The Effects of BIM and Lean Construction on Design Management Practices

Arguably, Design Management can be improved by utilizing new tools and methods introduced by building information modeling (BIM) and lean construction. However, in the projects that use BIM, roles of personnel, design methods and the practice of communication between designers often derive from the era of document based design management and can only be partially adapted to a new way of working. In managing building design, the use of lean management tools can be seen a driver increasing value to the customer, improving operations and removing activities that do not add value. In the research described, typical structural and building services design management problems in the context of BIM implementation were identified and improvement methods and tools were suggested. Designers and design managers were interviewed in three case projects. The interviews were analyzed dividing problems in six categories, and the seriousness of problems was decoded. Recommendations for improvements were given to design teams. In the end, 13 major and 6 average serious level problems were identified. Important causes for the problems were: an unclear sharing of responsibilities between designers in teams, inadequate BIM instructions, an insufficient BIM experience and knowledge of the design manager and the lack of communication between design team. Besides better BIM implementation management lean tools, especially big room, knotworking, last planner and set based design, were recommended for problem solution.