
Last Planner System has four levels which are (Howell 2000):

1. Master Schedule: setting milestones and strategy identification of long

lead items.
2. Phase Schedule: Pull planning (specifies handoffs identify operational
conflicts).
3. Look-ahead Plan: Make Work Ready Planning (to ensure that work is
made ready for installation; re-planning as necessary).
4. Weekly Work Plan (WWP): commitments to perform work in a
certain manner and a certain sequence.

3-3-4-7: Lean Project Delivery System (LPDS):

The Lean Project Delivery System is a set of interdependent functions,

rules of decision making, procedures for execution of functions, and as
implementation aids and tools, including software when appropriate, and is a
conceptual framework developed by Glenn Ballard to guide the
implementation of lean construction on project-based production systems
LPDS was depicted as a model with five main phases, where each phase is
comprised of three modules (Ballard 2000). The following figure interprets the
interdependence between the phases is represented by sharing one module
between two subsequent phases:

44
 Figure 3-4: Lean Project Delivery System (Construction Industry Institute
(CII) 2007)

The LPDS model consists of 13 modules, 11 organized in 4

interconnecting triads extending from project definition to design to supply to
and assembly, plus 2 production control modules and work structuring module
both conceived to extend through all project phases, and the post-occupancy
evaluation module, which links the end of one project phase to the beginning
of the next (Aziz & Hafez 2013):

(1) Project Definition: (a) Needs and Values Determination; (b) Design
Criteria; and (c) Conceptual Design

(2) Lean Design: (a) Conceptual Design; (b) Process Design; and (c) Product
Design.

45
(3) Lean Supply: (a) Product Design; (b) Detailed Engineering; and (c)
Fabrication/Logistics.

(4) Lean Assembly: (a) Fabrication/Logistics; (b) Site Installation; and (c)
Testing/Turnover.

(5) Production Control: (a) Work Flow Control; and (b) Production Unit
Control.

3-4: Lean Construction Application in Foreign Countries:

3-4-1: An Overview of Applying Lean Construction in different

Countries :

The lean construction philosophy views a project as a promise

delivered by people working in a network of commitments. Smooth work flow
is dependent on having the parties to a project keep promised that they made
concerning the project. When waste is weeded out from a process, workflow
becomes more predictable, performance increases and projects can be
completed more rapidly (Lichtig 2006). Lean construction distinguishes
significantly from traditional project management practice; the processes are
actively controlled, and metrics are used in planning system performance to
assure reliable workflow and predict project outcomes (Forbes & Ahmed
2011).

Traditional construction approaches reward individual crew

performance , crews may focus on their tasks to the detriment of other crews.
In lean construction, all involved disciplines are rewarded for completing
major sections of the project. Lean construction has therefore complimented
traditional construction management by producing successful capital projects
in Brazil, Finland, Germany, and Singapore (Abdullah et al. 2009).Table 3-4
below indicates many benefits of implementing lean construction in many

46
different countries which has an increased number of firms have implemented
lean construction practices in order to attempt improving performance in
construction projects (Alarcon & Calderon 2003). Many companies, and also
many researchers, have reported satisfactory results from the implementation
of lean construction (Emuze & Ungerer 2014).

The benefits from implementing lean construction include increased

workflow reliability, reduced project delivery time, improved communication
among project participants, improved supply chain integration, fewer daily
problems, and improved quality of work (Fernandez-Solis et al. 2013). Lean
thinking is a new way to manage construction because its principles and
techniques have formed the basis for a new project delivery process (Forbes &
Ahmed 2011). The flow attributes of lean processes facilitates waste reduction
and value maximization that should redefine the way people think about, and
carry out construction activities (Novak 2012).

Creating a culture of collaboration, transparency and systems

integration is essential to the success of any Lean project. The key driver is to
select trade partners, designers and engineers based on value added to a team
rather than overall cost. Business owners can require contractors, architects
and designers to design and construct a space that meets their established
values without compromise to the projected target costs. These two goals
work in tandem with a lean team to drive innovation and by seeking out and
eliminating waste, resulting in timely project delivery and profitability (Ingle
& Waghmare 2015).

For lean to be successfully implemented, certain concepts must be

applied to suit each organizational goal. These include (Emuze & Ungerer
2014):

47
  Awareness: Lean awareness and enlightenment campaigns are
necessary to sensitize stakeholders within the construction industry of
the opportunities and benefits of lean implementation within the
industry.
 Training: The first step towards the effective implementation of lean
construction process is training involves teaching stakeholders and
practitioners of the lean tools and techniques available to them.
 Application: The implementation of lean techniques within
organizations requires high level commitment and involvement of top
management.
 Policy: The organizational policy typically describes the principles that
guide decisions, procedure and it should establish why the organization
supports lean principles and tools, and the policy should also show how
and what areas should be applied and in what projects.

Table 3-4: Experienced benefits of lean construction:

Benefits Countries
Improved project delivery methods Japan, UK, USA
Supporting the development of team work and transfer the Finland, Japan, Korea,
responsibility on the supply chain USA
Continuous improvement within projects Germany, Singapore,
UK
Delivery of products and services that enable clients goals to Korea
be met
Efficient use of resources Brazil
Delivery of products and services on time and within budget Finland, Germany,
Singapore
Delivery of custom products instantly without waste Brazil, Finland, UK
Reduction on direct cost and time in transportation and Brazil, UK
communication

48
Well informed business case design at all project level USA
Improved quality control and minimization of risks Korea
Minimization of conflicts that can dramatically change budget Germany, Singapore,
and schedule UK
Improved reliability, accountability, certainty and honesty Germany, Singapore,
within the project environment UK
Reduced owners design related request eliminate wastes Portugal
Mitigation and reduction of project risk factors Egypt
Sources: (Emuzu&Ungerer 2014); (Mossman 2009); (Martins and Cachadinha
2013); (Issa 2013)

Lean construction practices have developed quite well, and have lived
up to their potential in many different countries around the world, bringing in
continuous improvement, inclusive culture and improved levels of certainty in
projects. The extent of gains can be seen as influenced by many soft aspects,
such as the culture of the site and the organization, planning and engineering
expertise available, commitment and support from top management and site
management (Raghavan et al. 2014).

The improvements achieved in Nigeria and Brazil (being developing

countries) by implementing lean construction, they achieved improvements in
reducing the project duration by 31% and 25% respectively (Swefie 2013).
Due to several similarities in their situation economically to Sudan, the
implementation of lean construction may achieve the same or near results to
those achieved in Nigeria and Brazil. Following figure 3-5 shows the
improvement accomplished by different countries (developed and developing)
due to their implementation of lean construction (Swefie 2013):

49
Figure 3-5: Countries using lean construction and realized performance
improvement

3-4-2: Comparative Study:

Lean construction has been implementing since the initiation of it in

several sectors of construction such as infrastructure, concrete, design, project
planning, and other related activities (Swefie 2013). The following some
researches results, some of various applications of lean construction in
different countries and different trades in construction, and their results which
obtained from the applications:

1) Swefie (2013) conducted a study in Egypt to examine the effectiveness

of implementing lean thinking on the performance of Egyptian
construction projects. The study examined the appreciation and
awareness of lean construction within the Egyptian construction
industry which concluded that 55% of the respondents are not aware
about lean concept but have high potentials to use lean construction to
improve the performance of projects. The study also presented some of
lean construction tools that are effectively used in some projects in

51
 Egypt. Also the study obtained results from proposed framework that
the current state from the three work phases of the project have showed
significant improvements in time reduction, process efficiency, and
reduction in non-added value activities.
2) Alinaitwe (2009) conducted a study in Uganda, the study aimed to
present 31 barriers and their influences on the success of lean
construction initiatives. The barriers were ranked according to the ease
of overcoming. Lack of buildable designs and a participative
management style for the workforce are the most important barriers to
successful waste reduction in terms of strength and ease of overcome.
3) Mota et al. (2008) conducted a study in Brazil during the construction
phase of a residential project. The project comprised the construction of
18 houses, which managed by a small company. After implementing
lean construction the project achieved a more stable workflow and the
number of emergency requests decreased dramatically. The project was
completed a month in advanced, this decrease in duration represented
12.5% of the project time.
4) Adamu and Howell (2012) conducted a study in Nigeria that aimed to
evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the Last Planner System
(LPS), by comparing it with the traditional method. The comparison
was conducted to measure the time of completing 50 houses. The results
obtained were 79 days of constructing the 50 houses, compared with
120 days by using the traditional approach.
5) Simonsson and Emborg (2007) conducted a study in Sweden, aimed to
improve the degree of industrialization and productivity when
constructing bridges. Throughout the design and planning of
construction a bridge project. Intensive contacts between designer,
contractor, client and material suppliers were established. The design
team concluded that the production time at site reduced up to 20% and

51
 the number of workers reduced by 50%, productivity has improved,
structural quality has improved, also waste and cost has reduced.
6) Thomas et al. (2003) conducted a study to investigate the importance of
labor flow for improving the workflow management in the construction
process by using data from three projects of constructing bridges
covering 137workdays. The flexible capacity approach was addressed
as a potential area for improving construction performance. The results
of this study were, the effective labor flow lead to ineffective flow
management, hence, lean improvement initiatives should focus more on
workforce management strategies for better labor performance.
7) Ramaswamy and Kalidindi (2009) conducted a study in India to
investigate waste in Indian construction industry, focusing mainly on
building projects. The wastes identified were quantified in terms of
project cost by collecting data through direct observations, records and
using tools such as work sampling. The result showed that waste due to
non- value added activities by labor and equipment was much higher
compared to material waste generated in the sites. The total cost of
waste calculated as percentage of project cost, for the items studied,
varied from 5.38% to 14.70% among the projects studied.
8) A study was conducted in a design and build firm in USA. The firm was
adopted lean construction principles to apply it to its business. By the
implementation the firm has gained reduction in times and costs of its
projects up to 30%, and improvement in the work flow on sites (Lean
Construction Institute 2004).
9) Enshassi & Abu-Zaiter (2014) conducted a study in Palestine aimed to
investigate the extent of use of different lean construction tools in
construction industry and its impact on safety conditions in construction
projects in Gaza Strip. The results of the study were lean construction
concepts are unfamiliar for both contractors and consultant but all of the

52
 respondents expressed their admiration for lean construction, All
participants agree with implementing lean tools enhance safety
conditions in construction projects, and Training will be a key aspect of
implementation and success of the lean construction techniques at the
site.
10) Ingle & Waghmare (2015) conducted a study in India to highlight the
cost and benefits of the potential contribution of lean construction to the
achievement of productivity enhancement and waste minimization in
construction industry and the extent of implementation of lean
construction in India. The results of this study were Proper Training and
Implementation of Lean concepts and practices can be successfully
adopted in Indian construction projects and has increased keen interest
from many organized players in the industry. The enabling factors
included commitment of top management and site management, as well
as the culture and systems of the organization will be main forces for the
success of lean construction in India.

53
 Chapter Four

Data Compilation
 Chapter Four
Data Compilation

4-1: Preamble:
The main aim of this chapter is to comprise the method and the
design which was used to conduct this study. In order to conduct this study a
prescribed methodology was adopted. Concerning data collection the
following stages were considered to collect the necessary data.

4-2: Research Population:

The population of this study composed of engineers (civil,
Architecture, survey, mechanical, and electrical) that work for contracting, or
consultant firms or they represent the owner in the project. The sectors namely
public, private and multi sectors were all considered. The population size is
according to the records of the Sudanese Council of Engineers.

4-3: Research Sampling:

As most of the local construction companies are located at Khartoum
state, and their headquarters work from the capital; engineers in construction
firms in Khartoum state were selected as the targeted respondents for
investigation. The respondents were selected by a systematic random sampling
method which represents the characteristics of the population.
Kombo & Tromp (2006) defined random sampling as the probability
whereby people, place or things are randomly selected. The respondents were
deemed to be an adequate representation of the population as they varied
greatly in the characteristics, but they all work exclusively in the field of
construction industry in Khartoum state.
54
4-4: Research Tool (Questionnaire):
4-4-1: Preamble:
A questionnaire is defined as "a means of eliciting the feelings,
beliefs, experiences, perceptions, or attitudes of some sample of
individuals"(Key 1997). In this study the questionnaire was used as a survey
tool which was assumed to be the most appropriate method to achieve the
study's objectives, answering the research question, test hypotheses, and
compiling data perfectly. In addition, the questionnaire assumed to get a
background to the respondents those who have no previous idea about lean
construction.
The questionnaire included multiple choice questions which used
widely in the questionnaires. The variety in these questions aims first to meet
the research objectives, and to collect all the necessary data that can support
the discussion, results, and recommendations of the research.

4-4-2: Questionnaire Design:

The questionnaire was designed in manner that questions could be
answered easily by the respondents; so a set of questions were established to
elicit the respondents' opinions about the assessment of workflow in their
construction sites, and to know their knowledge about lean construction.
The questionnaire was designed and revised, and then was distributed
to the respondents, 62 of the questionnaires returned out of 70 and 2
questionnaires has been excluded because they were not fully answered. The
total number of the questionnaires to be analyzed was 60 questionnaires which
represents 85.7% of the total population size.
The questionnaire was designed basically in English language, then it
has been translated into Arabic language; for easement as it is the popular

55
language (see Appendix II). Some terms were translated into Arabic by
providing additional explanations with English term itself; so that can help the
respondents to better understand.
The questionnaire comprises of three parts that were designed related
to the scope and hypotheses of this study as follow:
 Part one: was structured in order to investigate general information and
background about the respondents' level of education, specialty, and
their experience in the field of construction.
 Part two: it was structured to show the assessment of workflow in
construction sites, and to show the degree of negative impaction of
some factors on workflow of construction processes in Sudan.
 Part three: it was structured to examine the respondents' awareness
about lean construction, and their opinion about the suitability of lean
construction to be implemented in construction industry in Sudan.

4-4-3: Piloting of the Questionnaire:

The reliability and validity of the data collected largely depended

on the design of the questions, the structure of the questionnaire and the rigor
of the pilot testing (Saunders et al. 2003). In order to avoid measurement
errors and to make sure that the data collected was reliable, the questionnaire
has been piloted by two professors at Sudan University of Science and
Technology, that familiar with construction management.

Those two professors gave their comments on the validity and the
suitability of the questions to the research objectives and hypotheses, as well
as they have commented on the clarity of the instructions. Their comments and
remarks were incorporated in a modified version of the questionnaire.

56
4-4-4: Distribution of the Questionnaire:

The questionnaires were distributed to the respondents by using hand

to hand method. Every respondent has been given enough time to answer the
questionnaire's questions. Only questionnaires that were fully completed were
accepted, while those partially filled were not considered for the analysis. The
valid questionnaire returned for analysis were 60 out of 70 distributed copies.

4-4-5: Data Analysis:

Analysis is an interactive process by which answers are examined to

see whether the results are relevant to each research question (Backstorm &
Hursh-Cesar, 1981). The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS
(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 20, and with assistance of
a qualified statistician.

57
 Chapter Five

Data Analysis, Conclusion &

Recommendations
 Chapter Five

Data Analysis, Conclusion & Recommendations

5-1: Preamble:

This chapter presents the analysis of the data which was collected
from the questionnaires, and was analyzed by using SPSS software program.
The results were represented by using forms of graphs and tables to show the
data that was collected from the questionnaire. After distribution and
collection processes the returned questionnaires and the valid ones were 60
questionnaires out of 70 which represented 85.7% that have been analyzed.

Before analyzing the questionnaires which were received to be

analyzed, a Cronbach Alpha test was carried out in order to ascertain the
reliability of the questionnaire's questions. Cronbach Alpha test is a test of
reliability that measures the internal consistency of the questions using the
Likert scale (Mohamed 2015). From this test there is an internal consistency
because the Cronbach Alpha coefficient of questions is 0.736. Therefore we
concluded that our test and questions were reliable.

This chapter also represents a restatement of the research questions,

the research methodology used and a summary of the research results,
conclusions and discussion. As well as recommendations which was divided
into general recommendations, and recommendation for future researches.

58
5-2: Data Analysis:

Section One: General Information:

Table 5-1: Respondents' Specialties

Frequency Percent %
Civil Engineer 46 76.6
Architect 8 13.3
Other 6 10.0
Total 60 100.0

Respondents' Specialties

%10
%13

Civil Engineer
Architect
Other

%77

Figure 5-1: Respondents' Specialties

Table 5-1 and figure 5-1 above shows that out of the 60 questionnaires
returned, 46 (76.7%) of the respondents were Civil Engineers, 8 (13.3%) were
Architects, and 6 (10%) were other specialties (3 (5%) Electrical Engineers, 1
(1.7%) Mechanical Engineer, and 2 (3.3%) were Survey Engineers)

59
Table 5-2: Education level of the Respondents:

Frequency Percent %
Diploma 12 20
Bachelor's Degree 35 58.3
Master's Degree 12 20
Doctorate's 1 1.7
Total 60 100.0

Education Level
1.70%

20% 20%
Diploma
Bachelor's degree
Master's degree
Doctorate's degree
58.30%

Figure 5-2: Respondents' Level of Education

The above table 5-2 and figure 5-2 present the education level of the
respondents that were divided into four levels (Diploma, Bachelor's degree,
Master's degree, Doctorate's degree). The respondents' level of education as
follow: Diploma 12 (20%), Bachelor's degree 35 (58.3%), Master's degree 12
(20%), and Doctorate's degree 1 (1.7%).

61
Table 5-3: Respondents Years of Experience:

Frequency Percent %
0-5 years 35 58.3
5-10 years 10 16.7
10-15 years 8 13.3
More than 15 years 7 11.7
Total 60 100.0

Respondents' Years of Experience

11.70%

13.30% 0-5years
5-10years

58% 10-15years
16.70% More than 15

Figure 5-3: Respondents' Years of Experience

Table 5-3 and figure 5-3 present the years of experience of the respondents
that were divided into four levels (0-5years, 5-10years, 10-15years, and more
than 15years). The respondents' experiences were as follow: 35 (58.3%) have
experience from zero to five years, 10 (16.7%) have 5-10years of experience,
8 (13.3%) have 10-15% years of experience, and 7 (11.7%) have more than 15
years of experience in the field of construction projects.

61
 Table 5-4: Sectors Respondents Work for

Frequency Percent %
Public Sector 20 33.3
Private Sector 37 61.7
Multi 3 5.0
Total 60 100.0

Sectors
5%

33%
Public
Private
Multi
61.70%

Figure 5-4: Sectors Respondents Work for

Table 5-4 and figure 5-4 above present the sectors that the respondents work
for, the results were as follow: 20 (33.3%) of the respondents work for public
sector, 37 (61.7%) of the respondents work for private sector, and 3 (5%) of
the respondents work for multi sector.

62
Table 5-5: Role of the Firm in the Project:

Frequency Percent %
Contractor 33 55.0
Consultant 19 31.7
Client/Client 8 13.3
Representative
Total 60 100.0

Role of Firm

13%

Contractor

55% Consultant
31.70% Client/ Client Representative

Figure 5-5: Role of the Firm in the Project

Table 5-5 and figure 5-5 above present the role of the firm in the project, the
results were as follow: 33 (55%) work as contractor, 19 (31.7%) work as
consultant, 8 (13.3%) work as client/ client representative.

63
Section Two: Factors Affect Workflow of Construction Processes:

Table 5-6: Evaluation of workflow processes in the projects:

Frequency Percent%
Weak 5 8.3
Good 33 55.0
Very Good 17 28.3
Excellent 5 8.3
Total 60 100.0

Evaluation of workflow
60%

50%

40%

30%
55% Evaluation of workflow

20%
28.30%
10% 8% 8.30%

0%
Weak Good Very Good Excellent

Figure 5-6: Evaluation of Workflow in the construction project

Table and figure 5-6 above present the evaluation of the respondents on
the workflow in the construction sites that they work at. Their responds were
as follow: 5 (8.3%) of the respondents assessed the workflow in their work

64
sites as weak, 33(55%) assessed the workflow as good, 17 (28.3%) assessed
the workflow as very good and 5 (8.3%) assessed the workflow as excellent.

Table 5-7: To What Degree the Workflow should Improve

Frequency Percent %
Strongly Disagree 0 0.0
Disagree 4 6.7
Neutral 6 10.0
Agree 37 61.7
Strongly Agree 13 21.7
Total 60 100.0

To What Degree Workflow Should Improve

70%

60%

50%

40%

61.70% To What Degree Workflow

30%
Should Improve
20%

10% 6.70% 10% 21.70%

0%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree

Figure 5-7: To what degree the workflow should improve

Table and figure 5-7 above present the opinions of the respondents whether
they agree that the workflow in their work sites need improvement or not. The
results were as follow: 4 (6.7%) were disagree, 6 (10%) were neutral, 37
(61.7%) were agree, and 13 (21.7%) were strongly agree.

65
Table 5-8: Factors Affect Workflow of Construction Processes:

Factors Disagree Neutral Agree

Delays in Financing the Project 8 (13.3%) 18 (30%) 34(56.7%)

Change Orders/Specifications 4 (6.7%) 33(55%) 23 (38.3%)

during construction
Improper Construction Methods 13 (21.7%) 31 (51.7%) 16 (26.7%)

Mistakes in Design Documents 4 (6.7%) 28 (46.7%) 28 (46.7%)

Unqualified Labors 5 (8.3%) 28 (46.7%) 27 (45%)

Unorganized Worksite 6 (10%) 30 (50%) 24 (40%)

Delays in Material Delivery 7 (11.7%) 21 (35%) 32 (53.3%)

Inadequate Details of Drawings 4 (6.7%) 30 (50%) 26 (43.3%)

Improper Cost Estimation 13 (21.7%) 22 (36.7%) 25 (41.7%)

Inefficient Communication between 5 (8.3%) 36 (60%) 19 (31.7%)

project Stakeholders
Total 60 (100%) 60 (100%) 60 (100%)

Table 5-8 above illustrates the degree of negative impact of ten factors
on the workflow of construction processes. The choices were disagree, neutral,
and agree.

Table 5-9: Are there any procedures follow to prevent stoppages

Frequency Percent %
Strongly Disagree 1 1.7%
Disagree 8 13.3%
Neutral 12 20.0%
Agree 31 51.7%
Strongly Agree 8 13.3%
Total 60 100.0%

66
 Table 5-9 above presents the responds about the question that if there
any processes followed to prevent stoppages can occur during construction.
The choices to respond this question varied from strongly disagree to strongly
agree. The results were as follow: 1 (1.7%) were strongly disagree, 8 (13.3%)
were disagree, 12 (20%) were neutral, 31 (51.7%) were agree, and 8 (13.3%)
were strongly agree.

Section Three: The Extent of Knowing Lean Construction:

Table 5-10: Respondents' Awareness about Lean Construction

Frequency Percent %
Very Low 44 73
Low 14 23.3
Average 2 3.3
Good 0 0.0
Very Good 0 0.0
Excellant 0 0.0
Total 60 100.0

Knowing Lean Construction

80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
73% Knowing Lean Construction
30%
20%
10% 23.30%
3.30%
0% 0 0 0
Very low low Average Good Very Excellent
Good

Figure 5-8: Respondents' Awareness about Lean Construction

67
 The above bar chart presents the extent of respondents' knowledge about
lean construction, the respondents answers were as follow: 44 (73.3%) are not
aware about lean construction, 14 (23.3%) have little knowledge about lean
construction and 2 (3.3%) have good knowledge about lean construction.

Table 5-11: Reason behind Non-application of Lean Construction in Sudan

Frequency Percent %
Unavailable researches about lean construction in 15 25.0%
Sudan
Resistant to change 10 16.7%
Upper-level management satisfied with status que 8 13.3%
Ignorance of the concept 27 45.0%
Total 60 100.0%

The above table presents the respondents' opinions about the reason behind
non-application of lean construction in Sudan so far. 15 (25%) of the
respondents suggested that the reason is unavailable researches about lean
construction in Sudan, 10 (16.7%) of the respondents went with the choice
resistant to change, 8 (13.3%) of the respondents went with the choice that
upper-level management satisfied with status-que, and 27 (45%) of the
respondents did choose the choice that ignorance of the concept is the reason.

68
 Potential of Using Lean Construction
45%

40%

35%

30%

25%
Potential of Using Lean
20% 38.30% Construction
35%
15%
25%
10%

5%
1.70%
0% 0%
Very Low Low Average High Very High

Figure 5-9: Potential of working in a lean construction site

The above bar chart presents the responds about the question: To what
degree you have potential to work in a construction site uses lean construction
tools and techniques? The responds were 1 (1.7%) of the respondents had low
potential, 15 (25%) of the respondents had average potential, 21 (35%) of the
respondents had high potential, and 23 (38.3%) of the respondents had very
high potential.

69
Table 5-11: Challenges will face the implementation of lean construction in
Sudan

Frequency Percent %
Difficulties in understanding the concept of lean 21 35
construction
Uncertainty of the positive results can be achieved 9 15
due to applying lean construction
Upper-level management will resist changing the 21 35
current situation
The project stakeholders will resist to adopt the 9 15
concept of lean construction
Total 60 100

Table 5-11 above presents the results of the respondents' opinions

about the major challenge will face the implementation of lean construction in
Sudan. Their responds were as follow: 21 (35%) of the respondents saw that
difficulties in understanding the concept of lean construction will be the major
obstacle for the implementation, 9 (15%) of the respondents suggested that
uncertainty of the results can be obtained from the implementation will be the
challenge, 21 (35%) went with the choice that top-level management will
resist to change the situation, and 9 (15%) saw that the project stakeholder will
resist to adopt the concept.

71
 Suitability of Implementing Lean
Construction in Sudan
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
43.30% Suitability of Implementing
20%
33.30% Lean Construction in Sudan
15%
10% 20%
5% 3.30%
0%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree

Figure 5-10: Suitability of Lean Construction to Sudan

The above bar chart presents the responds of the question: Do you agree
that lean construction suitable to be implemented in Sudan? The responds
were 2 (3.3%) were disagree, 20 (33.3%) were neutral, 26 (43.3%) were agree,
and 12 (20%) were strongly agree.

71
 Impact of Improving Construction Site on
the Productivity
60%

50%

40%

30% Impact of Improving

53.30% Construction Site on the
43.30% Productivity
20%

10%
3.30%
0% 0%
0%
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree

Figure 5-11: Impact of Improving Construction Site on the Productivity

The above bar chart presents the responds of the question : Do you
thing that improving work condition in construction site makes improve in
productivity? The answers were as follow: 2 (3.3%) were neutral, 26 (43.3%)
were agree, and 32 (53.3%) were strongly agree.

72
 Allocation Money and Time to Train the
Employees about Lean Construction
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
Allocation of Money and Time
20% 38.30% to Train the employees about
15% Lean Construction
28.30%
10%
16.70%
5% 3% 13.30%

0%
Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly
Disagree Agree

Figure 5-12: Allocation Money and Time to Train the Employees about Lean
Construction

The above bar chart presents the results of the responds of the question:
Do you think that the firm you work for will allocate time and money for the
activities of training to enrich their employees about lean construction? The
results as follow: 2 (3.3%) were strongly disagree, 8 (13.3%) were disagree,
23 (38.3%) were neutral, 17 (28.3%) were agree, and 10 (16.7%) were
strongly agree.

73
Table 5-13: To what degree do you have knowledge about lean construction?*
education level cross tabulation

What is your education level

To what Diploma Bachelor's Master's Doctorate's Total
degree do Degree Degree Degree
you have Very Low 10 26 7 1 44
knowledge Low 2 7 5 0 14
about lean Average 0 2 0 0 2
construction Total 12 35 12 1 60

Table 5-13 presents cross tabulation between the question: To what

degree do you have knowledge about lean construction? And the question:
What is your education level? From the analysis P value was 0.271 which is
greater than 0.05, that means statistically not significant. That means there is
no relation between the degree of knowing lean construction and the education
level.

Table 5-14: To what degree do you have knowledge about lean

construction?*Years of experience cross tabulation

How many years have you deal with construction field

To what 0-5 years 5-10 10-15 More than Total

degree do years years 15
you have
Very Low 27 7 6 4 44
knowledge
about lean Low 8 3 2 1 14
construction
Average 0 0 0 2 2

Total 27 10 8 7 60

74
 Table 5-14 presents cross tabulation between the question: To what
degree do you have knowledge about lean construction? And the question:
How many years have you deal with construction projects? From the analysis
P value was 0.515 which is greater than 0.05 that means statistically not
significant. There is no relation between the two questions.

Table 5-15: To what degree do you have knowledge about lean

construction?*Potential of use lean construction cross tabulation

To what degree do you have potential to work in a lean

construction site

To what Low Average High Very Total

degree do High
you have
Very Low 1 11 15 17 44
knowledge
about lean Low 0 2 6 6 14
construction
Average 0 2 0 0 2

Total 1 15 21 23 60

Table 5-15 presents cross tabulation between the question: To what

degree do you have knowledge about lean construction? And the question: To
what degree do you have potential to work in a construction site uses lean
construction principles and tools? From the analysis P value was 0.349 which
is greater than 0.05 that means statistically not significant. There is no relation
between the two questions.

75
5-3: Results Interpretation:

The study concluded that the majority of the engineers who work in
construction projects in Sudan are civil engineers that represent 77% of the
total engineers, and the architects are 13% of the total engineers. The study
ended that more than 58% of the engineers who work in construction projects
hold bachelor's degree. Junior engineers (with experience less than 5 years)
represent 58% of the total engineers that work in construction projects in
Sudan. From the survey more than 61% of the firms work in construction
projects in Sudan are private firms.

From the results of this study the evaluation of workflow in

construction projects, 61.7% of the respondents see that the workflow should
be improved and that indicates there is necessary to improve the workflow of
the construction projects in Sudan. The most factors affect the workflow
process in Sudan are the delays both in financing the project and in material
delivery. A study was conducted in Ghana by Ayarkwa et al. (2015)concluded
that the delays in materials delivery, inefficient use of quality standards, and
lack of long term relationship with suppliers are the factors that affect the
workflow in Ghanaian construction sites.

The study concluded that more than 73% of the engineers in

construction projects in Sudan have no knowledge about lean construction,
and about 23% have just little knowledge about lean construction, and that is
an indication of the necessity of boosting the engineers' awareness about lean
construction. A study was conducted in Egypt by Swefie (2013) found that
55% of the respondents are not aware about lean construction, 45% of the
respondents have little aware about it. Another study was conducted by
Enshassi & Abu Zaiter (2014) in Palestine found that 65% of the respondents
have no knowledge about lean construction. That indicates that lean

76
construction is not known in the most of the nearby countries, not only in
Sudan.

More than 73% of the respondents have high potential to work in a

lean construction site. Swefie (2013) found that 70% of the respondents in
Egypt have high potential of using lean construction. The study also ended
that the main two reasons behind non-application of lean construction in
Sudan so far are the ignorance of the concept, and the unavailability of
researches in Sudan about lean construction. That indicates that the
implementation can be easy if the engineers have enough idea about the
concept.

The study found that the main two challenges can face the
implementation of lean construction are the resistance of upper-level
management to change the current situation, and the difficulties in
understanding the concept of lean construction. This results are completely
agree with a study was conducted in Malaysia found that the main two factors
will restrict the implementation of lean construction are the lack of
attentiveness and commitment from the top management, and the difficulties
in understanding lean construction's concept (Abdullah et al. 2015). Enshassi
& Abu Zaiter (2014) found that the challenges of implementing lean
construction in Palestine are lack of budget for training, and weakness in the
learning environment in construction projects. Another study conducted in
India concluded that commitment of top management and site management, as
well as the culture and systems of the organization will be main forces for the
success of lean construction in India (Ingle &Waghmare 2015 ).

The study found that more than 43% of the respondents are agree that
lean construction is suitable to implement in Sudan, and 20% of the
respondents are strongly agree. Enshassi & Abu Zaiter (2014) found that 70%

77
of the respondents agree that lean construction is possible and suitable to
implement in Palestine.

The study also found that more than 96% of the respondents agree
that the clean and organized construction site make enhancement in the
productivity, this result means that implementation of lean construction will be
in a positive impact on the Sudan's construction projects. The study also
concluded that more than 38% of the respondents are neutral whether the
firms their work for will allocate money and time to train their employees
about lean construction or not. That means a number of the respondents cannot
expect the decision of their organizations, and that indicates of the lack of
relation between the employees and their management.

78
5-4: Conclusion:

The introduction and implementation of lean principles has had a

great effect on the construction industry on the global scale (developing and
developed countries) by enhancing workflow and the performance of people
in construction which has been mentioned in the literature review of this
study. After the results discussion and interpretation were conducted, the study
concluded the following:

 The main two factors affect workflow in construction sites are the
delays in financing the project and material delivery.
 Workflow in construction sites in Sudan should be improved.
 Lean construction concepts are unfamiliar among the engineers who
work in Sudan's construction industry.
 The majority of respondents expressed their admiration for working in
a lean construction site.
 The reason behind non-application of lean construction in Sudan is the
ignorance of lean construction concepts and unavailability of researches
in this field.
 The major barrier will face the implementation of lean construction is
the resistance of the top management to adopt this concept and make
steps toward applying lean construction and change the current
situation.

5-5: Recommendations:

 Ensuring that the top management actively adopts the culture of training
and developing their staff about new managerial tools and techniques
such as lean construction.

79
  Make steps toward enhancing workflow of Sudanese construction
projects through deep study of the factors affect the workflow
negatively to overcome all stoppages causes.
 Hiring lean construction experts to play the role of directors to help
actors who involved in the project establish strong awareness to
implement.
 It is very essential to hold seminars in the universities and institutes,
because knowledge of new topics often comes from universities, and
other academic organizations.
 It is very essential to encourage the councils of engineers and the
associations to hold lectures and training courses to enrich the engineers
about lean construction.
 It is important to train the organizations and make sure that everybody
thoroughly understands lean construction well to ease the
implementation of the concept.

5-6: Future Researches:

 Further research could take what is known about lean construction so

far and continue to evaluate its potential in the construction industry.
 Develop a framework to achieve real results from the application of the
concept of lean construction.
 Implementing a lean construction tool by generation of a model and
assess its impact on the project performance.
 A comparative study can be undertaken between private sector and
public sector to show the degree of awareness and the potential of
applying lean construction.
 A study could be undertaken by concentration on consultants and show
their idea and awareness about lean construction, because of their basic
role in applying any new management concept.
81
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Institute, UK.
- Mota, B. P., Mota, R. R., and Alves, T.D. C., 2008, "Implementing
Lean Construction Concepts in a Residential Project", proceedings 16th
annual conference IGLC, Manchester, UK.
- Muir, B., 2005, "Challenges Facing Construction Manager",
Supplemental Reading for CIEG 486-010 Construction Methods &
Management, University of Delaware.
- Novak, V.M., 2012, "Value Paradigm: Revealing Synergy between
Lean and Sustainability", Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the
International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC), 18-20 July, San
Diego, California, USA, pp. 51-60.
- O'Connor,R., & Swain,B., 2013, " Implementing Lean in Construction:
Lean Tools and Techniques – an Introduction", CIRIA, London, UK

86
- Ofori, G. , 1990, "The Construction Industry: Aspects of its Economic
and Management", Singapore university press, Singapore.
- Ofori, G., 1980, "The Construction Industries of Developing Countries:
The Application of Existing Theories and Strategies for Their
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college London, UK.
- Ofori, G., 2000, "Challenges of Construction Industry in Developing
Countries: Lessons from Various Countries", proceedings 2nd
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- Ohno, T., 1988, "Toyota Production System", Productivity Press,
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- Paez, O., Solomon, J., Salem, S., and Genaidy, A., 2005, Moving from
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- Plescis, C., 2002, "Agenda 21 for sustainable construction in developing
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- Raghavan,N. , Kalidindi,S. ,Mahalingam,A., Varghese,K. & Ayesha,A.,
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- Ramaswamy, K. P., and Kalidindi, S. N., 2009, "Wastes in Indian
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87
- Ren, J., 2012, "Lean Construction Supply Chain: A Literature Review",
Master Thesis, Real Estate Development and Financial Services,
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88
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91
Appendix I: Questionnaire- English Version

Appendix II: Questionnaire- Arabic Version

 Sudan University of Science and Technology

Master of Science in Civil Engineering

(Construction Engineering)

Part 1: General Information:

Please choose the appropriate choice by putting (√ )

(1)What is your specialty?

□ Civil Engineer □ Architect □ Other……………..

(2)What is your education level?
□Diploma □ Bachelor's Degree □ Master's Degree □Doctorate's Degree
(3)How many years have you dealing with construction projects?
□0-5 □ 5-10 □10-15 □More than 15
(4)What is the sector type you work for?
□Public Sector □Private Sector □Multi
(5) What your firm's role in the project?
□Contractor □Consultant □Client/ Client Representative
Part II: Factors Affecting Construction Process Flow:

(1)What your evaluation to the flow of work in the construction site you work
in?
□Weak □Good □ Very Good □ Excellent
(2)To what degree do you think that the flow of work in your construction site
should be improved?
□Strongly Disagree □Disagree □Neutral □Agree □Strongly Agree
(3) To what degree do you think that the following factors can make negative
impact to the flow of construction process?
Factors Disagree Agree Strongly
Agree
1.Delays in financing the project by the owner
2.Change orders/specifications by the owner
during construction
3. Improper construction methods
4. Mistakes in design documents
5.Unqualified labors
6. unorganized workplace
7. Delays in material delivery
8. Inadequate details of drawings
9. Improper cost estimation
10. Inefficient communication with the higher
management
(4) In the construction site you work in are there any procedures followed to
prevent stoppages in work?

□Strongly Disagree □Disagree □Neutral □Agree □Strongly Agree

Part III: Extent of Respondents' Awareness of Lean

Construction
Lean construction is an adaptation of lean production techniques which has been
developed in Toyota motor company. Lean construction is to manage and improve the
construction process to deliver what the customer needs perfectly.

Lean construction is a continuous process that applies through design, planning, and
construction. It is an integrated process in which clients , designers, contractors,
suppliers, etc. must be committed to working together . The aim of lean construction is
to improve communication, eliminating waste and errors, and improving the work site
environment.

(1) To what degree do you have knowledge about lean construction?

□Very Low □Low □Average □High □Very High
(2)What do you think the reason behind of non-application of lean
construction in Sudan?
□Unavailable researches in lean construction in Sudan
□Resistant to change
□Upper-level management satisfied with Status Que
□Ignorance of the concept
(3)To what degree do you have potential to work in a construction site uses
lean construction principles and tools?
□Very Low □Low □Average □High □Very High
(4) In your opinion what the major challenge will face implementation lean
construction?
□Difficulties in understanding the concept of lean construction
□Uncertainty of the positive results can be obtained from the implementation
□Upper-level management will resist changing the current situation
□The project stakeholders resist to adopt new managerial techniques
(5)To what degree do you think that lean construction suitable to be
implemented in Sudan?
□Strongly Disagree □Disagree □Neutral □Agree □Strongly Agree
(6)Do you agree that improving work condition in construction site makes
improving in the productivity?
□Strongly Disagree □ Disagree □Neutral □Agree □Strongly Agree
(7)Do you think that the firm you work for can allocate time and money for
the activities of training to enrich employees about lean construction?
□Strongly Disagree □Disagree □Neutral □Agree □Strongly Agree

Thanks for your corporation

 ‫جامعة السودان للعلوم و التكنلـــوجيا‬
‫‪ -‬هذا الاس تبيان بغرض احلصول عىل درجة املاجس تري يف الهندسة املدنية ( هندسة التشييد) – لك املعلومات‬
‫لغرض ادلراسة فقط‪.‬‬
‫‪-‬عنوان الرساةل‪Applying Lean Construction to Construction Industry in Sudan :‬‬
‫‪ -‬أرجـــو التكــــــرم ابلإجابة عىل أس ئةل هذا ا إلس تبيان‪.‬‬
‫ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ‬
‫الجزء األول‪ :‬معـلومـــات عامـــة‪:‬‬
‫من فضلك ضع عالمة (√) أمام اإلختيار المناسب‪:‬‬

‫(‪)1‬مــــاهو مجال تخصصك؟‬

‫آخر‪..........................‬‬ ‫□‬ ‫مهندس معماري‬ ‫□‬ ‫مهندس مدني‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪)2‬ما هو مستواك التعلٌمً؟‬

‫دكتــــوراة‬ ‫□‬ ‫ماجستـــير‬ ‫□‬ ‫بكــالريوس‬ ‫□‬ ‫دبلـــوم‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪)3‬كــــم عدد سنوات خبرتك فً مجال مشروعات التشٌٌد؟‬

‫أكثر من ‪ 15‬عام‬ ‫□‬ ‫‪15-10‬عام‬ ‫□‬ ‫‪10-5‬أعوام‬ ‫□‬ ‫‪ 5-0‬أعوام‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪)4‬ماهو القطاع الذي تعمل بـــه؟‬

‫آخـــر‪.........................‬‬ ‫□‬ ‫قطاع خاص‬ ‫□‬ ‫قطاع حكومي‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪ )5‬ما هو دور الجهة التً تعمل بها فً المشروع؟‬

‫مـــالك ‪ /‬مـمثل للمــالك‬ ‫□‬ ‫إسـتشــــــاري‬ ‫□‬ ‫مـقـــــاول‬ ‫□‬

‫الجزء الثانً‪ :‬العوامل المؤثرة على سرٌان عملٌة التشٌٌد( عدم حدوث توقفات خالل عملٌة التشٌٌد)‬
‫(‪)1‬ماهو تقٌٌمك لسرٌان عملٌة التشٌٌد فً الموقع الذي تعمل به؟‬
 ‫□‬
‫مــمتاز‬ ‫□‬
‫جيـــد جــدا‬ ‫جيــــد‬ ‫□‬ ‫ضعيف‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪)2‬إلى أي درجة تعتقد أن سرٌان عملٌة التشٌٌد تحتاج إلى تطوٌر فً الموقع الذي تعمل به؟‬

‫□أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□أوافق‬ ‫□محايد‬ ‫ال أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬

‫(‪)3‬إلى أي مــــدى تعتقد أن كل عامل من العوامل التالٌة ٌمكن ان ٌؤثر سلبا ً على سرٌان عملٌة التشٌٌد؟‬

‫أوافق بشدة‬ ‫أوافق‬ ‫ال أوافق‬ ‫العـــــوامل‬

‫‪.1‬التأخيرات في سداد الدفعيات‬
‫‪.2‬تغيير المواصفات أثناء عملية التشييد‬
‫‪.3‬إستخدام تقنيات قديمة في عملية التشييد‬
‫‪.4‬األخطــــاء في التصميم‬
‫‪.5‬الرسومات غيرالمكتملة اوغير الصحيحة‬
‫‪ .6‬موقع التشييد غير المنظــــــم‬
‫‪.7‬التأخير في توريد المواد للموقع‬
‫‪ .8‬العمالـــــة غير المؤهلــــــة‬
‫‪.9‬التقدير غير الصحيح في تكلفة المشروع‬
‫‪.10‬ضعف االتصال بين االطراف المختلفة في‬
‫المشروع‬

‫(‪)4‬هل ٌتم إتباع أي إجراءات فً الموقع لتالفً حدوث توقفات فً سٌر عملٌة التشٌٌد؟‬

‫أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬ ‫أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫محايد‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق‬‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬
‫الجزء الثالث‪ :‬مدى المعرفة بالتشٌٌد الرشٌق(‪:)Lean Construction‬‬
‫التشٌٌد الرشٌق (‪ )Lean Construction‬هو عبارة عن اقتباس لمفاهٌم التصنٌع(االنتاج) الرشٌق (‪ ،)Lean Production‬و‬
‫الذي تم اقتباسه فً االساس من النظام المطبق فً شركة تاٌوتا الٌابانٌة للسٌارات‪ .‬التشٌٌد الرشٌق(‪)Lean Construction‬‬
‫ٌطبق إلدارة و تطوٌر مراحل عملٌة التشٌٌد إلنهاء المشروع بصورة مثالٌة و الوصول للرضا التام للعمٌل‪.‬‬

‫التشٌٌد الرشٌق(‪ )Lean Construction‬عبارة عن عملٌة مستمرة تتطبق فً كافة مراحل عملٌة التشٌٌد بدأ من التصمٌم‪،‬‬
‫التشٌٌد الرشٌق(‪ )Lean Construction‬عبارة عن عملٌة مستمرة تتطبق فً كافة مراحل عملٌة التشٌٌد بدأ من التصمٌم‪،‬‬
‫التخطٌط ‪،‬تورٌد الم واد‪ ،‬ادارة الموقع و طرٌقة التنفٌذ‪ .‬و هو اٌضا ً عبارة عن عملٌات متداخلة تلزم كافة المشاركٌن فً‬
‫المشروع ( المالك‪ ،‬المصمم‪ ،‬المورد‪ ،‬المهندس‪......‬الخ) للعمل بصورة مترابطة مع بعض ‪ٌ .‬هدف التشٌٌد الرشٌق بصورة‬
‫عامة لتحسٌن موقع العمل‪ ،‬زٌادة االنتاجٌة‪ ،‬و التخلص من كل انواع الهدر فً الموارد‪ ،‬الوقت و الجهد‪.‬‬
 ‫(‪ )1‬ما هو مدى معرفتك بالتشٌٌد الرشٌق و تقنٌاتـــــه؟‬

‫ممتاز‬‫□‬ ‫جيد جدا‬ ‫□‬ ‫جيد‬ ‫□‬ ‫ضعيف‬ ‫□‬ ‫ضعيف جدا‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪ )2‬برأٌك ما هو السبب فً عدم تطبٌق التشٌٌد الرشٌق(‪)Lean Construction‬فً السودان حتى اآلن؟‬

‫عــــــدم الرغبة في التغيير‬ ‫□‬ ‫عدم وجود بحوث في هذا المجال في السودان‬ ‫□‬
‫عدم المعرفة بالتشييد الرشيق‬ ‫□‬ ‫رضـــا االدراة العليا بالوضع الراهن‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪) 3‬إلى أي درجة لدٌك رغبـــــة فً العمل فً موقع ٌطبق أدوات و مفاهٌم التشٌٌد الرشٌق( ‪Lean‬‬
‫‪)Construction‬؟‬

‫عالي جدا‬ ‫□‬ ‫عالي‬ ‫□‬ ‫متوسط‬ ‫□‬ ‫منخفض‬ ‫□‬ ‫منخفض جدا‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪ )4‬برأٌك ما العقبة الرئٌسٌة التً ٌمكن أن تواجه تطبٌق التشٌٌد الرشٌق فً السودان؟‬

‫صعوبات في فهم و استيعاب مفاهيم التشييد الرشيق‬ ‫□‬

‫عدم رغبة اإلدارة العليا في تغيير الوضع الراهن‬ ‫□‬
‫عدم الثقة في النتائج التي يمكن أن تتحقق نتيجة للتطبيق‬ ‫□‬
‫عدم حماس المهندسين و العاملين في المشروع في بذل جهد لتعلم أدوات التشييد الرشيق‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪ )5‬إلى أي درجة تعتقد أن التشٌٌد الرشٌق (‪)Lean Construction‬مالئم للتطبٌق فً السودان؟‬

‫اوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬ ‫اوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫□‬

‫محايد‬ ‫ال اوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪ )6‬هل تعتقد بأن تحسٌن موقع التشٌٌد ٌساهم فً زٌادة اإلنتاجٌة؟‬

‫أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬ ‫أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫محايد‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬
‫(‪)7‬هل تعتقد أن المؤسسة التً تعمل بها ٌمكن أن تخصص وقت و مال لتعلٌم العاملٌن بها مفاهٌم التشٌٌد الرشٌق؟‬

‫أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬ ‫أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫محايد‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق‬ ‫□‬ ‫ال أوافق بشدة‬ ‫□‬

‫شكــــــر ًا حلســــن تعـــــاونمك‬