Lean Construction Principles and Railway Maintenance Planning

Abstract

Lean construction principles have been successfully adopted in a variety of industries to increase project management quality. This paper addresses maintenance planning in Sweden and analyses its effectiveness in the framework of lean construction principles. To investigate the status and improvement potential of maintenance contractors' performance, the study focuses on the detailed planning process, which is mainly the responsibility of contractors. A literature review, a data analysis and interviews were used to reveal the possible barriers to the adaptation of lean principles to the maintenance industry. The study presents a developed theoretical framework for the analysing maintenance processes in the perspective of lean construction principles. We found that the application of lean principles has the potential for improvements in the planning process, but there are some barriers to effective implementation, including a lack of knowledge about lean principles at contractors' sites.

Production planning, monitoring and review: comparison between the practices in an urban rail transit megaproject with the Last Planner System

“…A comparative study within country was also observed, where Kifokeris (2021) has studied the LC practice variants in Sweden. In another study, Ivina and Olson (2020) have observed the current practices of maintenance planning with certain lean principles in order to identify the possibilities of using lean principles in the Swedish railway maintenance market. Based on the study by Ivina and Olson (2020), it is apparent that the gap of knowledge is still evident in LC as there are still territories, areas, fields, as well as countries that were still unexplored.…”

“…In another study, Ivina and Olson (2020) have observed the current practices of maintenance planning with certain lean principles in order to identify the possibilities of using lean principles in the Swedish railway maintenance market. Based on the study by Ivina and Olson (2020), it is apparent that the gap of knowledge is still evident in LC as there are still territories, areas, fields, as well as countries that were still unexplored. These fields or countries need to be identified and a similar study as Ivina and Olson (2020) should be conducted by first identifying the fundamental differences between the current practices and LC for potential adoption of LC.…”

“…Based on the study by Ivina and Olson (2020), it is apparent that the gap of knowledge is still evident in LC as there are still territories, areas, fields, as well as countries that were still unexplored. These fields or countries need to be identified and a similar study as Ivina and Olson (2020) should be conducted by first identifying the fundamental differences between the current practices and LC for potential adoption of LC.…”

“…Daniel et al (2017) have compared the emerging UK practice of collaborative planning with the LPS and found that the current practice partially aligns with the LPS. Ivina and Olson (2020) have further expanded the scope of comparison to investigate the comparable practices in railway maintenance planning. Most of the recent comparative studies were done to investigate the experiences and perception of the team players pre- and post-LPS implementation, including the barriers and solutions to improve the status-quo.…”

“…Most of the recent comparative studies were done to investigate the experiences and perception of the team players pre- and post-LPS implementation, including the barriers and solutions to improve the status-quo. Among the barriers commonly highlighted were the lack of knowledge, resistance to change and lack of sharing (Ivina and Olson, 2020), whilst the recommended solutions were usually major, involving restructuring and a top-down approach, which could cause negative retaliation in return. Therefore, there is a need for a study that explores potential adaption of LPS in projects which are not lean-based, but still demands for a highly efficient and effective planning and monitoring system.…”