As the construction industry embraces lean practices to provide greater customer value and reduce waste, one would expect to find new technology applications that support the process. We did a search and found mixed results. There are some applications well known to the industry (BIM, for example), but we had to do some digging for other solutions. We found five applications for manufacturers, contractors and asset owners that will help improve their productivity so we thought we would share them here. (Idencia has no ties to any of these offerings.)
We've categorized these apps according to the facets of lean construction that they suppport. Click on the logos to learn more about each.
Kanban (Visual planning for efficiency and inventory control.) Two scheduling systems that provide a visual layout in a planning board format:
Value Stream Mapping (Identifying where customer value is added in the process and minimizing or eliminating all other steps.) BIM systems are 3D models that map the design of the project for the customer and serve as the basis for project planning. As BIM has been actively utilized since the early 2000s, several applications exist. Two of the most popular are Revit (offered by AutoDesk) and Tekla Structures.
Kaizen (Continuous improvement.) Continuous improvement requires constant communication and the means to record the evolving decision making. Newforma offers a social medium for effective communication among all parties to the construction value chain. They call it Project Information Management.
As we've written in the past, technology will play a big role in mainstream adoption of lean construction practices. We expect many more offerings in the future that will help improve customer satisfaction and profitability for all involved in the construction value chain.
About Idencia
Our purpose at Idencia is to offer infrastructure asset tracking solutions that improve productivity throughout the infrastructure value chain.. to create lean infrastructure. Our subscription offering applies RFID tracking to infrastructure products from the time of manufacture through end-of-life. As a cloud-hosted product tracking system that is seamless between manufacturers, contractors and asset managers, Idencia adds information value to all, eliminates redundancy and saves time. If you would like to learn how Idencia can help your company, we invite you to download a copy of our Idencia Primer ebook.
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