The use of six sigma and lean construction for assessing the production planning process of sustainable building projects?

Sustainable buildings have gained an increasing importance in recent years. This has represented many challenges for the current building practice. The complexities involved in the execution of these projects are related to the inadequacy of traditional management systems. However, few are the research works oriented to the identification of the potential areas for improvement. This paper presents an integration approach of assessment performance methods for assessing the production planning process in sustainable building projects. It also rationalizes the relationships between six sigma and lean construction. The aim is to identify and analyze critical factors causing plan variations which can lead to the identification of potential areas of improvement in the current practice. Performance measures are standardized to allow and facilitate the benchmarking between those activities related to the sustainability performance of buildings and the ordinary ones. Finally, a framework is proposed presenting the sequenced processes for implementing this integrated approach.