Waste-Based Management in Residential Construction
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Volume 131, Issue 4
Abstract
The strength of housing construction has a profound effect on the national economy and the society. As a consequence, achieving high productivity, quality, and safety are considered of high priority for this industry segment. This paper proposes to replace the traditional management approach for site operation with a management philosophy that has as its sole and unifying objective the elimination of process waste. It will be demonstrated that a waste-based management philosophy creates a culture of continuous improvements and innovative progress driven by the goal to reduce wastes from injuries to unproductive work activities. Wall framing and masonry construction are used to demonstrate how the waste-based management approach functions. The results of the test case application provide evidence that paying attention to minimizing resource wastes at all levels, from laborer to site manager, will produce drastic effects on productivity, safety, and quality of residential construction.
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Acknowledgment
The work presented in this paper was funded by Grant No. CMS 0080073 from the National Science Foundation. Their support is gratefully acknowledged. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this study are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 131 • Issue 4 • April 2005
Pages: 423 - 430
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 6, 2001
Accepted: Feb 26, 2004
Published online: Apr 1, 2005
Published in print: Apr 2005
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