Lean principles in Project Management : Development of Visual Management Tools for Industrial Construction Projects
Martínez, Paula (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121837911
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025121837911
Tiivistelmä
Industrial construction projects are characterized by high technical complexity, multiple contractors and strong interdependence in space, time and shared resources. Although Lean Construction and visual management are widely promoted as means to improve coordination and workflow reliability, many visual tools implemented on construction sites fail to support daily decision-making and gradually lose their relevance in practice.
The aim of this thesis is to examine how Lean principles and visual management concepts can be translated into an effective visual coordination tool for day-to-day planning in industrial construction projects, with the clear clarifications of “why”. The study adopts a constructive, deductive and applied research approach, grounded in a pragmatic research philosophy. Existing literature on Lean Construction, project management and visual management was synthesized and complemented with practice-based illustrative input to identify coordination challenges and design requirements.
As a result, a redesigned Lean board concept was developed. The proposed board integrates weekly task planning, spatial allocation of work, logistics co-ordination and constraint management into a coherent visual system. The design emphasizes simplicity, transparency and ease of use, enabling contractors to make reliable commitments, identify conflicts early and coordinate shared resources more effectively.
The main contribution of the thesis lies in providing a context-specific design and usage guidelines for a Lean visual management board tailored to industrial construction projects.
The aim of this thesis is to examine how Lean principles and visual management concepts can be translated into an effective visual coordination tool for day-to-day planning in industrial construction projects, with the clear clarifications of “why”. The study adopts a constructive, deductive and applied research approach, grounded in a pragmatic research philosophy. Existing literature on Lean Construction, project management and visual management was synthesized and complemented with practice-based illustrative input to identify coordination challenges and design requirements.
As a result, a redesigned Lean board concept was developed. The proposed board integrates weekly task planning, spatial allocation of work, logistics co-ordination and constraint management into a coherent visual system. The design emphasizes simplicity, transparency and ease of use, enabling contractors to make reliable commitments, identify conflicts early and coordinate shared resources more effectively.
The main contribution of the thesis lies in providing a context-specific design and usage guidelines for a Lean visual management board tailored to industrial construction projects.