LEAPCON
Lean Apartment Construction
Workshop
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Apartment Construction
Flooring
Drywall
HVAC
Ceilings
Design
Changes
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Simulation setup
Material
Store
Crane
1
3
1
2
5
4
7
HVAC
team
Ceiling
team
2
Building floors and
apartments
Client
Rep
6
9
8
11
3
10
13
12
15
Drywall
team
4
14
17
16
19
5
18
21
20
23
Flooring
team
Project
Manager
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Design
Changes
6
22
25
24
27
7
26
29
28
31
8
30
32
Quality
Control
Client
Changes
Rep
Client
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Production
Plan
(Gantt Chart)
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Results for 2 groups
Round
Completed
(units)
Defective
Time to first
W.I.P.
apartments apartment with (units)
(units)
changes (min.)
Throughput
(units/min.)
Cash flow
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(2)
(5)
($)
Cycle time
(min.)
Conventional
Lean
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Discussion between rounds:
Difficulties with the system
 Management Team:
 What did you feel during the game? Were you busy?
 Did you manage to implement your plan? Were you in control?
 Drywall team:
 Were you busy?
 HVAC team
 Were you busy?
 Bottleneck, Cycle time, WIP, Push
 What is the meaning of cycle time for apartment
construction in real projects?
 How would you improve the process?
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
Discussion after the second round
 Management Team:
 What did you feel during the game? Were you busy?
 Did you manage to implement your plan? Were you in control?
 Drywall team:
 Were you busy? Was your productivity improved?
 HVAC team
 Were you busy? Was your productivity improved?
 Bottleneck, Cycle time, WIP, Push
 What is the meaning of cycle time for apartment
construction in real projects?
 How would you improve the process?
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
LEAPCON – typical results
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
22:03
LEAPCON - Cash Flows
$20,000
F: Lean
$15,000
$10,000
F': Lean, no
customization
Cash
Flow
$5,000
$0
$(5,000)
A': Conventional,
no customization
$(10,000)
A: Conventional
$(15,000)
$(20,000)
0.00
2.00
4.00
6.00
8.00
10.00
12.00
14.00
16.00
18.00
20.00
22.00
24.00
Simulation Time (min.sec)
LEAPCON Simulation
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks/tech-leap.htm
9
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
22:03
10
LEAPCON Users around the world
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks
22:03
Background Reading






“The Goal” Eli Goldratt
www.leanconstruction.org
“Lean Thinking” Womack and Jones
www.iglc.net
“The Critical Chain” Eli Goldratt
“Factory Physics” Hopp and Spearman
 Sacks, R., Esquenazi, A., and Goldin, M., (2007). ‘LEAPCON:
Simulation of Lean Construction of High-rise Apartment Buildings’,
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 133 No. 7
pp. 529-539.
11
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Assoc. Prof. Rafael Sacks
cvsacks@technion.ac.il
www.technion.ac.il/~cvsacks