Implementation of lean practices facilitated by BIM functionalities in the construction phase: advances and opportunities

Abstract Over the past few decades, construction productivity has been at a standstill. Lean and Building Information Modelling (BIM) is attracting increasing interest in the construction industry as a way to increase construction productivity. This paper aims to contribute to the body of knowledge by identifying hitherto unexplored opportunities for the use of BIM functionalities as a support and as facilitators of the application of lean practices in the construction phase. A systematic literature review was adopted as the methodological approach in this research, and reported case studies related to the scope of this paper were searched. The results show that lean practices can be classified into four degrees of BIM support based on the level of current exploration. Just one lean practice (the last planner system) has been extensively explored, three have been reasonably explored, and five have just been preliminarily explored. Five practices have not been explored at all. This research summarises the already studied and the potential additional uses of BIM functionalities to support each lean practice, showing that lean practices supported by BIM functionalities are still underused and that further studies can explore additional ways to support these practices. This study holds great value for a broader practical application of lean practices, bringing faster and easier results with more extensive BIM support.

摘要 近数十年来，建筑行业生产力始终停滞不前。精益建造（Lean）与建筑信息模型（Building Information Modelling, BIM）正日益受到建筑行业的关注，被视为提升建筑生产力的有效途径。本研究旨在识别BIM功能在施工阶段支持并辅助精益建造实践应用的迄今尚未被发掘的机遇，以此丰富建筑领域的学术知识体系。本研究采用系统文献综述作为研究方法，对与本文研究范畴相关的已报道案例研究进行了检索。研究结果显示，根据当前的探索程度，精益建造实践可划分为四类BIM支持等级：目前仅1项精益建造实践（最后计划者系统，Last Planner System）得到了广泛探索，3项得到了较为充分的探索，5项仅得到初步探索，另有5项完全未被探索。本研究梳理了现有研究中BIM功能对各项精益建造实践的已验证应用场景，以及潜在的新增应用方式，结果表明，依托BIM功能支持的精益建造实践仍未得到充分利用，后续研究可进一步探索支持此类实践的更多路径。本研究对于精益建造实践的更广泛落地应用具有重要价值，借助更全面的BIM支持，可更快、更便捷地达成预期成果。