An analysis of wastes in the construction industry - a case study of Ebbepark

Abstract: Inefficient use of resources occurs in many industries, including both time and materials being wasted. A theory which has been used for a long time to reduce waste of resources in all supply chains is the SCM theory. The aim of SCM is mainly to guide the different components of a supply chain, so at the end of the process generate a value for the end-customer as great as possible. An important aspect of SCM is logistics, which to some extent relates to managing and making the usage of resources more efficient, with the goal of reducing waste. The construction industry has previously been under scrutiny for their lack of ambition regarding the improvement of the current course of action, and implementation of well-functioning logistics in their activities. One solution which has been used is Lean Construction, a branch of Toyota’s Lean-theory.  This report has been written with the study conducted by Josephson and Saukkoriipi as a benchmark. Josephson and Saukkoriipi studied potential wastes in the construction industry by utilizing field research. The target for this case study is Ebbepark in Linköping, a construction site for a new district in the city. The district contains a variety of buildings, including private housing and schools. The project group has chosen to make a follow up study of Josephson and Saukkoriipi’s research with the goal of identifying waste of resources and their potential effects on Ebbepark, as well as propose solutions. To establish areas of improvement, the study was done in three steps by using surveys, observations and interviews, as inspired by Josephson and Saukkoriipi’s methods. These particular steps were used since they complement each other well, to create a broader view of how the construction site works. The data extracted from these three methods were then examined using literature to find potential solutions for reducing wastes at Ebbepark.  In the sense that Josephson and Saukkoriipi’s report represents the construction industry as it was in 2005, clear improvements have been observed in this case. E.g., in the matter of the construction workers' hours, the number of wasteful activities has been reduced from 33% to 13%. Although there were clear improvements, there were still some areas where waste could be identified. E.g., large volumes of material were stored at the construction site, which might lead to increased workload and risk of damaged material. Fill rate during transport was low, as well as breaks being lengthy. The study concluded with the recommendation that improvements could be made using different aspects of Lean construction and SCM.