Identifying Wastes in Construction Process and Implementing the Last Planner System in India

Most of the Indian contractors are not well equipped to handle the growing demand of infrastructure development; hence construction projects frequently run in to time and cost overruns, disputes and quality issues. This study aims to improve the construction industry in India by implementing lean principles to eliminate non-value adding activities (wastes). The purpose of this study is to 1) identify the wastes and their sources affecting the construction process, and 2) to identify problems and document lessons by applying a Last Planner System (LPS) to a sample project. First, the researchers identified that Delays, Rework, and Interruptions were the most critical wastes affecting the construction process and Poor management control, Poor Planning and Shortage of Resources were the major sources of the above mentioned wastes. Second, the researchers report the Percent of Planned Complete (PPC) analysis results and experienced problems after implementation of LPS at the sample project. It was observed that much more improvement could have been achieved if there was consensus between the owners and the contractor on the implementation of the LPS in its entirety. Some of the problems experienced in the implementation of the LPS like lack of scheduling, resource and material shortage were found to be similar to those in developed countries.