Developing a lean model to reduce the design process cost of gas insulated switchgear foundation using value stream mapping–a case study

Construction industry across the world has been facing immense challenges in improving its productivity and efficiency. In the path of continuous improvement, the companies are forced to impart new technologies and methods into their work culture. But still there is a fine line between what they have achieved and what they wanted to achieve. Lean Construction is an ideology designed to fill this fine line. The aim of this paper is to discuss the application of Lean techniques in construction management. A case study where the Lean concept is applied using Value Stream Mapping tool to reduce the cost of the design process of foundation for Gas Insulated Switchgear by improving the process productivity has been discussed. The current state of the activities in the design process was mapped first which was followed by preparing the future state map of the activities after eliminating the non-value adding tasks. The results exhibited a promising increase in productivity of about 30% after the application of Lean tool.