Lean Processes for Sustainable Project Delivery

TLDR

Facility owners and project teams often struggle to incorporate green requirements, incurring extra costs, while current delivery methods are rife with process waste that undermines the payback of high‑performance building features. This paper reports a study that applied lean principles to identify the value and waste present in a sustainable building project. The authors mapped Toyota Motor Sales’ capital facility delivery process—specifically the South Campus Facility that achieved LEED Gold at conventional cost—to pinpoint critical value‑adding steps and wasteful activities. Post‑hoc process analysis revealed both added value and waste, highlighted improvement opportunities, and provided actionable insights for corporate owners and the AEC industry on delivering sustainable facilities efficiently.

Abstract

Facility owners and project teams often struggle to engage “green” or “sustainable” requirements on building projects and can incur additional project costs as a result. Although “investments” in high performance building features can be paid back through operational savings, the project delivery methods currently adopted by most teams are laden with process waste. Lean production principles have been proven to reduce waste and improve process performance in highly complex development and production environments. Adopting these lean principles, this paper reports a study that identified the presence of value and waste in a sustainable building project. Through an empirical investigation of the Real Estate and Facilities Division of Toyota Motor Sales, Toyota’s capital facility delivery process was mapped to identify both the steps in project delivery critical for success (value) and those that are waste. The investigation focused on the South Campus Facility, which received U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold certification at a project cost equivalent to a conventional facility. Through post hoc process-based analysis, insight about what added value and waste in sustainable project delivery at Toyota was obtained. The results also identify further improvement opportunities to Toyota’s delivery process. For corporate facility owners and the Architecture Engineering Construction industry, the results unearth insights about how to successfully and economically deliver sustainable facilities.