Potential of lean thinking application to the business flow-discussion of a commercial building case study.

Abstract

The current situation of the global economy continuously demands higher quality and productivity. In order to attend market's requeriments, construction industry has adopted Quality Systems and new technologies that provide ways to reduce the lead-time of construction. However a great part of the time spent up to delivery a new building is used in the actives named “Business Flow” that includes basically activies performed by the developer, such as approvals, etc., and not construction. The objective of this work is to explore, through a case, the potential of applying the Lean Thinking philosophy, toidentify and to minimize waste in the business flow of construction. The studied case was a commercial building. We conclude discussing the possibilities of applying these concepts to activities, and a future state is proposed , considering these possibilities, to show the potential results.