Castillo, G; Alarcón, L F and González, V A (2015) Implementing lean production in copper mining development projects: Case study. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 141(1): 05014013, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Lean production is a management philosophy that creates competitive advantages and provides important savings opportunities for companies and organizations. However, there is limited evidence showing to what extent lean production can improve productivity and organizational performance in the mining industry. Mining is a critical industry in Chile, so to understand the impact of lean production, this research provides details regarding the implementation of lean production methodologies in three underground mining development projects belonging to a Chilean mining company. In all of the case studies reviewed, the implementation of lean methodologies generated performance improvements in related projects and construction organizations, with statistically significant improvements in workflow, actual production capacity, operational reliability, productivity, time utilization, and organizational performance. The main findings of this study suggest that the incorporation of lean methodologies has significant potential to improve the performance of mining operations, which is critical given the current and future challenges in the mining sector.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction; development; implementation; lean construction; lean production; mining; project planning and design |
| Index terms: | evidence, methodology, project planning, workflow, lean construction, philosophy, lean production, organizational performance, copper, performance improvement, mining, implementation, Chile, case study, construction organization, competitive advantage, savings, productivity |
| Subjects: | Geography, research methods, traditional and composite building materials, management, manufacturing engineering, performance measurement, philosophical studies, building construction, geotechnical engineering, market analysis, control systems, organization, data collection methods, evaluation and assessment methods, economic analysis, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Procurement, Business Strategy, Engineering Principles, Construction Materials, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Project Management, Site Management, Quality Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here