Development of a Typology for Understanding Visual Management Concepts and Their Relationships
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148, Issue 7
Abstract
Visual management (VM) is a strategy for information management that aims to increase process transparency, one of the main principles of the lean production philosophy. It has been widely used in manufacturing, but the use of VM in construction is still very limited. As the development of VM is mostly based on trial and error efforts, it is useful to produce taxonomies of VM practices, which can lead to typologies to support the understanding of concepts and the development of theories. The main contribution of this paper is a typology of concepts related to VM that extends the contribution of taxonomies previously proposed in the literature, by emphasizing the role of collaboration and communication, as well as the need to integrate VM practices into managerial routines and to other practices. This typology has been used to assess the implementation of VM in 16 construction sites located in Brazil. Moreover, it has identified improvement opportunities, based on the comparisons of VM practices used in those sites to a sample of manufacturing plants.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or codes that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for the financial support received. The authors are also grateful to the professionals and companies that made it possible for this investigation to be developed, and especially to Sabrina Graff for her contributions in data collection and processing.
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Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 7 • July 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 16, 2021
Accepted: Feb 28, 2022
Published online: Apr 19, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Sep 19, 2022
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