Visualizing daily on-site space use

Abstract

Visual Management (VM) is integral to the lean philosophy. For example, an Andon makes a light flash in the case of a deviation in the process of assembly or in the product assembled, a Kanban triggers the production of units in order to fill a customer's demand, shadow boards used in 5S help workers to locate their tools easily. What is lacking in the construction industry is simple, cost- and time-effective programs that support the understanding of the work schedule, foster transparency in daily coordination of work space among subcontractors, and facilitate production control. To address these needs, this paper presents a space scheduling program called LOSite developed for a case study project, and demonstrates that space use visualization is possible on large scale projects and can be inexpensive yet worthwhile using. The researchers prototyped LOSite in one week to help visualize the work being done during a project's interiors phase. LOSite was tested over the course of a month. Limitations to the full adoption of LOSite by the team are discussed in this paper.