Challenges and opportunities in implementing lean and BIM on an infrastructure project

It has been realised through research and practice that lean construction and Building Information Modelling (BIM) have significant synergies, and can bring benefits if implemented together. VisiLean has been developed as research software, which provides integration between the lean workflow and the BIM model, enabling simultaneous visualisation of the product and process model. VisiLean supports the Last Planner™ workflow, and is aimed to be used by the construction teams on projects. The main purpose of the research is to partially evaluate the findings from a brief pilot project, where VisiLean was implemented on an infrastructure project. Through this paper the authors wish to highlight the challenges and opportunities that were identified during the pilot implementation. Specific challenges were encountered pertaining to the level of detail, and the parametric nature (or the lack thereof) of the existing Building Information Model of the project. Also, issues were identified regarding the synchronisation of the lean workflow with the BIM model. Overall however, the project team perceived the integration of Lean and BIM through VisiLean positively. As the implementation of lean and BIM is relatively new to infrastructure projects, the findings are of importance to potential lean and BIM implementers in the infrastructure field. However, on a broad level the findings are of interest to those in the construction industry wishing to implement Lean and BIM on projects.