Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Aslam, M., Gao, Z., and Smith, G. (2020). Optimizing

Construction Design Process Using The Lean Based
Approach. Lean Construction Journal 2020 pp 176-204
(submitted 09Feb2020; Accepted 22Sept2020)
www.leanconstructionjournal.org

Optimizing Construction Design Process Using The

Lean Based Approach
Mughees Aslam 1, Zhili Gao 2, Gary Smith 3

Abstract
Question: How lean construction can optimize the design phase to reduce the number of
design changes during the construction phase? What are the prevalent causes of
design changes that negatively affect the construction and how these changes can be
mitigated using lean construction tools and techniques?
Purpose: Design changes are considered to be one of the main causes of delay and cost
overrun in the construction industry. Many design improvement methodologies have
been developed with varying degrees of successes but still, the problem persists in
the industry. To address the issue, this study explores the interpretation and
application of lean design practices inherited from the principles of lean
construction.
Research Methodology: A systematic literature review is carried out in two phases: (1) to
identify the causes of design changes, (2) to identify lean tools that can mitigate the
detrimental effect of the design changes. Lean design practices are identified and
further classified into four improvement zones as a flow of information, customer
value, collaboration, integration of design with construction, and continuous
improvement. The efficacy of identified lean design practices is judged by mapping
them against prevalent causes of design changes in the construction. Resultantly,
each lean design practice can be assessed based on its capabilities to reduce the
design changes that emerged from the actions of owners, consultants, and contractor
Findings: This study identified twenty-three (23) lean design practices which can be used
as an effective tool to mitigate 38 actions leading to the design changes. It exposes
the strengths of each identified tool in effectively managing the design phase.
Limitation: This literature review study only includes peer-reviewed papers published by
the IGLC, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and Science Direct and

1 PhD Student, Department of Construction Management & Engineering, North Dakota State University, 202
Engineering Building, Dept 2475, P.0 Box 6050, Fargo, North Dakota, USA, 58108, Tel +17017292331,
mughees.aslam@ndsu.edu
2
Associate Professor, PhD., Department of Construction Management & Engineering, North Dakota State
University, 126 Engineering Building, 1315 Centennial Blvd, Dept 2475, P.0 Box 6050, Fargo, North Dakota,
USA, 58108, Tel: +17012318857, jerry.gao@ndsu.edu
3 Professor, PhD., Department of Construction Management & Engineering, North Dakota State University,

gary.smith@ndsu.edu
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

excludes the wider construction literature.

Implications: The practical implication of this study is that it provides a useful body of
knowledge for project teams to manage changes proactively and efficiently by using
lean design practices. Moreover, theoretically, it explains the lean design practices
and causes of design changes and provides a way forward to the researchers in
exploring the efficacy of lean tools in optimizing the design phase.
Keywords: Lean Design, Flow of information, Customer’s Value, Causes of Design Changes
Paper type: Full Paper

Introduction
Design changes are inevitable in the construction industry. No matter, how well
projects are being managed, design changes during the construction phase are causing a
detrimental effect on construction outcomes (Chang, 2002). The construction industry is in
the continuous struggle for finding out the most appropriate method for reducing the
design changes. Different methods like design management as project management,
concurrent engineering, design process models, design as value management, design-build
procurement, and extensive information technology support are in use for improving
design management (Ballard and Koskela, 1998; Karlsson, Lakka, Sulanivi, Hanna and
Thompson, 2008; Tzortzopoulos, Sexton and Cooper, 2005; Hiley and Gopsill, 2000).
Although these state of the art methods have many thought-provoking and effective new
features but still considered to be fragmented and lacked a solid conceptual foundation
(Ballard and Koskela, 1998). Up till now, each approach was applied in isolation for
improving results without construing the prevalent causes of design changes in actual
construction.
With the development of lean construction since the 1990s, and after its successful
implementation in the projects, its effectiveness in the design phase was explored by
many researchers with positive results in terms of reducing design changes at later stages.
The theory of applying the lean philosophy in managing the design processes considers the
three different views of design processes as the conversion of inputs to outputs, the flow
of accurate and timely information, and value generation. Several studies have been
conducted which advocates the efficacy of lean design in reducing the design changes. The
application of lean design management on some building projects has also brought good
results (Franco and Picchi, 2016). With the recent development of Building information
modeling and the internet of things, the lean design approach is moving towards
collaboration, partnering, automation, and better visualization of the design product.
However, the concept of lean design is still to gain popularity and acceptance within
the construction industry and is required to be extensively researched in captivating the
confidence of the construction industry. At the moment, most of the research in lean
design is focused on discussing the individual practices like Last Planner System® (LPS®),
target value and set-based design, and use of building information modeling in the design
process (Freire and Alarcón, 2002; Franco and Picchi, 2016; Tauriainen, Marttinen, Dave
and Koskela, 2016; Cousins, 2011). This individuality approach in lean design practices has
limited the prospect of the addition of new practices that can be effective during the lean
design implementation phase. Few researchers have tried to introduce lean design
practices but failed to discuss the efficacy of these practices concerning actions causing
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

the design changes in actual construction (Ballard and Zabelle, 2000; Gambetese and
Pestana, 2014; Marzouk, Bakry and El-Said, 2011). The lean design practices must be
explored based on its effect in mitigating the causes leading to the design changes.
An effort has been made in this study in identifying the best lean design practices
that can be effective during the design phase. The best practices are explored based on
the guiding principles of lean design as described in the literature. The literature review
revealed that many researchers have tried to explore the efficacy of lean design practices
during the design phase however a more rationalized approach is adopted in this study and
all the identified best lean design practices are discussed based on their impact in
reducing events triggering the design changes. The study is considered to be novel in its
approach as it tackles the issues of design changes by carefully combatting the causes of
design changes with the most appropriate lean tools and techniques. Very little research
has been carried out to explore the efficacy of lean tools and techniques using this
approach. The outcome of this study will make the construction industry and new lean
practitioners more prudent in making the design phase efficient.

Literature Review and Background

Impact of Design Changes on Construction
The importance of the design stage in construction projects can never be
underestimated. The client and customer’s requirements are physically conceptualized in
this stage in the form of drawings and technical specifications. Contractors are pushed for
conformance to the requirements as specified in the architectural and engineering design.
Any discrepancies in the design may result in design errors and omissions, and excessive
rework which at later stages would be very damaging for the construction projects (Chang,
2002).
In this era of modernization, the survival of the construction industry depends on the
elimination of wasteful activities within its processes. A poorly formulated design would
result in several wasteful practices like errors, omissions, rework, waiting for revised
drawings, excessive or shortening of a certain material, etc (Dosumu and Aigbavboa,
2017). These wasteful activities are hindering the cost, schedule, and productivity of a
construction project. No matter what is the type, nature, scope, and location of the
project, every construction project has to face the dilemma of design changes with varying
impacts. Even, well-managed projects have to face the damaging effect of design changes
(Chang, 2002).
Many studies have been undertaken to visualize the effect of design changes during
construction. Researchers have identified the cost overrun ranging between 5 and 40% in
construction projects due to the effect of design changes (Aslam et al., 2019; Yap and
Skitmore, 2018; Moura, Teixeira, and Pires, 2007). The impact of design changes on the
schedule overrun is also measured extensively in the literature. It’s not only about the cost
and schedule overrun but reworks due to design changes also hurts the morale of workers
and thereby leading to lower productivity (Ibbs, 2005). The indirect effect of the design
changes in the form of claims, disputes, loss of reputation, and confidence has further
aggravated the detrimental effects of design changes (Zaneldin, 2006).

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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Causes of the design changes

In most of the design-related changes, the architects, engineers, and clients
seemingly shouldering the bulk of the blame game (Mpofu et al., 2017) because of
incomplete conceptualization of the end product and insufficient investigation, thereby
enforcing changes later on (Muhwezi et al. 2014). The early design stage involving
planning and control can be considered as difficult to evaluate and control against the
empirical project milestone because of the lack of physical deliverables and feedback from
the construction (Freire and Alarcón, 2002). The complexity of the issue further increases
during the construction phase where the contractor finds it difficult in comprehending the
design and requirement of the clients, because of their late involvement. Many times
compatibility issues between design and construction results into frequent design changes.
Most of the design changes in the traditional design management approach are due
to the lack of communication between all the parties within the contract (Aslam et al.,
2019). Contractors are seldom involved in planning and design stages, architects and
engineers have only formal relations and work in isolation whereas contractors and
designers have a contractual relation only. This results in blame games in case of
discrepancies. Moreover, if the owner is not fully involved in presenting his exact
requirement at the initial stages, there might be the possibility of many scope changes
later on during construction. With little collaboration between key players, it would be
very difficult to say that all parties are striving to accomplish the mutual goal. Under this
environment, all key stakeholders endeavor to achieve their own set goals (Aslam et al.
2019). Contractors foresee their goal as completing the contractual deeds by making the
maximum profit. Designers have the goal of pushing the drawings/specifications to the
contractor and ensuring its compliance by the contractors. In this arrangement, where
everyone is striving for their own goals, problems like design changes are inevitable.

Struggle towards crossing the barrier

The construction industry has been experimenting with different methods to improve
design management so that minimum changes can be made at later stages. These methods
include Design management as project management, concurrent engineering, design
process models, design as value management, design-build procurement, and extensive
information technology support (Ballard and Koskela, 1998; Karlsson et al., 2008;
Tzortzopoulos et al., 2005; Hiley and Gopsill, 2000). Although these state of art methods
have many thought-provoking and effective new features but still considered to be
fragmented and lacked a solid conceptual foundation (Ballard and Koskela, 1998). Up till
now, each approach was applied in isolation for improving the results without construing
the prevalent causes of design changes in actual construction.
Ballard and Koskela (1998) have very elaborately discussed the anomalies in each of
the design management methods. The project management techniques for the design
alone proved to be incapable of solving the complex design management because of its
inherent assumptions that the work can be broken down into parts and managed
independently. Normally work breakdown structure, critical path method, organizational
and responsibility chart are the major methods employed in the conversion process. This
is considered to be the core perspective in traditional design management because it
identifies the exact nature of work to be done as per the stated project requirements
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

generally identified by the Client. However, the biggest drawback in applying this
perspective to design is its fragmentation nature in which interaction between different
activities is not taken into account which leads to many persisting problems in design
management. As per Freire and Alarcon (2002), in a typical project management approach,
more influence is given in developing long chains of activities instead of identifying the
value or reducing the variabilities within the activities and if used in isolation will lead to
rework that could not be visualized.
Similarly, concurrent engineering can only be effective in managing the design
changes if collaboration and commitment by all parties exist (Kamara, 2003). The value
management approach can be successful if the value is correctly and mutually identified
by the architects, engineers, and clients. Like concurrent engineering, the design-build
approach has only contributed marginally in improving the design discrepancies because of
the lack of organizational integration, unclear clients requirement, and undefined scope of
work (Lam et al., 2003). The increased use of informational technology has certainly
brought many benefits but still could not optimize design management because of the lack
of communication and collaboration between the stakeholders. Even with the successful
implementation of Building Information modeling, the design discrepancies still exist in
construction. The bottleneck in construction design is not due to deficiencies in
information technology or its specific applications, but in short understanding of
engineering and construction.
One of the core reasons for these discrepancies is that the design process is
conceptualized as a series of different tasks without considering the internal relations
between them. An alternate approach was introduced by Ballard and Koskela in 1998 in
which design was viewed in three different views: design as the conversion of inputs into
outputs, design as a process of flow of information/processes, and design as a process of a
value generation. Later on, many researchers have admitted the efficacy of managing the
design with these three views (Tzortzopoulos and Formoso, 1999; Deshpande et al., 2011;
Marzouk et al., 2011). This perspective of managing the design was named as lean design
and derived from lean philosophy.

Lean Design
Initially, the concept of lean construction was introduced for improving the
workflow, meeting the customer's requirements most efficiently, and removing the waste
from the construction process/materials. The inspiration for applying lean construction
came from lean production, however, with the growing interest and users of lean
construction, the definition of lean construction assumed various transformations and
extensions (Mossman 2018). According to the Mossman, with the widespread
implementation of lean construction around the world, varieties of definitions of lean
construction exists to include practices emerging from within the communities. A few of
the authenticated definitions of lean construction frequently cited by the researchers are
summarized in Table 1.
From these definitions it can be seen that researchers have tried to highlight five
important aspects within lean construction definition: (1) it’s a new form of production
management, (2 ) aims, and objective of lean construction are waste reduction,
maximizing value, meeting customers’ requirements, and workflow reliability, (3) It is a

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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

synergy of different philosophies, techniques/methods (4) It takes into account the

Respect for people, and (5) it seeks to pursue perfection through continuous improvement.
Most of the researchers have tried to include these five terms in their definitions
independently. These five aspects were also mentioned frequently in a detailed analysis
carried out by Mossman (2018) in providing the guidelines for developing the lean
construction definition.
Table 1: Lean Construction Definitions

Authors Lean Construction Definition

Howell (1999) “Lean construction results from the application of a new form of
production management to construction. Essential features of lean
construction include a clear set of objectives for the delivery
process, aimed at maximizing performance for the customer at the
project level, concurrent design of product and process, and the
application of production control throughout the life of the product
from design to delivery”

Abdelhamid (2013) “A holistic facility design & delivery philosophy with an overarching
aim of maximizing value to all stakeholders through systematic,
synergistic & continuous improvements in contractual arrangements,
product design, construction process design & methods selection, the
supply chain and the workflow reliability of site operations.”

Mossman (2018) “Lean is a practical collection of theories, principles, axioms,

techniques, and ways of thinking that together and severally can
help individuals and teams improve the processes and systems within
which they work”

American General “Lean Construction is based on the holistic pursuit of continuous

Association of improvements aimed at minimizing costs and maximizing value on a
Contractors construction project, planning, design, construction, activation,
operations, maintenance, salvaging, and recycling”

Lean construction “A respect- and relationship-oriented production management-based

Institute approach to project delivery—a new and transformational way to
design and build capital facilities”.

Taking a lead from the lean construction, many of the authors have tried to explain
lean design as an approach to remove the wastes and non-value adding activities within
the design and engineering processes by applying the principles of lean production (Freire
and Alarcón, 2002; Gambetese and Pestana, 2014; Brookfield et al., 2004).
To remove drawbacks of the traditional design management approach, the lean
design reinforces the conversion perspective of traditional methods with value generation
and flow of information/processes. In a value generation perspective, the emphasis is
given in identifying the exact customer requirement. The main principle of this
perspective is to eliminate all non-value adding activities/requirements so that the final
product is made with the best possible value. Value is carefully analyzed at the very
outset by applying rigorous requirement analysis and systemized management of flow. The
correct and best possible value is then generated by frequent interactions between all the
stakeholders involved both in design and construction.
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Visualizing the design as the flow of information/processes is another core concept

of lean design. The main emphasis in this perspective is to eliminate the wastes by
carefully developing a system in which information is reached to the desired stakeholder
with the following characteristics:
• Minimizing the time of retrieving the information between client, architects,
engineers, and field investigators
• Correct information all the time thereby reducing the time in evaluating the
information as per the conformance
• Reducing the time in reworking on the information for achieving the conformance
In design, the importance of the flow of information has to be realized by all
stakeholders. Every stakeholder has to rely on the information from another stakeholder to
make the work flowing. Perceiving design as a flow of information necessitates the
maximum coordination and collaboration between architects, engineers, contractors as
well as supply and specialty subcontractors.
Extensive research has been available in which the theoretical concept of lean design
has been elaborately explained however the ways and means by which one can implement
the lean design in the construction industry is an area that needs further exploration. At
the moment, most of the research in lean design is focused on discussing the individual
practices like LPS®, target value and set-based design (TVD/SBD), and the use of building
information modeling (BIM) in the design process (Freire and Alarcón 2002; Franco and
Pichhi, 2016; Tauriainen et al., 2016; Cousins, 2011). This individuality approach in lean
design practices has limited the prospect of the addition of new practices thereby limiting
the expansion of the lean design implementation phase. Few researchers have tried to
introduce several lean design practices but failed to discuss the efficacy of these practices
for events causing the design changes in actual construction (Ballard and Zabelle, 2000;
Gambetese and Pestana, 2014; Marzouk et al., 2011).
Theoretically, the lean design is considered to be the solution to many of the design
problems prevalent in the construction industry but there is a need to assess the efficacy
of this design approach based on the real-time design causes. To fill the gap, this research
has been developed considering the following objectives:
1. To identify the best practices for making the design lean
2. To study the efficiency of lean design practices in eliminating the causes leading
to design changes in construction

Methodology
This research will be conducted by employing the extensive literature review in
identifying the best lean practices that should be incorporated into the design. The best
practices are further mapped with the existing design anomalies to establish the efficacy
of each practice in bringing the improvement within the design. The complete schematic
description of the research methodology is given in Figure 1. Based on the lean design
concepts and principles, improvement zones will be identified for improving the design
management processes in construction. For implementing the lean design, lean design
practices would then be explored and grouped within their respective zones of

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improvement. The efficacy of individual design practices is judged based on its capability
of combatting the events leading to the design changes.
The final outcome in the form of metrics, indicating the lean design practices
applicable for mitigating the respective cause of design changes, will be established. The
factual causes of design changes as determined by Aslam et al. (2019) are retained in this
study for testing with lean design practices to reduce their effect.
The forums of lean construction institute (LCI) like the international group of lean
construction (IGLC) and lean construction journals (LCJ) are considered as the primary
resource for selecting the quality journal and conference papers. Apart from LCI, the data
banks of Science Direct, American Society of Civil Engineers online (ASCE), and google
scholar are also searched for the extraction of papers. Only the quality papers are retained
for further analysis based on the three-stage filtration approach proposed by Mok et al.,
(2015). Out of 183 papers initially selected, only 128 papers fulfilled the final criteria for
retention in this study.

Literature Review

Causes of Design Lean Design

Changes Principles
[14]

Lean Design
improvement zones

Development of matrices for Lean Design

Lean Design Practices Vs Practices
Causes of design changes

Figure 1: Research Methodology

Lean Design improvement zones and practices

Based on the theoretical explanation of the lean design as explained above, four
principles of lean design are selected to bring improvement within the design processes.
These principles are the constant and reliable flow of information (Mota et al., 2019;
Thibelsky and Sacks, 2010), optimum value generation (Giménez et al., 2019; Khilafe and
Hamza, 2019), collaboration among the stakeholder (Mota et al., 2019; Arroyo and Long,
2019) and achieving perfection/continuous improvement (Barth et al. 2019). Apart from
these principles, the integration of design with construction (IDC) is also considered to be
an important area to be focused on during the design. Yap and Skitmore (2017) have
highlighted the design-related constructability issues which can arise due to the lack of
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

skills or resources available within the construction region. Many researchers have also
highlighted the disintegration of design and construction as another important area causing
the design changes (Austin et al., 2002; Sha'aret al., 2017; Lopez et al., 2010). Based on
the above-mentioned literature facts, our research team has further summarized the
essentials of the complete lean design process in the form of improvement zones through
brainstorming and systematic literature review. These improvement zones contribute
towards achieving the principles of lean design and are discovered by many key
researchers in the past. All these improvement zones are connected and highly dependent
on each other to make efficient design. The summary of the improvement zones within the
framework of lean design is shown in Figure 2.
The productivity of lean design depends on the efficient working of all five
improvement zones throughout the design phase. This can be achieved by incorporating
different lean design practices specifically made to bringing improvements in the
respective zones. Different lean design practices identified from different studies and
grouped into the respective improvement zones are discussed in the subsequent
paragraphs.

Consistent
and accurate
Collaboration
flow (flow)

Lean
Focus on Design Integration of
design and
customer
construction
value (Value)
(IDC)

Continuos
Improvement
(CI)

Figure 2: Lean design perspective

Full Collaboration among all the Stakeholders

One of the hallmarks of lean philosophy is considering the complete production
processes as one entity in which all stakeholders have the mutual goals of delivering the
product in the best possible way and as per the customer’s choice (Ballard and Zabelle,
2000; Koskela, 1992; McGraw Hill, 2013). Commitment to achieving the mutual goals from
all stakeholders will come from collaboration between themselves. Collaboration among
the client, architect, engineer, contractor, and specialty/subcontractor can eradicate
many of the prevalent causes leading to the design changes. Clients will be able to
educate themselves in terms of technical issues of the product through the timely
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guidance and supervision of architects, engineers, and contractors. This would decline the
design changes resulting from the ignorance of the client on technical issues. The Clients,
architects, engineers can be more focused on identifying and delivering the best product
through collaboration with each other. One of the major causes of design changes is the
lack of communication and coordination between various parties and the oblivious
relationships between engineers and contractors (Bibby, 2003; Yap and Skitmore, 2017;
Austin et al. 2002). Mutual collaboration can help in resolving such issues. To have a
collaborate environment in which all stakeholders are ready to help each other, few lean
design practices as recommended are given in table 2:
Table 2: Lean Design Practices
Improvement Zones Lean Design Practices References

Full Collaboration among Meetings, Conferences in a (Cousins, 2011; Ballard and Zabelle;
all the stakeholders big room by all stakeholders 2000, El. Reifi and Emmitt, 2013)
(Collaboration) (BR)

Video Conferences (VC) (Tauriainen et al., 2016).

Knot working (KW) (Tauriainen et al., 2016).

Developing a culture of (Ballard and Zabelle, 2000;

teamwork (TW) Gambetese and Pestana, 2014;
McGraw Hill, 2014)

The consistent and Integrated Information System (Marzouk et al., 2011)

accurate flow of processes (IIS)
and information in the
design
(Flow)

Frequent communication (Brookfield et al. 2004; Gambetese

between the parties (Freq and Pestana, 2014; Freire and
Comm) Alarcón, 2002)

Last Planner System® (LPS®) (Ballard and Zabelle, 2000; Freire and
Alarcón, 2002)

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) (Jørgensen, 2006; Deshpande et al.,

2011; Brookfield et al., 2004; Ballard,
Kim, Jang and Liu, 2007; Koskela,
Ballard and Tanhuanpää, 1997)

Design Structure Matrix (DSM) (Rosas, 2013)

Use of 5S

Deciding at last responsible (Deshpande et al., 2011; Gambetese

moment and Pestana, 2014)

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Improvement Zones Lean Design Practices References

Focus on customer value Target Value Design (TVD) (Tauriainen et al., 2016; Gambetese
and Pestana 2014; Cousins, 2011;
(Value)
Franco and Picchi, 2016; Do, Chen,
Ballard and Tommelein, 2014)

Set-Based Design (SBD) (Melhado, 1998; Ballard and Zabelle,

2000)

Design workshops (DW) (Emmitt et al., 2005)

Quality function deployment (Kamara, 2003; Ahmed, Sang and

(QFD) Torbica, 2003; Delgado, Bampton and
Aspinwall, 2007 )

Purpose Built Facility (PBF) (Deshpande et al., 2011).

Building Information (Tauriainen et al., 2016)

Technology (BIM)

Integration of design and Integrated project delivery (McGraw Hill, 2014; Cousins, 2011)
construction (IDC) (IDP)

Virtual Design Construction (Deshpande et al., 2011; Franco and

(VDC)-Building Information Picchi, 2016).
Modelling (BIM)

Management of supply chain (Yap and Skitmore, 2017; Cousins,

in the design 2011)

Internet of Things (IoT): (Dave, Kubler, Främling and Koskela,

2016; Yue Wang, 2015)

Concurrent Engineering (CE) (Ballard and Koskela, 1998;

Tzortzopoulos and Formoso,1999;
Rosas, 2013, Akram et al., 2013).

Cross-functional/ (Melhado, 1998)

Multidisciplinary teams (Cross
FT)

Achieving Perfection in Lean Audits (Deshpande, 2011)

Design Processes (CI)

Last Planner System® (LPS®) (Tauriainen et al., 2016)

Transparency (Marzouk et al., 2011).

Training (Freire and Alarcón, 2002)

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Consistent and Accurate flow of processes and information in Design

In the design process, the flow of information has to be very consistent, reliable, and
timely. There will be many pieces of information and data handling activities that need to
be passed from one design team to another design team. The most important thing in
maintaining flow is to deliver the information timely along with eliminating the flow of
wrong, out of date and unnecessary information (Marzouk et al., 2011). The accurate flow
of information will result in the elimination of many causes of design changes like
designer’s noninvolvement/unavailability during the construction phase, the inadequacy of
information provided to engineers and architects, lack of adequate documentation,
unstructured design process, and wrong information provided in the drawings for
contractors. The best practices in ensuring the adequacy of the flow of information are as
shown in table 2.

Focus on Customer Value

Value has to be identified through the regular dialogues with
clients/owners/customers and keeping in mind the product outputs at specific cost and
time (Tzortzopoulos and Formoso, 1999; Koskela et al., 1997; Marzouk et al., 2011). Lean
philosophy advocates the value in terms of the client’s/customer’s perspective whereas
architects, engineers, and contractors help them in setting the optimized best value. Every
stakeholder should have only one concern that is to deliver the best value to his or her
customers/clients. Identification of best value right at the outset of the project initiation
through mutual collaboration would result in eliminating the frequent scope changes by
the client at later stages, lack of awareness of clients’ needs by designer, scope changes
due to financial and business changes by client, and unreasonable client’s requirements.
Identifying the value from the perspective of the Client is not an easy task and requires
special commitment and methods, which may vary depending on the client to the client.
Few practices are shown in table 2.

Applying Pull Approach (Pull)

The main purpose of the pull approach is to ensure that preceding activities should
not be produced or moved till the time the subsequent activities demands it. This is used
to reduce the wastes that are generated due to storage and sorting the activities. In lean
design, this is done by scheduling the whole information gathering process backward and
ensuring that all information is delivered when there is a right time for its use (Brookfield
et al., 2004; Jørgensen, 2006; Ballard and Zabelle, 2000). Jumbling up all the information
will forecast two major problems in design: one is that for storing the unused information,
a storage mechanism is required, secondly, to extract the information from the storage
devices, the considerable effort can be wasted (Marzouk et al., 2011). To overcome these
problems, a pull mechanism is used in the lean design for getting the information. The pull
approach generally works within the tools like the design structure matrix to eliminate the
negative iterations within the complete design process and LPS® to help establish a more
structured approach towards design. The use of a pull approach in design will help in
minimizing the time of approvals of the drawings as well.

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Integration of Design and Construction

Many of the design changes are due to the lack of practical experience of the
architect and engineers in the field of construction (Lopez et al. 2010; Minato, 2003; Yap
and Skitmore; 2017). As a result, if the design is solely based on the inputs from designers,
there might be many design changes at later stages. Due consideration to the
constructability will help in eliminating the causes of designs like designer’s lack of
awareness about construction, lack of confidence of designers in preplanning for design
work, incomplete drawings and plans, contractors request for changing the design due to
non-availability of material and construction methodology and strictness on tolerance
issues. Some of the practices that can ensure the integration of design and construction
are as shown in table 2.

Achieving Perfection in Design Processes

The perfection is achieved by continuously applying the practices of lean design
concepts as explained above and then measuring the outcome of the applied practices.
The measured outcomes will be further analyzed for improvements by modifying the
practices. It is an endless process to reduce efforts, time, space, cost, mistakes, and all
sources of waste while continuing to offer clients what they exactly want. Similarly, new
tools and technologies are rapidly emerging to be included in applying the lean design.
Many causes of design changes like lack of experience in new construction technologies,
lack of knowledge about design standards, governmental regulations, construction bylaws,
and inexperience can be eliminated by developing a culture of learning. Few practices
suggested for achieving perfection in the lean design are shown in table 2.

Efficacy of Lean Design Practices for Reducing the Design

Changes
To select the lean design practices, the organizations must carry out their internal
audit to determine which lean design practice can adjust as per their organizational and
project environments. The aim of lean philosophy is not to restrict the user to certain sets
of practice but provide them an opportunity to deciding the most desirable lean design
that best meets the prevalent situation. In this study, the best lean design practice is
identified by using the following procedures.
The first step is to identify the most common causes of design changes hampering
the construction project outcomes. Most of the causes of the design changes are already
identified in Aslam et a. (2019) and are retained in this study to identify tools that can
help in eradicating these causes.
The second step is to categorize all the causes of design changes within improvement
zones to see how we can minimize the future occurrence of all these events that are
leading to design changes. Another round of literature review/brainstorming was carried
out to identify the improvement zones that can prevent future occurrences of design
changes events. Each identified cause of design change is explored for finding their most
common remedies and further categorized under the improvement zones. As an example,
most of the design changes are associated with the lack of the Client’s technical
knowledge to comprehend and visualize the project. As a result, when construction
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

activities are in progress, and the Client can better visualize the project, they order scope
changes to compensate for their initial lack of technical knowledge. In other cases,
Architects/Engineers have difficulties both in capturing clients’ needs and conveying
conceptual design options to them. Such types of design changes occur because of a lack
of collaboration and communication between Clients and Architects. If Clients are made
well aware of the technical requirements before the construction proceeds or if the
Architects/Engineers have fully captured the Client’s requirement before designing, such
events of design changes would not be happening. So the improvement zones identified for
mitigating these two causes of design changes are collaboration and value generation
respectively. To validate this, the literature review confirmed that through collaboration
and value generation exercises, such type of design changes can be reduced. In the same
way, improvement zones are identified for other causes of design changes. Due to limited
space, detailed literature references that how improvement zones are identified for every
cause of design change are not given in this study however example Table 3 is presented
that can show how some of the causes of design changes are categorized into improvement
zones.
Table 3: Examples for categorizing causes of design changes in improvement zones
Causes of Design Suggested Lean practices Relevant References
Changes improvement
zones
• lack of Client’s • Participation of clients in • Early • Herrera et al.,
technical knowledge the design phase involvement 2019
to comprehend and • Use of BIM to visualize and • Reifi et al., 2013
visualize the project • Improving communication collaboration • Knotten et al.
between different parties 2016
• Ballard, 2002
• Sacks et al. 2020
• Architects/Engineers • Participation of clients in • Collaboration • Herrera et al.,
have difficulties both the design phase • Customers 2019
in capturing clients’ • Early involvement of design value • Ballard, 2003
needs and conveying specialists for the project • Frieire 2002
conceptual design • Improving communication • Salgin et al., 2016
options to them between different parties
• Inadequate pre- • Involvement of • Collaboration • Ballard et al,
construction study builders/contractors during • Flow 2002
and review of design the early design stages of management • Formoso et al.,
documents by the project. • Integrated 1998
contractors • Managing flow of design and • Sodal et al., 2014
considering the information by involving construction • Ballard, 2002
exotic and complex contractors early (IDC)
nature of design • Simultaneously design of
the product and the
• Adversarial/Oblivious construction process
relationship between • Improving communication
consultant and between different parties
contractor
In the last step, the improvement zones are mapped against the best lean design
practices. From the systematic literature review, we have identified the respective lean
design practices that can target the respective improvement zones and are already shown
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

in Table 2. In case the improvement zone is collaboration, tools like BR, KW, Freq comm,
IDC and VDC can be the lean tools that can be employed to increase collaboration. For the
sake of simplicity many practices that are sequential or having many common
characteristics have been grouped. Moreover, many practices can be an integral part of
another practice if applied in full spirit. For example, teamwork, reverse phase
scheduling, transparencies, and decision deferred until the last responsible moment are
inherent in the LPS®. Knot working and big rooms are combined because of the same
objective of achieving better collaboration. Since the SBD and TVD are interlinked, in
which design alternatives are checked against the targeted cost, hence kept in the same
group. Design workshop and quality functional deployment are grouped as both are used
for identifying the exact requirements of the clients.
Finally, we developed a matrix that can show how the construction industry can use
different lean design practices to eradicate the events leading to design changes in Table
4.

Practical Contribution of the developed matrix

The developed matrix as shown in Table 4 has plenty of useful pieces of information
that can be used by the Construction Industry and new lean practitioners to improve their
design practice. It can be used by Clients, Architects/Engineers, and contractors to
identify the best lean practices that can lead them to better design management. Since
the matrix is developed based on the most common causes of design changes, therefore it
can be employed on any type of project. If a Clients or Architects/Engineers or Contractor
is repeatedly encountering project delays and cost overrun due to frequent design change,
he/she can identify the areas that need to be improved to eradicate the design changes
issues. As an example, the frequent scope changes can be decreased by the early
involvement of all major stakeholders through collaboration, value engineering exercises,
and integrated design and construction (IDC). The recommended tools that can enable
these improvement zones are BR, Freq Comm, VSM, IIS, TVD/SBD, QFD, and IPD. There
might be a possibility that companies have developed integral tools other than mentioned
in Table 4 to increase collaboration, value, and integration of design and construction like
an Integrated form of agreements (IFOA), partnership, etc. They can update the matrix
based on their best tools. In summary, Table 4 can provide the basic start point to the
stakeholders for managing the design process through lean practices. However, it can be
further developed based on the Companies requirement.

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Table 4: Suggested Lean Practices Vs Causes of Design Changes

Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
Client Related

Lack of technical
knowledge to
* * * * *
comprehend and
visualize the project

Lesser guidance and

support available to
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Clients by technical
persons

Frequent scope change

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
by the Clients

Long-time taken by
the client for giving * * * * * * * *
decision

Clients changing
financial and business
* * * * * * * * * *
conditions necessitates
the scope changes

Inappropriate choice
of project contract
* * * * *
type (unit price, lump
sum, etc.)

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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
Unreasonable Client
and End User * * * * * * * * * * *
Expectations

Architect/Engineer Related

Designers lacked the

awareness of design to
provide commercially * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
focused solutions and
constructability

Lack of confidence in
preplanning for design * * * * * *
work

Designers have
difficulties both in
capturing clients’
* * * * * * * * * *
needs and conveying
conceptual design
options to them

Deficient resources in
quality or quantity
(e.g. tools, * * * * * * * * *
equipment, staff, or
financial)

Poor coordination and * * * * * * * * *

communication
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
between Client and
designer as well as
designer and
contractor

Lack of information
* * * * * * * * * *
flow among parties

Unstructured Design
* * * * *
process

No Design checking or
2nd or 3rd party
* * * * * * * * *
reviews, No system of
design checking

Ineffective utilization
* * *
of automation

Time Constraints * * * * * * * * *

Designer
noninvolvement/unava
* * * * * * * *
ilability during the
construction phase

Inadequate
information provided * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
to Designer

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Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
The short-term
conflict between
productivity * * * * * * * *
(production) and
quality.

Inadequate training/
inexperience, lack of
knowledge in ( building
bye-laws, codes etc,
constructability, * * * *
availability and
suitability of
materials, engineering
design techniques

Change of designers * * * * * * *

Lack of Design
* * *
Standards.

No involvement of
contractor during the * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
design phase

Lack of adequate
* * * * * *
documentation

Late approvals of
* * * * * * * * *
design

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Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
Several groups visit
project late and give * * * * * * * *
their points too late

Discrepancies between
* * * * * * * * * *
contract documents

Contractor Related

Inadequate pre-
construction study and
review of design
documents by
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
contractors
considering the exotic
and complex nature of
design

Awarding contract to
the lowest price
* * * * *
regardless of the
quality of services

Lack of experience in
new construction * * * * * *
technologies

Lack of communication * * * * * * * * * *
and coordination

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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Identified causes of Improvement Zone

Suggested Lean Design Practice
Design Change

Perfection/CI
Collaboration

Supply chain
QFD/ Design
Freq Comm

Lean Audit
Workshop

in design
TVD/SBD

Cross FT
VDC-BIM

Training
BR/KW
Value

LPS®
Flow

DSM

VSM

Pull

IOT
IDC

IPD

CE
IIS
5S
between the various
project team

Information problems * * * * * * * * * * *

Adversarial/Oblivious
relationship between
* * * * * * * * *
consultant and
contractor

Shop drawings’
submission, approval * * * * * * *
and adequacy

Contractors request on
improving the
buildability by
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
suggesting alternate
construction method
and material used

Strict quality
tolerances mentioned * * * * * * * * * * *
in the specification

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Findings and Discussions

In this study, an effort has been made in considering lean design practices, which can
be used as an effective tool in reducing the design changes. Many design discrepancies
occur because of undefined customer’s requirement at the initial stages. Lean design
advocates in identifying the exact and best value of the customer’s requirement by duly
incorporating the architects, engineers, and contractor’s views in providing the best
knowledge to the customers. Identifying the correct value at the early stage will definitely
eradicate many scope related design changes in the future. The summarized
representation as shown in Figure 3 shows that nine causes of design changes are due to
the wrong or undefined value from the client.
Errors and omissions in the design are another significant cause of rework. Errors and
omissions in the drawing, plans, and specifications occur because of lack of accuracy in
information, poor knowledge, information not received at the right time, information not
interpreted in the right way, and no mechanism of checking the drawings by another party.
Lean design is one of the strongest proponents of considering the flow of information as an
important component of the design process. It will reduce the wasteful activities within
the design and ensures that accurate information is delivered on time to the right person
at the right time. 20 causes of design changes are because of discrepancies in the flow of
information as shown in Figure 3. As seen in Figure 3, the causes of design changes falling
under the improvement zones of collaboration, flow, IDC, and perfection are 27, 20, 17,
and 9 respectively. The number of causes of design changes is obtained by adding all the
causes of design changes under the specific improvement zone as mentioned in Table 4.
We can say that it is the summation of respective columns under the respective
improvement zones.
Two important aspects of design processes, which must be taken into account, are
the integration of design with construction and continuous improvement within the
developed lean design processes to achieve perfection. The integration of design with
construction requires a complete collaboration by all the parties of the contract including
the specialty and supplier’s subcontractors. Lean design enforces the involvement of
contractor, supplier, and specialties subcontractors early in the design stage to evaluate
the drawing and plans based on its constructability. This will remove the conflicts between
design and construction in terms of drawings, material availability, complexities, and
methodologies.
Based on the results as shown in Table 4, lean design practices like freq comm, IPD,
BR/KW, LPS®, and cross-functional teams can be most effective in reducing more than 20
causes of design changes respectively. This entails that collaboration and communication
between all the stakeholders are essential for effective design. The use of LPS® and IPD
can also help in targeting 26 and 29 causes of design changes respectively. Pull approach,
look ahead plans, weekly plans, and integrated approach of design and construction in a
collaborated environment are the key components of LPS® and IPD. The use of BIM and
TVD/SBD can significantly reduce the number of causes of design changes, 16 and 18
respectively. The complete summary showing the number of causes of design changes
effected by each lean design practice is given in Figure 4. Again the number of causes of
design changes is obtained by adding all the causes of design changes under the specific
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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

lean design practices as mentioned in Table 4. We can say that it is the summation of
respective columns under the respective lean design practices.
Different lean design practices as mentioned in Figure 4 can provide a guideline for
construction firms, owners, or consultants to start with the lean design approach. Lean
philosophy never advocates on restricting to one or two practices rather it promotes a
culture of innovation and creativity in which best practices that best suit the prevailing
circumstances/environments, are selected.

30 27
Number of causes of design changes

25
20
20 17

15

9 9
10

0
Collaboration Flow IDC Value Perfection/CI
Improvement zones

Figure 3: Categories of causes of Design Changes within Respective Improvement Zones

35
Number of causes of design changes

29 29 28
30
26
25 22
20 18
16 16
15
10 10
10 8 8 7 7 6 6
5 3 3

Lean design practices

Figure 4: Lean Design Practices Targeting causes of Design Changes

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 Aslam et al: Optimizing Construction Design Process Using the Lean Based Approach

Conclusions
Application of lean design practices during the design phase will eventually lead to
the reduction of design changes that normally occur at later stages in construction and
having detrimental effects on the cost, time, and productivity. Many events lead to design
changes like errors and omissions and result in rework or additional works. Lean literature
has suggested several lean design practices that can be used to target these causes of
design changes. A very elaborative study is carried out in determining the lean design
practices which are further mapped based on their role in targeting the respective causes
of design. This approach has provided a more distinct role of each practice in eliminating
the causes of design. Since the causes of design changes are summarized based on the
most commonly encountered causes of the design changes on construction projects as
documented in the existing literature, thereby making the findings of this study more
realistic and close to the construction project environments. The role of Clients,
architects, engineers, and contractors in eliminating the design changes can only be
effective if these stakeholders work together as a team in a mutually collaborative
environment which is the basic hallmark of lean construction philosophy. The inculcation
of flow and value views within the design processes leads towards a more structured
approach towards design with the reduction of inherent wastes within design processes and
information. The outcome of this study will provide a systematic approach to the
construction industry and new lean practitioners for making the design process as efficient
as possible by using lean design practices. Additionally, the developed matrix will be very
helpful to the new lean practitioners in finalizing their lean tools and techniques during
the design phase. In further continuation of this study, it would be a great assistant to the
construction industry if a complete framework is presented in future research for
implementing the lean design practices during different stages of design and validating the
results from its actual application in real-time construction projects.

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