Sequential SWARA and fuzzy VIKOR methods in elimination of waste and creation of lean construction processes

The lean manufacturing approach is one of the process improvement and business development philosophies that can be applied in all sectors. In this context, lean construction enables the development of common applications by combining the production sector and the construction sector under the name of lean in order to improve and develop construction processes. This study was carried out in order to help the creation of a lean construction system by selecting the most appropriate lean techniques to determine and eliminate the waste in construction processes and to reduce costs by increasing the efficiency of the processes. Within the scope of the study, the wastes arising in the construction processes and the selection of lean production techniques that can eliminate these wastes were discussed as a multi-criteria decision making problem. In this problem wastes were determined as decision criteria and lean techniques were determined as solution alternatives. The problem structure consists of 8 main criteria that are about overproduction, waiting, transporting, inventory, operation, movement, production and work accidents, 24 sub-criteria, namely, construction waste and 5 alternative lean techniques such as 5S Technique, Just in time production, Kanban, Total productive maintenance and Visual Management. In the solution phase of the problem, the criteria weights and importance order of wastes in the processes were obtained by using SWARA method, lean construction techniques were evaluated by using Fuzzy VIKOR method under fuzzy environment. As a result of the evaluations, on one hand among the 24 criteria in the construction processes, faulty construction due to the lack of integration between design and production and improper processes due to the operational mistakes made by the employees were determined as the most important waste and on the other hand Kanban and Visual Management were determined as the most suitable alternative lean techniques for the construction processes. According to this result, Kanban that can convey the demands of all the elements in the lean system to the previous process with all the details in line with their needs and Visual Management that can visualize all the work done in the system as much as possible should be used in construction processes primarily.

Automated summary

The study aims to help create a lean construction system by selecting appropriate lean techniques to identify and eliminate waste in construction processes in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It discusses waste in construction processes and the selection of lean production techniques to eliminate them as a multi-criteria decision-making problem. The study concludes that Kanban and Visual Management are the most suitable alternative lean techniques for construction processes, with faults due to lack of integration and operational mistakes identified as the most important waste.